The Drink Tank Hitman Spectacular! Cover by john McCrea, the comic I’d most like to see originally an unused cover revived. They seem to bring for Hitman #14 back every other character (like Barry Allen! I can’t Starting in 1995, I believe they brought back discovered that Starman, by Barry Allen!) but yet we’ve James Robinson, was the not seen Hitman return. best comic ever made. The There’s more to be done main character was basically with him. me, if I’d had my druthers I’ve never fully and fought crime. It was an embraced Garth Ennis. amazing comic and I have Like I said, Preacher wasn’t every early issue. I would buy my thing, never big on his it even if it meant not paying Hellblazer stuff, enjoyed True my bills. I loved it, and was Faith a bit, liked The Pro, buying it every month. but hated his Punisher stuff In 1996, a new comic (though to be fair, I’ve never hit the stands, and I was only a liked The Punisher). Hitman bit curious. I remember going was his masterpiece. A piece to Brian’s Books and seeing it of writing that was beyond on the racks, a guy with guns Hitgirl by EJ King anything else. McCrea’s work blazing and Batman. Batman was just as powerful. His on the cover never really worked to get me to buy images made Tommy. There’s a certain block-power to a comic, but this one looked interesting. I bought it, Tommy that calls to mind the other great DC heroes: took it home and read the hell out of it. Batman and Superman, while at the same time making This was Hitman, and it had instantly replaced him seem more human than any of the others. The Starman as my favorite monthly reading. writing mixes with the images wonderfully. It wouldn’t be until Powers came around that I’ve often envisioned my own comics imprint. I fully immersed myself into a comic. The writing was I’ve always dreamed of being able to create characters, absolute genius. Garth Ennis, whose Preacher had give them a set-up and then let others play with them, let me down every time I’d borrowed an issue, was tell their stories, create their worlds. The first team at the peak of his powers, writing a non-superhero that comes to mind is Waid writing with the art of book (arguably) in a world of Superheroes. His world the sadly-departed Mike Weiringo, but a close second, was enhanced by amazing art. The style of Hitman and the only ones I’d want to do anything that was was instantly recogniseable. That was John McCrea really dark, would be Ennis and McCrea. and his coveres were especially fantastic. I fell in love So, this issue of The Drink Tank is dedicated to with the over-all package. what is still my favorite comic of the 1990s. Someday, Hitman’s main character is a hitman named I’ll do one for Powers, and then another for Starman Tommy Monaghan. and then one for how Vertigo made me realize I’ve Hitman was one of those titles that stuck with no possible chance for success in this life. Until then, me. There are some legendary moments that have enjoy this look at one of the greatest series ever just held on to me for ages. The classic is Superman made. showing up in the pages before a star-struck Tommy. That’s a scene that sticks with you. The association of Superman with Hitman is just so strange and it shows where the weakness in the Superman character and the power of Ennis’ take on Tommy. It’s amazing how Hitman, Batman, Superman, and the rest are all brilliantly the entire scenario played out and that it’s trademarks of DC Comics. Except where noted, all still in my memory is even more incredible. Hitman art is by John McCrea All DC Comics char- I sadly did give up on Hitman after about issue acters and the distinctive likeness(es) thereof are 50. Not due to the content, just because the money Trademarks & Copyright © 1939-2010 DC Comics, wasn’t there anymore. I came back to the trades Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. once or twice, and I’ve often mentioned Hitman as Ennis very cleverly brings in many brilliant What Isn’t There To Like? angles to the stories, from Zombie Penguins in Gotham Aquarium, to the Dinosaurs coming through By James Bacon a time portal, because of the nearby research lab. I liked Hitman. There is no end of possibilities, no end to the absurd, It was a skewed take on the DC world, a as Tommy and his friends become embroiled in little out of kilter and synch with the rest of this another adventure. There is a real sense of adventure established and proscribed universe. about some of the stories. A Boys Comic element Tommy Monahan, is instantly likeable, which that really excites and catches the imagination. There is good for a hired killer, but then, that’s the true is also the element where Ennis brings in professional character of this killer showing through. The story killers of a wide variety, whether it be gangster, or of Hitman, a modern tragedy, with much comedy military orientated, in this world of Superheroes and and mirth is really the story of Tommy and his derring-do, there is still room for crime and cold mates, and it really goes far deeper than the average callousness. The issues that featured SAS men, showed DC Universe comic into the character of the main that trained professional soldiers, are in essence very protagonist. There is something palpably real about tough. The homage paid to various genre’s whether the friendships, and the upsets that occur throughout it’s the western, in the Pulp Heroes annual, with art the story, and despite the sometimes bizarre and by Carlos Ezquerra, or the Tommy’s Heroes issue, incredible comic book situations our friends fall into, again Ennis manages to pull of fantastic nods to there is an underlying back bone about friendship, its great works, without being shallow or derivative in a importance and its complexity which permeates the disappointing way. whole series. Tommy’s history that catches up with him That Tommy is a meta-human with powers, is sorrowful, well thought out and very sad. That a that give him headaches, but which can indeed assist character could have his mother and siblings killed by his father, that so much trauma could occur to him, does not put him in an individual, in such a the league of super heroes, heartfelt way, just adds to and in actual fact he is the character and helps far from them, looking us understand him a bit onward, with an objective more, understand, or try and at time disrespectful to understand his psyche, or fanboyish eye. Issue 34 what he is made of. of Hitman, is perhaps one Of course on of my favourite Superman the sadness stakes, the comics, better even than ending of Hitman, the the ‘What Ever Happened last issues, are really to the Man of tomorrow’ quite phenomenal. If story. It deserved it’s you have read the story, Eisner Award. from word go, if you have Tommy has a very travelled with Tommy, cynical and wry sense of Natt, Ringo, and Hacken humour, the way he deals and seen his friends and with Batman, or the way he loved ones die, as his and his friends talk about world seems to implode, the annual ‘events’ that despite everything, it befalls the population of quickly crescendos into Gotham City are examples one of the most moving of the fourth wall, just for and upsetting endings in a moment slipping, as the comics. As I say to friends reader smiles knowingly and my wife, each time I at the purposeful jibe read it, it’s my chick flick against a bigger unseen of comics, I can’t stop commercial system. how it makes me feel. As usual, MAJOR SPOILERS abound in this Comics You Should Own: post. That’s just how I roll! Hitman Of course, Dogwelder isn’t the only reason these are Comics You Should Own. Dogwelder by Greg Burgas comes from Steve Dillon’s twisted imagination, which All art by John McCrea from gave us a man ... who welds dead dogs to bad guys’ faces. What the hell, indeed. But Hitman is so much the Hitman DC series more than twisted jokes. Hitman, more than Preacher, more than The Punisher, is Garth Ennis’s masterpiece. orignally appeared as a part of Comics You Should He has never been as good, and he might never be Own on http://www.comicbookresources.com/ as good again. That’s kind of a shame, but we can still re-read this and marvel at just how good it is. One word makes this a Comic You Should What makes this comic Ennis’s masterpiece? Own: DOGWELDER! Preacher, with its Vertigo sensibility, its marketing push, and its lofty themes, is often cited as a comic Hitman by Garth Ennis (writer), John McCrea non-comics readers would like. Preacher, as good as (artist, Demon Annual #2, issues #1-20, 22-60, it is (and it’s quite good), is ultimately somewhat of 1,000,000; JLA/Hitman #1-2), Steve Pugh (artist, issue an immature work. Throughout, it feels as if Ennis is #21; inker, issue #22), Gary Leach (inker, issues #23- rebelling against a Christian upbringing, and while 27, 29-30, 32-60), Andrew Chui (inker, issue #31), there’s nothing wrong with that, it limits the comic Steve Haynie (letterer, Demon Annual #2), Willie somewhat. Ennis also screws up the ending, which Schubert (letterer, issues #1-27), Patricia Prentice lessens the impact of the book. But this isn’t about (letterer, issues #28-60, 1,000,000), Travis Lanham Preacher, it’s about Hitman! (letterer, JLA/Hitman #1-2), Gene D’Angelo (colorist, One reason this is superior to Ennis’s more Demon Annual #2), Carla Feeny (colorist, issues #1- lauded work is the supporting cast. Ennis creates a 60, 1,000,000), David Baron (colorist, JLA/Hitman large cast, beginning with the title character, Tommy #1-2). Monaghan. Tommy is a killer who gains super powers in the Demon Annual #2, which was part of the DC, 64 issues (Demon Annual #2; #1-60 + “Bloodlines” crossover in DC’s Annuals back in 1993. #1,000,000; JLA/Hitman #1-2), cover dated Tommy was the only character from the crossover 1993 (Demon Annual #2), April 1996-April 2001, who lasted (the second most successful series to November-December 2007 (JLA/Hitman #1-2). come out of the idea was Anima, which ran 16 issues), which allows Ennis to make a joke about it issue #54 (McAllister mentions that the aliens created a new generation of superpowered beings, and Tommy says, “You mean like whatsizname? An’ that other guy?”). But Ennis gave Tommy a much bigger cast than Jesse Custer had. Tommy is part of a neighborhood - the Cauldron in Gotham City, the worst section of a pretty horrible town - and he hangs out at the same bar - Sean Noonan’s - so he has a wide circle of friends and acquaintances. This allows Ennis to develop one of his favorite themes - that of friendship and sticking by your friends no matter what. In Tommy’s world, there’s nothing worse than not sticking by your friends. The characters who surround Tommy are as interesting as he is, and therein lies the strength of the book. Sean Noonan is the father figure, a retired soldier and hitman who practically raised Tommy. Pat is Sean’s nephew and Tommy’s best friend. Hacken is a crazed killer who is definitely not the brightest bulb in the box, a fact that gets him needled by Pat, who, according to Hacken, always runs to Tommy for protection (Pat isn’t a hitman, another strike Batman has a look of such disbelief, as if he never against him). Ringo is a cool Asian assassin, the only contemplated anyone puking on his boots. In the next one around who’s in Tommy’s class. Early on in the panel, he lays Tommy out with a huge punch. He’s still series, Ennis introduces Natt the Hat, an old friend Batman, but in two panels, Ennis makes him human of Tommy’s from Detroit. Natt and Tommy served in by showing how angry he is by someone daring to the Gulf War together, and Natt comes to Gotham vomit on him. It’s hilarious but also perfectly true to to escape a gang war and becomes Hardy to Tommy’s form. In “Local Hero,” the arc in issues #9-12, Tommy Laurel. There’s also Tiegel, a Gotham detective who, meets Kyle Rayner. Without changing his personality through the course of the series, falls in love with too much and without making him less heroic, Ennis Tommy and also gets fired because she’s an honest shows how goofy Kyle is and how goofy the entire cop in a decidely corrupt department. All of these idea of superheroes is. Issue #11, where Tommy characters get their own stories at various points in meets Kyle for the first time (after a cliffhanger the series, and Ennis does a wonderful job making confrontation at the end of issue #10), is hilarious. them real. The characterization in this book is its Kyle has been told by the government that Tommy bedrock. intends to assassinate him, so he goes hunting for our On the surface, what makes the book so hero. Tommy reads Kyle’s mind (“a pretty fast read,” glorious is Ennis’s plotting. This book is set firmly in he assures the audience) and discovers what his ring the DC Universe, so there are superheroes galore does. Ennis does a great job showing the power of throughout the run. Tommy himself has super powers, the ring: “So your ring there, what does it do ... That. but Ennis does a nifty thing with them - Tommy rarely That. That. Uh-huh. Holy crap, what doesn’t it do.” uses them. He gains X-ray vision and telepathy, both Then he throws a grenade to Kyle and narrates, “It handy for his profession (it’s always good to be able to doesn’t make you smarter.” After they sort out that see the bad guys coming when they’re hiding behind Kyle was lied to, Tommy takes him to Noonan’s. In things), but using them gives him a terrible migraine, another very funny scene, Tommy introduces Kyle so usually, Ennis just ignores them. This can be seen to Sixpack, the Cauldron’s local superhero (we’ll get as stemming from Ennis’s disdain for superheroes, but back to Sixpack). He tells Sixpack that “they won’t it’s not really that. “Bloodlines” demanded that the “victims” get super powers, so Ennis went along with it. When Tommy got a series, Ennis obviously wanted to write it as a “regular” guy interacting with superheroes, so he downplayed the fact that Tommy has powers. But the fact that the book is in Gotham, in the DCU, means that superheroes are always showing up, and this is part of what makes the book so brilliant. Ennis doesn’t really write superheroes “realistically,” but he does make them human. Therefore, in issue #1, in which Tommy is hired to kill the Joker (why not?) and naturally, runs into Batman (DC marketing at work!), he is caught by the Dark Knight and beaten up a bit ... after having eaten curry earlier in the comic. In a brilliant sequence, he vomits all over Batman’s boots ... but that’s not the great part, as fun as it is. In the next panel, let this guy in the Justice Club. Any chance you could of how Superman is all that’s good about the country. put in a word for him?” Kyle tries to protest that he’s It’s a brilliant piece of writing, and shows how well never heard of the “Justice Club,” but Sixpack ignores balanced Ennis makes his comic - Tommy is a great him and tells him they don’t take just anyone off the character, a nice guy (usually), but also a cold-blooded street. He asks Kyle what his name is, and Kyle tells killer. He can charm Superman, vomit on Batman, him he’s Green Lantern. Sixpack says, “Yeah? You don’t and fall in love with a police woman. In the coda to look too much like him ...” Kyle tells him he’s the “new Tommy’s series, the JLA/Hitman mini-series that came one,” but Sixpack tells him, “They only take originals.” out in late 2007, Superman is still able to look beyond Then, when Tommy tells Kyle to get the next round Tommy’s choice of profession, even if the rest of the of beers, Kyle, logically, tells him he has no money - Justice League can’t. More than any of the heroes, he “can’t carry cash in this outfit, obviously.” In just a including the younger ones (Kyle and Wally West), few scenes, Ennis takes the piss out of superheroes Superman can see shades of gray in the moral makeup and their ilk - “Green on which Tommy is hanging of people. Perhaps, Ennis is implying, because his great out, and Supes tells him that he couldn’t rescue an power requires such discipline on his part, he can astronaut trapped in a shuttle. Superman isn’t upset understand the temptations of the dark side more because the man than someone died, but because like Batman, who he knows what will never win people believe his war against - if Superman crime and can is there, they’re therefore allow safe. But at that himself moral moment, the certitudes. astronaut knew E n n i s ’s Superman was attitude toward there but he the superhero wasn’t going to genre can be save him. Tommy seen in Sixpack tells him that and Section Superman is Eight, the group everything that’s of absolutely great about dysfunctional America - he’s an immigrant who didn’t bring all his heroes he introduces over the course of the series. culture with him, but decided to simply help people Sixpack is a drunk who lives in a fantasy world, spin- in need without worrying about the past. Ennis does ning his disgusting nights in the gutter into battles a marvelous job building up to that moment, and it with Darkseid and other major DC villains. In issue makes so much sense that it’s simply brilliant. But #18, he decides to gather his comrades in Section it’s not the only amazing part of the issue. The way Eight together once more, as Tommy, Natt, Tiegel, and Ennis and McCrea show the scene where Superman Catwoman are holed up in a church that is being at- can’t save the astronaut is devastating, and even the tacked by an angry demon. Only Section Eight can little things - Superman pointing out that Batman’s win the day! The collection of the heroes is a tour response to his crisis was “typically grim” and Tommy de force of parody, complete with individualized lo- whining that Bats needs to take a vacation - are spot- gos for the members: Friendly Fire, who only blasts on. And, hanging over the entire issue like a specter his own teammates; Shakes, who, well, shakes; the of death, is what Tommy is doing on the roof. On the Defenestrator, who chucks people through windows first page, we see him leaning against a water tower, (he’s in Arkham, and Ennis pokes fun at the revolving reading a copy of Newstime (with Superman on the door in the place when the attendant says, “We got cover, fittingly). Given what we know about Tommy’s pretty strict security procedures here at Arkham ... profession, we wonder if he’s up to no good. Then, on the other hand, you seem like a pretty responsible he begins talking to Superman, and we forget about guy. What the hell, huh?” [Needless to say, Sixpack is who he is and what he does for a living. Then, when wearing his completely ill-fitting superhero togs and Superman flies away, Tommy goes back to work and is obviously drunk]); Jean de Baton-Baton, who hits shoots his victim. He even uses the guy in his example people with a stick; Dogwelder, who, as I wrote above, welds dead dogs to people’s faces; Flemgem, who death has consequences in the future. hocks loogies at the bad guys; and Bueno Excellente, Issue #8 (“The Night the Lights Went Out”): who ... well, he sodomizes with extreme prejudice (he A “Final Night” issue, in which Tommy and the gang “fights evil with the power of perversion,” according hang out at Sean’s bar and tell stories about times to Sixpack). Ennis has always had a twisted and some- they almost died. what juvenile sense of humor, but the wonderful thing Issues #9-12 (“Local Hero”): The government about Section Eight is that he doesn’t overdo it. They wants Tommy to assassinate superheroes for them, appear in issue #18, fight in issue #19, and take off and when Tommy says no, they sic Green Lantern on in issue #20. Sixpack remains a supporting character, him. Tommy ends up blackmailing the government but Ennis uses him sparingly. They only reappear in is- official who tried to hire him. sues #51-52, when a demon is about to take over the Issues #13-14 (“Zombie Night at the Gotham world. This is when Ennis is wrapping up the series, so Aquarium”): Exactly what it sounds like. A scientist several cast members have already died, and he dis- tests a zombie-creating drug (developed to bring patches most of Section Eight is hilarious, gruesome, soldiers back to life) at the aquarium, and Tommy and even tragic fashion. But Sixpack saves the world and his friends need to stop it. This gives Ennis and because he’s a superhero. The demon offers him a McCrea an excuse for the gang to slaughter baby chance to fight in hell - “try your strength against us seals and penguins and other cute animals. in a battle for your own soul. Win your salvation ... Issues #15-20 (“Ace of Killers”): The return or meet your damnation. do this now, and we shall of the Arkannone, the Mawzir (their earthly agent), spare this world.” Sixpack doesn’t hesitate, but walks Jason Blood (and Etrigan), and guest-starring straight into the jaws of hell. In a beautiful epilogue, Catwoman. Selina steals the only gun that can kill the narration wonders if maybe Sixpack got out. Mc- a demon, and the Arkannone want it for their own. Crea shows us a man in a suit standing in front of a This arc brings the demon Baytor (who showed up group, and the narration reads, “Perhaps Sidney Speck, in Ennis’s Demon run) into the cast, as he eventually now attending A.A. meetings in New York City, might becomes a fantastic bartender at Noonan’s. know a thing or two ... but if he does, he’s not saying.” Issue #21 (“Kiss Me”): Tommy and Tiegel do This wonderful ending for a joke character is Ennis the nasty, and Tommy accidentally stumbles across at his finest - he might not like superheroes, but he a drug deal that will have bad consequences in the shows us that anyone can be one, if they just believe. future. And Sidney, a.k.a. Sixpack, is one of the few characters Issue #22 (“The Santa Contract”): A deranged, who gets a happy ending in the book. radioactive Santa Claus stalks Gotham (the narration These moments, along with the plots of the is in rhyme, like “How the Grinch Stole Christmas”) story arcs, drive the book and make it such a “fun” and Tommy and Natt have to kill him. Very funny and read. It veers breathlessly from raucous comedy to bleak, and a nice Bladerunner reference. dark tragedy, and Ennis does wonders with both ex- Issues #23-28 (“Who Dares Wins”): An old tremes. Just to go over them before we come to the mistake comes back to haunt Tommy and Natt when major theme of the comic and why it’s so good, the the SAS (Special Air Service) comes to kill them. arcs are: They drag the Brits into a gang war and escape only Issues #1-3 (“A Rage in Arkham”): Tommy is hired by luck. Issue #28 is an epilogue in which Tommy, to kill the Joker, but it turns out to be a trap set by demons called the Arkannone, who want Tommy to be their hired gun on Earth. Naturally, he refuses. Issues #4-7 (“Ten Thousand Bullets”): Mo Dubelz, the gangster from the original Demon Annual, puts a hit out on Tommy. Tommy, you see, killed his brother, Joe - who is Mo’s conjoined twin. So half of Mo Dubelz is a rotting corpse. This arc also features Nightfist (“He will hit you with his fist!”), a Batman parody who gets what’s coming to him, and Johnny Navarone, the fastest gun in the world, who Tommy luckily kills but whose foreshadowing like crazy, wonders if they’ve gone too Issues #53-60 (“Closing Time”): The far in their professions and there’s no turning back. government guy who wanted to hire Tommy is back, Issues #29-33 (“Tommy’s Heroes”): In order experimenting on soldiers using the “Bloodlines” to feel like he’s not a complete scumbag, Tommy virus. Maggie Lorenzo happened to witness some of heads to Africa to fight rebels for a despot. He takes it, so she comes to Tommy for protection. Many, many along all his friends, and of course, things aren’t what more people die, obviously. they seem in the desert. These plots make the book entertaining, as Issue #1,000,000 (“To Hell With the Future”; Ennis rarely take the foot off the gas. Tommy’s world released between issues #31 and 32): Spoiled rich is filled with violence and death, and it’s often done kids in the 853rd century bring Tommy forward in a wildly humorous manner. Ennis, however, makes in time because they believes he’s a hero; he tells sure the humor is balanced by a deep sense of loss them how screwed up the truth really is and, in the when important characters die. It’s because of the meantime, meets some idiotic superheroes. book’s major theme that both the humor and the Issue #34 (“Of Thee I Sing”): See above. tragedy work. Issues #35-36 (“Katie”): Beyond the plots, the Tommy learns about his family’s theme Ennis wants to explore past, much to his and everyone is loyalty and friendship. This else’s detriment. Possibly the seems very important to him, bleakest story in the run. particularly at this time, as it’s Issues #37-38 (“Dead a major theme of Preacher as Man’s Land”): Using the Gotham well (and, to a slightly lesser earthquake as a backdrop (a bit extent, Hellblazer). The reason late, but still), Ennis tells a tale tragedy stalks all the characters of vampires taking over, and he in the book is because they are uses one of the undead from loyal to their friends. This is his run on Hellblazer to do it. clear from the second arc, “Ten We also meet a character - Thousand Bullets,” which begins Maggie Lorenzo - who will help with Tommy on a rooftop, determine Tommy’s ultimate fate. bemoaning the loss of his best Ennis also has some fun with friend. Ennis introduces Natt DC’s annual summer events in the Hat in this issue, and we #37. believe that he’ll be the one Issues #39-42 (“For to die, but instead, Pat does. Tomorrow”): Ringo gets involved Pat, Sean’s nephew, isn’t a killer, with some unsavory characters, and therefore doesn’t have the Tommy gets dragged into it, and lots of people die. respect of Tommy’s peers, especially Hacken, whom Issue #43 (“The Morning After, the Night he picks on constantly. In issue #5, Hacken calls him Before”): Tommy cheats on Tiegel and gets caught. out for always hiding behind Tommy and his uncle Hilarity ensues. when things get tough, and so, in issue #6, Pat holds Issues #44-46 (“Fresh Meat”): A time machine out when Johnny Navarone is looking for Tommy, and malfunctions, bringing dinosaurs back to the present. pays the price. We see the aftermath of Navarone’s Tommy and Natt have to figure out how to stop “interrogation,” as Pat is sitting in his bathtub, which them. Ennis does a nice job showing why dinosaurs is almost overflowing with his own blood. He tells might not like it here, despite all the human snacks Tommy he didn’t want to tell Navarone anything waiting to be eaten. because he had to stand up for himself, just once. Issues #47-50 (“The Old Dog”): The daughter Tommy says, “I wish you’d told him everything. I wish of a gangster who was killed when the SAS guys you’d’ve sung like a freakin’ canary. I wouldn’t’ve showed up wants revenge. Needless to say, things cared.” Pat tells him he wanted to be a tough guy, don’t end well. Issue #50 is an epilogue, showing and Tommy says, “You were the toughest guy of all,” Noonan’s fifty years in the future and featuring one before putting a bullet in his brain to put him out of of the most breathtaking and horrific double-page his misery. This leads to issue #7, in which Tommy and splash pages you’re going to see in a DC book. Natt kill every gangster they see. It’s a horrific issue, Issues #51-52 (“Superguy”): See above. but Ennis has set it up beautifully, and we feel Tommy’s deal in issue #21. Tommy and Natt distract the SAS by putting the gangsters in front of them, with much mayhem following. One of the SAS men is killed - again, accidentally - and the remaining declare war on Gotham itself. Baker knows his commander, Captain Page, is out of control, but he keeps going along with him, because they’re mates. Finally, when he and his commander have Tommy and Natt at their mercy, Baker wants to let them go, but Page shoots him. Before Page can kill Tommy and Natt, Baker manages to get up and snap his neck. Tommy holds out his hand, saying, “Why don’t you just let us help you?” and Baker responds, “’Cos all me mates are dead.” With that, he drags Page’s body into the burning wreckage of a gas station, which explodes. It’s loyalty to friends taken to the extreme, but it shows what the characters are willing to do for each other. It also nicely foreshadows the end of the series, when Tommy is faced with a similar choice. This theme continues in the series. It’s most evident in the more tragic arcs, such as “For Tomorrow,” which features Ringo’s last stand, and “The Old Dog,” in which Tommy finally realizes how much of a father Sean has been to him but doesn’t tell him because it’s not what men do. Of course, Sean is killed before Tommy can say anything about his true feelings. This leads to issue #50, which features a pain as he slaughters his way through Mo Dubelz’s Gotham of 2050, one with skyscrapers reaching gang. to the heavens but one in which Noonan’s bar still This establishes a pattern in the book, although stands. Some young punks come in talking about how none of Tommy’s gang dies until Ringo in issue #42. great it is to be in the bar where Tommy and the Tommy’s world is defined by loyalty to his friends others sat (Baytor is still tending bar, of course). An and neighborhood. We see this in “Local Hero,” for old man sitting near them reminisces about the old example, in which the neighbors in the Cauldron days, before Pat died, and decides to set the record cheer when Tommy faces down the Gotham police. In straight (his reverie features a funny scene in which “Who Dares Wins,” this theme is twisted to horrible Sixpack walks in with Batman’s cowl and utility belt, effect. The SAS is after Tommy and Natt because they saying he came across them during his crimefighting accidentally killed a couple of British soldiers in Iraq adventures, and Tommy tells him to put them back (another humorous anecdote from earlier in the where he found them). The old man tells the kids series that takes on deadly implications later). One the real story about their adventures, explaining of the SAS squad, Eddie Baker, doesn’t want to take that Sean always told them never to quit, not even on the mission from the beginning - he knows it’s a to their last drop of blood. Hacken (for the old man crock, as he understands that accidents happen in war. is the goofy member of the crew) continues with But he does his duty, not only because he’s a good the foreshadowing, “All gone now. Alla them. Years soldier, but because his mates are on board. The SAS an’ years ago. Swept up by somethin’ -- Somethin’ are so much better at killing than Tommy and Natt inside them, that made them step into the valley of it’s not funny, but our heroes manage to stay alive, the shadow when they coulda got away instead. I mainly through luck (issue #24 features a hilariously never got it. Not ‘til years had passed. But there was gruesome shoot-out in a fast food restaurant during so much I never understood.” It’s a wonderful issue, which Tommy and Natt hide behind a ridiculously made even more memorable by the two-page spread obese man who suffers a fatal heart attack as the of what Tommy does after Sean is killed: gunfight begins), and they get involved in a gang war Again, Ennis shows the price of friendship with Men’s Room Louie, a one-time patron of Tommy and loyalty. Although this act has nothing to do with who didn’t like him accidentally breaking up the drug Tommy’s ultimate fate, it shows that he’s gone beyond because he knows she’ll be collateral damage. We get redemption and is simply looking for a way out of the a flashback to his first murder, of a drug dealer who pain of existence. As Hacken says fifty years in the was threatening Pat. Sean reiterates the theme of the future, he had a chance to get out, but he didn’t take book when he tells Tommy, “You always stick by your it. “’Cos all [his] mates are dead,” so what is there to friends. If it comes to it, you give your life for ‘em.” We live for? also get the origin of his friendship with Natt. Finally, All of this comes full circle in the final arc, the government agrees to send a helicopter to get which is where this book separates itself from Maggie out of Gotham and into a new identity. They Preacher, as its ending is much better. Maggie Lorenzo, refuse to send any more help, so Tommy, Natt, and whose son was taken by the vampires in issues #37 Kathryn (the CIA agent who convinced Kyle Rayner and 38, comes to Tommy for help after she witnesses to go after Tommy) go into the facility where the a government assassination of a rogue soldier. The experiments are taking place and destroy it. In issue government is using the “Bloodlines” technology to #60, as they go to the helicopter, the government create new, controllable superhumans, and it’s not agents attack, and it all goes pear-shaped. Both Natt going well. One of them escapes, and agents track and Tommy go down as the helicopter leaves, and in him down and kill him. Maggie is just an innocent one of the most poignant endings to a comic you’ll bystander. Tommy doesn’t have to help her, but of ever see, Tommy tells Natt a dream he had about course he does. This brings him into conflict with Noonan’s bar. Everyone is there drinking, and Sean the government agent who tried to recruit him says “There ain’t no closin’ time. But you gotta leave back in “Local Hero,” who has recruited Johnny your guns at the door.” Natt considers this for a Navarone’s son, Mark, to deal with Tommy. Through second, and then Ennis and McCrea give us this the entire arc, Tommy begins to realize he can’t get beautiful final panel: out, and he takes steps to wrap up his affairs - he Of course Tommy couldn’t survive. He had knows the government (or rogue elements thereof) gone too far and killed too many people. But he won’t let him go. He convinces Tiegel to leave town lived honorably and always stood by those he loved. Ennis never drives this point into the ground, because whenever it comes up, it’s always in the context of the stories. We know almost from the beginning of the series that it won’t end well, but if we look beyond the fact that Tommy and his friends die, it does end well - triumphantly, even. Tommy has almost single-handedly taken down all of Gotham’s gangs, stopped demons from taking over the world, saved the city from a vampire infestation, and ended a horrific government experiment. He always stuck by his friends, and he died saving one (Maggie) from death and another (Natt) from a fate worse than death (Natt would have been experimented on by the government). The way he lived is brought into focus a bit more in the crossover with the Justice League, in which he once again inspires Superman. Tommy saves not only Superman but the entire League, mainly because he was willing to kill. The superheroes have honor, but Tommy does too, in his way. Superman makes the point that the superheroes can afford to be morally outraged by what Tommy does because they don’t need to kill. But when Tommy needs to save people, he needs to be brutal, and that’s something superheroes - even Batman - can’t do. The brilliance of Ennis is matched by John McCrea, who’s the perfect artist for the kind of twisted things the script calls for. It calls for horrible violence, emoting from the characters, and all sorts of amazingly weird things. McCrea never flinches, as he gives us wild ten-armed demons, kooky parodies of superheroes (Shadow-Force, Nightfist, Overforce and the Over-Patrol from the One Millionth issue, Skull and Scarlet Rose, Section Eight), cute zombie animals, incredibly realistic war scenes, and glorious gigantic dinosaurs. He also shines on the quieter scenes, like when Sean dies and Tommy can’t cry: McCrea also does a nice job with the people in the book - everyone looks real. Tommy is not necessarily buff, Tiegel looks like a real woman, Natt is fat but not obnoxiously so, and even the goofy characters - the Dubelz twins, Men’s Room Louie, Sixpack, the guy with a tesseract in his ass (more childish Ennis humor, but again, he doesn’t overdo it) - aren’t too wild. It looks like a comic book, to be sure, but that’s a big part of its charm. Despite the fine craftsmanship, this isn’t a comic that relies on making things look “realistic,” and therefore the entire book is more real. McCrea creates a truly wonderful world, a Gotham that is more of a real city than it often is in the Batman books. It’s not a pleasant place, but McCrea does a good job showing how these people can carve out small places that feel like home. He adds so many details to each page it’s silly to go over them, and the fact that he drew every issue of the run (save one) puts many prima donna artists to shame. Hitman never garnered the critical or commercial acclaim that Preacher did, and the only comics that less than half of this has been released in reason I can come up with to explain it is that it took trade format. Everything through issue #28 (the end place firmly in the DCU but it wasn’t a superhero of “Who Dares Wins”) has been collected, but I have book, so DC didn’t quite know what to do with no idea if they’re still in print or not. DC apparently it. Preacher explores many of the same themes has no plans whatsoever to get the entire series out (friendship and loyalty is a big part of that book, in trade, which is about on par with them not getting too), but less subtly than Hitman does, and Ennis, Ostrander’s Suicide Squad or The Spectre out in trade. interestingly enough, reins in his more obnoxious The saga of Tommy Monaghan is a magnificent comic tendencies on this comic, probably because it wasn’t book, and shows why Ennis is such a damned fine a Vertigo book. By doing that, he’s able to more fully writer. Forget The Punisher - go findHitman ! explore the themes without the ultra-violence and (If you’re in the mood, you can peruse the creepy sex overwhelming everything. Because he’s Comics You Should Own archive. And yes, I’m aware able to use DC icons, he’s able to comment quite a bit that the series had one annual, and Ennis wrote some on superheroes themselves, both the good and bad stories of Tommy that appeared in The Demon and of the genre. But because it helps to know something in an issue of Batman Chronicles. Some of those I’ve about the heroes Ennis skewers, it’s possible read, but none are essential, although the time he was (probable?) this was less accessible than Preacher. recruited for the Justice League is a pretty damned That’s a shame, because the presence of superheroes funny scene.) in the comic are a relatively minor part of the whole. It’s really too bad, because Hitman is much better than Preacher. It’s deeper, more mature, far funnier, ends better, and has better art. As much as I like Preacher, Hitman deserves much of the praise that goes to that book. It’s a crime against the readership of good only became apparent when the Germans faced The Tank the Russian T-34 and KV-1’s in 1941. Henschel and Porsche set about designing a tank, that would meet by James Bacon the requirements - both designs armed with a Krupp built 88mm gun, similar to the famous 88Flak, but Tommy’s Heroes is one of my favourite arc’s different and a Krupp built turret. The Henschel of Hitman. As Natt and Tommy escape the dangers version won based on manoeuvrability, and was of Gotham City, after the Men’s Room Luis incident, selected on the 29th of April 1942, after being shown they like a pair of Wild Geese join up as mercenaries to Hitler as part of his birthday. and take a job of work in Tynadia. The tank was very heavily armoured, unlike The story itself is interesting, as within it, the Panther which cleverly utilised sloped armour, is another, linking back to the Who Dares Wins the Tiger seems to have literally vertical armour, buts storyline, as one of the other Merc’s who befriends its tremendous thickness made it robust, the front Tommy and Natt is Bob Mitchell, an ex-para who facing armour was some 100mm thick. This added to knew SAS man Eddie Baker, who died in Gotham. its gun, which could accurately fire armour piercing Garth Ennis seems to just enjoy the things shells at 3000m’s made it pretty unstoppable as a gun that many people do, and having a Tiger Tank turn up platform. in Hitman is quite brilliant. Although in The Demon, It could decimate T-34’s, Cromwell, Churchills, he did have the Haunted Tank turn up, and he also had Sherman A1’s and Sherman Firefly’s hundreds of yards a tank turn up in Johans Tiger... before those tanks could hope for a penetrating shot. The reference to Kelly’s Heroes is quite 1 obvious, but it’s the subtle touches, the graffiti inside The manoeuvrability of this tank was not bad either, the tank by Tiegal’s grandfather, the words on the considering it was a Heavy vehicle at some 57 tons, front of the tank, that a tank could turn up somewhere it could spin in place, using regenerative steering, and odd, is not beyond all possibilities, a Mercedes Benz it had a maximum road speed of 24mph, and a Cross Grosser 770 turned up last year, and there were only Country speed of 12 mph. The Panzers III and IV just over 200 of them made, so finding one of 1,300 road speed was 25mph and 13mph off road. The only is not that unlikely, although only six Tiger 1’s now German tank that was seriously faster than the Tiger exist. I was the Panther, with a road speed of 28mph and a cross country speed of 15mph. The mobility of the The Tiger 1 tank was not so strong. The 21 litre Maybach engine Panzerkampfwagen VI Ausführung E (PzKpfw VI created 700 horse powers, but really the transmission Ausf. E) armoured combat vehicle 6, Version E wasn’t up to driving the heavy weight and this and Sonderkraftfahrzeug (Sd.Kfz.) special ordnance other mechanical issues were a bigger problem vehicle 181 for the Tiger than enemy action. Tanks need to be moved, and traditionally, since World War 1, trains The requirement for a heavy tank really have always been utilised. This has not changed, hence why tanks do not seem to have become enormous over ninety years of development. The Tiger needed to have its track changed to fit on a specific railway wagon for transportation, an example of the unnecessary. The cost of the tank was incredible, depending where one reads, they cost 250K Reich Marks. Some 300,000 man hours. Costs for a Panzer III were 97K RM;s, panzer IV 104K RM’s and the panther panzer V 117k RM’s. So a Tiger cost some $100K each. Now to give some context, America built over in March 1943. It is recorded that some of these were fifty thousand Sherman Tanks, at the cost of $33K@ destroyed and captured. while the Soviet Union built eighty four thousand T- On such tank was Tiger 131, currently in 34’s at an average cost of about $38K@ Bovington Tank Musuem, and until quite recently in That $100K in 1942 is worth about $1.3m full running order. I visited the library and reading today. Although Christopeher Wilbreck priced the room, and chatted with author, curator and historian Tiger closer to 800K2 RM’s or some $4.16 million David Fletcher on a number of armour matters this in today’s money. That’s a lot less than a challenger month. 2 or Abrhams M1A, and not too much more than a I was keen to see this tank. It was part of Leopard 2, but quite a bit more than a Russian T90. the 504th in Tunisia, and was captured pretty intact They were expensive machines, and there by British forces, of the 48th Royal Tank Regiment on were only some 1,300 built. The tank was such, that the 21st of April 1943. The Tiger had received a lucky it could be damaged, made inoperable, ‘killed’ even, shot that came off the gun barrel and slammed into and if recovered, repaired rebuilt and sent back to the turret ring, damaging it and jamming it, as well as the front. This means that the Tiger had a shocking wounding the Tank Commander. The crew baled at Kill ratio, some 1,700 tigers were ‘knocked out’ and that stage. It was sent back to the UK for evaluation. in return, regimental archives show that the Tiger was In 1951 the MOS handed it over to Bovington Tank responsible for some 9,850 kills. 3 Museum. The tank was restored over a thirteen year The Tiger tank is somewhat exemplified by period, starting in 1990, with the assistance of the the actions of Micheal Whitman, the most celebrated Army Base Repair Organisation. The engine was commander of this class of Tank. A WAffen SS officer, found to be unserviceable, so one of the Maybach he rose through the ranks and at the age of 29 engines from a Tiger II (King Tiger) was removed and commanded a Tiger Tank on the eastern Front. His installed. The Museum has two Tiger II’s. The Tank was tally was phenomenal knocking out 13 T-34’s in one in running order in 2004, and has run quite well. day, and scattering many more. He was a national Now seven years later, with just 77 miles on Hero, and repeatedly awarded, receiving the Iron the clock, the Museum wish re-engineer authentic Cross and Knights Cross with Oak Leaves and parts for the final drive and engine cooling system, Swords. The later award was only awarded to 159 that will extend the lifetime of this working exhibit, Germans. In Normandy, where he was dispatched to the only one in the world, and one of only 6 Tigers in 1944 he took part i the Battle of Villars Bocage, known to exist. and ambushed successful tanks of the 7th Armoured I was pleased to see, during my Visit, that a Division. On this day, the 13th June, some British 14 group of men, were busily striping parts of the tank, tanks and 15 personnel carriers along with 2 anti- some £8.5k already raised. Just seeing the beast, it tank guns were destroyed by Whitman. Perhaps is still a large tank in comparison to so many of the more luck and guile than true tactical and strategic 200+ on display. intelligence, he was killed in August 1944 during a My favourite memoir that is related to the batlle for Saint-Aignan-de-Cramesnil in Northern Tiger Tank, must be that of Hans Von Luck, a Colonel France, hit by a Sherman Firefly tank of the Northamptonshire Yeomanry. In Hitman, a Tiger is found in Africa, these tanks served in North Africa, where their awesome weaponry was a big advantage, over long clear distances. Tigers were first sent to Africa with the Panzer Abteilung 501 in November 1942, with a total of 20 being dispatched by the end of January 1943. Subsequently Panzer Abteilung 504 were sent with 18 Tigers and 2 Panzerbefehlswagon in the Wermacht, he fought in Europe, the Eastern Germans used overlapping road wheels, whereas Front, Africa and in Europe again. He was instrumental the T-34 were wide in line road wheels, a design that in slowing down invading Allied forces in Northern continues to this day. France. His autobiography is a very interesting read, he spent five years in a Gulag, and after the war he For more information about Tanks, check out also had an interesting time, befriending Stepehn http://www.tankmuseum.org/ Ambrose, who encouraged him to write Panzer The Tiger information centre: http:// Commander: The Memoirs of Colonel Hans von Luck, www.alanhamby.com/tiger.html Cassel Military Paperbacks, an amazing book. After the Battle isues 138 Villars Bocage Revisited. Kurowski, Franz (2004). Panzer Aces: German Tank The Tiger I was soon replaced by the Tiger Commanders of WWII. Stackpole Books II or the King Tiger, which was better engine, had an Jentz, Tom and Sarson, Peter Tiger 1 Heavy Tank armour upgrade and benefitted from sloping armour, 1942-45 New Vanguard Osprey 1993 similar to the Panther. Both tanks formed the basis for many other variants. http://daisenryaku.sega.jp/dengeki/papercraft.html Zaloga, Steven J., Jim Kinnear (1996). T-34-85 Medium Tiger I Weight 62.72 tons, Length 6.29 m (20 ft 8 Tank 1944–94, Oxford: Osprey Publishing in) 8.45 m (27 ft 9 in with gun forward) Zaloga, Steven (1993). Sherman Medium Tank 1942- Width 3.55 m (11 ft 8 in) Height 3.0 m (9 ft 10 in) 1945. City: Osprey Publishing (UK) Crew 5 Taylor, Daniel (1999). Villers-Bocage Through the Lens. armament 1× 8.8 cm KwK 36 L/56 - 92 rounds After After the Battle Engine Maybach HL230 P45 (V-12 petrol) 700 PS Hart, Stephen Ashley (2007). Sherman Firefly Vs Tiger: (690.4 hp, 514.8 kW) Normandy 1944 (Duel): Normandy 1944. Osprey Challenger 2 Weight 68.9 Tonnes Length 8.3 m (27 Publishing. ISBN 1-84603-150-8. ft 3 in) 11.50 m (37 ft 9 in with gun forward) Width 3.5 m (11 ft 6 in) Height 2.5 m (8 ft 2 in) (Endnotes) Crew 4 1 JENTZ, Thomas L.; Germany’s TIGER Tanks - Tiger I and II: Combat Tactics; schiffer 2004 armament L30A1 120 mm rifled gun with 52 rounds 2 Wilbeck, Christopher W “Sledgehammers: Strengths Engine Perkins CV-12 Diesel 1,200 hp (890 kW) and Flaws of Tiger Heavy Tank Battalions in World Power War II Aberjona Press 2004 Speed 59 km/h (37 mph) 40 km/h (25 mph) off road 3 Tigers in Combat I and Tigers in Combat II by Wolfgang Schneider Stackpole Books 2004 and 2005

Tigers in Kelly’s heroes. The Tigers in Kelly’s Heroes, were in fact T-34’s dressed up as Tigers. Kelly’s Heroes was filmed in Yugoslavia, and made use of Tanks that had previously been used in the film, The Battle of The Neretva, a 3 hour epic movie, about a massive battle with Yogoslave Partisans. Yugoslavia had Shermans and T-34 tanks, and for the Battle of Neretva they dressed some of the T-34’s to look like Tigers. These were used as the front Tanks, in one of the main battles, but one can clearly make out Shermans and T-34’s just with German markings among the dozens of tanks used. Kellys Heroes utilised these shermans and dressed T-34’s for teh movie. An easy giveaway, is the style of wheels. The

Art by Paul McCrea from Tommy’s Heroes arc of Hitman

Jeee Wizz Garth: Confessions of a Fanboy. what I couldn’t have had. So I was into the scene and by James Bacon Trincon was on the horizon, it looked brilliant to me. Art by John McCrea So I was prepared for Trincon. This was a convention run by The Dublin University Science Trincon forever changed the way I would see fiction Society. DUSFS – pronounced Duss-Fuss. comics. I met Garth Ennis, John McCrea and Steve Trinity College in Dublin was celebrating their 400th Dillon. As a teenager, this event was important, how birthday and all the societies were getting a higher would I know. capitation and huge grants were available to do extra I had been reading comics since I was four, activities. DUSFS saw opportunity, had seen hat my earliest memories of my Dad reading digest sized Octocon was made of and went hell for leather as one Battle and Commando comics, and I had gone on might say, but in those days science fiction was more the well worn path of many others, going from boys parkas black jumpers, docs and combats than leather, comics such as Battle and Warlord to the science but anyhow. So the flyers were really professional fiction anthology and home of such greats as Judge and the guest list tremendously impressive. Unlike Dredd and Rogue trooper - 2000AD. the logo: So I loved 2000AD. They were great, cheap and plentiful. I had the best second hand comic shop in the world in Phantasia, situated about 15 minutes /| / \ / \ walk from my City Centre school in Dublin. Apart T R I N C O N from having comics the main asset was a part time /___.| | | | comic shop keeper, Mick O’Connor who is one of | | | | | my best friends to this day, it was an entrance into | \_/ \_/ the world of adult science fiction and comic readers who banded together and did stuff like socialising and My friends in Phantasia primed me for Trincon. drinking and talking about comics, and even though There was much furore in the run up to Trincon. The I was fifteen when I walked into this seemingly new students had unwisely called the dean an old nob or dimension and it took me a while to realise that I had some such in their promotional flyer ( I still have fallen in with a bad lot of good folk, they all listened one somewhere) in the usual student attempt to be to what I had to say. rebellious. Initially those of us who were just looking That took me from the day in day out of shitty forward to a convention were worried it would be school and introduced me to a place where you cancelled, but an apology was made. didn’t have to be an A-grader to have an intelligent The craic in Phantasia was great, it would be conversation or score goal on the pitch to be like some sort of mecca to go to in between ISFA respected. meetings and everything was discussed, and many I started to do more than read comics. of my opinions in life for the better or worse were I started to learn who wrote what and who nurtured into being in this small shop. I had such a drew what. I hadn’t much time for American comics great time here mostly doing what people call retail and definitely had a bad opinion of Marvel comics, no therapy now, but back then it was feeding my reading one really argued, although I remember sage words habit. from Mick along the lines of each to their own and So it was shortly upon us, and it was £15, horses for courses and Jesus would you have a look which was a shed load of cash to someone whose at that… bus fare was 30p, and a batter burger and chips 80 Anyhow, I was really into 2000AD and I pence in Brunos takeaway on Liffey st. had started to go to Irish Science Fiction meetings And second hand 2000 AD’s were 20 p on following encouragement from Mick and generally a good day – 25 p on a Terry day. So £15 was a big met many good people, like Padraig, Anna, Peter, deal, but when I registered cause I was still at school Danny, Jonathon and others. At this stage someone and had a school bus pass I.D. thing they gave me a had mentioned the first Octocon to me, but for student rate, although made it clear I wasn’t a proper some god awful reason that I will always pretend I student, yet, I didn’t care as I was too busy looking at regret I never listened, or took it in, or paid attention a girl who seemed pretty. I must admit I had a likening and actually missed out on what could have been my for college girls when I was at school. first convention. So who was at the convention, well here is a That’s fairly OK though, I don’t regret or miss list Iain Banks, Stephen Gallagher, Peter Morwood, Greg Bear, David Garnett, Terry Pratchett, John Brunner, Mary Gentle, David Pringle, Ramsey Campbell, Katerine Kurtz, Nicholas Royle, Storm Constintine, Anne Mcaffery, Bob Shaw, Diane Duane, Ian McDonald, David Wingrove, Harry Harrison, Geoff Ryman, Elizebeth Scarbourough, Steve Baxter and Micheal Marshal Smith, with special comics guests Steve Dillon, Garth Ennis and John McCrea. Ok, that’s shit hot list in anyone’s SF book. Its quite possibly a who’s who of SF writers of the early nineties in the Ireland and the UK. Greg Bear was huge at the time, and it was a killer list for all concerned. I of course didn’t get to meet Bob Shaw, but John Brunner had an absolutely beautiful wife with him and I noticed him therefore. But I didn’t meet Bosh, or other UK people who I would later get to meet, who were at the convention. There was much laughter at David Wingrove, he had explained what his books were about, but had done so in a rather unfortunate manner and we all sort of took the piss for the rest of the weekend. Every time I hear Chung Ko I have a little inward laugh. Its like a japanessey blade runner apparently. So the con was upon us, and the way it worked was badly. This was after all a student con. The main talks were in the college itself, in the lecture halls, and there was also some evening Emerald Isle and also the contentious True Faith for activity in some of the more salubrious of locations. Crisis. I was a reader of these stories and wasn’t at The dealer’s room and convention bar and some all taken aback by their maturity of the issues or the of the smaller reading rooms was in the Powers writing. I really enjoyed them; yet even at this stage Hotel on Nassau street, which is the southern side I hadn’t actually looked across the pond towards of Trinity. The boys I was with decided the place to American comic writing, somehow perceiving these be was the bar, this was also the hotel where all the stories as being more juvenile somehow not worthy guests were staying, the dealers room, where some of my time and effort. of my friends were working and there was a quiz and John Mcrea was drawing Judge Dredd stories other activities planned for the bar. as well as having been the artist on Troubled souls So I was in the Bar. I was a teenager, under and Steve Dillon was an absolute God of art, having eighteen. Perfectly placed. drawn some of the greatest 2000AD characters from My main mission of the weekend, apart from Judge Dredd to Rogue Trooper. checking out chicks, chatting to mates and perhaps So I had my few comics ready. blagging some booze, was to get my comics signed. What I wasn’t ready for was the idea of I was prepared and had a small selection for the getting a sketch. aforementioned comic guests to sign, not too many Now forgive my naivety, but I just hadn’t mind, just key favourites. thought that would be something they would do. Garth Ennis had started his comic career So, I was nervous and with Mick we approached while still at college, he was 19 and started writing the lads, the 3 of them looked more like my friends Troubled souls, a cracking story about the troubles, than the rest of the guests, the leather jackets, long at their height, for Crisis. coats, and drinking aspect that they shared seemed to By Trincon he had gone on to do a large speak quite loudly to me. They were gentleman like amount of other work, including the Irish version of and immediately welcomed me and offered to sign a Judge in Judge Dredd’s world, Judge Joyce from the anything I had. So I got my comics signed and in no time I fictional character but I was too young to show true was as chuffed as you can imagine. I was quick off the disdain to and too drunk to know if Harry was just mark and although I hadn’t got much in the way of surprised to find a boy babbling about comics at a spare cash, I immediately offered the lads a drink, if science fiction con. I think its best put he was very they would buy it themselves, and they of course they tolerant. Today I would say he is a true gentleman of gratefully accepted this offer. science fiction and god knows how he put up with I didn’t realise that at that stage I had oiks like me. committed the best drop goal any comic fan can ever Then there were more drinks, in a different learn – get em signed and buy em a drink. part of the hotel, maybe this was the next day, I don’t Then Garth suggested I get a couple of know, what I do know is that I didn’t go home, which sketches. I was a bit flabbergasted. He suggested I get was a bit like a good idea as I was drunk, I think I some decent paper, and the lads agreed, so I got some ended up in Padraigs and Anna’s but that’s OK, cause from the reception. Anna was like a big sister, well a beautiful big sister, Steve immediately drew a cool looking Judge who everyone in the world would like to go out with, Dredd, it took him no time at all, and I was transfixed. but I definitely behaved myself, cause she always kept He offered another, and he kindly drew an Irish Judge me in line, and out of trouble and noticed nice girls I in my guise. should pay attention to, and gave me the most sexiest Meanwhile John McCrea had offered to do look of ‘trouble’ when I was up to no good. a normal judge in my guise, this following on from I was continuing to drink, I have no idea wonderful piece from troubled souls. how much or what kind of booze, I know I was at John and Garth were from Belfast although times with the comic lads in between their official John was thinking of moving to Birmingham and Steve engagements, which I opted out of, but they were at was living in Raheny, near where Mick lived on the the hotel a lot and I was in their wake, like a true north side of Dublin. fanboy and I know this for sure because a couple of This was like some sort of comic orgy for time Noreen Monahan a stalwart of Irish conventions, me, it was beyond my wildest dreams that I could came over and mentioned to the lads that I was only get artwork like this, so quickly so easily, and I was a young fella and that I wasn’t used to drink, initially immediately addicted. The lads would later regret cause she wore glasses, they thought she was my ma, this, as I would always ask Steve for a sketch, but he which was pretty funny and sorta cool at the same was always kind to me, and these days I suppose I am time. calmer and just buy artwork. I remember Helen Ryder taking me for The guys did a couple more, I have them still something to eat because someone had to, with a big to this day, and the Powers Hotel headed paper on tall man, who was a writer, he was a nice fella, even the rear. So the weekend continued, and it got a bit if he was Canadian, as I explained to him, and I had blurry as it went. I chatted at length with the lads, and no inhibitions about him being gay, and I think I may they chatted with me, and they talked shop and didn’t have impressed him by explaining that he was OK mind at all that I was eavesdropping or worse added in my book for being gay, and tall and a Canadian, or my tuppence they didn’t dismiss me out of hand or maybe I said it to Hellen and she SHHHH SSSHHH’d ignore me, but made encouraging or discouraging me, I cant be sure, I know I was either in trouble and noises as required. he was also tolerant and smiley and I remember a Things got a bit strange. The lads decided sandwich. I should have a couple of drinks, so I did, and then Then I was asked by the Trincon people to things get a bit blurry, and time and activities seem to find the comic people who were meant to be on a drift into one another and then the lads are off for a panel. I said I knew who they were and must have meal or something and I am with Mick and the boys been sober enough to actually seem like I knew what and I am drinking more. Its getting grimmer now that I was doing, and I was sent around to Keoghs pub I think about and activities bleed into one another to let them know they were required. Keoghs was like some sort of Wibbley Wobbley Wonder Scooby- bustling rammed to the gunwales, but in a snug the doo moment. lads were drinking and they welcomed me, and agreed I know that I was brought over to meet Harry to come back to the con, as long as I joined them in Harrison as I love Jim D’Griz, The Stainless Steel Rat, I some drinks and toasts, were they doubles, were they am not sure Harry thought much of my appreciation triples, could I care, I was having a great time on some for his comic version of his well known science sort of strontium mission to consume any free booze that came my way, and if this was entertainment to all yellow brick road, at other times Garth mention and sundry, like I cared. other American comics, my usual disdain and I remember eventually getting home and negativity discreetly decided that it should scurry having to go straight to bed, so my parents wouldn’t away, not shunned by Garth, but my own respect for find me, or that was the plan, I am pretty sure Mom this man, who was advising me what to read, how directed towards my room. I know I had a special bag could I object. for my artwork and comics, which was reinforced No whoer like a converted whoer. and looked after and I still have those pictures today. I went out the next week and found issues Was I on a high, oh yes I was, it was an amazing 41 upward of Hellblazer and was totally mind blown. weekend. I hadn’t missed anything I had arrived at Here was a comic that I could understand that was something that was to have great importance in my dark, that spoke to me, that was set in Ireland and life. that had a in your face arrogance and humour about You see through all the drink fuelled it that just said farewell runners, hello doc martins. kaleidoscope memories to this day I can vividly That weekend I got turned onto American remember Garth calling me to one side to show me comics. That’s weekend I met Comic people, who something he had rolled up in his long coat inside were cool to me. That weekend I learned that I could pocket. He took out a beautiful piece of Glenn Fabry enjoy myself at conventions, and be among people artwork. who would look after me. That weekend I realised ‘Have a look at this, it’s an American comic I that a science fiction convention was more than just am writing for, I think you’d like it, its called Hellblazer.’ books, but that it was possible, just maybe to have He spoke to me about it, how he was writing and people like Garth along as guests, who spoke directly how Will Simpson from Northern Ireland and who to me. had also worked on 2000AD was the artist at the The importance of having a guest who excites moment and how Steve the person who is would shortly be taking running the con has on some of it as well. never left me. Garth Ennis and Steve Jeez, I wonder Dillon, the Irish Judge do Garth, Steve and team, that was nearly John have any idea. too much. I wasn’t so I suppose they do. I much as sold, as bought. met John last year at It was the a massive media con, cover to Helblzer 52. I give a hand with His Belfast soft accent that, and he drew and charm, alluring me a nice sketch. I and that’s before you invited all three to as consider I was standing many conventions as next to someone I possible, and Garth literally considered and Steve were as an entertainment both special Comics god. This guy WROTE guests at Octocon, comics I loved. It wasn’t as was Will Simpson, pretentious bullshit, I also from Northern loved his writing and Ireland. here he was giving I met Garth me a feeble fanboy a Ennis in New York moment of his time to while on my Taff recommend something, trip, the guy is such that by the way he a decent chap and concealed the artwork has produced such was very important an amazing body of and not to be known work, I just cant get publicly. over how much of his I was on my work I really enjoy. I got a mention in the Preacher letters column, I have bought artwork and paraphernalia. I have gone on from looking at that picture by Glenn, to brining Glenn Fabry to Ireland to be a GOH at They Came and Shaved us, I review comics now for the BSFA, I have ensured that any kids programming I am involved with always have comics panels and I always feel that these comics lads gave me some sort of extra love for the mixing of my hobbies which I am fortunate to achieve. The importance of that weekend should not be belittled. Mick had alredy set me on a path, but the burning lights that shone along the way were so important. Garth is cynical, worldly, he had this sort of attitude, even back then, there is something insightful about his attitude, They only thing missing was girls, but I am sure I ogled at them a lot and probably blushfully chatted up one or two in moments of drunkenness, but I don’t think that’s what the weekend was about, it was about a bunch of Boys and a Bunch of Comic Professionals. Thanks Lads. Having Your Cake and Eating It we are being asked? Ennis isn’t sure he likes superhe- roes, or ninjas, and he seems by Michael Abbott to like the Tarantino-style “tough guy with a gun” a lot more. Is this the proposed Hero? Well, he has cool The subject of mainstream comics is the trenchcoat and shades, snappy dialogue, an impressive Hero. bodycount, and he doesn’t get scared. There, that’s the first sweeping generalisation That’s a popular Hero picture, for sure. out of the way. Look more closely, and there are better rea- Basically, writing about the Hero can go one sons to say Tommy’s a Hero. Like many such charac- of two ways. You can construct the Hero, or decon- ters, Tommy is a killer with a conscience: he struct him (or her). If you construct the Hero, you turns down a lot of dirty jobs, he daydreams about are asking what they are like, and what makes them getting out of the business, he helps people when he heroic. Who’s more heroic? Superman, because he can. He tries not to kill good people, and sometimes is more powerful, or Batman, because he does more he does good by killing someone. with less power? Or maybe Superman because he But even as he is constructing his “Killer with believes in the American dream, or Batman, because a Code” hero, Ennis is deconstructing him as well. he doesn’t, but carries on anyway? There are points where he only survives If you’re deconstructing them, you’re doubting by dumb luck (the SAS team, for instance, pretty that they are a Hero at all. Maybe you are planning to clearly outclass him, despite having no superpowers reconstruct them, or maybe you’ve just at all), or by having powerful friends. But more than had enough of them. You could be writing about the that: conversations between Tommy and Ringo make personality disorders of Watchmen (Alan Moore and it clear that they are lying to themselves when they Dave Gibbons), or the police procedural Powers say they can put aside the violence. Tommy’s father (Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Avon Oeming), figure Sean gets a going over from where superheroes stand in for modern celebrity policewoman Tiegel, as someone who never taught culture. Tommy proper morals - and she’s right. Again and Hitman, brilliantly, does both. It’s set in the again, through all the action, we are shown the limita- DC Universe, where there are lots of heroes. It’s tions of Tommy’s view of life, of his moral outlook, even set in Gotham City, home of the and of his willpower. Batman. So yes, it features superheroes. Tommy And in the end, we are shown the conse- Monaghan has “superpowers”: telepathy and X-ray quences of living by the gun. vision. But they are marginal to who he is, and some- The Hero has been made, analysed, and de- times he doesn’t use them for an entire story. stroyed, all in one go. You know, Hitman just knocks it Instead, he relies on his gun skills, his quick wits, his out of the park. Heroically so speed, and sometimes his friends. Most of his friends are contract killers. So is Tommy. Every story in Hitman is packed with plot, sharp dialogue, humour and interesting characters. It’s never didactic or wordy, but at the same time, it is asking “why is Tommy the hero here?” and “What is a hero?” He’s sure not a hero because of his superpowers. Green Lantern turns up and is kind of a twit. Batman turns up and gets more respect - but of course he worked for his abilities, and Green Lantern was just gifted his. (And as for Section Eight... Well, yes, there would be heroes like that out there.) Garth Ennis obviously sees superheroes as a bit ridiculous, and deconstructs them good and hard. And then he looks briefly at the martial arts hero: there’s a scene where Tommy and Nat are at- tacked by an awful lot of ninjas, and kill them all with automatic weaponry. (I think John McCrea had fun drawing that one.) What kind of hero would you like, Garth Ennis speaks on Hitman peoples affection for the characters, who were all very well realised by John McCrea, it lasted 60 issues, Garth Ennis on how Hitman come about. about half of it has been collected, although those Tommy spun out of a 20 issue run that John collections are slowly going out of print, it would be McCrea and I did on the Demon, there was an annual wonderful to see the books collected and kept in event, a cross over, see I have done my share, it was print. As I say it’s a story I am terribly fond of and a called Bloodlines and the idea was alien monsters lot o other people seem to be two. came to earth, bit people and every 1,000 victim I have since written a JLA story, that John McCrea would develop super powers, so it’s quite clever of drew, it was kinda the lost Hitman story, the one we DC because you know, they publish this cross over, never had room for in the monthly, and it shows you there is a new character created in every title and what happened when Tommy ended up teaming up they end up with 20 or 30 new characters. with the JLA, Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, John and I were both into John Woo’s Hong Kong Flash and Green Lantern. shoot-‘em-up movies at the time, and fancied something in that vein. The Mawzir, Tommys demonic enemy in ‘A Tommy was the one John and I came up with, Rage in Arkham’ Gotham city hitman gets bit by the alien monster and He was really just meant to be a thoroughgoing develops x-ray vision and telepathy, oh and his eyes scumbag, not much more to it than that, although his turn jet black as well. That really was the starting origin as six Nazi bastards glued together was kind point, there wasn’t much more to it than that. Really of interesting. I try not to have characters return when you look at the idea of the character, it’s not too often, otherwise you get that tedious sort of terribly original it’s the treatment of the concept, it’s “the Joker’s escaped again” feeling. My general line in the personality that we gave him and the supporting The Punisher, for instance, is that you can’t survive that we surrounded him with, which made the book two encounters with Frank Castle – the second the success it was. time around, either you kill him or he kills you. That probably held true for Tommy Monaghan, as well. Garth Ennis on The crew at Noonans Pub, Pekinpah, Gotham. Garth Ennis on Section Eight Sean and Pat had already been established There was s super team, the leader of which in The Demon, as surrogate father and brother drank in the same bar as Tommy. The super team figures to Tommy. Hacken was the comic relief idiot. was called Section Eight. The idea was to have a Ringo was a nod to the aforementioned John Woo bunch of superheroes who just couldn’t cut it. movies, a direct lift of the tragic gunman character Sixpack their leader was a delusional drunk in soiled usually played by Chow Yun Fat. And the Cauldron tights, and therefore the most direct commentary was Hell’s Kitchen, twenty or thirty years ago, an on superheroes. Shakes had epilepsy, there was Irish ghetto forgotten/ignored by polite society. no excuse for that at all. Jean De Baton was born of an old Denis Leary rant, back when I thought Garth Ennis on what the series Hitman is it was big and clever to make fun of the French. about and how it ended Flemgem was pretty obvious, likewise Friendly Fire. Hitman was a book and it’s one of my all The Defenestrator was born of a guy John and I time favourites, that I did with John McCrea, the lead heard about, who apparently collected comic book character is Tommy Monagahan who is a Hitman, artwork featuring images of women being flung who as we set him up, really just as the pitch to get through windows. We thought we were onto a sure- the thing going, was supposed to specialise in killing fire money maker, but we never heard from the guy. off super powered or super natural characters, in And Bueno Excellente, whose power we could never which he was aided by his own superpowers, which reveal but which was actually pretty obvious, came he gained by accident. from a porno movie a friend of John’s saw- in which Half the time I forgot he had the powers and a gentleman indicated his approval of a young lady’s half the time i forget he was supposed to kill super actions by groaning, “Bueno… bueno… excellente… powered people. It was really the story of Tommy ”. He told us about this, and something about the and his friends who were also hit men who drank in way he said it made me think- there’s a character in this one little bar in a dark corner of Gotham city, it there, somewhere. Dogwelder was Steve Dillon’s. He was funny, in a very dark way, I don’t think it ever got and a friend came up with Dogwelder in a bar a long goofy or bloody weird, I think what sustained it was you can’t do that. We’d have the odd “Goddamn” or “son of a bitch” excised, usually quite arbitrarily. People look for rules for this kind of thing, when in fact the last thing you ever want is a series of set rules- because whoever’s setting them will automatically err on the side of caution. What you want is a smart editor who knows how to catch his boss in a good mood, and I’m fortunate to have worked with several. The one book we ran into trouble with was the Hitman/Lobo special, for which a mature readers label was deemed essential. Dogwelder did not play well in certain quarters. Lobo’s unconscious tryst with Bueno appalled a number of people, and in fact had to be toned down.

Garth Ennis on – The appeal of writing Tommy His irreverence. The supreme ease of writing a character whose sense of humour was pretty much my own. And a natural affection for the underdog, too. time ago, and he said we were more than welcome. Garth Ennis on Rules: Garth Ennis on mainstream and censorship. The only rule, really, was to avoid writing Was it mainstream? A little bit, you couldn’t superhero characters or participating in crossovers ay fuck, but on the other hand you could show a as much as humanly possible, and if I had to, to do 300 pound man take a direct hit from a grenade and it on my own terms. Stay in our own little corner. burst and a tidal wave of gore carry the two lead characters of the book out the back of the restaurant Garth Ennis on Tommy Killing Arkham it happened in. You could show some pretty dreadful inmates. things and John did, but I think because of the kinda To Tommy, they’re scum – mentally ill or skewed sense of humour that that book had, we gota not, they’re serial killers, rapists and paedophiles. away with a lot more than we otherwise might. May as well kill them, we’ll hardly be losing the It was because we filled it full of characters cure for cancer. And there’s money to be made. like Section Eight and because we took that kind of skewed bizarre approach that we were able to Garth Ennis on Tommy’s powers: get away with so much, I think. . People who might I kept forgetting to use them. otherwise had said no you can’t possible do that’ if we simply had sexual or violence situations or filled Garth Ennis on Natt the Hat the book with profanity and it would have been I wanted Tommy to have a good friend who very easy to say, you cannot do this. People who was his equal (or in Natt’s case, slightly outclassed would have a tendency to censor us would look at him, at least in terms of toughness). He ended characters in section eight and go ‘I am not entirely up being in a lot more storylines than I intended, sure what they are doing here and i don’t think i like but it seemed to work out well for all concerned. it but I can’t exactly say why so I guess I am going to let them get away with it. Also Beune Excellente Garthe Ennis on Superheroes: who was a member of section eight and we got away Tommy saw them all as idiots, mostly with Beuno simply by never showing what it was he walking bullet-magnets to be avoided like the plague. actually did to people, although there were enough Occasionally they would be worthy of a little more clues provided that I think you could kinda tell, but respect, eg. someone as dangerous as Batman, but again, so long as we don’t show it, no one can go, no at the end of the day it’s still a man in tights. My own attitude has always been to write established Garth Ennis’ favourite moment characters as I think they would actually behave, rather Pat’s funeral, anything involving Tiegel’s than by any company guidelines. Batman, again, is one grandfather, Sixpack sacrificing himself, Bueno’s of those military genius figures like General Patton appearances, Ringo’s last words. – you’d want him on your side, but you wouldn’t want to spend more than two seconds in his company Garth Ennis’ Favourite action sequences? Tommy and Ringo defending Wendy’s Garth Ennis on Superman apartment in part two of “For Tomorrow,” the To Tommy, Superman is the ultimate dinosaur stuff, the tank bits in “Tommy’s Heroes.” American, the one concept which will turn our boy just a little bit sentimental. To me – again, Garth Ennis on Tiegel writing the way I think the character would be- Tiegel was fun, in that she tried hard to be a Superman should be like Jesus. Constantly let take-no-crap type but was constantly drawn back to down by humanity, and never giving up on them. Tommy anyway. I loved writing her grandfather, there was something gloriously perverse going on there. Garth Ennis on Crossovers. Ultimately, Tiegel survived because she did to Tommy The challenges were that they were mostly what he couldn’t do to the life he led: she walked away. bloody awful, and there was simply no escape from them. The Batman ones in particular involved Garth Ennis on other artists something deeply unimaginative happening to Gotham When you’re talking about the likes of Carlos City every year or so (earthquake, plague, unsightly Ezquerra and Doug Mahnke, you know you’re in good urban decay), culminating in Batman finishing the story hands. in a slightly darker charcoal shade of outfit – thus fulfilling the initial promise of nothing ever being the Garth Ennis gives us a hint? same, presumably. This was not the writers’ fault, by There’s actually one character from Hitman the way, far from it. I used to read the series outlines who went on to feature in another long-running for these things and despair for the poor bastards. series I’ve done; a series I continue to write You did what you could. Occasionally you could to this day. If you read carefully, you’ll find her. have a bit of fun, like One Million, or taking the piss out of No Man’s Land. And, to be fair, the Garth Ennis on the future of Tommy, is there Final Night story did end up being pretty good. one? I don’t think so, this is all there was left to tell. Garth Ennis’ favourite character But I’d love to bring back Section Eight for a special, Probably the Daredevil guy, Blind Bastard. It and I know Baytor has a lot of life left in him. If the had to be done. three people and a cat who actually remember those characters could let DC know about it, we could Garthe Ennis on “Zombie Night at the dream the impossible dream. Or something. Gotham Aquarium” I was looking at some adorable baby seals, Garth Ennis being sentimental during a visit to the San Diego Aquarium in the Beyond the people we love, what else summer of 1995 and it suddenly occurred to me: what if they were undead?

Garth Ennis’ favourite story’s “Zombie Night at the Gotham Aquarium,” “For Tomorrow,” “Fresh Meat,” “Superguy,” “The Old Dog.” is there in life that’s worth hanging onto? They all brought a lump to the throat. I liked them That’s about as sentimental as I ever get, all; each death took us a step closer to the end of incidentally; if asked again, I’ll deny I ever said it. everything. Hitman is one of my all-time favorites, Garth Ennis on the End and my affection for the book and the characters I figured out that particular ending about outstrips almost everything else I’ve ever worked halfway through the book’s run. I knew what would on. Preacher ended exactly at the point it was happen, I just wasn’t sure of the details meant to and remains in print- and then some – to I’d been given the word that Hitman would have to this day, I have absolutely no regrets there at all. start winding down about a year and a half before The Demon I recall with a wry smile. Hellblazer, the last issue shipped. Sales were nothing special, and it sounds bizarre, but half the time I forget I even weren’t giving any sign of improving. I was amazed we wrote it. The Punisher rolls on down its bloody lasted as long as we did. Looking forward to writing path. But Hitman I remember with enormous the final storyline, doing all the scenes I had stored fondness, and a certain degree of pride- for a away for so long. Slightly sad, knowing it was the end book like that, with no superheroes and no mature of an era. readers label, to last five years and be full of the I figured out pretty early on that everyone kind of madness we filled it with… well, that’s not would eventually buy the farm. They lived by the gun, such bad going, is it? so that was how they had to check out. The order of I was happy to leave it where I did, it has a nice the deaths was set pretty much by the effect they’d sense of completion. have on Tommy: Pat (it isn’t a game anymore), his sister (this life kills innocents, too), Ringo (if he can die, what chance do I have), Sean (exit the father figure, the one constant), Sixpack (not even the comic relief gets out of this)…leading, of course, to the inevitable. Official STUFF First off, Hitman was created by Garth Ennis and John McCRea, it is copyright to them and DC Comics. This is a fanzine, an amateur effort to pay homage to one of our favourite comics. It is not a Hitman product, it is a homage to a body of work that makes us, the editors of this fanzine, laugh out loud. it is free online at www.efanzines.com and we will give some printed ones away free as well. If we meet you, we will also give a free HITMAN comic with it, this is not a gimmick, we want to promote the comic. Feel free to print this fanzine as many �mes as you want, but all the images are copyrighted, the original script is copyrighted and all contribu�ons are copyrighted to those contributors. We simply asked for permission, from John and Garth to do this fanzine. We are grateful for permission to use quotes Garth has made for other interviews, specifically the Newsarama interview with Zack Smith (www.newsarama.com) and the YouTube interview with The Comic Collec�ve, who do some amazing stuff h�p://www.youtube.com/user/thecomiccollec�ve( ). They asked the ques�ons we would have asked. IN fairness, these were done around the �me of the release of the Hitman/JLA issues, and when the Trade Paperbacks were slowly going out of print. We are very grateful to John McCrea for finding an unused Hitman cover and allowing us to use it, along with all the images he let us use. These images are copyrighted to John McCrea. Last year DC re-released A Rage in Gotham, with a new introduc�on from Steve Dillon, and most importantly with a number 1, on the spine, I know as I just bought it for a friend’s birthday. I am hopeful, that they con�nue, and I see that Ten Thousand Bullets, Volume 2 of Hitman is scheduled for release in March. Our goal is to talk about and feature a comic that makes us both laugh out loud, and despite the percep�on that it may be full of school boy humour, we both feel it’s very though�ul, clever and an insight into friendships, rela�onships and ordinary stuff, a key feature through the sixty comics and 4 specials, that a cursory glance would never reveal. Last year, DC released an updated version of Hitman in trade paperback format, with an excellent Steve Dillon introduc�on. We really hope if you do one thing, you go and buy this trade paperback collec�on of comics. If you do not laugh, well, we will buy you a beer, and if you do, you can let us know.

Drink Tank 245 Chris Garcia & James Bacon - Editors