Hellblazer - The end of an Era.

First issue of Hellblazer, 1988.

I can say without a doubt that I have read every single Hellblazer comic and every single mini-series and graphic novel that has been put out by the DC, Vertigo Comics imprint. I didn't like the new John Constantine in Justice League Dark, or in DC's New52. Somehow it didn't feel right to me. As a comic reader/fan/reseller six months away from turning 40, I expected to grow old with John Constantine, as he has aged over the past 28 years. Unlike any other character in the comic industry in the last 50 years, John has grown old, going from 35 years old when he first appeared in Saga of the Swamp Thing - created by Alan Moore, Steve Bissette, John Totleben and Rick Veitch - to an old guy in his late 50s.

So, you can understand my sadness when I heard that #300 of Hellblazer will be the last of the mature, Vertigo, John Constantine. In it's place we will see a new younger John appear in 'Constantine'. A move obviously banking on the movie with Keanu Reeves and Shia LaBeouf. This is a cancellation of the longest running Vertigo title that not only was the flagship, but also what defined the imprint. 

The self-contained story lines. The gritty in-your-face anti-hero that you hated to love who, for me, was a monthly guilty pleasure, as I'm sure it has been for thousands of others around the world.

What made John so interesting was that you wanted to have him as your beer drinking buddy down at the pub. Because as you read the stories you journeyed with him. Unlike any other series I know of, Constantine made you accept the reality of your every day crazy life. The demons he faced made your skin crawl, yet at the same time made you feel secure, enough that like John you were strong enough to face your demons and give the devil his due, the middle finger, as we say down here at the bottom of the world.

John in his first comic appearance in Hellblazer #1, 1988

In 2010, I read every single issue of Hellblazer out all the way from #1 to #270. I read it all continuously over a 3 week period, until I was virtually friends with John. I knew what made him tick. What pissed him off. What I could say to him and what not to say, and when not to say it. In that 3 weeks I fell in love with how every writer on the series over the two and a half decades of it's publication, no matter who worked on the series, also had the same love for the character.

Some of the greatest names in the comic industry have worked on Hellblazer. Alan Moore, of course, Garth Ennis, Warren Ellis and Jamie Delano who was the one who was chosen to write the Hellblazer series back in 1988. So many great writers and artists. The way these giants of the industry have poured such great skill and prowess into Hellblazer that reading the series is like being pulled into John's world, until that world becomes your world.

Next March all of that will change. We will see a watered down version of what Hellblazer has been about. We will lose the old bastard to a younger wifeless PG rated version of himself. Which of course will be marketed heavily towards the teen readership. And it is them really that the new DC owners are wanting to catch in their nets.

Last year when I heard that John was going to be appearing in The Search for Swamp Thing mini-series, I wrote my first ever letter to a comic book company in nearly thirty years of being a comic book reader and fan. I wrote how much I loved what Peter Miligan was doing with the stories and how I had been a fan of Simon Bisley's artwork since his work on the 2000AD series Slaine the Horned God. I also asked that they don't make Constantine into a PG character for the New 52. Of course, I didn't know that thats what was going to be happening. My letter was printed but without the latter part.

When DC 52 came out there of course was the watered down version of John in his late 20s and mixing it up with the Superheroes. And so, I guess that was the final bell for Hellblazer.

"We're supremely proud of Vertigo's HELLBLAZER, one of the most critically-acclaimed series we've published. Issue #300 concludes this chapter of Constantine’s epic, smoke-filled story in style and with the energy, talent and creativity fans have come to expect from Peter Milligan, Giuseppe Camuncoli and Stefano Landini. And no one should worry that John is going to hang-up his trenchcoat - he lives on in March, in the pages of the all-new DC Comics New 52 ongoing series, CONSTANTINE, by writer Robert Venditti and artist Renato Guedes."  - Dan DiDio, DC Entertainment Co-Publisher

Dan DiDio's quote above is interesting in that he applauds the work of the current Hellblazer team and then says not to worry we are bringing out a new series and its not going to have this same wonderful team working on it. Also, the new team is someone I don't even know of. Although as yet we don't know what the new title will be like, it goes against popular opinion that if you are going to kick off a new series based on a character that has been around for twenty-eight years, that you at least find a team that is well known and that would put the fans at ease, knowing that the title will be in good hands. This also shows that DC/Warners is trying to continue in a PG rated comic titles. Because if the flagship title goes, so also might the Vertigo Comics imprint. And with it, the "Mature Content" titles.

I have the copy of Saga of the Swamp Thing #37, though I am yet to finish reading the Swamp Thing series. It was hard to get a hold of, John being in my trio of must have first appearances. I had to get it.

I don't know how, but while on my second resource gathering trip to Fiji in October 2010 for my Historical Fiction graphic novel on Fiji during the Indenture Period, I was waiting at the airport to return back to New Zealand after an11 days trip. I had been researching the topic for the past 3yrs at that point and basically had my head full of all this knowledge about what atrocities had taken place and what misunderstandings had created this or that issue which had caused problems over the years. I took out my laptop, and suddenly found myself writing what would be 190 pages of the single longest graphic novel script I had written so far up to that point. Of course I knew there was no way I would ever end up having it published through Vertigo/DC. But I didn't mind because I could always end up rewriting it for my own character. One day this, "Black Waters", will become part of another character who I am having an illustrator work called Templeton's Rise & Fall.

Here for you is the script for Black Waters. Let me know what you think.

John in his most current comic by Peter Milligan & Simon Bisley

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(ARU), Aruneshwar has a Bachelors Degree in Digital Media -Digital Film-making. Aru is writing and illustrating a graphic novel about the 30yrs of Institutionalised Slavery of Indians in Fiji from 1885 -1915. He is a prolific script writer and writes in all comicbook genres which include several graphic novels for his own company,Rising Sun Comics. Aru also uploads a digital comic series on Facebook called, Zero as well as completing his first crime-noir graphic novel, The Circle. He is also trying to finishing off coloring and lettering a superhero comic book mini-series he co-created with Mike Burbeck called, Incredi-Girl.