Many people have this notion that hell is a hot place.
Ignoring the argument of whether or not an afterlife or an underworld exists at all for a moment, I think it’s interesting that we get people thinking that a hell is all fire and brimstone. It’s spread through popular culture and certainly has precedent across numerous mythologies. It makes a certain amount of logical sense too, in a practical sense of going further into the interior of the Earth, it naturally gets warmer. “You’ll burn in Hell,” I’ve had leveled at me personally from some particularly loving Christians. Warm and cozy.
But I like to think of Dante’s depiction of Hell more. With the ninth circle being described as a cold, inhospitable place, so far away from the light and warmth of God’s love. It’s an absence rather than a presence. A lack. Much like darkness.
““We’re all walking on our own.”
While the main hellblazer title had mostly just started a run from Paul Jenkins and Sean Phillips as the primary creative team, original series scribe Jamie Delano came back to John Constantine and The Horrorist with David Lloyd and Elitta Fell. A two issue prestige format series as an emotionally absent Constantine tries to track down a refugee from Africa with haunting eyes, who may well be spreading horror across the globe.
It’s weird how timeless some of the sociopolitical issues are presented in the story. This is 1995 that the series is coming out and we’ve got immigration, hunger, domestic abuse, and more. How the issues are presented, what they reference, like something reminiscent of the cattle cars of Nazi Germany, change, but it reminds you that we’ve been dealing with these problems time after time. But there’s an emotional distance inherent in John Constantine’s perspective. That coldness referenced before. A hollow emptiness that some of the characters try to fill with sex or food.
David Lloyd’s artwork is haunting. His line art has an interesting use of chiaroscuro that at times make characters and buildings feel like they’re shadows blasted across the backdrop. It gives the story an eerie, nightmarish feel. Especially of Angel herself. The imagery takes on dark expressionistic forms. Mixed with his color washes, it’s as much a story that you feel as it is one that you read. Elitta Fell rounding out the creative team with solid lettering.
“Fear’s the fuel that drives the human engine, innit?”
I’m not about to shame anyone who needs to shut themselves off right now. To close out the outside world for the time being and process for themselves how to move forward. It’s as much a protective measure as anything. Like going into survival mode. We’ve had numerous things occur that have been unprecedented in our lifetimes and I get a desire not to feel, to be cold.
I think the important bit is finding a healthy way back. In your own time. Whether it’s in exorcising your demons and finding your way to feel again, like in The Horrorist by Delano, Lloyd, and Fell. Or through other personal means. The world itself may be cold, seemingly uncaring, filled with horrible things, but recognizing them, identifying them, and working through your shadow is ahead of you.
Classic Comic Compendium: THE HORRORIST
The Horrorist
Writer: Jamie Delano
Artist: David Lloyd
Letterer: Elitta Fell
Publisher: DC Comics – Vertigo
Release Date: October 26 – December 7 1995 (original issues)
Available collected in John Constantine: Hellblazer – Volume 2: The Devil You Know
Read past entries in the Classic Comic Compendium!
