Customer Reviews

John Constantine Hellblazer: All His Engines

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

With all the attention focused on DC/Vertigo's Hellblazer series (mainly thanks to the Constantine movie), this original graphic novel is great for long time Hellblazer readers and new fans to the series as well. Written by current series scribe Mike Carey and penciled by series artist Leonardo Manco, All His Engines finds John Constantine and his best mate Chas Chandler traveling from England to Los Angeles when Chas' grandaughter Tricia falls under a mysterious coma: along with children all over the planet. In between, we are given glimpses of Constantine's past as he uses his connections and various manipulative abilities, magical and otherwise, to save Tricia. All His Engines features the best the Hellblazer series has to offer: dark and gothic settings featuring the most interesting and enjoyable anti-hero in comics today. This handsome hardcover graphic novel is a nice package to get your hands on, but you'll be wishing it was a bit longer. All in all, whether your new to the world of Hellblazer or not, consider this worth picking up.

"John Constantine, Hellblazer: All his Engines" is a brand new and original graphic novel written by Mike Carey with art by Leonardo Manco. As a Hellblazer fan ever since the blokes first appearance in Swamp Thing # 37, I can tell you it's one of the finest stories yet. When the granddaughter of Constantine's friend Chas goes into an unexplainable coma, he contacts John to try and help. Little Tricia is just one of dozens of victims of this same mysterious affliction. Constantine soon finds there is demonic influence at work which leads him and Chas to Los Angeles and the mansion of a demon named Beroul.

Beroul and several other demons have decided to open up their own, little parcels of hell on Earth...think of it like a franchise. Beroul wants Constantine to eliminate the competition and is holding little Tricia as ransom to secure his services. Constantine can cause no harm to Beroul without risking the life of Tricia as he has her soul imprisoned within his own fat, putrid body. There's a marvelously wicked scene when John first encounters Beroul at his swimming pool...a foul built-in, filled with decaying bodies that the demon is liquefying down in order to bathe in...Constantine is up against it again. He finds his only recourse may be to make a deal with an immortal being even worse than the demons...an Aztec God of Death!

"All His Engines" is typical of most Hellblazer stories with John making a mistake in judgment that leads to the death of an associate and in generally puts his friends in danger. And of course, in typical fashion John gets the snot kicked out of him on a number of occasions. But as ever, he proves his ultimate resourcefulness, particularly in dealing with Beroul's competition. You get a good idea of why just about every demon in the underworld would love his head on the end of a pole.

Hellblazer has always had artists who do a wonderful job of capturing the palpable darkness that is Constantine's world and Leonardo Manco is no exception. His depictions of the various demons and the Death God are truly horrific. The use of this being of a near forgotten mythology comes off as brilliant in its execution.

The book concludes with some fantastic resource information about the character and his creation by Alan Moore twenty years ago. Hard to believe it's been that long. Great story!

Reviewed by Tim Janson

I liked the comment below that "All His Engines" was a lot like a Hellblazer "sitcom". I think that's dead on (except for the nauseating scenes of horror and violence that are typically omitted from a show like "The Jeffersons"). This graphic novel actually "feels" somewhat different from the typical "Hellblazer" collection. Almost all of the previous 14 Hellblazer compilations are just that - volumes that collect and compile serially published issues from the "Vertigo" comic series. But this one was written and conceived as a singular work under one cover, so the pacing is a bit different, and there is a lot less recapping and repetition in the work as a result. It makes for a very satisfying read, as a result.

"All His Engines" was my first exposure to Carey's work, and I was fairly impressed. While he doesn't have the bawdy irreverence and depravity of someone like Ennis, or the sheer inventiveness and snarkiness of someone like Warren Ellis, he knows how to tell a good, dark, horror story with amusing elements...in fact, he reminds me a lot of "Buffy's" creator Josh Wheden. And Leonardo Marcos, is, for my money, one of the most compelling and interesting graphic artists working today. Not since the glory days of Totleben and Veitch have I seen an artist who manages to combine fetishism, comedy and drama so well and so consistently. In the words of a critic in another context, "Let's give him a million dollars so he can draw comics forever. Or more importantly, less give him a million dollars on the CONDITION that he draw comics forever."

Their collaboration results in a cracking good "Hellblazer" story, one that remains true to the established roots of the character - the working class street magician, his family and friends, his peers and enemies - and also manages to bring in a new set of ideas to the world of black magic and the supernatural. I especially enjoyed the Carey's use of the Aztec "Death God" as a element of culture class between modern day "white" and "hispanic" mythologies - and Marcos' depiction of the Death God was at once both exactly what you would expect, and yet still impressive and scary.

So great plot, great pacing, snappy dialog, great art, more than a bit of action and violence and demons ripping each others heads off, a very tricky and satisfying resolution to the dilemma (that was still typical of Constantine's use of trickery, bluff, and misdirection)...and also a few unaffected glimpses of both the enigma and the sadness of Constantine himself.

I like it. I like it a lot. More, please.

There's about a dozen and a half entries now in the gritty series about John Constantine, master black magician of a very non-traditional sort. In this one, a "coma plague" has begun disrupting the world, including the young daughter of one of Constantine's best mates in London. The highly original cause is a series of "start-up" hells on Earth by lesser demons tired of their place in the satanic hierarchy. In their quest to halt the plague and retrieve the girl's soul, Constantine and his buddy end up in Los Angeles (where else?) and conflict ensues. This is a very noir graphic novel, better than most, but it's a little heavy on the British street slang. The art, though, is first-rate.

Mike Carey, John Constantine, Hellblazer: All His Engines (DC Comics, 2005)

I'll admit, I was one of those who thought that the departure of Garth Ennis from the Hellblazer fold was going to be synonymous with the gradual falling off in quality that would ultimately result in the title's death. Well, it's been a number of years now, and John Constantine has gotten himself drawn by a whole bunch of different artists, and he always seems to come out pretty clean in the wash. The newest (as of now) title in the series, All His Engines, has the look and feel of a sitcom episode more than anything else-- John finds himself pulled into negotiations between a number of different demons, and with characteristic style and panache, manages to make everything come out right in the end by outfoxing the smarmy so-and-sos. There are tendrils leading to books before (and, one figures, groundwork laid for the next series or two), but All His Engines is very much a self-contained episode. This makes it an excellent place to start if you're not yet familiar with the series, is the writing and artwork is competent; it doesn't have the flair of some of the earlier episodes, but you won't get lost in the plot, either.

All His Engines is the first of Mike Carey's Hellblazer storied to have made it to graphic novel form and the 15th of the graphic novels. In this tale Constantine is asked by Cas to find out why his granddaughter Tricia who has fallen into an unexplainable coma. To save her life, Constantine ends up in LA with Cas where more people have also fallen victim to this strange phenomenon. Eventually Constantine finds out that a demon has decided to form a hell on earth and are using the souls of those in comas to start up. But because the demon has trapped Tricia inside his heart, Constantine is forced to work with him or the girl will die. But John has never been one to allow that sort of detail to get in his way, and he pulls of a rare rescue. The tale is entirely self contained, so those who do not have a knowledge of the Hellblazer books can enjoy with out context.

The story offers a lot more then a romp in the cynical world of John Constantine, Carey uses complex Central American mythology to give Constante and enemy and ally of unusual proportions. The use of Gods and as well as demons is an very cool twist and worth the time to dig out a little information on the gods refrenced, if you aren't familiar with them. The story has some radically non-linear moments, which caused me at least to got flipping back to re-read things which had happened before and go...oh, yeah, I missed that bit...But as someone who loves complex story arcs I could not object. Carey, who became famous for Lucifer, is just as good here, if not better.

The artist is Leonard Manco, who I had not read anything by before, but who does a wonderful job. The art is dark and gritty with thick black lines and heavy shadow. Even better, all the characters look their ages, Constantine his almost fifty years and Cas as well. There panel layouts are interesting, but never hard to follow.

Looking through it again, I have to say All His Engines is a wonderful beginning to Mike Carey's run on Hellblazer.

All his engines is an incredible story filled with what you come to expect from Constantine. I've been a Hellblazer fan for several years now and everything in this graphic novel was perfect to me (from story to art style). A great one to add to your collection, and also a great way to start your Hellblazer craze. Five stars all the way

When I first read this over a year ago, I thought All His Engines was one of the best comic books I'd read. I was new to the world of John Constantine, and Neil Gaiman's quote on the front cover may have skewed my opinion a bit ("...the quintessential Constantine story..."). Since that time, I started buying the monthly title (being written by Peter Milligan), and I've read a number of the collected trades (Delano, Ennis). When reading this again recently, I found that my initial opinions were premature. All His Engines isn't the grand spectacle I saw it as. It's actually just your standard, run-of-the-mill Hellblazer story.

John is enlisted to help save his best friend's granddaughter from a demon who creates his own hells on earth. If you're already a Hellblazer fan, you can expect everything to work out the way it usually does, with John caught between a rock and a hard place, someone accidentally dying, and John playing the demons like cards in the end. This is the Hellblazer format. And no Hellblazer story is as standard as All His Engines.

Don't get me wrong, the story is still great! The writing is masterly, and the art is awesome. Just don't expect the best (unless you haven't read another Hellblazer story, in which case, you'll be floored).

writing: [7.5/10]
art: [9/10]

Competition is a natural and contentious fact of life when obtaining the rights to any franchise. Things can certainly get down and dirty, and in this latest trade from the decadent and depraved mind of Mike Carey, the topic of discussion is not the opening of another 7-11. We are talking about franchises from Hell! This new manner of ghastly and ghoulish venture may come as a shocking surprise to most, but probably not to one John Constantine. Many perturbing and disturbing players are in the market for being your unfriendly neighborhood Hell merchant, with no depths too low to sink to for their exclusive rights. The granddaughter of John's friend Chas is just one of the many innocent victims of the leading "entrepreneur", thus setting the stage for his involvement. Deals are brokered, and subsequently and not surprisingly broken, with John once again needing to pull the proverbial rabbit out of a hat to save the day. His final bit of legerdemain is somewhat puzzling and perplexing involving more smoke and mirrors than logic, but isn't that usually the case with magicians, or more befitting Constantine, conmen or charlatans. John is quite familiar with and comfortable in a game of high stakes poker, or in this case chicken, and thanks to him our local neighborhoods were kept safe from this expansion of evil enterprises. Mike Carey's wicked imagination usually takes us on a delightful yet daunting detour through the bowels of Hell itself. This time around he travelled down a different path, exploring the chilling prospects of branches of Hell on Earth, and what a nightmare they would be. After all, the last thing anyone wants is a chain of Hell's Kitchens, Hells Bells, or Hell R Us on every corner.

Up front, I'll confess that I've read and currently own every issue of the ongoing/monthly HELLBLAZER comic. It's a weird and often terrifying comic, which is odd because I rarely read horror novels and never attend horror movies; can't stand them. Nonetheless, I'm a devoted fan of HELLBLAZER, so I can lay claim to at least one very dark corner in my soul.

That said, I enthusiastically recommend this self-contained and original graphic novel to fans of horror and dark urban fantasy literature. ALL HIS ENGINES is NOT a collection of previously published comics; it stands on its own and delivers a satisfyingly chilling overview of the dreadful world through which Constantine travels, this time accompanied by his longtime friend, Chas, for whom he is on a mission of mercy. Carey's take on the characters is dead-on, and Leonardo Manco's art--well, what can I say? "Unforgettable" sums it up.

Everything that makes Constantine enjoyable, irksome and darkly compelling is on display. He's the kind of fellow of whom you are simultaneously afraid yet wish you were more like. The big brother you're glad you never had, but that you hope shows up when the existential chips are down.

ALL HIS ENGINES is dark, sticky and macabre, but in a good way. Recommended only for grownups comfortable with their mortality; children and the easily nauseated would do well to avoid it.

And, finally, one small caution: Once you read this novel, you'll want to know more. Be forewarned that Constantine's life, however, is not something to be explored without trepidation. Some things, once learned, for good or ill, you carry with you for the rest of your life. You've been warned.