Hell Eternal

by Jamie Delano, Sean Philllips (Illustrator)

A blistering one-shot written by Jamie Delano with art by Sean Phillips (HELLBLAZER). A work of fiction inspired by, but not based upon, true events, HELL ETERNAL follows three young Brits through a sordid life on the run as neo-Nazi paramilitaries who flee to America and meet with a bloody and disturbing end.

Genres: Comics, Crime, Fiction, Graphic Novels

63 pages, Paperback

First published May 4, 1998

About the author

Jamie Delano aka A. William James began writing comics professionally in the early 1980s. Latterly he has been writing prose fiction with "BOOK THIRTEEN" published by his own LEPUS BOOKS imprint (http://www.lepusbooks.co.uk) in 2012, "Leepus | DIZZY" in April 2014, and "Leepus | THE RIVER" in 2017.

Jamie lives in semi-rural Northamptonshire with his partner, Sue. They have three adult children and a considerable distraction of grandchildren.

Reviews

[Frédéric · Rating 3 out of 5]

A desperate story of 3 young Brits in a love triangle embracing a short-lived career of white supremacists.

Roleplay and delusions drive them in a downward spiral through anger, frustration, neo-nazism, gun-toting fantasies and Hell eternal.

It is cleverly written by Delano and well drawn by Phillips (not his best work though), the atmosphere is dark and gritty but...

But I just couldn't empathise. The final vacuity and the total lack of personality of these young bland people living their violent/fetishist/far-right fantasies in broad daylight just left me detached of their fate. They're losers, all right, but not beautiful losers...

[Ignacio · Rating 3 out of 5]

Delano escribe una comedia negra llena de mala leche sobre la fascinación por las ideas de extrema derecha y las armas, y la realidad que hay detrás. Tiene detalles demasiado evidentes y directos, pero su lectura se sostiene bien dentro de las coordenadas de historia de perdedores.

[María Amparo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Delano y Philips nos un relato inteligente y lleno de mala leche que pone el dedo en la base idiota y muy muy peligrosa de los totalitarismos. Y en vista de que cómo están yendo las cosas en el Reino Unido y el resto de Europa, es además tristemente profético. La vanidad, la estulticia y el miedo que atenaza Occidente se retratan en esta pobre chica, que creía ser el la élite del rebaño, y no es más que una oveja ciega de soberbia que está incluso más encerrada en el redil que el resto.

[Francis · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one felt like a Hellblazer one-shot. Which could be be either a compliment or an insult.
Delano does have a way with story telling but on this one I feel he was a few pages short of a real good book.
Regardless, I enjoyed it but it won't make my list of Delano's best.

[Rodolfo Santullo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Botín de saldos en la Feria del Libro de Bs As, tercera entrega. No tenía idea de qué iba esto, pero con esa pareja artística no lo iba a dejar pasar (más a la irrisoría suma que lo adquirí). En resumen, tenemos la historia narrada en primera persona de Anne, una chica británica que comienza a contarle a alguien llamado Ruger cómo llegó a dónde llegó -esencialmente a estar al borde del Gran Cañón de Colorado con una pistola en la mano- y porqué. Anne se enamora en el colegio de Sarah e inician una relación durante un tiempo -peculiar pero variada ya que a Sarah le va bastante el mambo fetichista y de roles- que se complejiza con la entrada en escena de David, lo que primero potencia un trío pero luego deja a nuestra protagonista afuera para su desazón. Sin embargo, lo más complicado que aporta David es sus tendencias ultraderechistas y neonazis, así como su desesperado interés en "tomar acción" y realizar actos violentos contra inmigrantes. ¿Cómo de aquel arranque de drama romántico terminamos con nuestra heroína pistola en mano perdida en un desierto? Por el descenso a los infiernos que Delano irá orquestando para sus personajes con ninguna misericordia. Lo cierto es que no son gente simpática ninguno de ellos -Anne apenas si tiene atisbos de algo que no me animaría a calificar de redención y los otros dos son unos imbéciles- así que tampoco despiertan demasiado la piedad del lector (al menos, este lector) pero eso no es detrimento para disfrutar de una (muy negra) historia, sólidamente escrita. Y dibujada a tope por Phillips, quien todavía no estaba al 100% de sus capacidades pero lo que hace alcanza y sobra para superar ampliamente la media, apoyado además por el potente color que le brinda Matt Hollingsworth. Negrura, pesismo, ignorancia, algo de karma y los albores de Internet, entre muchas otras cosas, se encuentran en esta novela gráfica recomendable.

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cleaning up my shelves of unread material, this graphic was a surprise. A well written and well paced crime noir and disturbingly relatable in areas. Year 2020 hard-right nazis aside, at the time of this book’s publication, these fringe groups were an elusive criminal class in fancy boots and misappropriated “self respect”. Exotic and seductive with a call for adventure, my early cyber friend groups considered those hate mongers nearly harmless because racism had been conquered and considered passé by most polite company.
This was so very very incorrect.
Its nauseating to not see the strong interconnected network of white power movements already plugged into the beginnings of the Internet.
This reads as a slice-of-life of the goth dyke I and others could have been if terrible choices had been made and some acquaintances and friends kept longer than when my interests changed.

[Andria Potter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well.

On the one hand I wanted to like this. It featured a main lesbian character, of whom I sympathized and liked a lot. She was easily my favorite, but while I liked the main character, the rest of the story was dark and violent and just not for me.

I liked the idea of it; I liked how the last image at the bottom of the page was surprising, and I liked that the guns all had names.

But that's about all that I liked for this graphic novel/comic book thing. Also, it was a short read, I flew through it within half an hour, pausing only to study the images to make sure that I wasn't missing anything for the story as this was one of the first graphic novel/comic books that I've read.

Three sad stars.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good for practising my Spanish. Odd story though!

[Michael Slembrouck · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book nestled itself deep in my brain when I first read it, and has lived there ever since. The awkward but beautiful artwork adds to the discomfort of the story perfectly; I think it was my first exposure to Sean Phillip’s art, and it took me a minute to get used to it, which was perfect for the reading experience. I might not think about it daily, but it’s pretty close.

[Lee · Rating 2 out of 5]

Strange- I think it was about how crazy the world’s stance on automatic weapons is. About how quickly a weapon put in the hands of a delusional person goes bad.

[Derek · Rating 2 out of 5]

starts off really strong, then fizzles out . . .

[D.M. · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's something about stories about losers that really turns me off. Stories about losers with guns are even worse, because then they're not just stupid, they're dangerous.
Make no mistake: Hell Eternal is the story of a loser with a gun. Sure, she's a she, and she's got the sexy-vampire-goth thing going on, but our heroine here just doesn't really seem to have a mind of her own. When she's not being held in the sway of her new girlfriend, it's her new girlfriend's boyfriend, or white supremacy nonsense...or her gun. It's no surprise that the story ends badly: it never does anything but be bad.
So, I guess that's what we get: a bad story, well told and handsomely illustrated. Never a terrible thing, but I really wanted more from Delano & Phillips.

[Zachary Hatton · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm an outsider to pretty much everything that this story has in it, yet I find it to be one hell of a story even if I don't relate to it. It's gritty, dark, and personal. It has a narrative style that put me in the protagonist's situation, engaged and anticipating what comes next. I'm unfamiliar with the author, but this is a neat graphic novel, so I would definitely recommend it to anyone who likes interesting, personal stories. That is unless you can't stand fiction involving homosexuality, Aryan superiority, racism, rape, murder, tragedy, or suicide.

[Anthony · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh.

[Variaciones Enrojo]

Colección De entre los muertos, tomo 3. Traduce la miniserie originalmente realizada por Delano y Philips para Vertigo.