Hellblazer

Ok so I put it off for as long as I could but last night I read the final issue of Hellblazer (#300). I didn't want to read it partly because of denial that I didn't want to acknowledge that the series had ended and partly because I suspected it wouldn't be a totally satisfying conclusion.

Hellblazer is a personal milestone for me, it was published for 25 years, starting in 1988 and every month for 25 years I have read an issue of Hellblazer. This represents the longest single comic run I have ever read and also the only 300 issue comic I have read from the first issue (at the time of publication) to its end. I've read long runs of various Spider-Man comics before but Hellblazer is my longest lasting commitment and I will miss my regular fix of all things John Constantine.

Fair enough he is going to get a DC Universe version of his comic but part of what made Hellblazer so compelling for me was it's publication under DC's mature readers Vertigo imprint. A DC universe JC is a bit like being offered a ciggy from a pack of Silk Cut to find that the ciggys are actually Marlboro Lights!!

I do wonder what it means for Vertigo too as Hellblazer was the flagship title (I guess the excellent Fables takes this mantle now) and I can't see any other Vertigo title (Fables included) getting anywhere near 300 issues.

I have mixed feelings about the final issues, to end the series with a 3 issue arc felt rushed and yet the ending was suitably unfulfilling and open to interpretation. I was disappointed there was no usual text pieces in the final issue or pin-ups but JC is one of the best comic characters ever created and markedly different to most other comic leads published, I could go on for ages but you'd be better off just reading the comics. There were some patchy moments but overall the standard of writing and art over such a long period on a single title is in my opinion unparalleled.

Hellblazer has been with me for 25 years and now its gone, the only sensible course of action is to head to the pub, I wonder if Chas will be there?!