Heartland (comics)

Plot

Kit Ryan is a girl from Northern Ireland who was once romantically linked with the sorcerer and "occult detective" John Constantine. In the aftermath of her breakup with Constantine, and upon hearing that her father has died, Kit returns home to Belfast. It is soon revealed that her father had been an alcoholic who was both physically and mentally abusive, and whose passing has stirred up a host of family dramas into which Kit finds herself thrust once more. When the boyfriend of Kit's sister Bernadette makes an unsubtle pass at Kit, even more sibling rivalry and Eugene O'Neill-esque tensions come to the surface.

Although a Hellblazer spin-off, there is no hint of magic or the occult in Heartland. These minor but comparatively realistic family dramas are played out against the background of regular city life in 1990s Belfast.

Other version

Heartland was also the title of the story published in issue #70 of the Hellblazer comic, again written by Garth Ennis with art by Steve Dillon. Like the later one-shot, the story features Kit Ryan, returning home to Northern Ireland after her break-up with John Constantine. As such, it serves as something of a prequel to the later Heartland one-shot. The issue was published in collected form in the Tainted Love collection.

Collected editions

Heartland is collected along with issues 78 to 83 of Hellblazer as Rake at the Gates of Hell ().

Awards

Heartland was nominated for the 1997 Haxtur Award for "Best Short Comic Strip".

Notes

References

• at the Big Comic Book DataBase

References

1. Irvine, Alex. (2008). "The Vertigo Encyclopedia". [[Dorling Kindersley]].
2. Osborne, S. L.. (1998-09-27). "Drinking With the Boys: An Evening with Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon". Sequential Tart.
3. Moreau, Kevin Forest. "The Rake's Progress". ShiningThrough.net.