Posted in: Comics, Recent Updates | Tagged: Comics, dc comics, hellblazer, john constantine, new 52

Thursday Trending Topics: John Constantine

Published Fri, 09 Nov 2012 03:02:34 -0600

Last updated Fri, 09 Nov 2012 03:02:41 -0600

I've seen many people reflecting on what a great run Hellblazer has had, upon hearing the news today that it will be ending and replaced by a New 52 title for the character. I've long been a fan of the character and of many of the creators who have told his stories (something a few of you have gathered from the fact that Avatar has worked with 4 writers who have contributed significantly to the character), so as we're pondering a new beginning for the John Constantine, here's something about his original beginning that Alan Moore told William Christensen and myself for a Wizard article 20 years ago:

One of those early notes was they both wanted to do a character that looked like Sting. I think DC is terrified that Sting will sue them, although Sting has seen the character and commented in Rolling Stone that he thought it was great. He was very flattered to have a comic character who looked like him, but DC gets nervous about these things. They started to eradicate all traces of references in the introduction of the early Swamp Thing books to John Constantine's resemblance to Sting. But I can state categorically that the character only existed because Steve and John wanted to do a character that looked like Sting. Having been given that challenge, how could I fit Sting into Swamp Thing ? I have an idea that most of the mystics in comics are generally older people, very austere, very proper, very middle class in a lot of ways. They are not at all functional on the street. It struck me that it might be interesting for once to do an almost blue-collar warlock. Somebody who was streetwise, working class, and from a different background than the standard run of comic book mystics. Constantine started to grow out of that.

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