Friday, December 25, 2015

John Constantine (illustrated by Max Rugers)

John Constantine has a very rich and expansive history within the DC Universe.

He first appeared in Swamp Thing # 37 and later got his own Vertigo series, Hellblazer. He currently has a DC Universe series simply called Constantine: The Hellblazer. I have read very little of the DC Universe Constantine series’ but I read a majority of the Hellblazer series when it was being published and I highly recommend reading it, if you haven’t.

Constantine is an occult detective that is known for his long brown trench coat, chain smoking and his sarcastic attitude.

You can learn more about Constantine here.

John Constantine’s role in Sandman is brief, but incredibly memorable.

He appears first in Sandman # 3. Dream is searching for the tools of his office, which were stolen from him by Roderick Burgess, later taken by Ruthven Sykes and then stolen again by Ethel Dee.

Constantine wakes one morning with the feeling that something was going to happen and his morning was filled with references of dreams, whether from songs or television. He walked down to a local diner and encounted Mad Hettie who told him that the King Of Dreams was coming to visit him.

Three days later Constantine receives a visitor at his house.

Morpheus tells Constantine that he came to retrieve a leather pouch full of sand. He tells the King Of Dreams that he had owned it at one point but was never able to open the drawstrings.

They go to a warehouse where Constantine stores some of her personal belongings. While sorting through the boxes looking for the pouch, he finds a photo of an old girlfriend named Rachel and he realizes that she has it.

They find the house where Rachel is living and they enter the house.

As they walk down the hall, Constantine touches a light switch and feels himself falling. Dream catches him and reveals that the walls are made from human remains and are alive. This happened because of the pouch and Rachel misusing it. The walls are made of dreams.

Morpheus and Constantine enter the bedroom and find Rachel on he bad. Her body is covered in sores and she is clearly affected by using the sand within the pouch as a drug. Her metabolism has been destroyed by the use of the sand and the only thing currently keeping her alive is the sand. M

Constantine asks Dream for mercy when dealing with Rachel.

Morpheus gives Rachel a final dream of happiness as her body dies. He returns to Constantine and tells him that she died peacefully and happy.

John then asks Dream for a favor. He asks Dream if he could stop the nightmares that he’s been having since the events of Newcastle, in which some of his friends had died. Dream agrees to give him a nightmare free sleep.

John Constantine appears again at The Wake for Morpheus where he talks with Dr. Occult and The Phantom Stranger.

Constantine appears one final time in a short story called Death Talks About Life where he helps Death demonstrate how to properly use a condom…on a banana, of course.

He appears in Sandman # 3, # 71, on page 22, in panel 2 and in Death Talks About Life.

Max did a fabulous job with this portrait. I love the details he used on Constantine’s face and he gave him a very sympathetic expression. The layered background is a really nice touch and adds a very cool effect to the portrait.

No comments:

Post a Comment