scans_daily

He has utterly honest self-knowledge. He lies and cheats the people around him, but not himself. He knows he’s a weasel and a snake. He knows that he’ll keep on betraying the people around him. He knows he’ll spend his whole life feeling guilty. He’s doomed to keep doing the wrong thing for the right reasons, and that’s a really toothsome set of ingredients. -- Si Spurrier

( Read more... )

laughing_tree

Between 2019 and 2021, Aaron Campbell and I chronicled John Constantine’s sly progress through London. For 13 issues, the book dripped with heart and hate and rage—rage at the state of the world, rage at the state of our minds and lives. Those 13 issues were our poisonous love letter to the Constantines of the past — Moore’s, Delano’s, Ennis’s. It was the best work we’ve ever done. And then it stopped. On a note of death and despair, with — like all magic — a heavy price levied. And now it’s back. Because the cost doesn’t count if we don’t get to see it being paid. Because even dead things can make a difference. -- Si Spurrier

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alicemacher

The conclusion to the opening "hunger demon" story.

( 'Grief, Constantine, is a luxury.' )

alicemacher

[In Hellblazer] I was always just writing whatever my characters told me to. They all existed in an (enhanced) reality that I shared and responded to it with a tip of the hat to genre. Being a bit of a squeamish sort, horror has never been my first love. I slipped into writing it largely through the opportunity presented by Hellblazer and discovered its allegorical potential. I exploited the genre to dramatise the aspects of human existence that disturbed me.

-- Jamie Delano, Interview with Tabatha Wood, April 10, 2020

Warning for body shaming, child abuse and gore. Also, discretion is advised for those with a history of eating disorder.

( 'Terror explodes into a sudden agony of blackness as he TAKES MY EYE.' )

laughing_tree

I think those of us working behind the scenes tend to think of the Sandman Universe as a safe space to tell mature-theme stories of every conceivable type, without worrying too much about the vicissitudes of in-world continuity. Paradoxically, when you compare it to (say) the DCU, the Sandman Universe is both far more recognizably akin to our own world, and far more limitless in its scope and possibilities. Weird, that. Stories, basically. That’s what it all comes down to. It’s a universe where the stories are more important than the joints between them. -- Si Spurrier

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laughing_tree

Frankly, I’ve been lucky. Whenever the axe has fallen in the past I’ve tended to be on the verge of itchy feet anyway. New ideas, new worlds, new stories. I like endings. Whenever I’ve received the instruction to wrap-up, it’s felt Right. Or at least: it’s never broken me. This has. -- Si Spurrier

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stubbleupdate

I always like seeing the actual Prime Minister appear in comics.

( Gordon Brown turned up in Captain Britain and MI:13 )

( Lara Croft pulled an ersatz Tony Blair )

( Tony Blair had his own strip in 2000AD )

( David Cameron's words appeared in Captain Britain and the Mighty Defenders )

Which brings us to this week, where the current resident of Number 10* is the racist, bullying, philanderer, liar and ditherer extraordinare, Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson. His face and words appear separately in John Constantine: Hellblazer #11, having already appeared in #1 having sex with a corpse.

Author Si Spurrier said
There's a page in Hellblazer #11 in which a British politician spouts a bunch of nakedly racist crap.

We had a conversation about whether we ought to tone it down -- until I pointed out these are all things our literal actual elected serving Prime Minister has said.
I mention this as a gentle SHUT UP AND GET IN THE FIRE to those folks complaining about the "politicising" of their favourite character. If you think Constantine would put up with Bojo and Co, I humbly submit that your Favourite Character is, in fact, entirely your own invention.
( Constantine #11 )

laughing_tree

Because it’s 2020 and the bastards are in charge and the world’s on fire and goddam it we’ve tried -- haven’t we? -- giving the heroes a chance to stand up and lead the way and show us how it’s done, on the page and on the screen and at the debating lectern, and all it’s got us is an argument over what it means to be a hero, and shouting matches between this lot’s notion of a good person versus that lot’s notion of a good person, and they’re all filthy rich and dead in the heart, and the shadows are oozing with unrealised myth and the workers are hoodwinked by the lords and ladies to misdirect their hatred towards anyone Different, and there’s unfairness in every life, real or imagined, injustice that you can’t fix with laserbeams or super-punching, and fuck! me! these are NOT the stories that get told about capes and science-wizards and rolemodels, they’re the stories that get told about real people, the people who know what it’s like to have nothing but your wits and your words, what it’s like to be selfish and scared but still do the right fucking thing, what it’s like to live with monsters in your mind and in your home, and I thought, I really thought, we were tuning-in to those vibrations with every word and every panel, and you’ll forgive me indulging a moment’s breathless black bitterness to discover that these are the stories that get culled, these are the extremities of the great pop-culture I.P. emanation-factories which are the first to be tossed overboard when the storm rises on the horizon. We are the lizard’s tail. -- Si Spurrier on Hellblazer's cancellation

( Read more... )

laughing_tree

I chatted recently with Garth Ennis about Constantine. He said that, whereas he’d come into his (seminal, classic, 100% required reading) run of Hellblazer as an avid fan of the character, by the end of his stint he’d come to question his affection. He’d met too many guys like JC in the real world. Guys who sit in pubs and tell amazing stories. They’re charming and funny and they wear their flaws on their sleeves, and it’s impossible not to be drawn to them. But - if you get to know those guys any deeper? You start to realise they don’t seem to have any other friends. And, actually, if you bother to ask around, you’ll learn that there’s a reason they spend their lives on barstools being charming to strangers. It’s because they’ve systematically f***ed-over, exploited or betrayed anyone who was ever stupid enough to trust them, leaving a trail of devastation and enmity. They are the world’s loveliest parasites. I know guys like that. Guys you’re desperate to help. Guys you want to spend time with, because they’re smart and romantic and sentimental (in a deliciously unsentimental way), and above all just so f***ing fun. But: don’t you trust them. Don’t you ever trust them. (They’re always guys, by the way. This is a uniquely male archetype of needy alpha toxicity.) -- Si Spurrier

( Read more... )

history79

"In part 1 of the 4-part "Royal Blood," a series of grisly murders leads John Constantine on a demon-hunt across London. The quest leads to an incredibly depraved, exclusive club, where the highest elements of society indulge in their most obscene pleasures."

- Vertigo press release

( Read more... )

laughing_tree

Without a trace of arrogance (nor, screw it, false modesty), I’m going to flat-out state that the stories we’ve told possess genuine value and importance, especially in these strangest of times. They’re good, and I’m not just saying that. By any metric, up to and including the fanciest online review aggregate, which at time of writing considers our Hellblazer work to be the best-reviewed series presently on shelves, this book has been the proudest project of my career. It has felt at every stage like the one pre-existing I.P. that I was naturally best calibrated to write. -- Si Spurrier

( Read more... )

laughing_tree

Do me a favor? Spread this far and wide. It's not often John Constantine speaks for all of us, but just this once...? -- Si Spurrier

( Read more... )

laughing_tree

Expect evil ravens, hipsters performing pun-magic and John getting drunker than you’ve ever seen him before. Fun. -- Si Spurrier

( Read more... )

laughing_tree

Cannot wwwwWAIT for you guys to meet Tommy Willowtree in #HELLBLAZER 4 next week. He is quite literally everything John isn't. -- Si Spurrier

He is a gentleman, a scholar, a clean-living, vegan acolyte of love. So naturally, John Constantine hates his effing guts. -- Issue solicitation

( Read more... )

laughing_tree

I think John typifies a peculiarly British problem, which is that we often struggle with anything unadulterated. Earnest expressions of emotion usually must, for instance, be undercut by a muttered insult. We’re uncomfortable around schmaltz, and the greatest folk-hero archetype to emerge from that trend is the Working Class Truthsayer -- the diamond-in-the-rough with a serpent’s eye for detail and a sneer for every injustice. That’s John, of course, but there’s more to him than that. Because when you dig a little deeper you realize John is an unsentimental sentimentalist. For all his cynicism and razor-sharp analysis, he’s a crusty old romantic who craves affection. -- Si Spurrier

( Read more... )

laughing_tree

He may not be the hero we need, but he’s definitely the bastard we deserve. -- Si Spurrier

( Read more... )

laughing_tree

He’s functionally alone for the first time in a long time, so he does what anybody like him (by which I mean: a guilt-riddled manipulator who needs the validation of friendships to distract him from all the horrible things in his mind) would do under these circumstances: he tries to collect new people. But this is 2019, and his preferred method of doing so -- standing in a pub and telling off-color jokes until someone laughs -- just won’t work anymore. -- Si Spurrier

( Read more... )

laughing_tree

He's Jamie Delano's's original Constantine, and Garth's and Alan, Rick, Steve and John's and mine too. And now Si's. A New John Constantine for a New Era. -- Neil Gaiman

The one-off special issue, which dropped this week before the ongoing, has the difficult task of not only laying the groundwork for the new status quo but also bridging the tonal gulf. Hence, it begins in a vein which will feel quite familiar to those who’ve discovered John via his DCU appearances — lots of color, insane things happening and crackly magical explodo — and then via various twists and turns it transitions toward a more nuanced, horror-centric reality of hauntings, slithering half-seen influences and embittered liars getting drunk in pubs. So that by the end of the issue we are entirely in Hellblazer territory. -- Si Spurrier

( Read more... )

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Entries tagged with title: hellblazer

John Constantine, Hellblazer: Dead In America #2

John Constantine, Hellblazer: Dead In America #1

Hellblazer: Shoot

Hellblazer: A Feast of Friends

Jamie Delano's Hellblazer: Hunger

John Constantine: Hellblazer #12 (2020) - "This Sceptred Isle, Conclusion" [series finale]

John Constantine: Hellblazer #11 (2020) - "This Sceptered Isle, Part One"

John Constantine: Hellblazer #10 (2020) - "The Wake-Up Call"

A cameo of sorts from Number 10

John Constantine: Hellblazer #9 (2020) - "The Favourite"

John Constantine: Hellblazer #8 (2020) - "Britannia, Rule the Waves, Part Two"

Hellblazer: Royal Blood - Part 1

John Constantine: Hellblazer #7 (2020) - "Britannia, Rule the Waves, Part One"

John Constantine: Hellblazer #6 (2020) - "Quiet"

John Constantine: Hellblazer #5 (2020) - "Scrubbing Up, Part Two"

John Constantine: Hellblazer #4 (2020) - "Scrubbing Up, Part One"

John Constantine: Hellblazer #3 (2020) - "A Green and Pleasant Land, Part Three"

John Constantine: Hellblazer #2 (2019) - "A Green and Pleasant Land, Part Two"

John Constantine: Hellblazer #1 (2019) - "A Green and Pleasant Land, Part One"

The Sandman Universe Presents: Hellblazer #1 - "The Best Version of You"

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