The Great Hellblazer re-read part 1 and Skin Police 2 excitement

Hello and welcome back!

First up I need to push my stuff.

We’re coming up to an incredibly crucial moment in the life of Skin Police, the series I co-created with Daniel Gete that is published by Oni Press.

The collected edition of volume 1 is currently available to order at all good comic shops as well as places like bookshop.org until the 21st of this month and then it will be on shelves August 13th.

As well as that the final order cut off with your comic stores for issue 1 of Skin Police volume 2 is August 11th. It is very unlikely that stores will order extra copies of our series, it being from a smaller publisher with less famous creators, so if you want a copy you need to let them know to add the series to your pull list. These pre-orders are also the absolute best way to support comic stores, creators and publishers.

Here’s some fancy comics people I like a lot saying nice things about Skin Police to convince you.

As well as working on my own comics I also read a whole lot of comics, keeping up with the Big Two via their apps and getting everything else in collected editions.

Along with reading the latest releases I have also gone back and started re-reading my favourite ongoing of all time - HELLBLAZER.

I have the full 300 issue Vertigo run of this series in floppies safely tucked away at my mum’s house, so for this re-read I’ve been using the DC Ultra App (great value for money). I thought it would be fun as work my way back through this classic series, that kicked off in January 1988 a few months before I was born, to share my thoughts with you delightful comic fans. The easier way I think to do that is to break it up by each major writer’s run on the book. So, without further ado…

HELLBLAZER - THE DELANO YEARS

The writer chosen to pull John Constantine from his supporting roll in Alan Moore and Stephen R. Bissette’s Swamp Thing run was fellow Northampton born writer Jamie Delano.

My memories of these opening 40 issues from reading them originally almost half my life ago was that I enjoyed them but they didn’t have the same impact on me as some of the later runs. This is probably because the level of adult emotions being dealt with here are above what most mainstream comics were dealing in at the time. Re-reading the issues my appreciation for them only grew.

In my head this run was a bit more loose and rambling than many of the others that follow. Which I think is still true, with the story following a Constantine untethered and unsure of his place in the world. This leads to us getting an especially human John. Many of his friends have died or die during these issues stripping away his connections and leaving him looking for accomplices whilst also fearing what his being in their lives could mean for them.

Later the way he moves from place to place feels more purposeful, he knows something is going to go down and he’s going to be there for it. Whereas when Delano is writing it often feels like he is yearning for a home whilst also aware that he tends to destroy anything he cares about.

These are comics that seem so at odds with the majority of the big two output. John drifts in and out of relationships, he has friendships with people that wouldn’t have very much been considered undesirables at the time the stories were written, his bisexuality is hinted at, there are real consequences.

John is also regularly a selfish bastard, which of course would be a consistent characteristic as he developed, often times slimy when around the city streets, but then showing other more vulnerable sides of his personality when in the countryside with Marj and Mercury.

Another major thing I noticed on this reread was the lack of triumphalism. Often in later stories (according to my memory) John tends to win with a swagger, whereas as here although he and his companions manage to ultimately win the day there is always a melancholy attached to those victories. They survived, they killed the baddie, but the world is still what it is, a harsh and unforgiving place, their magic isn’t strong enough to fix that.

This I think ties into the politics of the time. With the first issue having come out the year I was born I can’t claim to have a first-hand grip of the political landscape of the UK between 88-92, but it’s no secret that under Thatcher and the Conservative party it was a pretty harsh and grey place and that political unease and sense of dread permeates these 40 issues more than anything else, all of its themes come back to that sense of despair and being defeated before you even started.

Art wise we get a lot of John Ridgway who delivers clear storytelling, interesting page layouts and always sets an emotional tone in his art work. Ridgway is also adept at upping the cartooning when something needs to be grotesque and off-putting.

Mark Buckingham takes on both penciller and inker duties at different points, delivering some very unsettling and atmospheric work in the frankly horrific The Family Man serial killer storyline.

Probably the most interesting art for me comes from a young Sean Phillips who has a lot of the qualities that would go on to make him a star but he’s also playing with some interesting visual approaches that had me looking closer at the pages than I had done in previous issues.

However, the most striking artwork comes from David Lloyd who pops in for a two-issue storyline alongside Grant Morrison and delivers some nightmare-inducing visuals a pagan festival turns evil. And then we get treated to a couple of beautiful issues by Dave McKean including the finale to Delano’s run that are tripping with atmospheres and symbolism.

All-in-all I really enjoyed revisiting these first 40 issues of Hellblazer and I’m excited to dive into the Ennis era on the book. If you’ve never read the original Vertigo run of Hellblazer I would highly recommend it.

I’ll report back with my thoughts on the next era of Hellblazer once I’m done - it’s a long one.

That’s all for now.

Stay safe out there.

Jordan