One Mad Dog


John Constantine, Hellblazer Vol. 4: The Family Man (Jamie Delano, Ron Tiner, Kevin Walker, Mark Buckinham, Sean Philips, Dick Forman, Steve Pugh, Dean Motter, Mark Penninton)
February 6, 2018, 12:23 pm
Filed under: 5 stars, Dean Motter, Dick Forman, Hellblazer, Jamie Delano, Kev Walker, Mark Buckingham, Mark Pennington, Ron Tiner, Steve Pugh

The family man collects issues 23 to 24 and 28 to 33 of the Hellblazer series.

  • Larger than Life. (Issue 23): Script : Jamie Delano. Art : Ron Tiner
  • The Family Man (Issues 24, 28-30): Script : Jamie Delano. Art : Ron Tiner, Kevin Walker, Mark Buckingham
  • Mourning of the Magician (Issue 31): Script: Jamie Delano. Art: Sean Philips
  • New Tricks (Issue 32): Script: Jamie Delano. Art: Dick Forman, Steve Pugh
  • Sundays are Different (Issue 33): Script: Jamie Delano. Art: Dean Motter, Mark Pennington

Larger Than Life:

A Bizzarre story in which Constantine meets and old friend that is being harassed by Fictional characters.  Although this story sets up the main “Family Man” arc it just left me bewildered as to what was going on.

The family Man:

This is main story of the book and deals with Constantine’s pursuit of a serial killer who murders families.  It is quite a good story and has a great protagonist that is really evil.  Yet another Hellblazer story that left me thinking how unremarkable Constantine is and not really any sort of hero. The pacing of the story was pretty good but I found it quite hard work at times rather than pleasurable. Quite a wordy tale.

Mourning of the Magician

In the “Family man” the serial killer murders Constantines father and in this story he comes back to haunt his sisters daughter.  There is a back story on Constantines relationship with his father and we get to find a little bit more about his childhood. Quite a good story but artwork not quite as good.

New Tricks

This story sees a return to the demonic world where someone has possessed a dog and is preying on homeless people. Quite a good story

Sundays are Different

I really didn’t get this story. A meandering alternate reality exploit that really seemed to have no point. Just filler in this book really.

Conclusion: 

The artwork in this book is ok but really suffers from the cheap paper stock and gaudy comic book coloring. Visually it is nothing to write home about. There are no standout artists for me but the art does the job.  It has a few areas, like the other collected issues,  where the layout of the tiles is pretty confusing.

A solid collection of Hellblazer stories (with one exception) but Hellblazer still doesn’t really get me excited. I don’t find them an easy read and visually they are nothing special. 5/10. ISBN-13: 978-1401236908

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