Inferno

by Mike Carey, Michael Gaydos

When John Travis is murdered he finds himself in Inferno, a Hell that takes the form of an endless city alive with corruption, intrigue and despair. Yet being dead is the least of his problems; he is actually Jacamo Terence - dead 800 years and the first man to escape Hell and live his life again.

Genres: Fantasy, Horror, Graphic Novels, Comics, Graphic Novels Comics, Magic

144 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2004

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
Mike Carey was born in Liverpool in 1959. He worked as a teacher for fifteen years, before starting to write comics. When he started to receive regular commissions from DC Comics, he gave up the day job.

Since then, he has worked for both DC and Marvel Comics, writing storylines for some of the world's most iconic characters, including X-MEN, FANTASTIC FOUR, LUCIFER and HELLBLAZER. His original screenplay FROST FLOWERS is currently being filmed. Mike has also adapted Neil Gaiman's acclaimed NEVERWHERE into comics.

Somehow, Mike finds time amongst all of this to live with his wife and children in North London. You can read his blog at www.mikecarey.net.

Reviews

[Derek · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is absolutely genius. The writing & plotting is stellar, so is the artwork, I mean, it's not as fine as most comics put there, but it's broad outlines and brash strokes, plus the minimalism of detail give it a certain daunting aesthetic that makes the tone of the story ever more vivid and haunting. Like all Mike Carey writings, though it's fast paced, it's better read in slow ponderous doses. but then again, which story isn't?

[Aldi · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was really interesting - it has so many elements of Carey's later work (Lucifer, obviously, but some of the ideas about memory and identity come up again in Suicide Risk as well, and the antagonist reminded me of Pullman from The Unwritten), but it also is totally its own thing. The artwork certainly helped make it so, being black-and-white and less refined-looking than the more polished style that most graphic novels feature these days. It worked really well with creating an atmosphere. I enjoyed the story and the characters and even the open ending - too bad this apparently got cut short, as it definitely set up a longer arc. Good stuff.

[Chris Browning · Rating 4 out of 5]

A curious thing because it feels like the opener for something never resolved, although obviously Carey would flourish with Lucifer a few years later. At first it feels like a bit of a cliched trudge and you don’t quite understand why Vaughan is raving about it in the introduction so much, but the final chapter sort of answers that by stubbornly and continually refusing to resolve how you expect it will. It’s like Carey deliberately set up a certain kind of story and then was determined to do the opposite of every plot instinct those cliches would suggest

Gaydos does this in his art too. Terrence is a scruffy and resolutely ordinary looking guy for a hero, and the book consistently makes similar choices for character designs. As hells go, it doesn’t feel significantly hellish until you spend time in the world and slowly but surely you realise just how dark and unpleasant this place is. And Gaydos’ art is half the reason why this works - it’s spidery and messy and unsettling rather than openly apocalyptic. It’s uneasy and other rather than going for the easy option. As such it’s the perfect counterpart to the writing

[Mel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I randomly came across a cheap copy of this on the sale rack at Forbidden planet and decided to try it as I generally love Mike Carey. It was alright. Very male, with only one woman character. (I guess women are just too good to end up in hell?) A little confusing to start with but I liked it more the further it went. I wasn't a fan of the style of art. It suited the book but as other people mentioned it was difficult to tellt he characters apart.

[Tabs · Rating 2 out of 5]

A graphic novel about a seemingly normal guy who gets murdered on his thirtieth birthday and ends up in hell, where everyone���s out to get him because he was a vicious sorcerer in his previous afterlife.

This had been sitting unread in my collection for about four years because a) I wasn���t familiar with the author, though a good friend of mine loves his Lucifer books, and b) even though I���m a big fan of Michael Gaydos��� artwork, I���m generally not keen on black and white illustrations.

This was a so-so book for me. I didn���t really come around on the harsh black and white art, especially when it made it really difficult to tell what was going on in panels with no dialogue. I thought the writing was fine but the story leaves you hanging for a continuing series that never materialized.

[Stasia · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this because James told me it was really good--so perhaps my expectations were too high, but I wasn't particularly impressed. Partly, I think I was turned off because I don't like the drawing style and had a really hard time initially telling the different people apart. Partly, it's pretty short so maybe it just felt like everything was over and done with before I even cared that much about it. I was also expecting it to tie into all sorts of cool mythologies about Lucifer, Nostradamos, all those fools--but though the characters had names that tied into cool mythologies, it seems like that's all they carried over, that they in fact could have been named just about anything and the story would have turned out the same.

I don't know exactly what it was, but I wasn't into it. At least it wasn't that big of an investment in time;)

[Tabs · Rating 2 out of 5]

A graphic novel about a seemingly normal guy who gets murdered on his thirtieth birthday and ends up in hell, where everyone‘s out to get him because he was a vicious sorcerer in his previous afterlife.

This had been sitting unread in my collection for about four years because a) I wasn’t familiar with the author, though a good friend of mine loves his Lucifer books, and b) even though I’m a big fan of Michael Gaydos’ artwork, I’m generally not keen on black and white illustrations.

This was a so-so book for me. I didn’t really come around on the harsh black and white art, especially when it made it really difficult to tell what was going on in panels with no dialogue. I thought the writing was fine but the story leaves you hanging for a continuing series that never materialized.