Writer: Jamie Delano
Artist: Jock
Letterer: Clem Robins
Apparently, all DC had to do to ensure a runaway success was put Jamie Delano back on Hellblazer. Our regular shop sold out of Pandemonium by the time we got there last Wednesday night. While out and about yesterday, we wound up calling six different shops, which only netted us one copy, Meltdown’s last. We had them hold it just in case. The effort was well worth it, though. There’s not many combinations of writer, artist, and subject that will make us drop $25 on a thin-ish hardcover sight unseen.
I cut my adult comic teeth on Hellblazer. While the first issue someone handed to me with the timeless order of “Read this” was written by Neil Gaiman, it was Jamie Delano that really drew me in to the character and his dysfunctional world. Hellblazer remains the only comic I hunted through back-issue bins for in the days before reliable trade publication, a fact I’m glad about now given the holes in the series’ republication.
While it takes place in the here and now, Hellblazer: Pandemonium feels like it fits perfectly into Delano’s run on the series. This is John as I remember him best: stumbling into trouble, shrugging his shoulders at it, and then meandering out again at his own pace. He certainly tries to do the most good on his way out, but does so with his usual charm- or lack thereof. Only John Constantine could lose himself to the wicked joy of sating his gambling addiction in a game of poker where the chips are human souls and not come out tainted on the other side.