Hunger for Hellblazer
John Constantine is a special bloke, he was born in the DCU but became the flagship Vertigo character when his book broke away from the DCU. There may be a few people interested about John Constantine and do not know where to start, the first issue of Hellblazer is still available for free online at the DC site ( HERE). In Johns solo series he breaks free from being the supporting character in Swamp Thing to being a full fledged star. Alan Moore is credited for creating John in the pages of Swamp Thing, but what many never realized it was Jamie Delano who fleshed John Constantine out.
In issue #1 of Hellblazer we get a whopping 40 pages of content, 39 pages of story and a one page prose for Delano furthering fleshing out John. Like Swamp Thing, Hellblazer was intended as a horror book and Delano plays a mental game with the reader by introducing a Bug Demon "Mnemoth" that causes the possessed to have an unquenchable hunger. The bug play is nice since many humans fear bugs and artist John Ridgway does a great job of having those creepy crawlers appear strategically over many pages. This issue also bridges John to Swamp Thing with the return of Emma, a past girlfriend who died under Alan Moore's tour of Swamp Thing. Porting Alan Moore characters is not the direction Delano took, instead he creates key characters like Papa Midnite and his sister (who is currently just a skull Midnite talks too). This issue has the drug induced Swamp Thing feel that Moore introduced, but there is also a different tone being developed and that is Delano's voice for John Constantine. Delano would later get into Real Magick in this run with John Constantine, with stories like Fear Machine and Delano makes sure we are aware that he knows a few things about magick. One of the greatest scenes in this issue is a Catholic Priest tries to fend off the demon Mnemoth and that it is "Pathetic. The way he waves that cross" as if all demons fear Jesus. The concept of the Christian God being the one everything fears is extremely arrogant and when Richard Matheson explored this idea with a Jewish Vampire in I am Legend, it made so much sense. Symbols are only powerful if they actually mean something to whatever is being shown the symbol. If Mnemoth doesn't fear Jesus, why would a cross work? Subtle things like that make Hellblazer a head of its time when it comes to comics.
The only set back to this comic is the old production value with the coloring as well as a few panels that can be confusing to read. Overall this comic was like Swamp Thing, it was a head of its time. There is no wonder in my mind why Hellblazer is older then Vertigo, John Constantine pushes the medium forward. When he was allowed to age comics were allowed to grow. If you come into reading Hellblazer #1 because of his current activity in the DCU know that the John in these pages are different from the one that runs around again with the superheroes. Hellblazer is the series where magick meets print and like anything in the Occult those that understand it can unlock truths in the universe.
Hellblazer is finally being collected properly in new editions of Original Sins and once again you can read this issue ( HERE) free.
Cheers
-Silkcuts
