Hellblazer: Setting Sun

Hellblazer #14

by Warren Ellis, Frank Teran (Illustrator), Tim Bradstreet (Illustrator)

Shipped from UK, please allow 10 to 21 business days for arrival. Published 2004 by Vertigo. Very Good condition Collects issues #140-#143.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Horror, Fantasy, Fiction, Comic Book, Graphic Novels Comics

96 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Warren Ellis is the award-winning writer of graphic novels like TRANSMETROPOLITAN, FELL, MINISTRY OF SPACE and PLANETARY, and the author of the NYT-bestselling GUN MACHINE and the “underground classic” novel CROOKED LITTLE VEIN, as well as the digital short-story single DEAD PIG COLLECTOR. His newest book is the novella NORMAL, from FSG Originals, listed as one of Amazon’s Best 100 Books Of 2016.

The movie RED is based on his graphic novel of the same name, its sequel having been released in summer 2013. IRON MAN 3 is based on his Marvel Comics graphic novel IRON MAN: EXTREMIS. He is currently developing his graphic novel sequence with Jason Howard, TREES, for television, in concert with HardySonBaker and NBCU, and continues to work as a screenwriter and producer in film and television, represented by Angela Cheng Caplan and Cheng Caplan Company. He is the creator, writer and co-producer of the Netflix series CASTLEVANIA, recently renewed for its third season, and of the recently-announced Netflix series HEAVEN’S FOREST.

He’s written extensively for VICE, WIRED UK and Reuters on technological and cultural matters, and given keynote speeches and lectures at events like dConstruct, ThingsCon, Improving Reality, SxSW, How The Light Gets In, Haunted Machines and Cognitive Cities.

Warren Ellis has recently developed and curated the revival of the Wildstorm creative library for DC Entertainment with the series THE WILD STORM, and is currently working on the serialising of new graphic novel works TREES: THREE FATES and INJECTION at Image Comics, and the serialised graphic novel THE BATMAN’S GRAVE for DC Comics, while working as a Consulting Producer on another television series.

A documentary about his work, CAPTURED GHOSTS, was released in 2012.

Recognitions include the NUIG Literary and Debating Society’s President’s Medal for service to freedom of speech, the EAGLE AWARDS Roll Of Honour for lifetime achievement in the field of comics & graphic novels, the Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire 2010, the Sidewise Award for Alternate History and the International Horror Guild Award for illustrated narrative. He is a Patron of Humanists UK. He holds an honorary doctorate from the University of Essex.

Warren Ellis lives outside London, on the south-east coast of England, in case he needs to make a quick getaway.

Reviews

[Quentin Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really like what Warren Ellis is doing on this book.

So this was a collection of four one shot stories. I've found the one shots to be some of the better stories in the Hellblazer series. There's some pretty dark material here, but this book has never been light reading. There's a little bit of humor as well, but even that is dark humor.

A good collection, and one I'd recommend to Hellblazer fans.

[Bayandur · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of stories from the life of John Constantine. Well, one of them impressed me less than the others - the Setting Sun itself. I know of the experiments on humans the Japanese scientists put in Manchuria, but Ellis didn't grasp their motivation. Duty, not cruelty. There's one idea of duty you might have, but Japanese duty - it's completely different. Japanese culture might look cruel to some, but there is actually no cruelty in it. A samurai takes no pleasure or pain for killing another samurai. He does so for duty.

Yet, I quite enjoyed this take on John - and so bad Warren Ellis had such a short run. And 'Telling Tales' almost got me to laugh meself to death.

[Kirsten · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you are looking for a quick introduction to Hellblazer, this is an excellent place to start. In these short, one-issue stories, Warren Ellis distills much of what makes John Constantine a fascinating character -- you've got Constantine as practically a Trickster, Constantine at his most brutual, at his most clever, at his most sentimental and guilt-ridden. Good stuff for both those who are new to Hellblazer and those who are familiar with the series.

[Jonathan Maas · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best - the art by Timothy Bradstreet is worth the price of admission by itself. All of them are incredible though. But yeah something about Bradstreet and John Constantine goes well with Constantine, the Punisher etc. His shadows just really show who these characters are!

[Frightful_elk · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gory, fun. Beautiful art.

[flesher goreman · Rating 1 out of 5]

*wank* john *wank* constantine's *wank* giiiiiirlllfrrriieeennddss

[47Time · Rating 5 out of 5]

Too bad Ellis leaves the series after this series of one-shots. I enjoyed the chages he made to the main character, even though they set him apart from how he was portayed before. No longer passive, John sets out with renewed vigor and new abilities in these stories. I hope some of these traits are kept by future authors.

Watford, the inspector who owes John, askes John to check a crime scene that has already set two officers to kill each other, sent another to the hospital with a stroke and a fourth to the nuthouse. The killer is still at the scene and confesses to John that his loneliness made him want to keep the people he rented the rooms to. So he killed them and has been doing this for 20 years, poisoning the house with strong psychic energy. John is fortunately immune to those energies and purifies the house by setting it on fire.

The serial killer in the second story has an object called the Crib where the fetus of the anti-Christ is kept. He keeps it taped to his chest where it can pee in his heart. John steps in to destroy the magic behind it. The Crib is a fabrication, made real only because people believe in its magic. The killings were very real though, so John stops the killer and leaves him for the police.

A tenant in John's old building dies and is then seen in his bed, alive again. During WW2 the tenant, a Japanese doctor, was experimenting on people in China to find new ways of torture. And enjoying every second of it. He asks John to end his life. Who wouldn't?

John remembers the girlfriends he had in the past. He still has feelings for every one of them, but he can't go back. Instead he must look forward.

Telling tall tales to cover the royal family is one of the things John loves about magic. He is a natural at it given his perfect poker face and intimidating attitude.

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Warren Ellis writes John Constantine. Short, with the dark and gritty tone that it needs.

[Frank Talk · Rating 5 out of 5]

i love it this book is awesome

[Steven W · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was ok....disconnected stories...always prefer an arc...

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quite disturbing and grotesque in places. I did like the stroll down memory lanes of past girlfriends. The Secret Kings of Earth would be something that I want to learn more about.

[Alek Hill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unfortunately there is no overarching story with this one. Just a bunch of single issues stories that are very entertaining.

[Yolanda Sfetsos · Rating 4 out of 5]

My husband borrowed this book from the library the other day and when he finished reading it he suggested I check it out. He did warn me about it being pretty effed up. lol.

So, I was curious. And read it today. It contains five different stories...

LOCKED: John Constantine is called in by the police to check out a bizarre situation. There's a killer locked inside a room, but there's a catch. Every time someone steps inside to get the guy, they end up killing each other. Only Constantine's strong enough to face such a barbaric situation, and still manage to get a chuckle out of the reader.

I enjoyed this one. It's violent and morbid, but I liked it.

THE CRIB: This was an insane story, and I have to say that one of the pictures cracked me up. The myth about the crib of the antichrist's miscarried fetus claims that it's inside a box. And everyone that comes in contact with it gets involved in some pretty crazy shit. But as Constantine finds out, not everything is as it seems.

SETTING SUN: Oh gosh. This story was pretty gross. So bad that it made my appetite disappear. Gross! :/

ONE LAST LOVE SONG: A surreal story about Constantine remembering all of his lost loves. Strange, but hauntingly cool.

TELLING TALES: I really enjoyed this one! Constantine has a lot of fun telling a nosey journalist a bunch of crazy occult stories about London, politicians, and the royal family.

This was a fun one.

That's it. That's what I thought of each story. Although I enjoyed it, I don't recommend this comic book for anyone who's squeamish. This is not for the faint hearted.

[Karl Whitney · Rating 5 out of 5]

Collecting the last four issues of Warren Ellis' run on Hellblazer, Setting Sun isn't a continuous storyline, but a collection of short stories with a team of revolving artists. In this collection the hard drinking, hard smoking, bad luck magic mage John Constantine has run in's with depraved killers, reminisces about his love life, and in the final (and best) story, tells a journalist what "really" goes on in London. That story alone makes this worth picking up, as well as a story involving a series of murders and a box called the 'Crib' which contains the aborted child of Satan. This is definitive Hellblazer, and this is definitive Ellis.

[Brandon Daniels · Rating 4 out of 5]

Warren Ellis continues to exercise some demons here. The issue that’s just Constantine reminiscing about his many old girlfriends is particularly interesting given what we now know about the author. It’s also crazy to think that this was coming out at the same time as Transmetropolitan, Planetary, and The Authority. The highlight is the last issue, a more light hearted story in which Constantine is telling tall tells to a conspiracy minded journalist. It’s illustrated by Marcel Frusin, who would return off and on to the title, and who might be my favorite artist on the series. Worth noting is that this trade does not include the infamous final issue of Ellis’s run, Shoot, but it can be found in a few other places.

[Chelsea Grindstaff · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is made up of four separate stories, rather than one story arc of multiple issues. The first story is one of the goriest, grossest Constantine stories I've read so far. I absolutely loved it. =D

The second story involved the aborted fetus of the anti-christ. So, uh, yeah. It's weird.

I didn't care for the third story as much. It was just so-so. The artwork was rather off, too.

The last story, involving stories about the London underground, I found quite funny.

While the book doesn't contribute to John Constantine's overall story, these individual titles are a must-read for Constantine fans.

[Rena Sherwood · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is not the graphic novel to introduce anyone to the Hellblazer series since the stories rely on the reader already knowing all of the previous graphic novels. All of these stories are from stand-alone issues, which makes the whole graphic novel a bit choppy and disjointed. The title story is the best but suffered from being so short. I could've done without the story about John remembering all of his ex-girlfriends -- it just seemed to be filler and not much else.

EDIT: In 2022, I went wacky and bought a bunch of Hellblazer graphic novels, including this one. Because of the power if the first story. I accidentally bought two.

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ellis' final volume, before the abrupt ending of his run, is a series of shorts. For the most part, they're fine, with some nice bits of spookiness and ickiness. However, as a whole they get repetitive, as Constantine goes into apartment after apartment, facing ghosts and serial killers and ghosts of serial killers. The volume also weakens toward the end, as we get a pair of super shorts followed by a shaggy dog tale.

All told, this volume is almost entirely forgettable. It suggests that Ellis really didn't have much of a plan for the series, even before he walked away, which means it might have been for the best.

[Lauri · Rating 3 out of 5]

Warren Ellise viimased lood Hellblazerile. Constantine mässab väidetava Antikristuse elusa lootega, Teise Maailmasõja jaapanlasest sõjakurjategija, pisikriminaalist massimõrvari ja muudega aga kõik see on tuim, elutu ja kähku ununev. Ilmselgelt on säde puudu. Parim on viimane kus nuuskija ajakirjanik intervjueerib Constantine'i miskis pubis salateadmiste teemal ja Constantine pajatab maad ja ilmad kokku reptiilidest hingeröövijaist inglise kuninglikust perekonnast ja printsess Diana tegelikust surma põhjusest, lavastades lõpus peldikus enda surma.
Üldiselt - keskpärane.

[Dean · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ellis gets to cut loose here, with 5 self contained stories all drawn by different artists. He pulls no punches in showing us the seedy world that Constantine is both trapped in and part of. Be it remembering the fates of old girlfriends who revisit him at night, or hearing the sick confessions of a Japanese war criminal, or just feeding a journo a huge line of blarney concerning the occult , Ellis lets Constantine shine in the gloom and grime. Dialogue is fantastic, apart is generally good though I prefered some to thers.
Great gory, disturbing read!

[Astrid Terese · Rating 3 out of 5]

John Constantine er hovedperson i tegneserien Hellblazer, men gjør også gjesteopptredener i andre forfatteres arbeid. Han er best beskrevet som en okkult detektiv og anti-helt. Han er opptatt av at den vanlige mann skal ha rett på et vanlig liv, og han håper dette inkluderer ham selv. Men der kommer til stadighet magi, demoner og mord i veien. Constantine opptrer i tegneserier utgitt av DC Comics, for det meste under forlaget Vertigo.
Hele min omtale finner du på bloggen min Betraktninger

[The Ghost's Library · Rating 4 out of 5]

Collection of separate tales from Warren Ellis that is a bit hit and miss, but overall captures the tone of Constantine better than the previous volume. A different artist works on each of the stories collected, so it can feel a little disjointed. Overall this is one of the better Hellblazer collections that swings between amusing and terrifying in equal doses.

[Jaimie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Constantine plays fixer all through London in this collection, as he travels around solving murders, summoning ghosts, and spreading rumours about the Royal Family. Like the back cover warns, this collection is not for the faint of heart, but honestly that's kind of expected when John Constantine is involved.

[Erik · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The underground alien bases of North America and the chupacabras-holes of South America
all connect to London. Press your ear to the roads of hornsey rise and you can hear grey
aliens and goat-suckers and the illegitimate snake-mutant kids of the royal family and
London pop stars all playing sex games together underground"

[***Dave Hill · Rating 4 out of 5]

The last four issues of Ellis, all stand-alone, all typically mind-warping creepy, including John having a long, uncensored chat with an investigative journalist about what *really* goes on in London, and a Tim Bradstreet-illustrated tale of a truly nasty artifact with an even nastier secret. Not for the faint of heart, but vintage, excellent Constantine.

[H. Givens · Rating 3 out of 5]

Five short stories -- possibly two were in the same issue, and that's why people say there are four? Either way, some of them stand out (The Crib and Telling Tales), some were less interesting (One Last Love Song), but all of them are pretty good if you can stomach the gore and serial killers and whatnot.

[James Schneider · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is not a lot to say about Ellis's run on Hellblazer. He was great, got John completely, told some great one-and-dones with some great artists, then left pretty swiftly. Really good stories. Beautiful art in this volume.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ellis has one hell of an imagination that never fails to surprise me. Only one out of the five stories in this little book wasn't very good. All the rest were like reading little snippets of Planetary with a much more demented twist.

[Abu Syed sajib · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not a single story,more a collection of stories.This is the first time i have seen John being so emotional about his ex-girlfriends and the writer pulled that off brilliantly.Overall,it's just an average story of Hellblazer which could have been better.

[Patrick · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hit or miss collection of one-issue stories.