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Mike Carey Discusses Hellblazer plans The following is taken from a longer interview with Mike Carey available at Komix World Komix World : It has filtered through you're going to be taking over indefinitely on Hellblazer? Any truth to that? Mike Carey : Yeah, it's true that I'm taking over Hellblazer - from #175, which has a September cover date and so is out in July (never could figure out that part...). (Straight To Hell Note : Mike Carey's first issue of Hellblazer will now ship in Augst). Originally I was just meant to be taking over for six issues, but as things stand I've got an open-ended contract. He's a favourite character of mine - partly because we're both ex-scousers living in London - so I was pretty chuffed to get a crack at him. The first thing I did was to get JC back onto his home territory. He's in Liverpool for a two-parter starting in #175, and then he travels on to London to intervene in a messy magical turf war. I'm having a lot of fun. Komix World : Apparently, JC's favourite tipple has changed over the years according to the writer. AM & JD had him drinking Gin & tonic; GE had him on Guinness etc. What do you see him drinking under your tenure? Mike Carey : Badger's Tangle Foot - a lethal bastard of a bitter that does what it says on the label. Komix World : Do you have any plans to reprise any favourite characters from Hellblazer's past in your term of office? (Not that too many have survived intact..) Mike Carey : Oh yeah, we'll be seeing some old favourites. Definitely. John's family - Cheryl and Gemma - will be coming back in very early on, as will Chas. I'm also reintroducing quite a few of the characters who Warren Ellis added to the canon during his brief stint on the book: Clarice and Albert, Map, Josh Wright, Watford. There'll be some new characters too, of course - notably a young woman called Angie Spatchcock who will be a foil for John in several of the storylines in the first year. That's two of the pleasures of writing Hellblazer right there - the pleasure of revisiting characters and situations you loved when you first came across them, and the pleasure of adding your own elements to the framework. Komix World : Do you know (or could you ask) if there's are moves afoot to collect all of the early Hellblazers'? The title's collected editions are patchy at best, meaning new readers can only get snatches of the run. Mike Carey : I believe that all of Garth's and Warren's runs are going to be collected - and I'm sure that the Azzarello collections will carry on, about six to nine months in lag of the publication of the monthly. I don't know about the rest of Jamie's run or Paul Jenkins's stuff. My guess is that it'll all be in trade ultimately, but DC Collected Editions have set their priorities and it's obvious what they are. Story taken from taken from a longer interview available at Komix World <<< Back to 2002 News Index |
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