John Totleben

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.

The complicated history of Miracleman reaches its long-delayed resolution in September with the launch of Miracleman #1, by Neil Gaiman and Mark Buckingham. The issue kicks off Gaiman and Buckinham's 'Golden Age' storyline, remastered from the original artwork with colors by D'Israeli and lettering by Todd Klein. Later issues will continue and complete the 'Silver Age' and 'Dark Age' storylines. The first issue also features covers from Joe Quesada, Simone Bianchi, and a jam cover from Miracleman veterans Garry Leach, Jon Totleben, Alan Davis and Rick Veitch.

Miracleman, aka Marvelman, has one of the most convoluted publishing histories in comics. Created by Mick Anglo, but very closely modeled on Fawcett's Captain Marvel, the character has passed between several owners and publishers over the years, and run afoul of all sorts of legal entanglements. Those complications seemed to be resolved by a recent court case --- so this is clearly the perfect time to add yet another publisher to the character's long history! IDW is getting into the Miracleman game with a deluxe hardcover 'Artifact Edition' reproducing pages from the 1980s Miracleman revival in Warrior magazine, by artists Garry Leach, Alan Davis and John Totleben and "the Original Writer." (Pssst; it's Alan Moore.)

We make a regular practice at ComicsAlliance of spotlighting particular artists or specific bodies of work, as well as the special qualities of comic book storytelling, but because cartoonists, illustrators and their fans share countless numbers of great pinups, fan art and other illustrations on sites like Flickr, Tumblr, DeviantArt and seemingly infinite art blogs that we’ve created Best Art Ever (This Week), a weekly depository for just some of the pieces of especially compelling artwork that we come across in our regular travels across the Web. Some of it’s new, some of it’s old, some of it’s created by working professionals, some of it’s created by future stars, some of it’s created by talented fans, and some of it’s endearingly silly. All of it is awesome.

  We make a regular practice at ComicsAlliance of spotlighting particular artists or specific bodies of work, as well as the special qualities of comic book storytelling, but because cartoonists, illustrators and their fans share countless numbers of great pinups, fan art and other illustrations on sites like Flickr, Tumblr, DeviantArt and seemingly infinite art blogs that we’ve created Best Art E

Last week it was revealed that the 27 pages of missing Denys Cowan comic art, believed by some to have been stolen, was finally returned to the artist. A short time later, Stephen Bissette -- the artist best known for his seminal work with Alan Moore and John Totleben on Saga of the Swamp Thing -- obliquely connected the Cowan news to an anecdote of his and Totleben's own, concerning Swamp Thing

Last week it was announced that NBC is developing a new TV series based on the DC Comics character John Constantine, best known as the star of Vertigo perennial Hellblazer. The television project is helmed by writer/executive producers Daniel Cerone and David S. Goyer. It's a potentially exciting prospect, but it appears that Constantine's creators may only see a piece of the pie if the show actua