Simon Oliver and Moritat On Bringing John Constantine “Back to Being An A-Hole” in The Hellblazer

Mixed in with the Justice Leagues and the Batgirls this week, DC readers can get their hands on a copy of The Hellblazer #1, the first new series since the launch of The New 52 in 2011 to bring John Constantine back to the U.K. and back to his roots as a bit of a scoundrel and a con man.

Elements of that certainly endured throughout his superhero days, particularly taking more of a center stage during the Constantine: The Hellblazer revamp from last year, but Oliver and Moritat’s version of John Con feels much more like it would have been at home in the character’s long-running Vertigo title than anything we’ve seen of late.

Oliver and Moritat joined ComicBook.com to talk about The Hellblazer: Rebirth, which debuts on Wednesday in comic shops and online. You can also check out some exclusive character art by Moritat in the attached gallery.

You can pre-order The Hellblazer: Rebirth #1 on ComiXology now, or get it at your local comic shop on Wednesday.

I feel like one of the things that’s been lost a little bit in translation to the DC Universe is John as con man. That isn’t to say I didn’t love the last series, but we get to see a much more scoundrel-y John here.

Simon Oliver: Yeah I agree, and strange as it might sound for a book about “magic” I feel the same way. I think above and beyond the magic aspect, John Constantine is a conman and that’s where his real power lies.

I honestly think he’s a bit crap at magic and for me the moment he goes all hocus pocus and pulls out a spell to save the day is where the book loses me a little. And if he has to use magic, at the heart of it there should always be a con.

So short answer is, Constantine’s back to being an arsehole, the dodgy guy in the pub who happens to know some magic.

Given the overt political overtones in the first bit of this issue, is there a bit of irony to the timing? Lampooning Trump and then saying you’re heading for the relative sanity of the UK, where very Trump-like politics are on the ascendence at the moment?

Simon Oliver: I’m English born and bred but I’ve been in the States for a long time now. I grew up and came of age in Thatcher’s Britain, and still carry the seething anger that comes with that.

I don’t think I — or a lot of other people — could see how things would unfold a few months back when I was writing the first few issues. I think I was too busy watching the horror show on this side of the Atlantic to see Brexit for what it was and what could and would happen. But it will be something I’ll get around to mentioning.

Hellblazer was always a book that touched on politics and current events and I think John’s left-leanings are something that gave him a moral compass back when he was throwing his friends to the wolves.

Moritat, this book looks very different than, say, your work on Jonah Hex. Is there a particular aesthetic you’re going for here?

Moritat: I always consider all the artwork on the page as something I am responsible for. Usually I beg and grovel to do the coloring. This time Kristy Quinn asked me to do it. So I brought out from behind my desk this bag of coloring tricks I’ve been saving up like bottle of Johnnie Walker that you save for a special occasion.

How important a role does the coloring play in the art here? It feels very stylized, but in a way that serves Moritat’s work well.

Moritat: Hellblazer should have the dark ominous feel of Simon’s script with some of the best characterization and interactions in comics. So with those two foundation posts in place, I feel the coloring (or setting the mood) is essential in building up a creepy gothic mansion with the personality of eccentric friends having a hell of a dinner party that you would not want to miss.

What went into the decision to bring Shazam and Wonder Woman in? The way they’re handled here it almost feels like one of those early Sandman issues where the Justice League is there for a couple of pages at a time.

Simon Oliver: Shazam had a previous encounter with Constantine back in the New 52 run, where John pulled a fast one and got the better of him. So it felt natural that if anyone would be wary of Constantine, it would be him.

Wonder Woman was on the short list of DCU characters I could pull in, and I love the idea of those two crossing paths at some point. I think she’s quite intrigued by John, and this was a way to start laying the groundwork for that eventual meeting. But as for the DCU, I really see it less as bringing John into the DCU and more of bringing the DCU to his world.

He’s an outsider, he doesn’t understand and is not particularly loved by the other characters in the DCU and is viewed as kind of a necessary evil to be tolerated. He basically projects and channels my own feelings about the larger superhero world out there, beyond the confines of my own small dark corner.

Obviously taking John back to London sets him apart from most of the DC pantheon. Is this just a case of Rebirth wanting to take a character back to its glory days?

Simon Oliver: That was pretty much my brief when I took over the book. Rebirth him, make him a cynical, slightly miserable, dark English bastard again. So it was kind of a no-brainer to bring him home to a lot of the old characters he hasn’t seen since the end of the Vertigo run. I liked the last run especially and felt like they really injected a breath of fresh air into the character. If I can build on that, while taking him a step closer to the old days, I’ll be happy.

The New 52 happened, and Rebirth is building on that. Will we see any of John’s old Justice League Dark playmates playing a role in the book?

Simon Oliver: Not sure yet. It might be part of a bigger conversation. I did hear some rumors, but for now I’m focusing on just John Constantine.

Moritat: I would love to draw Zatanna.

I really liked the design on the villain in the Rebirth one-shot. Any chance he’ll pop back up again, or was this mostly a one-and-done to establish John’s character?

Simon Oliver: I like him too. Maybe, I kind of left it open. We don’t see him die, so he could be back.

Why have him go all Ferris Bueller and talk to the audience in the end? Is that something that will happen fairly commonly, or just a cool way to end the issue?

Simon Oliver: I kind of like doing that from time to time, it might not be in every issue, but if there’s one person whose inner thoughts you might (or might not) want to hear it would be John Constantine.

But right there at the end of the issue I put it in as a kind of a throwdown to the reader, this is who he is as a character, like it or leave it, he’s not going to change.

I don’t think Constantine is a character you can be wishy-washy about writing. You have to go in not being afraid to piss some people off—if you’re not then you’re not doing it right. But fingers crossed some of the fun that I’ve been having writing him will seep through into the book, because I’ve had a blast so far being let loose in the Hellblazer world.