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Cyber Monday Presents: Hitman and Hellblazer

You know what time it is? Is time for some new Cyber Monday!  For all the geeks who missed on some great Garth Ennis' books when they original came out. You my friend are in luck. That is unless you hate Garth Ennis' stuff then you are not in luck and the fact that you have continue to read  this article, boggles my mind. Okay, Ennis' books are not for everybody. But Ennis' name alone can sell a comic book. Like any other superstar writer out there Ennis develop a style easily recognized by comic fandom.

His stories usually contain extreme violence, guns, uncomfortable gross out situations and very naughty language. If you are a Preacher fan then you must be delighted that the new books converted into paperless comics are non other than two of Ennis early classics: the start of Ennis' Hellblazer run and the first issues of Hitman. His run on Hellblazer almost killed John Contastine as the character deals with cancer, his run on Hitman brought funny to his repertoire and is a type of predecessor to his other book The Boys. It is his work in Hitman that you should go and check out.

hitman

This is the start of Ennis making fun of superheroes, much like his Punisher run where he made fun of Marvel's super heroes Hitman's main character is used as a tool to make fun of DC's main heroes. it is the first time we see a funnier side to his writing and perhaps it is his best non adult book this is a PG-13 Ennis. This is not a bad thing in fact the book is so much fun to read you won't mind mind that a lot of "motherlovin" is thrown into the dialog. As many of the converted paperless comics resurrecting this year, the art  looks amazing. John McCrea's art looks the way it was meant to look, his art looks brand new. It is like discovering this book for the first time.

Now if you are thinking Hellblazer you are in for good early Ennis action. Here we see how he develop part of his style and it would be of no surprise to find the word "bastard" used as common as the word "hello." His run on this character is like when Claremont and Byrne took over the X-Men. Sure it was nice before but it is this run that took the book to new heights. Sadly you will have to wait a bit until Steve Dillon joins the book. But nevertheless it is a solid story right from the start.

hellblazer
Now if you want masterpieces you can always get Preacher, but Preacher has like five different printings and all of then get better, one after the other. Yet these books Hitman and Hellblazer have not received a proper reprinting yet. It is with this digital reprintings that a new generation of readers and old readers, these books can regain their spotlight. These books are classics but over time they have lost some of their status. in the words of John Constantine "what are you blokes waiting for? you bastards haven't seen great sodding digital comics?

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