hellblazer

When Steve Dillon passed away on October 22, 2016, comics lost one of its greatest masters of the invisible art. In a long and storied career, Dillon's work was characterized by concise layouts, subtle manipulations of time and space, and a remarkably expressive cartooning style that gave his comics an emotional resonance unlike any other. Let's take a moment to appreciate the gifts of a uniquely talented artist.

John Constantine has fought many a monster. He's faced everyone, from the First of the Fallen to renegade demons causing football riots and beyond. But of all the villains he's fought, probably my favorite is one who only ever appeared in three stories: the King of the Vampires.

Everyone loves comic book trivia, but with decades of comics behind, there’s always some new obscure fact to learn. That’s why ComicsAlliance is going deep into the minutiae of your favorite names in comics in our continuing video series. You think you know comics? Well, here’s a few things you might not know! This week we're looking at DC/Vertigo's most famous urban wizard, John Constantine, Hellblazer!

Steve Dillon, well known to comics fans the world over for his work on two continents and across many decades, passed away on October 22, 2016. Writer Charlotte Finn pays tribute to an extraordinary artist.

Karen Berger came to DC comics at the cusp of the 1980s as editor for titles including Amethyst: Princess of Gemworld and House of Mystery. As executive editor of Vertigo, Berger made stars of writers and artists who have gone on to dominate the industry, and the imprint became synonymous with an experimental, stylistic approach which gave it an added edge over every other publisher. In 2012, Berger resigned from Vertigo. She has been largely absent from comics since, but at Image Expo earlier this year she announced a new series from writer Sara Kenney and artist John Watkiss called Surgeon X, with herself as editor. ComicsAlliance spoke to Berger to look back at her extraordinary career, and her continued dedication to bringing new and experimental ideas to the medium.

If there’s one thing we’ve learned from our years on the Internet, it’s that there’s no aspect of comics that can’t be broken down and quantified in a single definitive list, preferably in amounts of five or ten. And since there’s no more definitive authority than ComicsAlliance, we’re taking it upon ourselves to compile Top Five lists of everything you could ever want to know about comics. This week, for absolutely no reason at all whatsoever in particular, we are counting down the five best ghost punchers, witch hunters, and monster wrestlers in comics. The occult detective has been a popular character trope since the 19th century, and heroic figures fighting monsters has been common in mainstream comics since the revision of the Comics Code Authority in the 1970s. This video takes a look at five different characters who ain't afraid of no ghosts and take it upon themselves to stand as guardians between the worlds of the living and the dead.

John Constantine's transition back into the DC Universe has been a bit of a rocky road over the past six years, but recently a balance has been struck and the cheeky and charming conjurer now feels at home once again among the likes of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. This month Constantine returns in a brand new ongoing series The Hellblazer by Simon Oliver and Moritat, launching with The Hellblazer: Rebirth #1. The new series sees John return to Great Britain and come face to face with literal demons from his past. ComicsAlliance chatted with the creative team about their plans for Constantine's return home, and Oliver's enduring hatred of the man the character is based on.

Welcome to Cast Party, the feature that imagines a world with even more live action comic book adaptations than we currently have, and comes up with arguably the best casting suggestions you’re ever going to find for the movies and shows we wish could exist. In the second of our guest editions for Pride Week, Tara Marie wants to see a fresh take on a TV adaptation of Hellblazer, completely divorced from the cancelled 2014 Constantine TV show. This version would take its lead not just from the recently wrapped Constantine: The Hellblazer comic series by James Tynion IV, Ming Doyle, Riley Rossmo, and Ivan Plascencia, but from the Vertigo Hellblazer years and related series like Swamp Thing and Sandman.

DC’s mature readers imprint Vertigo has had a rough few years; where once it was the benchmark of challenging and thought-provoking creator-owned comics, many of its classic titles have wrapped up their runs, and Vertigo has struggled to find new epics to replace them. In what DC describes as an effort to "set the business up for future success," the publisher has announced a restructuring of the imprint that includes the elimination of its executive editor role. Unfortunately that means letting go of veteran editor Shelly Bond, who has been with Vertigo since almost the very beginning.

On this day in 1985, a man walked into a bar. It was a punk bar; this was 1985 in comic-book London, after all. The man was named John Constantine, and he was there looking for a friend who had information about the end of the world. It all happened in the pages of Swamp Thing #37, written by Alan Moore with art by Rick Veitch and John Totleben; the "American Gothic" storyline was beginning in earnest, and Moore's legendary run was kicking into high gear. According to Moore, the character of Constantine owes his debut to the fact that Swamp Thing's regular artists, Totleben and Stephen R. Bissette, were big fans of the band The Police, and they wanted to draw a character who looked like the lead singer, Sting. Even though it ended up being Veitch on the pencils for Constantine's first appearance, he is unmistakably a dead ringer for the British musician.