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Jenkins is a very odd comic book writer, in that when he does small, character based stories, he does quite well. However, dealing with the lead character or having to do comic book type stories, he falls flat on his face, as if he just doesn't have the skill to do it.
His Hellbalzer struck me as it would have been a very good book if he didn't have to have JC in it.
I must admit, I'm fascinated by the idea of JC as "Everyman" and a character so pliable that he can become whatever he needs to for the writer...as well as the idea that Delano's stories weren't as good as they should have been. I look at Delano's stuff as a step in the evolution of comics. At the time, this was DC doing a spin off of the Swamp Thing book, John Byrne was doing Superman and the Atom was getting a monthly book around the same time, and here comes this very dark, very political horror series.
One proposal I read that wasn't accepted was to turn JC into a very horror themed comic along the lines of making him more of a version of the "mystery host" of DC's 70's comics where he would slowly become a bit player in the book, and having him "show up" where Bad Thing Happen. The more I think of it, the more I like that version of JC for current times as we become more and more vouyeristic. It would also dovetail with the idea of JC being an everyman of his times. |
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