Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean's Hellblazer - "Hold Me"

[dc2houseofmystery]

Oh man, I recently started reading Hellblazer again. Just sat down and was pouring over the issues, and I found #27, a classic Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean story, and I remember how hard it hit me when I first read it. The artwork is superb, the story is unhindered by years and years of Hellblazer continuity, it's just pure, unhindered John Constantine. Don't get me wrong, I love almost everything that came after it (to an extent) but this is just amazing.

So I thought... it's been over a year since my last post... why not come back and share something with you all that I adore?



A quick observation; I sometimes forget that Neil Gaiman wrote some of the most unsettling horror comics over the past few decades. When he writes the genre I find myself abso-bloody-lutely terrified, and he just knows how to make you feel uncomfortable. Case in point...




"Mummy... You're so cold..."

Argh. I'm not going to offer much commentary from this point forward. I'll provide some context though. A homeless man died. At the end, he was cold, he was freezing, and there was no one to hold him to keep him warm. So now he's back... and he keeps asking for the same thing.

"Hold me."

John Constantine meanwhile has just ran into trouble of his own in the same set of council flats that the above sequence just took place in. He heads out into the night when...



I love this issue so much.

Comments

[whitesycamore]

These are beautiful scans, but they're almost too small to read. Would you consider resizing them?

[dc2houseofmystery]

Of course, I'll update in a moment.

[whitesycamore]

Thanks! I really need to get better aquainted with John Constantine. He seems like my kind of guy.

[salinea]

hey, that's the story I got told about, the first time I ever heard about Constantine.

[hivemindcomics]

Fantastic stuff! I've only read the Diggle run (loved it!) and large parts of Ennis. I really need to get on with getting through Hellblazer sometime.

[icon_uk]

Never read this one, it's rather lovely, except for poor Shona and her mother of course.

[pallas_athena]

The text in that last scan is quite apropos, for Valentine's Day. Excellent.

[dc2houseofmystery]

Some might say that was my plan all along!

(It was not)

[pallas_athena]

(could'a fooled me, mate)

[dc2houseofmystery]

I shoulda gone with it! Curses!

[ardat_lili]

"Hold Me" wrecks me every time.
For those who try what I did to get a copy: most comics shops won't have a copy in their longboxes, because they vanish pretty quickly, but it's reprinted in a collection of Gaiman short comic stories called "Midnight Days."

[gerardotejada]

I feel Constantine is an over exploited character and that doesnt have his own "world", he is just the "win all" card that you can play whenever you want, like Lobo (if It happened in a Lobo Issue is not on continuity so they can just kill everyone).

Hey there you got an interesting crossover, the british magic bastard with the trash metal space man cross over.

This reminds me of an old Dylan Dog story, and It doesnt help that Constantine is heavely based on Dylan Dog.

[gerardotejada]

Also Gaiman breakthrough was in horror, I remember people was talkimg about the next project of Neil sayin "Its called Sandman, I guess is going to be about nightmares!"