Hellblazer

[Barciad]

I've just been reading it for the first time. Now I truly know what mixed emotions feels like. On the one hand there is the sheer pleasure at reading this magnificent piece of work that holds up to its formidable reputation.
Then there is the fact that I want to find Keanu Reeves and knee him in the crotch.

 

[Basement Cat]

I read the comics when John Constantine got cancer and had to outwit Hell to keep from dying (which dates me, I know). I remember waiting week after week for the comics to find out how the story was going to play out. It was awesome.

I haven't read it since. That's been what...about twenty years?

I don't hate Keanu Reeves for his playing Constantine. A lot of movies are "relocated" to Los Angeles because of the cost. It wasn't his fault that happened. It's still a favorite movie of mine, though nostalgia probably has something to do with that.

They managed to make a decent movie out of Constantine despite gutting 90% of the story. It wasn't true to the comics beyond the basic plot though.

The same thing happened when some Hollywood bigwigs were trying to get J.K. Rowling to give them the rights to do the films for her Harry Potter series. Their idea of "staying true to the books" was to make Harry an American kid attending a school in LA that had a secret Wizard/Witch school underground.

....Yeah...right...uh huh.....

But John Constantine rules.

Question: Does he still smoke or did Vertigo go 'Tobacco Free' like Marvel did?

 

[Secret world leader (shhh)]

I saw the film years ago, i'd like to read the comics. Where would I start?

 

[Albino Boo]

I saw the film years ago, i'd like to read the comics. Where would I start?

The first one is good starting point but the problem with the early numbers is the politics. To get what they are aiming at you have to understand late 80s British left wing postions, I didn't buy those positions then and they look very dated now. However those early comics setup the core of the character. Somewhere around issue 40 is the arc on which the film is loosely based on. The comic version is less of hero and of selfish bastard than the film version. I stopped reading the series about 2000 so after that you are on your own.

 

[Albino Boo]

I read the comics when John Constantine got cancer and had to outwit Hell to keep from dying (which dates me, I know). I remember waiting week after week for the comics to find out how the story was going to play out. It was awesome.

I haven't read it since. That's been what...about twenty years?

I don't hate Keanu Reeves for his playing Constantine. A lot of movies are "relocated" to Los Angeles because of the cost. It wasn't his fault that happened. It's still a favorite movie of mine, though nostalgia probably has something to do with that.

They managed to make a decent movie out of Constantine despite gutting 90% of the story. It wasn't true to the comics beyond the basic plot though.

The same thing happened when some Hollywood bigwigs were trying to get J.K. Rowling to give them the rights to do the films for her Harry Potter series. Their idea of "staying true to the books" was to make Harry an American kid attending a school in LA that had a secret Wizard/Witch school underground.

....Yeah...right...uh huh.....

But John Constantine rules.

Question: Does he still smoke or did Vertigo go 'Tobacco Free' like Marvel did?

What I hated about the movie was hey changed Constantines character. In the original he risked everyone else to save his own skin and ran a deliberate con on the devil. The movie dropped all that and turned him into a bog standard hero type.