Posted in: Comics, DC Comics, Preview | Tagged: constantine, dc, hellblazer, john constantine: hellblazer, sandman universe

What Kind of Porn Does Prince Charles Like? John Constantine: Hellblazer #1 [Preview]

DC's Hellblazer relaunch kicks into full gear tomorrow as John Constantine: Hellblazer #1 launches, by Si Spurrier and Aaron Campbell, picking up from the Sandman Universe: Hellblazer Special that established a new status quo for a mature content Constantine. Sadly, mature content doesn't go over as well for Constantine himself as this preview of tomorrow's issue sees him ejected from a pub for making an innocent joke about what type of pornography the Prince of Wales enjoys.

Of course, that's nothing compared to what this book has in store for Boris Johnson.

In addition to the preview, DC released an interview with Spurrier and Campbell in which Spurrier describes the tone of the new series.

One of the beauties of a series like Hellblazer, which is made up of an endless series of short arcs, is that there's a huge range to what we can do. For instance, the first arc is a three-part story called "A Green And Pleasant Land," which revolves around some truly creepy manifestations happening in a London park after dark—a park which happens to be the turf of a local drug gang. It's a sort of unique melding of literary gothic horror, body terror and street crime, with John Constantine caught in the middle.

But then the next arc along will pivot towards a more blackly comedic tone for a couple issues, then we're into a whimsically poetic one-shot, and so on and so forth. There's no limit to what you can do when the only connective gristle is the presence of a tired occultist.

Actually, I say "the only connective gristle", but it probably won't surprise you to learn—in the best traditions of the "American Gothic" arc in Swamp Thing, which first introduced Constantine all those years ago—that there are subtle threads linking everything together…building towards a horrific climax…

With Campbell adding:

I think what we're creating is social Hammer horror. It's got that vibrant Victorian sensibility of classic horror mixed with an unhealthy does of urban decay, all the while speaking truth to power. And what could be more dreadfully fun than that?

Read the full interview here and check out the preview below.

JOHN CONSTANTINE HELLBLAZER #1 (MR)
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(W) Si Spurrier (A) Aaron Campbell (CA) John Paul Leon
John Constantine is back in London, back to his old tricks-and just in time, as things have become very dark indeed in his old stomping grounds. A small-time gang lord has found himself dealing with a big-time outbreak of supernatural weirdness…and without any allies to call on and nothing left to call his own, John doesn't have much choice about taking a paycheck from one of London's worst, or accepting the help of one of the gang lord's would-be foot soldiers. But what should be an open-and-shut exorcism turns out to be nothing but…and the author of this madness may just be getting started on their terrible masterpiece!
The original Constantine is back in this series from Si Spurrier (The Dreaming) and Aaron Campbell (Infidel), with nothing to his name but decades of bad memories and an unearned second chance. How, exactly, will he squander it? There's only one way to find out…
In Shops: Nov 27, 2019
SRP: $3.99

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