CBC Presents: The John Constantine Primer

[Ed Liu]

The latest comics-to-film project to hit multiplexes is Constantine, starring Keanu Reeves, Djimon Hounsou, and Rachel Weisz. Constantine's comic book roots are not common knowledge as Batman, Superman, or Spider-Man are, so the staff of the Comic Book Culture Forum is posting this thread to talk about our favorite John Constantine comic book stories, and encourage other people to babble about theirs.

So, if you loved or hated the movie, or didn't even see it but are looking for something a bit off the beaten path (and which doesn't star Wolverine), then look no further.

John Constantine was introduced into the DC Universe in the pages of Swamp Thing, where a challenge to create a character that looked like Sting ultimately led to a trench-coated, fast-talking, chain-smoking British magician with a murky agenda, murkier ethics, and methods of carrying out his plans that have a nasty habit of getting the people involved killed or worse. Since that time, he has appeared as a guest star across many of DC's Vertigo comics, and was granted a title of his own in 1988. Titled Hellblazer, the book has reached issue #205 and is still running today.

The chain-smoking and the national ancestry have been changed for the movie, but the trench coat and the darkness seem to have remained. Like the rated "R" movie, John Constantine has never been a character aimed at children, with his stories often involving the sacred and the profane, with sex, violence, profanity, and the stuff that nightmares are made of. None of Constantine's comics have ever shied away from controversy, and some may even see them as works of the evil that Constantine battles against. All of the works reviewed below are aimed at mature audiences, and should be treated as such.

[Ed Liu]

THE ORIGIN - SWAMP THING: THE CURSE and SWAMP THING: A MURDER OF CROWS
Alan Moore with Afredo Alcala, Stephen Bissette, Ron Randall, John Totleben, Rick Veitch, and Stan Woch.

"I'm a nasty piece of work, chief. Ask anybody."

With those words, John Constantine introduced himself to the Swamp Thing, a muck-encrusted monster from the Louisiana bayou whose faltering comic book title was dramatically revamped and revived by writer Alan Moore. With his artistic partners (usually John Totleben, Rick Veitch, and Stephen Bissette), Moore mixed equal parts dark humor, keen intelligence, and just plain creepy to produce a work of brilliant horror. Moore's work in Swamp Thing was the first mainstream monthly comic book to be published without the Comics Code Authority seal of approval, eventually leading to more adult (if not more mature) subject matter in the average comic book and the creation of DC's Vertigo imprint.

These two books form the middle third of Moore's Swamp Thing run. In the first two books (Saga of the Swamp Thing (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0930289226/qid=1108438356/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/002-6929105-9529652?v=glance&s=books) and Swamp Thing: Love and Death (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0930289544/qid=1108438356/sr=1-3/ref=sr_1_3/002-6929105-9529652?v=glance&s=books)), Moore tore apart and rebuilt the title character's origin story, and then took the bold step of letting the long-suffering monster win the girl of his dreams. The Curse (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1563896974/qid=1108438356/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2/002-6929105-9529652?v=glance&s=books) and A Murder of Crows (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1563897199/qid=1108438356/sr=1-9/ref=sr_1_9/002-6929105-9529652?v=glance&s=books) collect Moore's sprawling "American Gothic" storyline, originally printed in Swamp Thing #35-50, in which the newly introduced John Constantine uses a combination of blackmail and promises of knowledge to lead the Swamp Thing through dark, ugly corners of America. This tour of American horror in search of understanding leads the Swamp Thing to truly understand the nature of his existence before culminating in a battle of truly cosmic proprtions.

In these books, Moore dismantles and rebuilds a number of horror cliches in the same way he did with the title character. The first major story involves vampires who have discovered a novel way around their weakness to sunlight. Moore deftly uses lycanthropy and its obsession with lunar cycles as a parable for a life of quiet desperation led by a suburban housewife -- a story that inadvertently led to much controversy in the letter column at the time. From serial killers to haunted houses to former slaves exacting a cold, cyclical revenge as zombies, the surprises never stop in these stories. Moore even managed to find a way to work in the "Crisis on Infinite Earths" storyline, then spilling over into individual DC Comics titles, in a way that is entirely natural and completely in keeping with the rest of the story.

Throughout both of these books, Constantine can come off as an icy, cold-hearted individual, thoroughly sublimating any remorse he might feel for the consequences of his actions. However, he is never unnecessarily cruel or mean-spirited -- if anything, one gets the sense that he's too focused on trying to keep his plans from completely unraveling to stop and mourn. Later writers would make more of an issue of the blood on Constantine's hands, perhaps in an effort to soften the edges on this perpetually enigmatic character.

These books are adequate collections of Moore's original Swamp Thing issues. The material gets a good reproduction on DC's standard newsprint trade-paperback paper stock. There are no extras in these volumes except for shrunken cover galleries, which is incomplete in The Curse. There are no other extras, although this is unsurprising once Moore's known disputes with DC (http://www.alanmoorefansite.com/faq/dc.html) are taken into account. Any omissions in these books is more or less balanced by the convenience in purchasing and storing them compared to hunting down back issues.

The remainder of Moore's run on the title is collected in two more trade papebacks: Earth to Earth (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1563898047/qid=1108438356/sr=1-6/ref=sr_1_6/002-6929105-9529652?v=glance&s=books) and Reunion (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1563899752/qid=1108438356/sr=1-4/ref=sr_1_4/002-6929105-9529652?v=glance&s=books). The former deals with the consequences of Swamp Thing's relationship with his lover, Abigail Cable, which eventually leads to Gotham City and a confrontation with its fabled caped protector. The latter begins with the Swamp Thing exiled from Earth and attempting to make his way back home, encountering the New Gods, Thanagarian hawkmen, Adam Strange, a vegetable Green Lantern, and even more bizarre creatures and concepts.

[Ed Liu]

MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR - THE BOOKS OF MAGIC
Neil Gaiman with John Bolton, Scott Hampton, Charles Vess, and Paul Johnson

"I hate this business. If I didn't hate getting up in the mornings more, I'd chuck it all in and get a proper job tomorrow."

One writer influenced by Moore's early work was Neil Gaiman, a fellow Briton, who truly inaugurated DC's Vertigo line of comics with his Sandman series. In 1990, he wrote a 4-issue limited series titled The Books of Magic (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1563890828/qid=1108438493/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2/002-6929105-9529652?v=glance&s=books) that utilized three of DC's magical icons and one obscure background character (the Phantom Stranger, John Constantine, Doctor Occult, and Mister E, respectively) to introduce Timothy Hunter, a young, bespectacled British lad with the potential to be the greatest wizard of the age. Each of the four issues of this series were fully painted by a different artist, with a different guide introducing Tim to the history and practice of magic.

With countless creators with myriad magicians feeding into the DC Universe, it should come as no surprise that coherency and consistency are not the hallmarks of the DC Universe's magical characters. However, rather than attempt some increasingly convoluted explanation of the contradictions, Gaiman fully exploits the conflicting information, resolutely refusing to nail down the slippery concepts of magic. Each of Tim's four tour guides through the world of magic seem to provide him a different explanation of the source of the art and its power, to say nothing of the actual practicioners of the art. Dr. Fate explains magic in terms of chaos theory, the villain Tannarak utilizes brief semantic leaps in explaining his branch of magic, and Zatanna tosses off a one-line explanation of how talking backwards can produce the impossible.

The book manages to succeed both as guidebook for the DC Universe's magic, and as a story introducing Timothy Hunter himself. Considering the long history Gaiman had to work with and the aforementioned contradictory information, this is no mean feat. The trade paperback edition contains a forward by the late Roger Zelzany that briefly analyzes Tim Hunter through the Joseph Campbell hero archetype. Unfortunately, the covers to the original editions are not fully reproduced in this volume, which is its only major failing. The book is printed on glossy paper rather than the standard newsprint of most DC trade paperbacks, but this definitely ensures a faithful and vibrant reproduction of the painted artwork.

In contrast to Moore's manipulative, Machiavellian character, Gaiman's Constantine is a more benign figure. This Constantine is more oily con man and trickster, whose own cleverness will lead to his undoing as often as it leads to his success. Dr. Occult describes him as someone who "dances on the edge of the known like a crazy man," which successfully summarizes the sense of play in Gaiman's rendition of the character. However, this Constantine isn't all charm and fast-talk; a memorable two-page sequence near the end of chapter 2 reveals his razor-sharp edges are still intact.

One might think this softening of Constantine might be an odd parental urge brought on by the presence of Tim Hunter, but the same traits are on display in "Hold Me," a Hellblazer short story released for Valentine's Day and collected in the Gaiman miscellany Midnight Days (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/156389517X/qid=1108438525/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/002-6929105-9529652?v=glance&s=books) and in the newly released Constantine: The Hellblazer Collection (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/140120340X/qid=1108438291/sr=1-10/ref=sr_1_10/002-6929105-9529652?v=glance&s=books) TPB. Two parallel stories unfold in this single issue, one of which involves a woman with a hidden agenda for Constantine, and the other of which involves the ghost of a homeless man who froze to death years ago. In addition to briefly revealing a rare moment of deep emotional hurt once the hidden agenda becomes clear, Constantine manages to take a line like, "You poor, dead bastard," and turn it into a prelude to a suprisingly tender moment.

As a side note, Gaiman claims no substantive connection (http://www.neilgaiman.com/journal/2004/11/art-as-stew.asp) between Tim Hunter and a certain other youthful British magician (http://www.scholastic.com/harrypotter/home.asp) with glasses.

[Ed Liu]

There may be more to come about the best of Constantine's comics, but these two websites are among the best there are to find out more.

The Ultimate Hellblazer Index (http://www.qusoor.com/hellblazer/introduction.htm) contains an exhaustive list of Constantine appearances, along with tribute characters and parodies and a family tree -- being a nasty piece of work at the cost of everybody around you seems to run in the Constantine bloodline.

Straight to Hell (http://www.insanerantings.com/hell/index1.html) contains dossiers on Constantine's friends, lovers, and enemies throughout his comics career. It also contains an image gallery, annotations, and up-to-date news on the character.

So, now it's your turn. Got a favorite Constantine story? Wondering if that trade paperback on the shelf is any good? Let's hear about it!

-- Ed/Ace

[randomguy]

Confession time #2: I've never read Moore's Swamp Thing, and I've never read Hellblazer.

*ducks*

I know; I know. I'm only one man, there's a lot of awesome comics out there, and I have only so much time. I have a passing familiarity with the character thanks to The Books of Magic and some of his other cameos, but I'm not familiar with much stuff where he's a primary player. The movie, however, has definitely got me interested in the character. I know its faithfulness to the source material is definitely questionable, but it still looks fairly intriguing to me.

So yeah, I'm definitely planning to pick up some Constantine-related stuff in the future, and I have to thank you guys for putting up this thoroughly awesome primer. Good work.

On a sidenote, have you guys considered mirroring this on the Entertainment Board? I ask because I think there's quite a few people who aren't even plugged into Constantine's comic book origins. I was talking to my comic book shop owner earlier today, and he mentioned that he's had at least three dozen people walk into the store, see Constantine comics, and ask if they were based after the movie. Just a thought.

[Ed Liu]

Howdy,

DC Comics has just made a PDF of Hellblazer #1 (http://www.dccomics.com/features/hellblazer/intro.html) available for free on its website. Mature readers only.

-- Ed/Ace