Letters to Hellblazer #0

I wrote this in a blur one night, then finished Hellblazer #1 soon after. Urban horror is my bread and butter, it's what gets my engine going, so it's no surprise it came easily.

I actually have another zero issue in the pipeline for a different title, but I want to get a chunk of this book out first, as I think this is where I'll find motivation. The format, being shorter, more focused, was an interesting experiment for me, and I'm glad it worked for you. I wanted to drop a teaser, something to get people interested, and then lead into a longer first issue. John is a character I've always loved, ever since I first read him in Alan Moore's seminal Swamp Thing when I used to regularly get the collections from the library, so I think it's always been in me to write him.

Funnily enough, I nearly did write John way back when. The Flash #9 featured a possessed Scarlet Speedster, and the person to bring him back from the edge was supposed to be John Constantine… and I can’t remember why the story didn’t materialise like that. Editorial edict I think. Boris even did a cover featuring John, but we had to scrap it. Instead, I used Doctor Occult, and it wasn’t my most well-received issue, because… Occult acted a lot like Constantine.

Plus, I wrote myself into such a palaver to make Occult angsty, that I then had to keep writing the character for years after, in his own title. That was an education though, as I got to write really creepy horror stories with a character I grew to love! Expect to see the long simmering conclusion of the Doctor Occult / Rose Psychic tale at some point in Hellblazer, as a sort of homage to the roots of my wanting to write the world’s snarkiest magician on the DC2.


I’m a massive Neil Gaiman fan, especially when it comes to the likes of American Gods and The Sandman, so I have to admit, I think I wear my inspiration on my sleeve when it comes to this concept.

Having the events of the last Justice League arc have wider implications is something I’ve wanted to have happen for a good long time, but there’s not been an event big enough, or an interesting enough character to write a follow up to that could be impacted, until the revelation that every single god that ever existed is real--!

I originally had a six-issue mini-series intended for the concept, something I teased in Justice League #70 as Hellblazer: Divinity For Dummies, but then I lay awake at night, trying desperately to sleep, and I started getting story ideas from the ether. I just kept writing story idea after story idea, and now I think I have enough to deliver at least twelve issues, if not more. We’ll see how it goes. I’ve not even started thinking about Swamp Thing making an appearance, so you know that’s got to happen at some point.

Anyway, I’m just waiting on the cover to Hellblazer #1, and I’ve found a great collaborator in HawthornBirdy, but we’ll have the next issue out soon. Like I’ve mentioned elsewhere, I’ve written the issue!

I do need to speak to Mark about the lengths one can go with the MA tag though…

Thanks, O! I appreciate you taking the time to have a look at it before posting, and you did help point that a sentence went


I was really torn with the dialectical choices I was making in this issue, but this is British culture as I'm exposed to it-- smack dab in the middle! People talk utter nonsense-- especially those I'm friends with-- and I made a concerted effort to combine contemporary language with a more lyrical bent which I think works in such a heightened genre as the supernatural.

John has always been the kind of character that can go one of two ways depending on the story-- he can be an opaque cipher, someone who drops in like the boogieman, in tales such as Warren Ellis and Phil Jimenez' controversial "Shoot", or Brian Azzarello and Marcelo Frusin
's "Freezes Over", or he can be the central character, completely transparent to the reader, such as in Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean's "Hold Me" and Ellis and John Higgins' "Haunted". The absolutely fascinating thing is that he can be either of those things depending on the arc, depending on the writer, depending on any number of things, and it's one issue to the next and it never feels inconsistent! 

I'm going to be leaning into the comedy in the title, but that's not the main intention. John sees everything as absurd, he sees good people as liars and bad people as pathetic and now I'm just ranting but I'm excited to see where this goes.


Next issue is just waiting for it's cover, and I need to figure out if the sex scene is too graphic. Such is life.