… and no, not the new, younger, hipper, watered-down DC Universe Constantine title that debuted this week (more of that on the next podcast), nor the inevitable emotionally-and-narratively unsatisfying final issue of Hellblazer. But, rather, the fact that DC and Comixology have rather marvellously – in just about the only good thing DC have done in the last couple of weeks – put every single issue of Hellblazer on sale, for 99c (around 69p) each, until next Thursday.

Now, you could just go and buy every single one of the 300 issues right now – but who has £200 or so to spend on comics in one go, especially when a fair chunk of them are a bit rubbish? With that in mind, then, if you’ve always wanted to start reading the misdaventures of John Constantine but have no idea where to start, let me offer a few suggestions as to which issues and storylines stand out from the various writers’ runs…

Jamie Delano Era (#1-40)

Obviously, given that the first issue is free, you should definitely start there. Early Hellblazer under Delano is a mostly pretty unsettling horror comic, but if that late-80s-British-urban-horror thing is your bag, then you should  give the first handful of issues a go and see what you think. Issue #11 is notable for telling about the Newcastle event, a pretty major moment in Constantine’s backstory. To be honest, though, although they’re important in establishing the character (and moving him away from his roots in Swamp Thing), I’m not the biggest fan of Delano’s issues overall. They’re worth dipping into, but they’re far from the most definitive take.

As Delano’s run goes on, a few big-name creators pop in for fill-in issues. The results are mixed, however. Grant Morrison and David Lloyd’s two-parter, issues #25 and #26, is a bit disappointing given their pedigree – worth picking up if you’re a fan of either creator, though. Rather significantly better is issue #27, an utterly wonderful done-in-one by Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean called “Hold Me”. I’ve talked about it on here before, but basically, if I were to recommend one individual issue of Hellblazer (as opposed to an arc), this would be it.

Garth Ennis Era (#41-83)

Look, I can’t stress this enough – Garth Ennis’ run on Hellblazer is one of the best runs by any creator in comics ever, and if you’re thinking about laying down a wodge of cash on this sale, then the very first thing you should do is buy every one of these issues.

If you want specifics, mind, then I’d say that Dangerous Habits (#41-46), Tainted Love (#68-71) and the hugely and depressingly epic finale Rake at the Gates of Hell (#78-83) are the standouts. There are also some lovely single issues here and there – #63 (Constantine’s 40th birthday) and #76 (drinking with Brendan’s ghost) among them. But really, in much the  same way as you wouldn’t necessarily pick out single arcs of Preacher or Sandman, because they’re specifically long-form layered narratives that develop their characters throughout, the same is true here. Start with Dangerous Habits, and read the whole damned lot. Seriously. Go. Do it now.

Paul Jenkins Era (#84-128)

This is probably the largest chunk of Hellblazer stories that I’ve barely read any of – probably because it’s the one DC have pretty much wilfully refused to put in trade. From what I have seen of it, it’s a bit flat and inessential – although it couldn’t really be anything else, following Ennis – so I can only really recommend dipping in if you’re a completist who’s going after the entire lot.

This “era” actually starts with a one-shot by Delano, followed by a couple of issues by Eddie Campbell, but neither are particularly essential either.

Warren Ellis Era (#129-143)

An odd grouping on Comixology’s part, given that the first six issues are actually Garth Ennis’ brief comeback story, Son of Man (#129-133). Much more light-hearted than Ennis’ original run – while still ridiculously unpleasant at times – it’s worth a look if you like seeing Ennis and artist John Higgins at their most excessive.

As for Ellis, his run was of course truncated due to the furore over “Shoot” (which, if published, would almost certainly have been his best issue on the title). I’m not massively keen on his initial arc, Haunted, though it has its fans. I think he really comes into his own with the four single-issue stories that follow – with his final issue, Telling Tales (#143) the best of the lot. Still, there are so few issues that picking up his entire run hardly breaks the bank, and it is Ellis.

Brian Azzarello Era (#144-174)

There are people who may tell you the Azzarello era of Hellblazer is great. These people are wrong. If you must investigate for yourself, then give his first arc, Hard Time (#146-150) a go. It’s about as good as it gets – as the run goes on, it really does fall to utterly catastrophic pieces. Don’t bother with the two Darko Macan issues that precede Azzarello, either.

Mike Carey Era (#175-215)

I really like the first two issues (#175-176) of Carey’s run, which return him briefly to Liverpool (Carey’s home town as well as Constantine’s), have art by Steve Dillon, and introduce the excellent Angie Spatchcock. After that, though, I find the run a bit patchy. The first arc proper, Red Sepulchre, which follows on from the introductory two-parter, is quite decent – but the run later gets bogged down in stuff with Swamp Thing that, while perhaps harking back to the roots of the character, feels a bit out of place. The celebratory Issue #200 is worth checking in on, though, featuring as it does guest appearances from artists and characters of Hellblazer past.

Denise Mina Era (#216-229)

An underrated run, this. Although ostensibly split into shorter arcs, it’s another longer-form story line, predominantly set in and around Mina’s native Glasgow. Try the first part, Empathy is the Enemy (#216-222) and if you like what it’s doing, the second half is worth sticking with as well.

Andy Diggle Era (#230-249)

Truncated by Diggle’s sudden move to a Marvel exclusive contract, this run consists of a number of shorter storylines and shows a really strong grasp on the character. In at the Deep End (#230-231) and Joyride (#234-237) are both pretty great. There’s also a break for a good two-parter, Newcastle Calling (#245-246) set back in Constantine’s punk days by Jason Aaron, with art by the great Sean Murphy. With his closing three-part arc, The Roots of Coincidence (#247-249), Diggle starts to set in motion a move back towards the slicker, more confident John Constantine of the early (even pre-Delano) days – but with his departure, it stops short in preparation for the next run…

Peter Milligan Era (#250-300)

Still more recent in the memory, Milligan’s run is pretty up and down in nature, and is perhaps coloured now by the knowledge that everything in it heads towards the character’s final ending – even though it never began with that intent. Scab (#251-253) is quite good, as is Hooked (#256-258). The Long Crap Friday (#260), meanwhile, is the better of two one-shots that both feature utterly amazing pencil-based art from Simon Bisley. But after that, things falter somewhat – India (#261-264) is a bit dull, although the punk-based No Future (#265-266) is quite fun, with the return of Bisley to boot.

By this point, at least, you’ll probably have an idea of whether you want to carry on with the really quite drawn-out final few storylines (I didn’t, to be honest) – particularly when Shade the Changing Man gets involved. If you like Milligan’s style, there’s still stuff to enjoy, but otherwise (and with a brief stopoff for John and Epiphany’s wedding in #275) you might just be best skipping on to Death and Cigarettes (#298-300) just to see how it all ends…

Even before I’d read a single issue of Hellblazer itself, I think I’d have described John Constantine as my favourite comics character. He’s just the most wonderfully complex and contradictory individual out there: easy to love – or at least admire – one moment and feel contempt for the next, someone who wins even as he’s losing and loses even as he’s winning, and who’d sacrifice his friends and family to get his way yet just as soon sacrifice himself for their sakes. He appears in others’ comics as the arch-manipulator, with as many plans as Batman, appearing suddenly in the corner (usually sparking a Silk Cut) and announcing his arrival with an “Alright, squire?”; and yet in his own series, he seems to be on a personal quest to discover just how far it’s possible for one man to fall and suffer, and how many times. He’s the best and worst of humanity all at once, wrapped up in a sarcastic, chain-smoking, trenchcoated Scouser-turned-Londoner. Is it any wonder I spent much of my late teens wanting a tan trenchcoat of my own?

I later discovered the Garth Ennis run – although mostly in the wrong order, starting with a cheaply-acquired copy of the Tainted Love trade before then catching up with Dangerous Habits and finally the other volumes – and I still think it’s by far the best take on the character overall. Jamie Delano’s run had some good stuff, and was of course key in shaping the character (indeed, the Constantine we know nowadays is far more Delano’s than Alan Moore’s – I think by rights, Jamie should have a co-creator credit of some kind), but I think Ennis was equally instrumental in developing not only John himself, but the world around him (perhaps it’s just the length of time he was on the series, but I think he probably created far more characters/elements that have endured since than any other writer who’s worked on the book). Dangerous Habits is perhaps the most astounding instance of a writer taking over an existing character that comics have ever seen, and it sets the tone for a breakneck run filled with ups and downs (but mostly downs), gruesome tragedy, heartbreak, and bitter twist after bitter twist – before the almost unbearably bleak (yet damned near perfect) closing arc, Rake at the Gates of Hell. It’s easily the best work of Ennis’ career in my book (even though Hitman and Preacher both, in their own ways, run it close), and frankly, as much as I’ve enjoyed the work of others on it, I’d even be happy if Hellblazer as a series began and ended with it.

That is, with perhaps one particular exception. Because although Ennis’ run on the title is my favourite, I think the best single Constantine story came from the pen of somebody else – Neil Gaiman. In fact, it had been Gaiman who’d introduced me to the excellence of the character in the first place, courtesy of appearances in Sandman and, especially, a star turn in issue #2 of The Books of Magic. He also wrote a solitary issue of Hellblazer as well, though – issue #27, with a story illustrated by Dave McKean called “Hold Me”. It’s actually a difficult story to talk about in too much detail – it’s one of those where saying too much about the plot spoils the potential reading experience. But it’s an extremely touching and deeply layered story about the lonely and the homeless, and is exactly the sort of blend of the supernatural and true-to-life (a certain part of the story was actually based on a real experience of Gaiman’s) that Hellblazer at its best has always been capable of.

It’s a beautiful comic, too – it couldn’t be anything else, being as how it’s drawn by Dave McKean – and features a distinctive, muted colouring style in which characters blend into the murky background of a grey, grey London in a perfect silent metaphor for the character. In fact, perhaps “beautiful” doesn’t quite sum it up – “ugly, but in a beautiful way” is more accurate. The cover is a work of art, too – completely different from the rest of the series’ covers at the time (even down to the layout, and even though McKean was the regular cover artist) it marks out the issue as something special and unique. Furthermore, and just to emphasise that it’s a great comic about the character, too, the issue contains possibly my favourite line of Constantine dialogue ever – sick of the racist droning of a cab driver, Constantine hops out, hurriedly pays the exact change, and is asked by the driver whether he gets a tip. “Sure,” says John. “It’s this: get a new mind. The one you’ve got now is narrow and full of crap.”

“Hold Me” has always been a particularly sought-after issue of Hellblazer – even before Gaiman’s explosion into superstar status was it thus, courtesy of a particularly low print-run. I first encountered it in the collection of DC-published Gaiman miscellany Midnight Days, where Gaiman even discusses this rarity. Remembering and discussing it now, however, has reawakened my interest in getting hold of a copy one of these days (despite already having it in a trade, it’s something I feel I have to own in its original form, and whenever I see a back issue rack I flick to the “H” section in the hope that someone will have put it out, unaware of its market value) – and I’m pleased to discover that, presumably due to it becoming more widely available thanks to a Hellblazer short story TPB from around the time of the Constantine film, list prices seem to have gone down somewhat and you can get it for well under a tenner. It might still seem overpriced for a single issue, but it’s still absolutely worth owning, and holding on to.

Interesting, this. There’s a bit of talk going on at the moment about the notion that DC are looking to bring the DCU-originated characters now living in the Vertigo line back into the DCU proper. There are quite a few ramifications for this, relating to a couple of significant characters in particular. Read the rest of this entry »

Hellblazer stories never quite seem to work when they’re not based in London (or, at a pinch, Liverpool or Newcastle). There’s no real reason why this should be, but nevertheless, many a writer has fallen foul of the trap of losing momentum on a promising run by shifting geographic location in order to tell more of the sort of story they personally had in mind (it’s why the book should really, in a post-Ennis age at least, only be written by Londoners. Preferably Londoners who originally come from Liverpool. Cough.), and it’s certainly one that Peter Milligan’s done here, with “India”. It’s not been a terrible arc, and it’s had its moments (as well as, at least, being something of a refreshing and eye-opening change of scenery for an American comic), but at times it hasn’t really felt all that Constantineish.

In wrapping it up with this issue, however, he does rediscover a bit of spark – and not just because of all the exposition that handily explains the bits from earlier that were a little tricky to follow. Pushing a storyline in which Constantine’s generally wandered about not really getting a handle on what’s going on – or doing much about it – into its endgame finally allows the character to display more of the attributes that make him. The Phoebe saga has turned Constantine back into something of a down-at-heel mage, unable to function at his best due to the blindness of obsession (something of a reversal, then, of the way Andy Diggle’s run had represented an attempt to return him to his “I know more than any of you ha ha ha” roots) – but here, at least, he’s able to demonstrate that when he puts his mind to it, he’s still a force to be reckoned with. His dispatching of the Colonel Burke demon, in particular, is a classic bit of Constantine lateral thinking, and for some reason it’s simply amusing to see him utter the line “Damned bad show” (and, presumably, with the affected accent that would imply).

In the wake of John’s obsession with Phoebe (now hopefully at an end, although the shock of that character’s all-along intended purpose and lifespan still resonates), meanwhile, it’s good to see a potentially much more interesting character begin to establish herself. It’s another one of those Hellblazer rules that whichever writer comes onto the book will bring with them their own smart-mouthed female sidekick/potential love interest/mild antagonist/all of the above (for example, whatever happened to Mike Carey’s Angie Spatchcock? Or Ennis’ succubus Ellie?), and to begin with, Milligan’s effort – Epiphany – was little more than an annoyance. But she’s developed over the course of this arc, showing genuine concern for – rather than mischievous teasing of – Constantine, and gets to play an important role in its resolution, as well as trading barbs in some of the issue’s wittier moments (although if Milligan’s run has lacked anything so far, it’s been that in general – there’s not been quite enough of the book’s characteristically sharp wit among the darkness). It’s unclear at the end if she’ll be sticking around much longer, but that’s not as unappealing a prospect as it was previously.

Indeed, now this arc – seemingly an important chapter in the overall story Milligan has planned for Constantine, but far from the most essential read in and of itself – is over, things look quite bright. No slight against Giuseppe Camuncoli, who turns in as solid a job as he usually does on this book (although I can’t help but feel the colouring work isn’t quite suited to the tone and feel of the story – it should have been a bit grimier, really – and his version of John is occasionally far too young and handsome-looking), but following his work earlier in the run, I’m excited to see Simon Bisley back next month. Milligan, meanwhile, is yet to set the world on fire, but nor has he really dropped the ball yet, and if the stories have been slightly underwhelming, at least the character work is good. If a slightly more relevant theme or point could emerge, though, it could be even better.

This week: Capsule reviews of Beasts of Burden #2, Dark Avengers #10, Hellblazer #260, Invincible Iron Man #19 and Justice League of America #38! Read the rest of this entry »

This week: Capsule reviews of Dark X-Men: The Confession, Giant Size Wolverine: Old Man Logan, Hellblazer #259 and Power Girl #5! Read the rest of this entry »