Although recently resurrected as a one-shot graphic novel, Warren Ellis and Phil Jimenez's "Shoot" - a story originally due to appear in Hellblazer #141 - was so controversial at the time of writing it was banned from publication for over a decade. Bearing in mind this was a Vertigo title, DC's mature readers line, and Hellblazer had previously featured as much blood, guts, cursing and nudity as a Tarantino film, what did it feature that was so egregious? A school shooting. Not only that, but a story about a school shooting that was due to come out just weeks after the Columbine massacre. Ellis actually wrote the story months prior to Columbine, as comics usually are produced way in advance. He was reacting to the spate of school shootings the US had already faced throughout the nineties, with John Constantine tangling with both the literal and figurative cultural demons that inspire such atrocities. When the commentary got a little too timely, DC asked Ellis to revise his script. He refused, the issue was binned, and Ellis left the book entirely. The story, with unfinished art, leaked to the internet in the way these things do, but it wasn't until 2010's Vertigo Resurrected one-shot that it was finally published in full, along with previously unreleased stories by Grant Morrison and Brian Azzarello.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
