John Constantine is probably the coolest British comics characters out there. A bisexual scouser with a penchant for the occult, the character was originally introduced in Alan Moore's seminal Swamp Thing series in 1984, but later found renewal in a comic of his own four years later.
Dubbed the Hellblazer, Jamie Delano's opening three years on the book are some of the best DC have ever had. Politically charged, witty and atmospheric above all else, Delano's story of an occult antihero pushing against supernatural forces is as timeless as it is classic - a centrepiece to the British Invasion as much as it is a hallmark of DC's Vertigo imprint.
It's just brilliant all around, and conveys in no small way just how pivotal a character he was during the late eighties.
Subsequent writers would take on the character, including industry bigwigs like Garth Ennis, Warren Ellis and fellow Liverpudlian Mike Carey, but Delano's stint on the book is certainly the most iconic Hellblazer we've ever gotten (just don't tell that to Keanu).
WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well.
In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.
