A Hellblazer Post-Mortem
We are gathered here today to mourn the death of one John Constantine, who passed away earlier this year after a long battle with cancellation. Johnny was a crook, a cheat, an occasional Satanist, and had terrible personal habits. He practiced necromancy, once snorted the powdered bones of Santa Claus, and killed several people, mostly by accident, because he sure couldn’t have managed it if he’d been trying. Here to say a few words on his behalf is…John Constantine. Of course it is. Of course that insufferable little asshole’s at his own funeral. And he’s got a new comic book, how nice for him.
That isn’t actually from the ending run of Hellblazer, but I flatter myself in thinking it could be. England’s most successful con-artist/magician has been kicking around so long that when he was first spawned from the brain of Alan Moore, he could be “cool” and “visually inspired by Sting” and those two things could exist in the same sentence. Constantine’s passed through a dozen writers, a score of artists, and a hundred occasionally contradictory adventures, but a few things have never changed – the cigarettes, the trenchcoat, the ever-flowing line of bullshit, and of course, the tendency to leave disaster in his wake and somehow skate out alive.
So as you might guess, Hellblazer is one of my favorite comic series, and I greeted its cancellation with a mixture of dismay and relief – that I’d finally be able to catch up on the goddamn thing. It’s a 300-issue continuity, stretching to around thirty trade paperbacks, to say nothing of Constantine’s appearances in Swamp Thing, Sandman, and various specials, overwhelming to the fresh collector. Hence, an introductory lesson on getting into the world of John Constantine.
Where To Start: after Constantine proved one of the more popular characters in Moore’s Swamp Thing, the task of beginning his own series was given to Jamie Delano, whose work is collected in Vertigo trades 1 through 4 (starting with Original Sins). They’re a little raw and dated, but they’re the beginning of it all. That said, that’s not where I’d start. John’s adventures tend to stand alone, as with many multiple-author series, so you can pick things up most anywhere along the way.
This is probably the single most famous panel from Hellblazer, and in context, you’ll see why.
My pick would be Dangerous Habits, the first trade collecting issues penned by noted funny-pages sociopath Garth Ennis. If Moore gave birth to John Constantine, and Delano raised him, then Ennis slapped a bus ticket in his hand and shoved him out the door with a “Good luck, son, you’re gonna need it.” The long Ennis run can get a little formulaic – John is forever finding corrupt politicians molesting corpses, or rich folks deciding to summon up demons for a little fun and getting in over their heads – and is distinctly tied to the England of the Thatcher years and immediately thereafter. But when it works well, it’s the best of Hellblazer, a codifier of contemporary horror comics and more specifically of the double-crossing, foul-mouthed, ultimately well-meaning specter of our unlikely hero. Dangerous Habits starts it off with a classic, memorable, and self-contained story that explains better than any other what you’re going to get from Hellblazer.
Must-haves: The rest of the Ennis material is pretty much a necessity; despite the hiccups mentioned above, it captures the idea of John Constantine better than any of the other writers, and tells a complete arc from Habits to Rake At the Gates of Hell, a treasure in a serialized comic. Ennis also started off a tradition of killing pretty much every new character he introduced, so don’t get too attached.
After that, Mike Carey’s run may have been Hellblazer’s high point, as Carey brought his ideas on the demonic, the angelic, and humanity’s unfortunate spot in the middle to the tales of a man who proposed to take advantage of that position. Specifically, the three trades that end Carey’s time as author (Stations of the Cross, Reasons To Be Cheerful, and The Gift) are just stellar, with a few big-name guest artists, a story that calls back to old continuity without getting tangled up in it, and probably the snappiest dialogue the series has ever seen. Carey must’ve had fun writing this, given his later projects in borderline Hellblazer fan fiction, and his takes on John’s surviving family (mostly niece and amateur magician Gemma) and friends (long-suffering cabbie Chas Chandler and then-girlfriend Angie Spatchcock) left an indelible imprint on what followed.
Other Triumphs: Denise Mina, best-known as that point as a crime novelist, is the only woman to write a run of Hellblazer – which is shitty, but also, given the tendencies of comic companies, not entirely unexpected. Her two trades, immediately following Carey’s run, send John and company to Scotland investigating an ancient cult, a murder mystery, and a troublesome pack of hoodlums. Mina’s version of the supernatural mythos is weird but compelling, and while the ending is something of a deus ex machina, it’s worth it for the joke. Almost all of it is illustrated by Leonardo Manco, who also did many previous trades but hits his stylistic peak working with Mina, with excellent use of shade and suggestion to back up vibrant characters.
Peter Milligan was tasked, perhaps thanklessly, with wrapping up Hellblazer with issues #250-300. Naturally, there were high points and low points, the latter including a somewhat Mary Stu-esque love interest, an ill-advised tribute to punk rock, and an awkward plot centered around John’s signature trenchcoat. But Milligan did his best to shepherd John to his inevitable ending, and the result, in Death And Cigarettes, is a sprawling, compelling mess, maybe as it ought to be. “John finds a long-lost relative” might be a little played out by the end, but Milligan handles it well, perhaps making the wise choice by not getting too worked up about the ins & outs of 200-odd previous issues. And the ending? Well, read the damn thing and let me know. I’m still not sure how I feel about it.
Completionists Only: The 30 or so issues penned by Brian Azzarello of 100 Bullets fame catch a lot of flack from fans, perhaps undeservedly so; the idea of John Constantine trekking across America has its merits. And there’s a few stories, including one con-game illustrated almost entirely in silhouette, where everything seems to click. But overall, reading these stories, it just feels like Azzarello didn’t quite get the idea of Hellblazer – that he was writing some cool supernatural/crime stories, but not really the adventures of John Constantine, just a working-class bloke with a few tricks up his sleeve. They’re worth reading, but pretty much only after you get through with everything else. And now, you and I both have a chance to catch up and do so.
I mean, assuming you don’t count Constantine, or Justice League Dark, or oh goddamnit. This is how most encounters with John Constantine end, I guess – once you’re done having fun, you take stock and realize how much this has cost you.
