Trail blazing in Hell
Horrors drenched the gothic wasteland. The city of London became a battlefield for demons filling every corner of darkness.
It doesn’t sound like a comic book. But it is. In fact, it’s been around for some time now. “John Constantine: Hellblazer”* is something of a milestone.
It’s got greater longevity than its forefather… that being the Swamp Thing series (vol. 2). Constantine first appeared in SW issue #37.
The difference between this anti-hero and the others is this: John Constantine isn’t a superhero with powers to save himself from danger. He’s just a regular Joe. With an attitude.
He’s been through every nook and cranny of sordid life. He drinks, smokes, curses like nobody’s granny. He's a real departure from Metropolis’ Boy Scout. John’s what you call a con-job. A dabbler in the realm of magic, he's a sorcerer with another trick up his sleeve.
Constantine isn’t well liked. He has several ex-girlfriends and treats them like toilet paper. Few, if any, of his friends survived. The one and only buddy he’s got is cabbie/family guy Chas Chandler. Even they’re not on the best of terms.
So Constantine walks alone. He’s been in the constant company of ghosts: a reminder that his life’s not always a bowl of cherries. His life’s filled with wounds, scars of guilt. His life is often a doorway to hell. It’s a familiar place to him.
Created by comic-book writer Alan Moore, John Constantine becomes a larger-than-life personality. JC started out as a supporting character to Swamp Thing, giving him guidance from the occult world. Doing a disappearing trick that’s been his trademark.
Moore gives Constantine a mystery that thrives like the Dickens. Finally, after a year, the guy’s been given his own book.
He has a habit of pissing everyone off. Chalk it off to his usual cheating ways. No one says he has to be a nice guy. He isn’t. He knows that if he gets to close to someone, it could lead to a bad way. He trends through the macabre world equipped with an English accent, a trench-coat, his cocky pick-up line. Though he picks up demons more often than women.
During the first three-and-a-half-years, Jamie Delano lends his always poetic-and-beautiful signature writing… his words are often meticulous, a radiant string of words painted by a powerful prose, describing a morbid, tortured song, that’s never really been matched until another major writer Mike Carey came long.
Yet, while Moore sets up the character, it's Delano who breathed life into Constantine… a sad, torn past filled with tragedy. Delano gives Constantine a family… a sister, a bitter father and a mother lost in childbirth. His first nine issues are collected in the “Original Sins” trade paperback. Highly recommended.
My favorite stories are still the early Delano days when Constantine is still fresh to the scene… a youngster. I loved the art by John Ridgeway… stark, criss-cross lines that seem to set a mood.
It’s Garth Ennis who popularized him in the next four years. And I do mean that in the most mundane fashion. His writing’s good… sometimes a bit too quick-paced for my taste.
Sometimes his writing seems to go around in circles. Which can be aggravating. However, his dialogue's always great. The best stories under the Ennis mantle is the cancer story and the Jack the Ripper tale. Both transcend most of his other storylines. I also liked his five-part story “Son of Man” about the mobster’s failed attempt to raise his dead son.
The best moment in the series, however, is in the cancer story where, after foiling the Big Three of hell, patching his health, he walks away from the Devil by cheerfully flipping him off and saying, “Up yours!” to the Big Guy.
Not surprisingly, Constantine goes back to his hefty diet of smokes. (Or "fags" as the British refer them to).
Brian Arrarzello takes Constantine through the darkest heart of America. It’s a brief, yet memorial run of stories.
Many other writers came and went adding on their niche. The writing's always good. You can find there's a certain enrichment to these horror stories.
Here’s a character with penchant for the gruesome. And devilish twists abound that drags the mage to the lowest ebbs of humanity and he returns only to dust away his coat. And puffs away at yet another smoke.
* You can find trade-paper backs and regular issues of Hellblazer now written by Denise Mina at your local comic shop. Oshkosh has only one such store called "House of Heroes" at 407 N. Main Street or call 231-5500. Come on Saturday to catch the latest Free Comic Book Day fever.
It doesn’t sound like a comic book. But it is. In fact, it’s been around for some time now. “John Constantine: Hellblazer”* is something of a milestone.
It’s got greater longevity than its forefather… that being the Swamp Thing series (vol. 2). Constantine first appeared in SW issue #37.
The difference between this anti-hero and the others is this: John Constantine isn’t a superhero with powers to save himself from danger. He’s just a regular Joe. With an attitude.
He’s been through every nook and cranny of sordid life. He drinks, smokes, curses like nobody’s granny. He's a real departure from Metropolis’ Boy Scout. John’s what you call a con-job. A dabbler in the realm of magic, he's a sorcerer with another trick up his sleeve.
Constantine isn’t well liked. He has several ex-girlfriends and treats them like toilet paper. Few, if any, of his friends survived. The one and only buddy he’s got is cabbie/family guy Chas Chandler. Even they’re not on the best of terms.
So Constantine walks alone. He’s been in the constant company of ghosts: a reminder that his life’s not always a bowl of cherries. His life’s filled with wounds, scars of guilt. His life is often a doorway to hell. It’s a familiar place to him.
Created by comic-book writer Alan Moore, John Constantine becomes a larger-than-life personality. JC started out as a supporting character to Swamp Thing, giving him guidance from the occult world. Doing a disappearing trick that’s been his trademark.
Moore gives Constantine a mystery that thrives like the Dickens. Finally, after a year, the guy’s been given his own book.
He has a habit of pissing everyone off. Chalk it off to his usual cheating ways. No one says he has to be a nice guy. He isn’t. He knows that if he gets to close to someone, it could lead to a bad way. He trends through the macabre world equipped with an English accent, a trench-coat, his cocky pick-up line. Though he picks up demons more often than women.
During the first three-and-a-half-years, Jamie Delano lends his always poetic-and-beautiful signature writing… his words are often meticulous, a radiant string of words painted by a powerful prose, describing a morbid, tortured song, that’s never really been matched until another major writer Mike Carey came long.
Yet, while Moore sets up the character, it's Delano who breathed life into Constantine… a sad, torn past filled with tragedy. Delano gives Constantine a family… a sister, a bitter father and a mother lost in childbirth. His first nine issues are collected in the “Original Sins” trade paperback. Highly recommended.
My favorite stories are still the early Delano days when Constantine is still fresh to the scene… a youngster. I loved the art by John Ridgeway… stark, criss-cross lines that seem to set a mood.
It’s Garth Ennis who popularized him in the next four years. And I do mean that in the most mundane fashion. His writing’s good… sometimes a bit too quick-paced for my taste.
Sometimes his writing seems to go around in circles. Which can be aggravating. However, his dialogue's always great. The best stories under the Ennis mantle is the cancer story and the Jack the Ripper tale. Both transcend most of his other storylines. I also liked his five-part story “Son of Man” about the mobster’s failed attempt to raise his dead son.
The best moment in the series, however, is in the cancer story where, after foiling the Big Three of hell, patching his health, he walks away from the Devil by cheerfully flipping him off and saying, “Up yours!” to the Big Guy.
Not surprisingly, Constantine goes back to his hefty diet of smokes. (Or "fags" as the British refer them to).
Brian Arrarzello takes Constantine through the darkest heart of America. It’s a brief, yet memorial run of stories.
Many other writers came and went adding on their niche. The writing's always good. You can find there's a certain enrichment to these horror stories.
Here’s a character with penchant for the gruesome. And devilish twists abound that drags the mage to the lowest ebbs of humanity and he returns only to dust away his coat. And puffs away at yet another smoke.
* You can find trade-paper backs and regular issues of Hellblazer now written by Denise Mina at your local comic shop. Oshkosh has only one such store called "House of Heroes" at 407 N. Main Street or call 231-5500. Come on Saturday to catch the latest Free Comic Book Day fever.
posted by K.M. Paters at 8:20 PM
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