Gonzalez 1 Jacqueline Montiel Gonzalez Ms.

Bell English 4, Period 2 3 September 2013 Hellblazer Hellblazer is the first comic book I have ever read. The experience of reading a comic for the first time for me was, surprising to me, a good experience. I chose to write about this comic, because I liked how Hellblazer is not meant for kids, and I saw a movie about him. Hellblazer/ John Constantine is not perfect, he definitely has flaws and he doesnt care if he does. Most superheroes are invincible, but Hellblazer has terminal lung cancer from being a chain smoker. He curses, does what he wants, and says what he wants. The History of Comic Books To fully go into depth into Hellblazer, we need to know a little of something of where this all started. At its simplest, a comic book is a series of words and pictures that are presented in a sequential manner to form a narrative that may or may not be humorous. Originating in the United States in the late 1800s, the comic book contained slang, as well as color and a sophisticated interplay between text and image (Bellis, The History of Comic Books). Traditionally occupying the bounds of pop culture, the comic book is actually a important historical text that comments on how young people and adults alike identify with cultural and political issues. As such, a comic book is much more than just a series of words and pictures with minor cultural importance. At the very least, comic books can be seen as a result of pressures by artists and consumers as well as by the historical forces acting on both groups. Much more than just a form of entertainment for kids, comic books are a sophisticated art form.

Gonzalez 2 Since the 1960s the comic book industry has been dominated by the two major publishers of superhero books, Marvel and Detective Comics (DC). DCs name for almost 50 years was National Periodical Publication. Marvel was known as Timely Comics from 1939 to about 1950, and then as Atlas Comics for much of the 1950s ( A History of the Comic Book, randomhistory.com). Many comic book fans often use the concept of ages to mark periods of comic book history that share concerns, storytelling techniques, selling strategies, styles of art and writing, and approach to genre conventions. These ages can roughly be famed as the Golden (1938-1956), Silver (1956-1971), Bronze (1971-1980), Iron (1980-1987), and Modern (1987present). History of Hellblazer John Constantine is a con-artist, magician and anti-hero. Constantine was born in Liverpool, England on May 10, 1953. His mother died while giving birth to him and so did his twin brother in the womb. Constantine had choked him with his umbilical cord in the womb. His father blames John for his mothers death, and his father turns to alcoholism to numb the pain. Although Hellblazer is a sympathetic humanist who struggles to overcome the influence of both Heaven and Hell over humanity and despite his occasional dip into heroism, Constantine is a foul-mouthed guy who pursues a life of sorcery and danger. Constantine uses magical spells when he has too. He uses the spells to summon demons, black magic cursing, exorcisms, resurrection, invisibility, and time-travel. He has some demon blood in his veins because a demon injected Constantine with its blood. He is a chain smoker, causing him to get terminal lung cancer. Constantine is shown to be someone with a wide and international circle of friends and allies, and is an expert at making friends. He has had many girlfriends. However, a running

Gonzalez 3 theme in the book is that his close friends inevitably suffer or are outright killed simply by being in his life; this has left a lot of regret on him. He was created by Alan Moore, Steve Bissette and John Totleben. John Constantine first appeared in 1985 as a recurring character in the horror series Swamp Thing, in which he acted as a "supernatural advisor" to the main character. In these early appearances, Constantine was depicted as a sorcerer of questionable morals, whose appearance was based on that of the musician Sting. Alan Moore created the character after artists Stephen R Bissette and John Totleben, who were fans of Sting's band The Police, wanted to draw a character who looked like Sting (John Constantine, wikia.com). Constantine's official debut was not until Swamp Thing #37. Moore describes the creation of Constantine as being drawn from a number of really good ideas about serial killers, the Winchester House, and wanting to draw Sting in a story. Constantine was the result of fitting all of these concepts together. Initially created purely to get Sting into the story, by the time of the 1985 San Diego ComicCon, Moore said that it's turning into something bigger. On November 8, 2012 DC Comics announced the cancellation of Hellblazer after its 300th episode. John Constantine was later put into a few of Justice League Dark issues. DC Comics later announced they would come out with a younger John Constantine. The new comic is called Constantine, and currently has 8 issues. Biographical Information of Alan Moore Alan Moore was born November 18, 1953 in Northampton, United Kingdom. His family was very poor and Moore. He was influenced to some degree by his highly religious and superstitious grandmother. This caused Alan to rebel and not do very well in school. As a teen he was expelled from school. He started writing poetry and publishing it in the late 1960s. Alan Moore soon gained recognition for his twisted ways and became a comic book writer.

Gonzalez 4 Alan Moore is a celebrated writer of comics and graphic novel and is the creator of John Constantine/ Hellblazer. Some of Moores most successful work include, V for Vendetta and Watchmen . Moore became a big name in the comics industry in the early 1980s with the Miracleman series and a run of Swamp Thing for DC Comics. Along with Frank Miller, Moore is credited with revitalizing the industry. Watchmen, his dark and ironic take on a world with washed-up superheroes, was the first graphic novel to win a Hugo Award. By the end of the '80s he was publishing his own graphic novels, as well as contributing Batman and Superman stories . Moore has had his issues with mainstream publishers over the years, but he sells books and has earned a reputation as one of the industry's top writers. Summary I read Hellblazer issue number 1 Hunger. The comic starts with a heavy-set man with an insatiable hunger in New York. He gets the urge to eat as much as possible. He goes to a restaurant and orders half of the menu to fulfill his hunger. He throws back all the food, but doesnt get full. All of the people in the restaurant are staring at him, but he doesnt care. The man is just so hungry. He starts to get skinnier and skinnier as the seconds go by, even though he is eating tons of food. He is so hungry that he attacks a woman and attempts to eat her but he is too weak, because he has now turned to nothing but skin and bones. The women runs and the man lays there dead. The comic jumps to the main character, John Constantine, and he is returning to his native England. He enters his London home and smells a horrible smell. His house is infected with bugs. He looks around and finds his junky friend, Gaz, in his bathtub going through with-drawl. He yells and says that it feels like bugs are crawling on him. Gaz begs John to get him heroin and John goes to get it for him only because he wants Gaz to tell him why he ended up at his place. John injects him and Gaz tells him why he is there. It turns out Gaz was

Gonzalez 5 in Morocco and he saw a sick boy getting thrown out of a restaurant for not doing his job. The boy was shaking and his face was covered in tattoos. He took the sick boy to his hotel because he knew the boy was possessed. Gaz shoots up and performs an exorcism on the boy. He sends the demon out of the boys body and into a bottle. The boy dies and Gaz tries to go to sleep with the boys body on the floor and the demon in the bottle under his bed. He hears the demon whispering into his ear and he cant resist the demon. The demon tells him his name is Mnemoth. He lets the demon out and is baffled by the events that have just happened. He turns to Constantine for answers so he goes to England without having shot up heroin. Gaz goes to Johns house while hes going through with-drawl and that is where we find him. After Gaz tells John what happened, John asks him to draw what the boy looked like. John goes to a professor at the British Museum to ask him about the boys face tattoo. The professor says that he only knows of one tribe that practices this. He says that the tribe is in southern Sudan. John goes to southern Sudan and talks to the tribes shaman. They take psyedelics and John sees the little boy and he feels as though he needs to help him. They come down and John knows what he needs to do. John calls his magician friend, Midnite, in New York and asks him if anything weird has happened. Midnite tells him about the incident at the restaurant. Constantine goes to New York to destroy the demon and ask for Midnites help to kill the demon. Midnite says that he will think it over. John leaves and goes to to his dead girlfriends house; her name was Emma. He asks the owner if he can come in and see her old house. The man knew a little of Emma and was inspired by her death and created a painting of her death. She was pushed out of her window and fell to her death. The man shows him his painting of Emmas death and John is appalled. He exits the room and sits by the stairs to calm down. He hears someone say Hi John. It was Emma. John was flabbergasted and he realized he was seeing here ghost. He tells

Gonzalez 6 her why he is here and asks for her help. They walk down the street and see this crazed man going into a meat shop. He attacks a piece of the meat trying to fulfill his insatiable hunger. The same thing was happening to him as the large man in the restaurant. The man keeps eating but soon he dies and is only skin and bones. Flies come out of the mans mouth and John and Emma follow them to a church. They see a human-sized fly trying to attack the priest. John distracts the fly and it comes toward him. Emma tells him he is not strong enough and he isnt. The fly almost infects him with the demon but he runs and the fly goes back the priest. The fly infects the priest and he tries to eat the wooden carving of Jesus on the cross and that is where the issue ended; with the last page saying To be continued (1988). Review I love this comic book. It is so entertaining, mature, and a page-turner. I seemed to get lost in the story not realizing I was reading, and I hate reading. I loved how detailed the writer was, in truly expressing how John thought and expressed himself. John would call people bastards and he wasnt perfect like most superheroes; that is what I liked most about Hellblazer. Constantine is an anti-hero, so youre never sure if he is going to help a person in trouble or not. He does what he wants, not what he feels is his duty. I feel as though most superhero comic books are suited for children and this comic isnt. It kind of caught me of guard how real Constantine was; well at least for a superhero. It stimulated me because I had never read anything of this sort. I actually liked this comic enough that I read two more issues of it and Im going to keep reading until I finish all of them. The only bad thing I would say of the Hellblazer is that the format in which you read the comic is very confusing. The format changes from page to page. Other than that, I was very pleased with the comic book.

Gonzalez 7 Works Cited [Jamie Delano (w), John Ridgway (p), Lovern Hindzierski v(i).] "Hunger" Hellblazer #1 (January 1988), Vertigo Comics. Bellis, Mary. "The History of Comic Books." About.com Inventors. About.com, n.d. Web. 04 Sept. 2013. <http://inventors.about.com/od/cstartinventions/a/comics.htm >. "A History of the Comic Book." Randomhistory.com. Randomhistory.com, 18 Mar. 2008. Web. 04 Sept. 2013. <http://www.randomhistory.com/1-50/033comic.html >. "Straight To Hell : A Hellblazer Site." Insanerantings.com. Insanerantings.com, n.d. Web. 04 Sept. 2013. <http://www.insanerantings.com/hell/constantine/index.html >. "Alan Moore." Insanerantings.com. Insanerantings.com, n.d. Web. 04 Sept. 2013. <http://www.insanerantings.com/hell/interviews/halan.html >. "John Constantine." Wikia.com. Hellblazer.mikia.com, 31 Aug. 2013. Web. 3 Sept. 2013. <http://hellblazer.wikia.com/wiki/John_Constantine >.