Hellblazer #85 to #88 (1995)

Title – Hellblazer #85 to #88 - Warped Notions
Author – Eddie Campbell / Sean Phillips
Publisher - DC Vertigo
Format - Comic Book (4-part story)
Year - 1995
Original Cost – $1.95

This is a curious story that I initially felt blended into the run quite nicely but on rereading turns out to be something of a curates egg. We start with John invited to perform an exorcism, that not only ends badly but also with the realization that the victim was not actually possessed but was being used as a prophet for the forthcoming apocalypse.

Enter the ghost of Sir Francis Dashwood, the cat demon Murnarr and the blind and "armless" - as in a Venus De Milo kind of way - Bona Dea.  Strange things are afoot in the world; random acts of the bizarre as urban legends begin to play out for real.  Accepted reality is coming undone but with John Constantine's help, Dashwood has a plan to fix it all by circling the globe to stop the unraveling with binding magics.

What follows feels less plotted than stumbled over.  The ghost of Benjamin Franklin pops up for a chat and little else,  The Church of Virtual Reality kidnap John for reasons unknown and we crash land in Australia for a spark of Aboriginal magic and a few drinks in an outback bar... until the true antagonist reveals himself and is swiftly and quite easily dealt with.

A breakneck pace and Sean Phillips artwork are what mainly hold the whole thing to together but it somehow feels light and empty.  Paradoxically I actuality think it would have been better to have told the story over a larger run of comics and used the space to build character and tension. As it is, it has all the trappings of a good Hellblazer story but not the inner workings.

Part 1 - The Delicate Power of Terror

Part 2 - The Everything Virus

Part 3 - The Shout

Part 4 - Mountain of Madness

I'll throw out a quick bonus point for name-checking The Shout, a 1978 film about a man that has learned the Aboriginal Killing shout as mentioned and shown within the pages of part 3.  I didn't know of the film myself back in 95 but its nice to see one influence the other and carry the ideas across into further story telling.

Steve