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188-535: The character has received a mix of acclaim and criticism over the years. He won the Eagle Award for 'Favourite Supporting Character' twice in 1986 and 1987, and has been listed among the greatest comic book characters. He was praised for his charm and resilience despite his flawed nature. However, he has faced criticism for his portrayal in certain contexts, including controversial depictions of his bisexuality and relationships. The character made his live-action debut in

376-492: A parallel universe , the twin survives to become the well-loved and well-adjusted magician John never was. In their childhood, John and his older sister Cheryl lived briefly with their aunt and uncle in Northampton to escape from their father's alcoholism and subsequent imprisonment for stealing a female neighbour's underwear. They moved back to Liverpool when their father was released. John's bloodline and ancestry were known as

564-401: A "big fan" of Wolfman and Night Force , but that "no intention to rip off Baron Winters" existed. He said: With Constantine, I don't know who I was thinking of. I just wanted this character who knows everything, and knows everybody—really charismatic. Who knows nuns, politicians, and bikers, and who is never at a loss for what to do. I suppose there is a similarity with Baron Winters in that he

752-564: A "wormhole" while the Swamp Thing stays behind and battles the forces of the Rot. Mercury returns and rescues the Swamp Thing. When asked what she found, Constantine arrives and answers "djinn". In another universe first seen in Books of Magic, Constantine is caught in the middle of a magical war that will destroy the universe at the hands of Timothy Hunter. Constantine sacrifices Chas to buy himself time, but

940-443: A Favourite Letterer category as well as the one-off category Favourite Comics-Related Merchandise. The 2006 Eagles saw the addition of a Favourite Publisher award, and the 2008 Eagle Awards added categories for Favourite Newcomer: Writer and Favourite Newcomer: Artist while dropping the long-running categories Favourite Character/Hero and Favourite Villain. The final set of awards, in 2014, were given in 28 categories. The following

1128-403: A boat with the name The Honourable Gordon Sumner on the bow. John Constantine's official debut was not until Swamp Thing #37, when he was drawn by Rick Veitch and Totleben. Crisis on Infinite Earths #4, his second official appearance in a cameo role, shipped two weeks after the release of Swamp Thing #37. In that issue, written by Marv Wolfman and drawn by George Pérez , Constantine

1316-617: A botched curse caused his father to become withered and frail. John eventually made his permanent home in London in 1969, rooming with Chas Chandler , who would later become his closest and longest-surviving friend. During the 1970s, John became involved in occult circles in London. He travelled to other countries and visited San Francisco , where he began dating Zatanna Zatara, a female magician he had previously met in New York City . He also became

1504-401: A character that looked like Sting. Having been given that challenge, how could I fit Sting into Swamp Thing ? I have an idea that most of the mystics in comics are generally older people, very austere, very proper, very middle class in a lot of ways. They are not at all functional on the street. It struck me that it might be interesting for once to do an almost blue-collar warlock . Somebody who

1692-595: A child named Tefe, and fighting off the Damnation Army from summoning the Anti-Christ. Both carry a dull, but nevertheless fruitful friendship with each other. Constantine even invites Swamp Thing to his 40th birthday and assures the Thing he will try not to bother him again. In 1991 while in his late 30s, John contracted terminal lung cancer. During this time, he sought the help of a dying friend, Brendan, who had sold his soul to

1880-565: A dark force. They all lead to the death of his entire family and set the path for John Constantine into the world of magic and to the fateful incident in Newcastle, although the actions and consequences are different. The creature tries to claim the souls of the young "mystics", but the real John Constantine shows up and chases it away. He tells the kids to go back home, forget what has just happened, and that his true origins will forever remain unknown - but it does not matter. John Constantine stars in

2068-480: A deal with "someone", but John flatly refuses. That "someone" turns out to be Marid, who is shown working with Clarice, with Constantine seeming to be an obstacle to their plans. John is tracked down by two djinn but manages to escape to the London Underground. He meets Map, who behaves oddly and warns John of an upcoming danger in town: the djinn, and that Clarice actually wants John to stop the djinn from finding

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2256-621: A fairy in the hope that they will grant her wish, but when she succeeds in drawing the Amadan to her, she accidentally challenges him to a contest to see who is the greatest fool . With the contest due to take place in Faerie, Molly is transported from the real world and left to fend for herself until it can be arranged. Knowing something of the Fair Folk from her grandmother, Molly knows that if she eats Faerie food she will never be able to return home: touching

2444-603: A fan of punk rock ; after seeing the Sex Pistols at the Roxy Club in London in 1977, he cut his long hair short, called himself Johnny Con-Job, and formed a band called Mucous Membrane. Its members included Chandler (as a roadie), a drummer named Beano, and fellow Liverpool native Gary Lester. They released an album called Venus of the Hardsell . John also performed as a stage magician in the 1980s, where he became famous for predicting

2632-460: A future version of the magician - Sir Timothy Hunter - who has tortured multiple versions of Molly all his life after coming under the sway of the demon Barbatos. Sir Timothy is under the mistaken impression that he is Barbatos' master and that he lives in grand luxury, when in truth Barbatos is manipulating him for his own ends and Sir Timothy lives in a cardboard box in a back alley. Sir Timothy and Barbatos return to Tim's time from 2012 because Tim

2820-439: A gang of dragons to become one of them because of his sadness and self-hatred. Molly and Crimple best Miss Vuall, and as Tim arrives the two children's love puts the finishing touches to her corner of Hell. Barbatos drags the children and the dragon Sir Timothy into another layer of Hell, where he attempts to salvage victory from defeat by trapping the two children in a fairy tale world where brave knights kill dragons. Meeting

3008-545: A girl called Joh - a relationship complicated when she sees him as Tim and falls in love with him, forcing Tim to admit the truth. The two are forced to flee, when the Wild Hunt are manipulated by a disguised Auberon into hunting Tim and destroying the Inn, a fate which Tim avoids only by challenging and defeating the leader of the Hunt. He then returns to Earth to reclaim his magic and defeat

3196-557: A group of dealers and fanzine editors" with the intention of including "people with... diverse interests... to make the poll as impartial as possible," the Eagles were described as "the first independent [in the UK], nationally organised comic art awards poll." The hope was that the Eagle Awards would "become a regular annual fandom event," and indeed, they were the preeminent British comics award in

3384-418: A host of new categories were added: The Favourite Comics Related Website (Fan-Organized) category was dropped in 2002, but five more award categories were added: The 2004 Eagles dropped awards for the long-running categories Supporting Character and Character Most Worthy of Own Title, as well as the relatively new categories of British Small Press Title, Comic Strip/Newspaper Strip, and Comics E-Zine. It added

3572-497: A hundred people for the safety of 6 billion. He magically teleports away, leaving the family and the survivors behind. Later, John goes back to New York and visits his old friend Lloyd at his bar to tell him about his latest adventures. The New 52 Constantine series ends at issue #23 and was relaunched as Constantine: The Hellblazer written by Ming Doyle and James Tynion IV in June 2015. The Constantine Futures End tie-in tells

3760-425: A magical creature called Legendbreaker to discover Constantine's true origin. Instead, the creature tells three conflicting stories: one featuring John's mother dead in childbirth, leaving him to his abusive father; another having John Constantine being born in a loving family with proud and doting parents; and last one with John born in an unremarkable family, but with a mad older sister who is (probably) possessed by

3948-505: A minor god's daughter who was one of Tamlin's cast-off conquests. Both these annuals were later included in the collected editions of The Books of Faerie and The Books of Faerie: Auberon's Tale respectively. The third Annual is set during Tim's time in America, and sees him saving a child abuse victim from similar abuse at the hands of the Minotaur , transported to modern day America to hide in

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4136-680: A mob boss's dead son. Knowing that resurrection is impossible even by magical means, John instead summons a demon to take the boy's place; a desperate act that has bloody consequences many years later. Years later, John was able to reconvene the surviving members of the "Newcastle Crew" to help with his investigation of the Brujería cult, as seen in Swamp Thing #37–49. The cult murdered most of them, including John's then-lover, Emma. These people, and others who have died due to John's carelessness, have continued to appear to him as silent, reproachful ghosts. Chas

4324-624: A monster of black, choking soot. The monster is Daniel, expelled from Free Country and transformed by the Victorian era cyborg the Reverend Slagingham. Slagingham is collecting an army of down-and-outs, capturing their souls in magical contraptions: one of his minions, Gwendolyn, even manages to trick the Faerie King Auberon into surrendering his soul, leaving Titania's husband her helpless servant. The Reverend falls foul to Tim thanks to

4512-726: A nightclub called The Labyrinth. The final annual was the only one not to be written in its entirety by John Ney Reiber, coming part way into Peter Gross' run on the ongoing series. Gross used the annual to give some background to Tim's Other, showing his realization of the existence of other worlds and development into the ruthless character seen in the monthly series. The bulk of the annual was written by Gross, with contributions from John Ney Reiber and Mark Waid . Neither of these annuals have been republished in collected editions. An exclusive Books of Magic story, titled "The Lot" and written by Ney Rieber, appeared in Vertigo Rave #1, published in

4700-458: A position which DC Comics paid him to carry out despite the fact that even when he did make comments on the script, he was told that it was too late for anything to be changed. By the time the series launched, the name had returned to The Books of Magic and a regular rotating team of artists Gross, Gary Amaro and Peter Snejbjerg was put in place to provide artwork for alternating storylines. In early 1997, Rieber announced to Peter Gross that he

4888-466: A precious - and potentially life-saving - gift from her. Molly, too, was to be less important to Gross' run — Tim is first warned to stay away from her by her protective brothers and then Molly herself decides to have nothing more to do with him after meeting his Other and mistaking him for Tim, thinking that he has broken his promise to never speak to demons and is well on the way to becoming Sir Timothy. Gross responded to "nearly everyone" asking if Molly

5076-563: A scam to take Sargon and Tannarak by surprise. However, prior to the planned battle, Constantine is thrown into the battlefield in Dar es Salaam in World War I because of a ritual going wrong, making his plan ultimately fail. An encounter with Doctor Occult there results in Constantine being transported to Earth-2 - a world dying under siege from Darkseid and his army of Parademons. In Earth-2, he

5264-472: A single father of two daughters. As John is busy chatting and flirting with Oliver an old "friend", the demon Blythe, pulls John away and convinces him to help them solve their problems in their latest business place, a soul farm. They want John to eliminate their business partner, which John completes, and he also cons Blythe into banishing herself back to Hell. Suddenly, John sees his entire ghost entourage, and Gary Lester's ghost - who has tried to warn him since

5452-429: A swathe of destruction across Faerie with a horse named Prince. Tim, meanwhile, is living rough on the streets when he is taken in by a homeless magician who knew his father. The magician provides the proper environment for Tim to let his tattoo come alive and leave him: it separates into its scorpion and moth parts and fights, with the moth destroying the scorpion. Tim is about to accept the moth back onto his heart when

5640-468: A taxi with a young mother and her son Cyril. Tim learns that he is an "Opener" and has unconsciously been making his fantasies real all his life—whether they be simple imaginary friends or entire worlds—Tim introduces Molly to some more of his imaginary friends made real, Tanger and Crimple, who live in a tree on some wasteland near Tim's house. The wasteland opens out into an entire magical world created unconsciously by Tim's childhood fantasies, but as Molly

5828-596: A twelve-year-old boy, called Timothy Hunter , who would need to be given an extensive tour of the DC magical universe before being able to decide if he should embrace or reject his destiny as the world's greatest magician. Gaiman used the four issues to formally split the structure of the story and allow for a different artist to draw each issue: This structure allowed Gaiman great scope to include various magical characters from across DC's ranges, as well as reintroducing characters that weren't currently in print. In his introduction to

John Constantine - Misplaced Pages Continue

6016-485: A two-issue crossover with Hellblazer was published, with a script from the then current Hellblazer writer Paul Jenkins from a story written in collaboration with John Ney Rieber. The artwork was by artist Paul Lee. The two issues showed Tim Hunter coming into possession of a time capsule that had been made by John Constantine as a child. The capsule contained all of Constantine's childhood innocence, placed there in one of his first acts of magic to rid himself of

6204-448: A writer suitable for the project, however, with writers like Dick Foreman struggling to handle the character of Tim. Berger eventually approached John Ney Rieber after having seen some of his work, convinced that he would be able to meet the challenge of developing Tim into a fully rounded character. Rieber was asked to come up with a story outline for the proposed series, but these were rejected by Berger and DC. Still convinced that Rieber

6392-421: A young man is sent as a messenger to find John and deliver the message. Constantine later notices that something is wrong on the synchronicity lines, and, seemingly, he is going head first against the traffic. Remembering that Mako mentioned Ravenscar when he found out about Constantine, he tries to summon his unborn brother, but instead is summoned to his brother. The soul of Constantine's brother tells John that he

6580-478: Is "just like all other men" and needs punishing. Tim's salvation from Martyn comes in an unlikely form when Sir Timothy and Barbatos kill the magician to protect their own interests in the boy. This leaves Leah without a master, a position that she attempts to make Tim fill before the young magician proves his worth by setting her free. She leaves England to see where her new freedom - and Martyn's car - will take her. The next story arc followed on almost directly from

6768-469: Is a comprehensive list of the Eagle Award categories and the years they were presented, many of which were divided into British sections and (North) American sections. These categories included: General categories not divided into U.K. and U.S. sections were: Finally, there were a few one-off awards: Alan Moore won this award an impressive eleven times (including sweeping the U.K. and U.S. categories in

6956-490: Is another manipulative character who has a bunch of agents working with him. Constantine and Winters met each other during Moore's run on Swamp Thing and again in Neil Gaiman's The Books of Magic . Speaking to comics magazine Wizard in 1993, Moore elaborated: One of those early notes was they both wanted to do a character that looked like Sting. I think DC is terrified that Sting will sue them, although Sting has seen

7144-464: Is assaulted by the Parademons, but Wotan comes and rescues him, before trapping him to open a gateway to escape the dying Earth. Constantine manages to convince Wotan to spare his life, then works with the ancient sorcerer to open a door through his body to Earth-0. As Wotan enters the doorway, he is split into two halves, because there are two John Constantines in this world: the original Constantine and

7332-519: Is buying time for the psychic Mercury, who is now a young woman, to arrive and tell him the real name of "Laughing Boy" (Nybbas). John takes control of the demon, cancels the curse and London returns to normal. In the past, it is shown that the djinn have tried to hide away the secret of their existence from humans. One djinn, named Marid, was stopped by his brother when he tried to prevent the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, which triggered World War I. In South London, present day, John Constantine

7520-481: Is coming to kill him and devour his being. Constantine is a specific target of the war-mage because he is the "Laughing Magician", who is also known as the "Constant One". Mako wants to devour him so he can absorb that power and have his being made a fixture of the universe. To counter this attack to come, the African magus puts a dream of his into a tree root, with Constantine's true nature in those dreams. After doing this,

7708-532: Is definitely not married! I also said and believe that the average DC reader—Vertigo and DCU—is sophisticated enough to be able to read both versions without getting confused. Beginning in Justice League Dark #9, Jeff Lemire assumed writing duties on the series, replacing Milligan, who had remained on the Vertigo title. Lemire said he considers Justice League Dark his dream gig at DC Comics because Constantine

John Constantine - Misplaced Pages Continue

7896-428: Is exploring it with Crimple she ends up being kidnapped and taken to Hell. Tanger and Tim head into Hell to rescue Molly and Crimple, who are being held by the strict governess Miss Vuall - the trainer of the multiple Mollies who are Sir Timothy Hunter's docile and dutiful companions. Sir Timothy, however, no longer needs the girls, as he has succeeded in releasing himself from Barbatos' control - only to be persuaded by

8084-427: Is fatally wounded by Chas' taxi sign. Constantine encounters the prime Tim Hunter and tells him that all of this destruction is his fault and he wishes that he had listened to Mister E and killed him. After Tim leaves, Constantine meet an alternate, older version of himself who offers to save him for a price, which is that John has to be the best version of himself. As John starts to lose consciousness, he realizes that he

8272-435: Is lecturing about the unpredictability and the price of magic, Doctor Fate appears in front of his eyes, claims to have foreseen his arrival and offers to help him. Doctor Fate reminds John of an incoming horde of Parademons and tells him to quickly cast the spell to escape from the dying world, himself hoping to flee with John and the family too. John discovers that the spell requires one Constantine to die: either himself or

8460-551: Is much celebration and as Tim and Molly are reunited, Titania tempers her curse as best she can: Molly's feet will no longer touch the ground and she will always have Faerie food to eat, so she can return to the mundane world with Tim. Returning to Tim doesn't make Molly as happy as she hoped: instead of returning to London, Tim takes them to join Zatanna on tour and learn magic from her. His obsession with magic causes Tim to ignore everything else, including Molly's growing sadness and even

8648-563: Is not ready to die yet and agrees to the deal. He later wakes up in Ravenscar Asylum, back in the prime DC universe. Eagle Awards The Eagle Awards were a series of British awards for comic book titles and creators. They were awarded by UK fans voting for work produced during the previous year. Named after the UK's seminal boys' comic Eagle , the awards were launched in 1977 for comics released in 1976. "[S]et up and financed by

8836-418: Is one of his all-time favourite characters not just in comics, but in all fiction. Lemire also teased that while Constantine, Zatanna , and Deadman would remain on the roster, the team would change in his opening arc and expand. In John Constantine's early appearances in Swamp Thing , his past was a mystery; his life as a child and young adult was not developed until Jamie Delano 's Hellblazer stories. He

9024-480: Is really doing - getting private lessons in magic from Mr Currie to help him face his Other. However, Tim is unaware that his Other has already arrived in the true world, causing a traffic accident that injures his father and Cyril and kills his stepmother, Holly. This causes Currie to go onto a war footing: he kills Tim's father whilst he recovers in hospital to give Tim the emotional trauma he needs to subconsciously create another alternate world, and then manipulates

9212-609: Is staying in Chas's house when he is contacted by Swamp Thing. Abigail Arcane, the Avatar of the Rot and the Swamp Thing's lover, is missing. John enlists Mercury's help, who is eager to help the Swamp Thing despite disliking John. Meanwhile, in Paris, Marid resurfaces and attacks his brother. John tells Chas which horse to bet on and makes the cabbie drive him to the Tate Club. Clarice Sackville offers him

9400-434: Is the last boy in the multiverse who could possibly grow up to be Sir Timothy, and they intend to ensure that he does. Their plans are thwarted without Tim even being aware of them, as he has a guardian angel called Araquel who is chained between Heaven and Hell for having had a daughter called Nikki with Khara. Khara defeats Sir Timothy on Tim's behalf. The intervention doesn't mean that Tim is safe, however, as he has come to

9588-417: Is the magic that Tim released into the world, which would give them the power to recreate the world to their own design. Tim's family find themselves caught in the crossfire of the battle when his father's wedding to Holly is interrupted by the groom transforming into a ravenous beast with a taste for angel-flesh. It transpires that Mister Vasuki, the surgeon who miraculously restored Mr Hunter to health after

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9776-531: Is the most prominent one of very few human friends to have survived a long-term association with John. John first met Swamp Thing in 1985 after being interested in the creature. John later acts as the Swamp Thing's protector, guide, and voice of omen, even teaching the Thing to amplify his powers. Both would have further adventure with each other, such as John introducing the Thing to the Parliament of Trees , Thing using John's body to make love to his wife and father

9964-399: Is the title of a four-issue English-language comic book mini-series written by Neil Gaiman , published by DC Comics , and later an ongoing series under the imprint Vertigo . Since its original publication, the mini-series has also been published in a single-volume collection under the Vertigo imprint with an introduction by author Roger Zelazny . It tells the story of a young boy who has

10152-557: Is time to move on when Tim's father begins a tentative relationship with Holly, the woman from the taxi. Almost immediately, Holly's son Cyril becomes a target of a demon's malign interest, and rescuing him helps Tim to decide that his presence is putting those he loves at risk. He runs away. Molly, meanwhile, has been sent to visit her grandmother, a formidable old woman with a touch of second sight. Whilst up on Leanen Hill at her grandmother's suggestion, Molly learns that Tim has run away and resolves to find him again. She attempts to attract

10340-427: Is too high, only to find that everything he has learnt from his supposed mentors has made it impossible for him to turn away from magic. As John Ney Rieber began the ongoing series, he used the stories to focus on telling Tim's story: he summed up his run later by saying " The Books of Magic aren't about Cool. They're about Tim". His first storyline, Bindings , for example ostensibly showed Tim discovering that since

10528-438: Is undecided. Equally, he could turn from the world of magic completely and be lost to either side. The Trenchcoat Brigade see it as their duty to resolve the uncertainty around Tim's fate one way or another. They take him from the birth of the universe all the way through to its eventual death, ostensibly teaching him about the possibilities - and the price - of wielding magic before he decides whether to embrace his destiny. Along

10716-505: Is wearing a green suit as opposed to his more traditional black suit and tan trenchcoat ensemble. Moore describes Constantine as being drawn from a number of "really good ideas ... about serial killers, the Winchester House , and ... want[ing] to draw Sting in a story". Calling these disparate strands a "big intellectual puzzle", Constantine was the result of "fit[ting] it all together". Initially created "purely to get Sting into

10904-537: The Eagle logo was perceived (as described by Burton) as "a standard of quality ... seldom reached" in early 1977, the Eagle Awards were named "with official blessing from IPC " ( Eagle 's former publisher). The Eagle Awards were launched at the British Comic Art Convention , the earliest British fan convention devoted entirely to comics (and usually known by the moniker Comicon ). The first awards ceremony

11092-542: The Arcana Annual , bringing back two of the children of Free Country: Daniel, the chimney sweep, and Marya, the girl who was sent to bring Tim to Free Country but decided to stay in the real world after she did. Marya has become friends with Molly, and gets invited on her and Tim's first date - but panics Tim when she tells Molly that her boyfriend is a magician, causing him to accidentally freeze them both with magic. He eventually manages to unfreeze them again, but fall prey to

11280-543: The London Comic Mart by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons . The 1984 Eagle Award nominations were announced in May with Howard Chaykin 's American Flagg! dominating the nominations – Favourite Penciler, Inker, Writer, Comic, Character ( Reuben Flagg ), Supporting Character ( Raul the cat ), New Comic, Single or Continued Story, and two nominations for Favourite Cover – and winning seven of them. The 1984 awards presentation

11468-653: The MCM Award . The announcement prompted a public rift between MCM and the Conroys; as a result no Eagles were awarded in 2013. The Conroys decided to continue the awards separate from MCM, and in April 2014 it was announced that the award would be presented at the London Film and Comic Con (LFCC) and be named The Stan Lee Eagle Award , with the backing of Stan Lee in his last European convention appearance. In June 2014, however, it

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11656-499: The comic series . John Constantine first appeared in 1985 as a recurring character in Swamp Thing , in which he acted as a "supernatural advisor" to the main character . In these early appearances, Constantine was depicted as a sorcerer of questionable morality, whose appearance was based on that of the musician Sting (specifically, as Sting appeared in the films Brimstone and Treacle and Quadrophenia ). Alan Moore created

11844-544: The "Ring of Dolus" spell, which uses every happy memory, every pleasant thought, every piece of hope in John Constantine to swirl a magical "web" made of lies. This powerful spell helps John project an illusion of an already dead universe to fool Darkseid, while John manages to bring himself, the family and the Earth-2 civilians to safety, and even pickpockets some survivors back from Darkseid's clutch. As Constantine lands in

12032-683: The 1980s and the 2000s (being mostly dormant in the 1990s), variously described as the country's comics equivalent of the Oscars or the BAFTAs . The Eagle Awards were usually presented in a ceremony at a British comic book convention ; venues over the years included the British Comic Art Convention , UKCAC , Comic Festival , Comic Expo , and the London MCM Expo . Hosts for the ceremonies included such notables as Simon Pegg , Norman Lovett , Fraser Ayres , Billy West , and Anthony Stewart Head . Initially

12220-476: The Beast, who was manipulating John into giving it free access to humanity. In the process, he was rendered an amnesiac, leaving him vulnerable to the schemes of the demon Rosacarnis. To get his memories back, he had to spend a day in her service, in which she had him father three demonic children, who went on to massacre anyone who knew Constantine, from friends to enemies to people who had only briefly met him. Among them

12408-486: The Books. Have you noticed? At best, it gets you into trouble. About the only thing you can do in the Books that's more dangerous than wishing is surrendering to fantasies that others have constructed". The first of these characters living in another's fantasy is introduced in The Hidden School : playing on the suggestion in the original miniseries that Tim could grow to be a force for good or for evil, Rieber introduces

12596-468: The Bristol Comic Expo scaled back that year, and was not available for the evening awards ceremony. After attempting to go forward with the Eagle Awards as an online-only process, the Conroys were forced to cancel the 2009 awards due to a "lack of nominations." The 2010–2012 awards were presented at the London MCM Expo . At the 2012 awards it was announced that the award would in future be called

12784-473: The DC You title Constantine: The Hellblazer written by Ming Doyle and James Tynion IV. The title introduces John in a new outfit and new hairstyle, in his own adventures, unrelated to superheroes business. Constantine uses magic to trick a cashier in a clothes store and gets himself a new suit. He pickpockets a passenger, uses the money to buy a meal in a small restaurant and gets acquainted with its owner Oliver,

12972-445: The DC universe. The Arcana: The Books of Magic Annual was the sixth part of The Children's Crusade series, with artwork by Peter Gross . It introduced several characters created by Rieber that would be developed in the later ongoing series, such as Tim's biological father Tamlin, as well as starting off some of the ongoing book's storylines. The annual saw Neil Gaiman's first credit as "creative consultant" for The Books of Magic ,

13160-693: The Eagle Award itself was a certificate; eventually the award became an engraved trophy. Notable repeat Eagle Award winners included Alan Moore , who won the Favourite Comicbook Writer award an impressive eleven times (including sweeping the U.K. and U.S. categories in the period 1985–1987); Terry Austin , who won the Favourite Inker award nine times; Alex Ross , who won the Favourite Comics Artist (Fully Painted Artwork) seven times in ten possible years; and Laura DePuy Martin , who won

13348-835: The Eagle Awards website; the five most popular became nominees for the awards. Over the course of their existence, the Eagle Awards were eventually awarded in more than 30 categories. The first ballot had nominations in 19 categories: The next year's ballot, 1978, had 21 categories, dropping Favourite British Fan Personality and Favourite Comic Publication "All Time," and adding categories for Inker, Villain, and Supporting Character. The 1979 ballot dropped categories for Favourite Comic – Dramatic and Favourite Comic – Humour and added categories for Cover and Character Most Worthy of Own Title. The nominations for Favourite Single Comicbook Story and Favorite Continued Comicbook Story were separate from 1977 to 1980 and then again from 2011 to 2014; they were merged as one category from 2000 to 2010. Similarly,

13536-756: The Eagles were replaced by the UK Comic Art Awards , and then from 1997 until 2003 (with the exception of the year 2000) were supplanted by the National Comics Awards . In 2000, on the 50th anniversary of the birth of Eagle , the Eagle Awards returned. The ceremony was held April 22, 2000, at the Bristol Comic Festival (known as "Comics 2000"); this time MC'd by actor/comedian Simon Pegg . There were no Eagle Awards distributed in 2001; voting for comics published in 2000 ended in October 2001 and

13724-536: The Earth-2 John. As the Parademons storm in and take each family member down one by one, John is torn over between saving his own life and let the good, honest Earth-2 John live by sacrificing himself. Finally, he chooses to save his own skin: as he is kissing the other John, he holds his hand and drives the knife into his heart, ultimately killing the "other John". As the spells start working, John casts an additional spell to trick Doctor Fate, which masks his presence from

13912-635: The Favourite Colourist award six straight times. 2000 AD won the Favourite (Colour) Comic award 12 times, while The Walking Dead won Favourite Black & White Comicbook seven straight times. Batman was voted Favourite Comicbook Character 12 times and Judge Dredd won the award seven times; while the X-Men dominated the Favourite Comicbook Group or Team category, winning it eight times in

14100-534: The Favourite Cover category was only divided into British and American sections from 1984 to 1990. Reflecting an interest in long-form comics, the Best Original Graphic Novel category was added in 1986. The Favourite Team category was dropped after 1990. With the revival of the Eagles in 2000, categories for Favourite Writer and Favourite Artist were no longer separated into UK and US sections, and

14288-711: The First commands Nergal to release the soul he is holding. Cheryl's soul is pure and innocent, and does not belong in Hell, but the First offers her a truly devilish deal. He informs her that her husband, Constantine's brother-in-law Tony, has killed himself with her blood still staining his hands, thus making him twice damned, and offers to fairly divide her husband's punishment between the two of them if she stays of her own free will. Constantine attempts in vain to argue that Tony murdered her and does not deserve that mercy. Despite all that has happened, Cheryl still loves her husband enough to accept

14476-500: The First of the Fallen, the most powerful lord of Hell. When the First came to collect the soul, John tricked him into drinking holy water, which rendered him helpless and prevented him from collecting the friend's soul at the appointed time. For this, the First promised to make John suffer unprecedented torment in Hell when he dies. Slowly dying from cancer, John hatched a plan to save himself from eternal torment. He secretly sold his soul to

14664-473: The First plotting a grand revenge on Constantine, who manipulated the demon via his ally Ellie, a succubus, into coming into a trap; the plan only barely succeeded, and while the First was temporarily defeated, many of John's friends were killed. Constantine then went on to have a series of adventures and misadventures playing the role of puppet and puppeteer with his signature style and profane sarcasm. He managed to free Astra and every other child in Hell, but at

14852-461: The First's deal and decides to stay. Constantine can do nothing, as the First gloats over his victory and then sends him back home. Unable to look at his niece Gemma's tear-filled eyes because of his failure, Constantine runs barefoot down the stairs and into the Liverpool night. John later revisits Ravenscar Asylum, the place where he was thrown after being framed for Astra's murder. John remembers all

15040-501: The Jurassic Coast, England, he is confronted by Thomas, who points a gun at his head. Tired of everything, John yells at his father, and begs him to kill him off for good. Unable to do it, Thomas drops the gun, but Maureen quickly puts it up and prepares to shoot John, while questioning his actions. John contemplates and sees that while he is no hero, he is the only one willing to sacrifice the "proper John" to save his family, or to trade

15228-469: The Laughing Magicians, legendary mages who have the power over synchronicity and were infamous for bluffing and tricking gods. This ancestry later drives John to partake in his lineage and practice magic. One of John's first acts of magic, as a child, was to hide all of his childhood innocence and vulnerability in a box to rid himself of it. Later, in the 1960s, a teenaged John ran away from home after

15416-795: The Mighty won this award four times (with three of those awards going to Matt Smith ); Axel Alonso also won the award three times. 2000 AD was dominant in this category, winning 12 times; X-Men was in second place with six wins (five of them in the period 1977–1981). Savage Sword of Conan prevailed in this category three times in the five years it was awarded. The Walking Dead won this category seven straight times. Batman won this category 12 times; Judge Dredd won seven times, and Wolverine won it three times. DC's The Joker won this category five times, 2000 AD 's Torquemada won four times, and Marvel's Magneto came away with three wins. The Books of Magic The Books of Magic

15604-510: The Other to exist separately from Tim and the many separate pieces of Tim are reunited for the first time in his life. Tim's soul is immediately forfeit to Barbatos, and he becomes his slave but sets in place the chain of events that eventually leads to the demon being defeated and trapped in the Dreaming. The final issue showed Barbatos released forty years later and allowed to return to hell. Once free,

15792-412: The Other to reverse the damage done in opening all the gates between the worlds. In order to defeat the Other, Tim needs the help of the demon Barbatos - help which he can only obtain by selling a memory to the demon and sealing his fate as Sir Timothy Hunter. Tim faces up to his responsibilities, and sacrifices his future: Barbatos takes the memory of Tim's creation of his Other, making it impossible for

15980-536: The Phoenix"), Continued Comic Book Story (" The Dark Phoenix Saga ," X-Men #135–137), and Cover ( X-Men #136, by Byrne and Austin). The 1981 awards were organised by Burton and Conroy, and sponsored by Burton, Conroy, Colin Campbell, Bob Smart, and four UK comics retailers: Forbidden Planet , Forever People, Nostalgia & Comics, and Comics Showcase. After a hiatus in 1982, the Eagle Awards returned in 1983, presented at

16168-640: The Ramada City Inn in Bristol ; the Eagles were again not presented in 2005. The 2006–2008 awards presentations were held at the Comic Expo in Bristol, with the 2008 awards being notable for accusations of ballot-stuffing . Management of the Eagle Awards was transferred from co-founder Mike Conroy to his teenage daughter Cassandra Conroy in 2009 (although Mike Conroy stayed on as advisor). The previous years' venue

16356-432: The Swamp Thing. John returns home only to find Chas tied up and gagged by a gang of white supremacists, who have managed to deduce that Chas's winning bet was due to John, and force the con man to tell them how to win bets. While John is "doing magick", Marid and his djinns arrive and kill off the gang, and John and Chas manage to escape. Mercury and the Swamp Thing travel in the Rot to find Abigail Arcane. Mercury jumps into

16544-688: The US, and character, continuing story and "character worthy of own title" in the UK (in which last category his works held all top three spots). The awards became almost fully annual in 1987, in conjunction with the United Kingdom Comic Art Convention (UKCAC); they were held at the UKCAC in 1987, 1988, and 1990. The Eagle Awards went dormant during most of the 1990s, as organizer Mike Conroy focused on his freelance writing (including becoming an editor of Comics International ). From 1990 to 1997,

16732-579: The Vertigo Constantine and the DCU Constantine are kept separate, with no cross-over things going on. The DCU Constantine has to be the guy we know and love, with his same failings—otherwise what's the point of using him? But as I'm writing him he's younger and has perhaps been through a bit less than the battered aging old sod we meet in Vertigo. Unlike my Vertigo Constantine, the guy we see in JLA Dark

16920-528: The Vertigo line, Constantine appeared in several DC Universe titles, but for many years afterwards, editorial policy forbade him from appearing outside the Vertigo line. The policy was reversed in 2011, when a version of Constantine appeared in the DC Universe crossover series Brightest Day . In 2011, Peter Milligan added him to the inaugural key roster of The New 52 series Justice League Dark . Milligan began writing Justice League Dark while also writing

17108-465: The Vertigo's Hellblazer series, being a writer of both series at the same time. In an interview, Milligan told Newsarama : Yeah. Sorry about that. I felt pretty bad and it was quite strange, sitting on a few panels and then having a few interviews where I couldn't actually say that I'd be writing Constantine for DCU. I have to say, though, that that didn't change what I said, which I still stand by. Namely that as far as I'm concerned, it's important that

17296-582: The ancient sorcerer, then departs, brings along the family members and many other people. By killing the "proper" Constantine, he earns the wrath and hatred of the Earth-2 family. Being called "Devil", John corrects the family when they reach Heaven while peeling through the layers of the dying world: Heaven itself, also under assault from Darkseid's force, has closed its door and started departing, deeming this world beyond salvation. Later, John and his entourage are attacked by Doctor Fate, who managed to detect Constantine's whereabout. Despite succeeding in countering

17484-788: The armies of Hell to Faerie, demanding reparation or battle. In the midst of all this, the fair folk have lost their own will, belief and reason for being in the Fairie. Without such belief, the realm and all who are in it start becoming undone by something known as "the Leveler". Battle is temporarily averted when the Lords of Hell learn of the Leveller's presence and seek to escape. The flitling Yarrow saves Fairie: her belief and loyalty cause it to be recreated in reality as exactly what it seemed to be - happy, natural and carefree - and with no tithe now owed to Hell. There

17672-461: The arrival of Daniel: she removes the black soot that has transformed him, and changes him into the animal his soul most suits - a slow-witted but loyal puppy, that Marya happily adopts. Molly tells her companions about Sir Timothy Hunter, unaware that Tim has transformed himself into a cat and is listening in. The tattooist is aware, however: she traps Tim in his cat body long enough to take him to her home and thoroughly examine his soul, intending to do

17860-527: The assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan . John's first venture into occult "heroism" was a disaster. On tour with Mucous Membrane at the Casanova Club in Newcastle upon Tyne , he found the aftermath of a magical orgy gone horribly wrong; an abused child named Astra Logue had conjured a hideous monster that took revenge on her father, the club's debauched owner, and the other adults who were tormenting her, but

18048-580: The assault, John loses his "mother" Mary-Anne, who is dragged back by Fate's chain. This greatly traumatizes Thomas Constantine, John's father, who even attempts to commit suicide, but is talked out of it by John. After a long and hard trip, Constantine finally makes it back home, but Darkseid has sensed him and is in hot pursuit. As the menacing hand of the Apokolips God is reaching out for him, Constantine enacts his "last trick": by sacrificing some souls of his entourage, John manages to get enough power to cast

18236-579: The attention of the last member of the Cult of the Cold Flame, a magician called Martyn. Martyn attempts to seduce Tim into becoming his servant using a succubus called Leah, using magic to make Tim's father spontaneously combust so that the boy is alone and vulnerable. Tim is saved once from Leah by the arrival of Molly, as the succubus is touched by the genuine love between the two... but in his grief and anger, Tim manages to push Molly away and cause Leah to think he

18424-469: The background to his run, introducing Tim's "Other" (an alternate version of Tim created subconsciously when Tim was a child) and establishing that this Other was hunting through all the worlds Tim had unconsciously created during his life, trying to find the original and steal the original's power. Gross also showed a conscious break from exploring issues of Tim's parentage, having Titania announce that she would "never aid [Tim] again" after he refused to accept

18612-437: The beginning - tells him that Frank North's spirit has vanished completely, and something has been after John's ghosts. John tries to set up a scheme to lure and trap the entity which had been after his ghosts, by ramping up quite a number of ghosts from 'haunted sites'. The plan fails and Gary Lester's ghost is also taken by the being. After a few flashbacks and meeting with an old acquaintance named Georgie, John begins to unravel

18800-522: The bluff, showing that the effect goes both ways by clawing at his chest slightly. John begs Rosacarnis to kill him to save his sister, but just as she is about to, the First of the Fallen intervenes and immediately kills Rosacarnis, since Constantine's soul is his by "right of insult" and will only be taken when he deems fit. The First also kills Rosacarnis' two sons, but spares the daughter, who had been dealing with issues of identity and had doubts about whether she wanted to continue to exist. Following this,

18988-405: The box, not a second older than the moment he was first trapped inside it. Waiting for him is Leah, who trapped him in the box in the hope of teaching him an important lesson about his magic. But the lesson hasn't been learned in the way that she hoped, because of Tim's focus on the small scale: it wasn't the destruction of the forest that prompted him to reconnect with his magic, but the threat to

19176-486: The boy has "not a drop" of Faerie blood in him. This is something never resolved in The Books of Magic themselves, and Auberon's observation proves nothing since The Books of Faerie series tells that Titania, herself, is actually human and not fairie. Gwendolyn decides to stay and look after Tim while his father makes a miraculous recovery at the hands of the strange Mister Vasuki, eventually returning home after sharing

19364-526: The character after artists Stephen R. Bissette and John Totleben , who were fans of The Police , expressed a desire to draw a character who looked like Sting. They had already drawn at least one character in Sting's likeness, a briefly glimpsed background figure wearing a black-and-red-striped T-shirt in Swamp Thing #25. In his earliest Swamp Thing appearances, the character is drawn with a marked resemblance to Sting, and in Swamp Thing #51, Constantine appears on

19552-484: The character and commented in Rolling Stone that he thought it was great. He was very flattered to have a comic character who looked like him, but DC gets nervous about these things. They started to eradicate all traces of references in the introduction of the early Swamp Thing books to John Constantine's resemblance to Sting. But I can state categorically that the character only existed because Steve and John wanted to do

19740-401: The character's relationship with the women in his life, through his relationship with his late mother. However, when the 75th issue was reached, Gross decided to move away from the book, and instead DC announced that Dylan Horrocks would continue Tim's story in a five-issue mini-series called Names of Magic after a short break symbolizing Tim's readiness to face his destiny. A new mini-series

19928-400: The collected edition, author Roger Zelazny also noted that the structure bore some similarity to the key story points of the mythic structure identified by Joseph Campbell 's The Hero with a Thousand Faces - although he did allow that this might come from Gaiman's intimate knowledge of the same source material rather than a deliberate attempt to follow Campbell's guidelines. When the book

20116-494: The cost of the First returning to power; also, as part of the scheme, John's worst attributes were given separate existence as "Demon Constantine", which meant he himself could not go to Hell. As part of an attempt to regain his nastier edge, he used Ellie, and this led to her taking out a revenge scheme in 1998 that forced him to turn to the First for help; Ellie ended up in Hell, and several of John's oldest friends left him. John, being tired of all this, contacted God. God appears and

20304-412: The creature, Constantine is now free, and becomes even a bit more cocky and picks back up his earlier style from the beginning of his book and his appearances from Swamp Thing: a double-breasted blue suit underneath his trench coat, and slicked-back, gelled hair. Later on, a Sudanese shaman who had first bound the hunger demon Mnemoth has been having dreams of Constantine and a war-mage named Mako, who

20492-522: The curse, set on him by a demon called "Laughing Boy", whom he once crossed in the past, by using a ritual that deflects the curse from him to 8 million souls in London. Shazam and Wonder Woman make an appearance - they notice the ravens in London dying and prepare to intervene, while the Swamp Thing appears before them and tells them that they should trust Constantine on this one. The "Laughing Boy" demon tells John that he will return Astra's soul if John agrees to cancel his spell. However, it turns out that John

20680-473: The daughter of an infamous gangster, looking for his lost trench coat that his niece sold, finding his sister's long-lost son named Finn, and finally getting his sister's soul from Hell. By 2013, John was contacted by the Three Fates , who tell him that he will finally die in five days. Having lived a good and adventurous life, John happily accepts his fate rather than trying to fight it like he always does. When

20868-441: The demon Khara finds him. At first, she berates him for his inability to connect to the real world - until she spots his moth tattoo and realizes that it is preventing him from being able to connect so that he never has anyone close to him to get hurt. She encourages him to "open" himself and let the world in, which removes the tattoo and eventually leads Tim to decide that his magic belongs to the world and not him. He releases it into

21056-453: The demon discovered the true nature of Tim's apparent defeat: the boy had hidden his soul inside the memory Barbatos took and once inside the demon it slept, slowly taking complete control of Barbatos' body until Tim owned it completely, remodeling it with his magic to resemble his own at the age of fourteen. The final image of the issue, and The Books of Magic , showed Tim whole and complete, finally grown-up and ready to face whatever challenges

21244-420: The demon. Nergal went on to be a regular antagonist throughout the series. John suffered a nervous breakdown after this incident, and was committed to Ravenscar Psychiatric Hospital, which he drifted in and out of over the years. The guilt of Astra hung over John for many years. In his mid-40s, he used some magic and trickery to free not only her but also the souls of all the other children trapped in Hell. As for

21432-548: The editors' choice of writer. Gross was then asked if he could expand his ideas into an actual story, and he plotted a six issue story that he thought might be used as a "filler" until a new writer could be found. DC encouraged him to think bigger until, by the time he started writing his first issue, he had plotted out a 23-issue-long story for the book. This soon expanded into plots for Gross' entire 25-issue run, despite Gross initially being nervous that his writing efforts would be unfavorably compared to those of Gaiman and Rieber by

21620-583: The events of the Arcana: The Books of Magic Annual ) was actually his true father, and that the Faerie Queen Titania might be his mother: this revelation first appeared in a gaming guide to the DC Universe, possibly misinterpreting a scene in the original miniseries where Titania refers to Tim as "my son". Bindings also brings Tim into conflict with a Manticore , who attempts to convince Tim of

21808-461: The fact that her feet don't touch the floor. Zatanna tries to teach Tim to open his eyes, but in the end has no choice but to help Molly. As Molly learns of Tim's night with Leah - sad that he didn't think enough of her to tell her the truth - she breaks up with him, using a charm given to her by Zatanna to return home to her family. Tim reacts badly to Molly leaving, creating a whole world that he could mope in while toying with its natives' lives, until

21996-632: The fall of 1994. There were also three spin-off mini-series set in the Faerie realm, entitled The Books of Faerie . The first two volumes dealt with the rise to power of Titania and Auberon respectively, whilst the third documents the misadventures of Molly O'Reilly as she tried to come to terms with the curse placed upon her by Titania during the Girl in the Box storyline. There were also plans to create an ongoing The Books of Faerie series starring Molly O'Reilly, but these were eventually abandoned. In December 1997 ,

22184-413: The fifth day comes, John Constantine is murdered in his own home, when he is ambushed and killed by a gangster. His funeral is attended by many of his friends and family, but it later turns out that he had faked his death yet again. Constantine decides he should keep a low profile, because he does not want to hurt the people around him again. He bids farewell to Finn and Epiphany, and finally visits Gemma. In

22372-524: The film Constantine (2005), played by Keanu Reeves . On television, Constantine was played in the television series Constantine by Matt Ryan , who later reprised the character in the Arrowverse series Arrow , Legends of Tomorrow , and The Flash , and several animated productions. Jenna Coleman later portrayed a female version of the character (and her ancestor ) in the television series The Sandman , adapting both Constantines' roles from

22560-491: The fire, is in truth a demon hoping to force Tim to work for him. In retaliation, two angels elevate Tim's soon-to-be stepbrother Cyril to sainthood, and provide him with a foursome of living action-figures with dangerous powers. Araquel becomes their victim, turned into chocolate and smashed to pieces on the ground. Tim uses Awn the Blink and Reverend Slaggingham to trap all the angels and demons. In his anger, Tim throws an ice-cream at

22748-400: The future held with "no more whining". In addition to the mini-series and the ongoing series, Vertigo also produced four The Books of Magic annuals. The first, Arcana: The Books of Magic Annual , reintroduced Tim Hunter and launched the ongoing series. The second, actually titled The Books of Magic Annual #1 due to the change in name from "Arcana", told the story of Tim's encounter with

22936-538: The ground would wither her and eating real food would starve her, so she would be forced to stay in Faerie. Instead, she attempts to grow her own real food, her efforts attracting the attention of the Faeries, and her stubbornness attracting the ire of Titania: the Queen tricks Molly into eating Faerie food by making her crops grow overnight. The trick backfires, though, as Molly's anger transforms her into "the burning girl", who cuts

23124-428: The intervention of one of his childhood imaginary friends made real, Awn the Blink, who has an amazing knack for fixing broken things. Daniel, meanwhile, gives up his attack when Marya rejects his affections. All that remains is for Tim to help return Auberon's soul to his body and return him, changed by his experiences, to his wife's side. For his trouble, Auberon tells Tim that Titania cannot possibly be his mother, since

23312-473: The introduction of a "free vote . . . rather than pre-selected nominees," creating a "fairer reflection of fans' opinions – and some anomalous results, especially in the Roll of Honor category." The 2004 awards saw online voting for the first time; over 13,000 voting forms were "received via post, email and website counting centres." For the 2007 awards, nominations were made by the general comics-reading public via

23500-490: The leader of the angelic forces, only for her to merge with the leader of the demonic forces and reveal herself as Shivering Jemmy of the Shallow Brigade . She calls an end to the conflict having achieved her objective: to have "thrown in the face" ice cream. Tim's new family try to settle back to normality, with Cyril and Tim's father returned to normal and his new stepmother blaming everybody's amnesia on too much wine at

23688-400: The load - and on one occasion, Peter Hogan was brought in to write a filler issue that gave Gross more time to catch up. From the beginning of Gross' run, there were tentative plans for the comic to rest after it reached its 75th issue. Such a break would be used to allow the character of Tim Hunter to grow up a little before resuming his story - Gross had ideas for this later run to explore

23876-458: The lords there in payment of a tithe originally agreed by Huon. In truth, Faerie is not a kingdom of its own, but part of Hell that Lucifer offered to the Fair Folk when they first left the Mundane World. Lucifer's will and belief created the realm. In revealing Prince's true nature - which Titania had attempted to hide to stop the Lords of Hell discovering that he had escaped home - Molly brings

24064-415: The magician distracts him, but the tattoo still manages to return to his arm. Following his experience, Tim decides that what he needs is a mentor to teach him about magic and sets off for America to find Zatanna . At Los Angeles airport, he meets the succubus Leah who has moved to the city to become a model. She convinces Tim to travel with her, and accompanies him out into the desert on a camping trip. In

24252-408: The maltreatment he suffered, and remembers every suffering and guilt he had for the past years. At first, it appears as though it is too much for him and that he will be overtaken by the images of the ones he has hurt, but the being turns into the form of a baby. This baby, who is the sum of all his guilt and self-hatred, is then promptly thrown off a cliff near the asylum and into the sea. After killing

24440-524: The meanwhile, Gemma, hearing about her uncle's return from the Fates, tries to kill herself with a poisonous revolver, but Constantine sneaks the last remaining dart from his niece. Gemma says her life will be better without him, because he takes up too much of it and she is either hating him or loving him too much. John suggests he let her be, but Gemma fears he will return and put her life to misery. John tells Gemma to make her own decision, and she reluctantly points

24628-480: The monster refused to leave. With typical recklessness, John convinced some members of the band and several occultist friends to try destroying the creature by summoning a demon of their own. Unfortunately, this demon was not under their control and tormented John's friends after it had destroyed the other demon before taking Astra to Hell . John had summoned the demon by one of its names, but not its true name of Nergal , which would have been required to bind and control

24816-510: The native one of Earth-2, who is surrounded by his friends and even gets married. After the death of Wotan, Constantine resolves to find his Earth-2 counterpart. He travels to Liverpool and witnesses all the horror and despair of the dying world. As soon as John reached the destination, he is shocked to find his "parents" (actually the Earth-2 John's parents), his friends Gary Lester, Chas Chandler and his former love interest Maureen still alive. The Earth-2 John quickly attacks him by grabbing him in

25004-417: The neck, but they are engulfed in visions of their lives in parallel right after: a dangerous life marred with sorcery, adventures and regrets of Earth-0 John and a much quieter, much happier life of Earth-2 John. Constantine quickly earns the trust of the Earth-2 family, who consider him to be a wonder. Together, they escape to a warehouse where John instructs them to draw sigils to cast a complex spell. As John

25192-421: The new DC Rebirth -initiative The Hellblazer . The series restores many of the traditional aspects of the original Hellblazer run while still remaining firmly in the larger DC Universe, restoring his original backstory and featuring old allies such as Chas, Mercury and the Swamp Thing. John Constantine returns to England and is greeted by his old time friend, Chas Chandler, at the airport. He resolves to dispel

25380-576: The night, Leah disguises herself as Molly and tries to sleep with Tim: he sees through the deception but tells her that if she had come to him as herself, he wasn't sure what he would have done. Tim kisses Leah, and the two continue where they left off. In the morning, the two become trapped in the world of a dying mermaid and Leah has to take the mermaid's place to save Tim. Tim wakes in the real world and continues on his journey, without realizing what has happened to Leah. Tim continues his travels across America, until he somehow ends up trapped on an island on

25568-502: The non-existence of magic before hunting and killing him. Tim revives and releases a unicorn that has been similarly hunted, and destroys the Manticore - but not before he is poisoned by it. The boy nearly dies, until his father Tamlin performs a magic ritual which allows him to die in Tim's place. The boy recovers and returns to Earth with Titania's curses in his ears, having to come to terms with

25756-499: The ongoing series Constantine , which replaces Hellblazer . He is still an unsavory trickster in the New 52 universe, as, while during the Trinity War between the three Justice Leagues , he tries to trick Shazam (15-year-old Billy Batson) so that he can steal his magic. He fails, causing Billy to become even more distrustful of other people than he already was. In Constantine #14, it

25944-535: The original one. John was forced to let Nergal enter his body to finish him. Later, they also encountered Ellie, who seemed to have quite pardoned John for him selling her out to the First. She was not subject to any torture or punishment, either. The couple finally arrived at Rosacarnis' hall, where there was a feast with all three of Constantine's children, the First, and many demons from all Hell . Because of Nergal's earlier possession of his body, any damage done to John would be mirrored on Nergal. Nergal, however, calls

26132-551: The origins of how he got his trademark trenchcoat. During the gap where he travels the world to learn magic, the New 52 added the history of him meeting Nick Necro, who was implied to be John's mentor and original owner of the trenchcoat. The Forever Evil: Blight storyline would establish that the three characters were all involved in a magical pact and a love triangle, which fell apart due to Zatanna ending her relationship with Nick to pursue John. Nick states "We were all in love, and you two shut me out!" The character also stars in

26320-532: The other two Lords of Hell. When they discovered Constantine's actions, they realized that they could not allow him to die, or else they would be forced to go to all-out war over his soul, a war whose only winner would be "the Lord of the Hosts", i.e., God and his angels. They were also far too stubborn and proud, however, to enter anything resembling an alliance. As a result, they were forced to cure John of his cancer. This led to

26508-420: The outburst of magic so that instead of a new world, Currie's version of Tim is recreated. The teacher then drains Tim's magic and hides it in a prearranged place: the true Tim leaves the world to learn how to control his magic and defeat his Other, whilst Currie and his alternate Tim remain to die in battle with the hope of convincing the Other that he has killed the true Tim. When the Other was convinced that he

26696-488: The outskirts of Faerie. He manages to escape the island with the help of Huon the Small, the first King of Faerie. Huon and Tim travel into the heart of Faerie. Molly and Prince have been joined by Titania's otherwise loyal flitling Yarrow, and have decimated the kingdom. Worse, Molly manages to unenchant Prince to reveal that he is in fact Titania's son and the heir to the throne: Prince has spent most of his life in Hell, given to

26884-716: The period 1985–1987), with Chris Claremont winning it four times (all in the span 1977–1981). Mike Mignola won this award three times while Frank Miller won it twice. Multiple winners of this award included John Byrne , Brian Bolland , and Alan Davis with three wins; and Neal Adams , John Bolton , George Pérez , Bill Sienkiewicz , Frank Miller , Brian Talbot , Frank Quitely , and J. H. Williams III with two awards apiece. Terry Austin won this award nine times in an eleven-year span (from 1978 to 1988). Alex Ross dominated this award, winning it seven times in 10 possible years. Laura DePuy Martin won this award six straight times from 2000 to 2008. 2000 AD 's Tharg

27072-402: The potential to become the world's greatest magician. The Books of Magic began life when DC Comics decided to highlight some of their mystical characters across the range. They initially approached writer J. M. DeMatteis to script a prose book with illustrations from Jon J Muth , Kent Williams , Dave McKean and others, but when it reached the stage of confirming the artists' involvement,

27260-460: The real Molly again, Sir Timothy is overcome with guilt and tells her his life story in the hope that she can prevent her Tim from becoming him. Tim, meanwhile, manages to see through all of Barbatos' attempts to trick him, and eventually brings the fairy tale world crashing down around their ears. Sir Timothy dies protecting Molly from the destruction unleashed by Tim, and the two children are reunited. As they return home, they leave Barbatos trapped in

27448-563: The realm of Faerie had cut itself off from Tim's world (the Mundane world) it was withering and dying - something that Titania hid from her people by using powerful glamours, but that Tim managed to permanently cure by "opening" the realm again to the Earth. However, this story was merely the backdrop to a more personal story for Tim, as he discovered that the Falconer Tamlin (who kidnapped Tim during

27636-506: The reception. Tim is just enjoying his new freedom from magic when he finds the box that Leah used to live in: picking it up, he finds himself sucked inside it and trapped inside a small square of ground in a vast forest. He spends a lifetime there, talking to a tree that grew from a seed that fell inside his patch of ground. When a fire starts to destroy the forest, Tim's anger puts him back in touch with his magic as he tries desperately to save his one tree, but then finds himself returned outside

27824-430: The rest of the "Newcastle Crew", the incident left the group both physically and psychologically scarred. After helping Dream retrieve his sands from John's own dying ex-girlfriend Rachel, Dream in turn relieves Constantine of the nightmares that had plagued him since the incident. John is later freed from Ravenscar by London gangsters, threatening to torture and kill his sister and her family unless he helps to resurrect

28012-554: The revelation that the people he thought of as his parents - a mother who died in a car crash caused by his one-armed, grieving father - might be no relation to him at all. Partly the Faerie storyline in Bindings was written to appease DC's desire for a "big" story to launch the new series with: Rieber's original starting point was to be the Summonings storyline instead, introducing Tim's first girlfriend Molly O'Reilly and demonstrating

28200-647: The revolver at him. Gemma closes her eyes before muttering, "Damn you, John Constantine" and pulls the trigger, but when she opens her eyes again, Constantine has vanished. The last scene shows Constantine in the Long Journey's End bar, holding a glass of liquor with a vacant look. In The New 52 , Constantine appears as one of the lead characters in Justice League Dark . His history is slightly altered, such as meeting Zatanna in New York instead of San Francisco, and

28388-421: The ruins of the world he created, although he does briefly escape again. Following Molly and Tim's disappearance, both find themselves grounded and banned from seeing each other. Molly manages to sneak out and ends up around a camp-fire discussing Tim with Marya and a mysterious tattooist who says she wants to help. The tattooist demonstrates her experience of both men and magic when Marya is again threatened by

28576-418: The same to him that she did with Daniel. She has to change her plan when she is shocked to discover that Tim has no "inner animal" and that he is just a normal, healthy teenage boy. Instead, she offers to give him a tattoo that will stop him from ever hurting Molly: Tim agrees, and gains a moth/scorpion hybrid across his chest that stings him whenever he gets angry or performs magic. Soon after, Gwen decides it

28764-511: The series Books of Magic during war times. Gross' first story arc, then, dealt with Tim settling into Bardsley school and meeting Thomas Currie, a man who had traveled through various worlds searching for the true Tim to either prepare him to defeat his Other or kill him to prevent the Other stealing his power. Currie took advantage of the disappearance of a teacher at Bardsley so that he could take his place and interact with Tim, but this only caused problems for both as Tim's stepbrother Cyril saw

28952-611: The series' fans. As well as writing, Gross continued to provide artwork for the book, juggling this with a separate career teaching a class in Comic Illustration at Minneapolis College of Art and Design . Despite this, he still attempted to write full scripts for each issue, saying: "I like working that way so I can kind of forget about it before I sit down to draw. So when I draw it, I can think of it as something I didn’t write almost". This sometimes caused difficulties for Gross, and guest artists were used frequently to help lighten

29140-531: The single tree. Exasperatingly, Leah cannot even decide if Tim is wholly wrong in thinking that way. Instead, she leaves Tim with the important reminder that he might try to throw away his magic, but he will never wholly succeed: it is a part of him, and always will be. Peter Gross explained in his 25 issue run on the book as being the story of Tim's "boy time", commenting that previously the book had often presented benevolent female characters but had been less successful at their benevolent male counterparts. His story

29328-503: The soul of his brother out of his own soul, so he can control his life and live his way. In the 2010s, John entangles himself in further adventures. He goes to India and fights a ghost of a British soldier of the Sepoy rebellion, fights a Babylonian shape shifter named Julian, gets his thumb cut off to contact Shade, the Changing Man , marrying a young girl named Epiphany Greaves, who was also

29516-493: The souls he had claimed were worthless, and leaving New York city for good. Albeit the cost of Oliver's soul, which Blythe had claimed by previously blackmailing him and John with the souls of his daughters. In The Hellblazer: Rebirth , John gets back to London to remove the curse placed upon him (originally shown in Constantine #3, which makes him physically sick whenever he sets foot on London soil) and resumes his adventures in

29704-794: The span of 11 years. Wolverine won the Favourite Comicbook Character category three times, the Favourite Supporting Character award three times, and the Character Most Worthy of Own Title twice. In 2014, in connection with Stan Lee , the Eagle Awards were renamed, and presented as, the True Believer Comic Awards . They have not returned since then. The Eagle Awards were set up by prominent British comics enthusiasts Mike Conroy , Nick Landau , Colin Campbell, Phil Clarke, and Richard Burton . Because

29892-570: The story of John Constantine five years into a possible future of the New 52 universe. He somehow obtains the ultimate occult artifact, the Helmet of Fate, and manages to trick and kill the ancient magician Nabu with the help of an old ifrit . John Constantine's origin in the New 52 universe is seemingly retconned in the Secret Origins series. In the story, a group of kids in Liverpool manages to get their hands on an occult book and uses it to summon

30080-399: The story", by the time of the 1985 San Diego ComicCon , Moore stated, "It's turning into something more than that now." Veitch's contribution was to give Constantine an earring, something he considered risque for 1985. Asked in 1985 about the similarities between John Constantine and the character Baron Winters (from Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan 's Night Force ), Moore revealed that he was

30268-498: The suggested artists all declined to be involved. At that stage, DeMatteis also decided to step back, and DC instead approached popular writer Neil Gaiman and asked him to come up with a four-issue prestige-format series "about our magic characters". Drawing on a childhood spent working his way through the children's section in his local library and a childhood love of magic and fantasy stories such as T. H. White 's The Once and Future King , Gaiman created an everyman character of

30456-407: The teacher die whilst potholing under the school and used the status he gained from controlling the other boys' access to the body to turn the school against the new teacher and Tim, although his influence only lasted until Tim and Currie removed the body and the teacher resigned. Tim makes a deal with Cyril to stay away from Bardsley in exchange for his stepbrother not telling Bill and Holly what Tim

30644-426: The time was right to stop "taking DC's $ 200 an issue and not doing anything" and resigned as creative consultant on the book. With Rieber leaving, the series editor Stuart Moore championed Gross to take over scripting duties because "I knew he could do it. He's got a great sense of story and character". Gross initially wrote a short memo detailing where he thought the series should go, hoping that it might influence

30832-401: The true identity of the ghost-hunting entity, as his (and Georgie's) old time lover, Veronica. After releasing Veronica's soul, Constantine starts to notice (and is also warned by other beings whom he deems as 'friends') the increasing number of supernatural activities in New York city. Being part of Neron's grand scheme, John manages to (after quite a bit of struggle) con Neron into thinking that

31020-544: The two converse in a campfire. John then tells him his reason for contacting Him. He warns God that if his soul is ever sent to Hell, he would easily take over, and do nasty things such as unleashing the demons and locking away Hell so that the damned cannot enter and have no resting place. John blackmails God to do his bidding, and that is to keep his soul away from Hell. God, knowing of John's abilities, does so, but warns him of what will come next. On return to Britain in 2003, and after reconciling with his sister (who believed he

31208-410: The universe and resolves that he will have nothing more to do with it. Although Tim thinks he is finished with magic, magic is not finished with him. Returning home with the fallen angel Araquel — who had previously been tricked in to breaking his chains by Barbatos — Tim finds that the armies of Heaven and Hell are fighting each other to a standstill in the mortal world. The prize they are fighting for

31396-452: The way, Tim meets some of the DCU's more prominent magicians and fantasy characters, such as Merlin , Zatara , Doctor Fate , The Spectre , Madame Xanadu , Doctor Thirteen , Zatanna , Dream , John Constantine , Cain and Abel , Destiny , and Death , whilst his allies try to protect him from the machinations of the Cult of the Cold Flame. Following his misadventures, Tim decides that the price

31584-463: The winners were announced in June 2002 (at the Comic Festival , which had replaced UKCAC), so news reports announced these variously as the 2000, 2001, or 2002 Eagle Awards. The Eagles again went dormant in 2003 (replaced by the National Comics Awards ). The Eagle Awards returned in 2004 (sponsored by the retailer Ace Comics) and were presented at the inaugural Comic Expo , held November 6–7, at

31772-566: The writer's desire that the stories should be about "a realm that has never been mapped by the Royal Geographic Society and never will be. People who've lost touch with the place call it 'Adolescence'". Rieber's run also contained several stories about the need to stay connected with the world that they live in. Several of his characters, including Tim, seek to avoid their problems in the real world by escaping into fantasy, but Rieber later explained that "wishing never solves anything in

31960-452: Was Tannarak from the Cult of the Cold Flame ( Constantine #15). His primary enemies in Constantine are Mister E , Sargon the Sorceress (the original Sargon 's daughter), and Tannarak: all are members of the Cult of the Cold Flame. Together with his allies Papa Midnite , the psychic mage Spellbinder, and a witch called Julia Everheart, Constantine attempts to destroy the Cult by conspiring

32148-414: Was again organised by Burton and Conroy, and sponsored by Burton, Conroy, Colin Campbell, Forbidden Planet, Nostalgia & Comics, Bob Smart, and Comics Showcase. Marvel 's X-Men comic and creators dominated the 1981 Eagles, winning Favourite Comic Book, Artist ( John Byrne ), Writer ( Chris Claremont ), Inker ( Terry Austin ), Character ( Wolverine ), Single Comic Book Story ( X-Men #137, "The Fate of

32336-462: Was announced that the new award would be called the True Believer Comic Awards . The inaugural True Believer Comics Awards were presented July 12, 2014, at the LFCC, with host Anthony Stewart Head and a special appearance by Stan Lee. They have not been awarded since. At the outset of the Eagle Award, ballots were made available to "most dealers, shops and fanzines." The initial method of casting votes

32524-631: Was at the Birmingham Comic Art Show. By the mid-1980s the work of British authors often dominated both the UK and US categories. In 1985 Alan Moore won favorite writer in both categories, and in 1986 (presented on June 1 at the Birmingham Comic Art Show), the awards "proved to be a virtual clean sweep ... by Alan Moore ," who not only again won "favourite writer in both the US and UK categories," but had his work win for favourite comic book, supporting character and new title in

32712-504: Was born in Liverpool on 10 May 1953, the son of Mary Anne and Thomas Constantine. Mary Anne died giving birth to him and his stillborn twin brother because an earlier abortion, forced on her by Thomas, had weakened her womb. Since he was unable to accept responsibility for his wife's death, Thomas blamed John and the pair grew up with a deep dislike for each other. While in the womb, John strangled his twin brother with his own umbilical cord; in

32900-460: Was dead), he went on to be involved in a magic war in London, and was horrified to find his niece Gemma, whom he had wanted to keep out of this life, had become a witch . He soon ended up organising a counterstrike against a creature known as the Shadow Dog, having been warned of its coming and believing it was an entity that brought death and madness; instead, it was a guardian against the true enemy,

33088-550: Was designed to be inclusive and straightforward, with completed forms able to be returned to the same place, rather than a centralised location. An initial ballot formed a list of nominees, from which the voting ballot was created and disseminated in the same manner. The awards for 1983 used an open voting system, with no pre-selected nominees. In 1984, the Eagles introduced a new nomination system composed of "prominent British fans, publishers, dealers, and artists," which put forward three names in each category. The 1986 Eagles saw

33276-551: Was followed by a new ongoing monthly series, which was eventually presented as Hunter: The Age of Magic . The original mini-series concentrated on Timothy Hunter's introduction to the world of magic by the Trenchcoat Brigade (the Phantom Stranger , Doctor Occult , Mister E , and John Constantine ), who are aware that the boy has the potential to be the world's greatest magician but that his allegiance to good or evil

33464-453: Was going to leave the comic. Gross attributed this to Rieber's growing dislike of the comic's central character, which Rieber seemingly confirmed in his "Afterward" for his final issue, saying: "I've found it difficult to like Tim now and then. Of course he gets on my nerves. He's a lot like someone I spent years learning not to be". Rieber's last issue was issue #50, coincidentally the point at which original co-creator Neil Gaiman decided that

33652-442: Was going to return by explaining that when he was asked to take over, John Ney Rieber had specifically asked for her not to stay in the comic and although this request was later withdrawn Gross thought it fitted the story he had plotted and made Tim more central to his own comic if she wasn't used. .. There was a spin-off ongoing series planned for her but was abandoned with the death of Vertigo Editor Lou Stathis. Molly would return in

33840-664: Was held on 3 September 1977, at the Bloomsbury Centre Hotel, London. The 1978 and 1979 awards were also presented at the British Comic Art Convention. Almost from the beginning, the awards included separate UK and US sections. The 1980 Eagle Awards (for comics published in 1979) were sponsored by Burton, Conroy, Colin Campbell, Dark They Were and Golden Eyed , Steve Dillon , Forbidden Planet , Forever People, Nostalgia & Comics, Bob Smart, and Valhalla Books; and organised by Burton and Conroy. The 1981 edition

34028-433: Was his sister Cheryl; one of his sons had exploited her husband's religious fanaticism to make him see his wife as a witch — and thus a person to be killed. This forced Constantine to go on journey to Hell in the hopes to return his sister's soul. Accompanying him was Nergal, the demon he thought he had killed by sending him to the border of Heaven. While in Hell, John and Nergal met Demon Constantine, who tried to kill

34216-506: Was initially released over 1990/91, it proved very popular and led Vertigo Executive Editor Karen Berger to make it a regular ongoing series under editor Stuart Moore . Tim Hunter made the ultimate choice to pursue magic in the Mister E miniseries by K. W. Jeter when he was forced to use magic to prevent Mister E from killing him. He was aided in this decision by The Phantom Stranger , Doctor Fate , and Zatanna . Berger struggled to find

34404-636: Was not to be born and that it should have been he who had been born, instead, as he is the Laughing Magician; he requests that John and he merge their souls so they become one and can fix the world. They had previously attempted this, but John was apparently too strong-willed. John then makes the link that the soul of his unborn brother caused him to get cancer and for his relationships to fail, and that anytime he tried to take control of his life, something bad would happen to make John weaker, so their souls might be able to merge. After realizing this, John cuts

34592-543: Was partly designed, then, to show Tim accepting his male side and learning how to be a boy - one of Gross' reasons for not using the character of Molly during his run. He did comment that if he had stayed on the book, Gross' next story would have shown Tim similarly exploring his feminine side and would therefore have reintroduced some of the established female characters such as Molly or Gwen. He announced his run as going "in another direction" and not trying "to duplicate John's success". Consequently, his first issue laid down

34780-503: Was revealed that John Constantine, as a boy, was taught and cast his first magical spell—at the cost of the lives of his parents and his house burning down (it was implied that his mother, unlike in Hellblazer , survived the childbirth). It was also revealed that he spent his childhood in the '80s in Liverpool, England (it is not shown if he had any siblings, like Cheryl Constantine in Hellblazer ). The one who taught John his first spell

34968-403: Was streetwise, working class, and from a different background than the standard run of comic book mystics. Constantine started to grow out of that. In 1988, Constantine was given his own title, Hellblazer . In 1993, at the launch of DC's Vertigo Comics imprint , Hellblazer was made an official Vertigo publication. It was the longest continuously published Vertigo title. Before the launch of

35156-419: Was the writer for the job, however, Berger asked him to persevere: he tried "several times to come up with something different, but it still didn't thrill anyone". At one point, Rieber himself tried to withdraw from the project, but Berger was still convinced that he could do it, and when the Vertigo The Children's Crusade event was being planned, she asked him to write one of the chapters to reintroduce Tim to

35344-431: Was triumphant, he used his power to open all the gateways between the worlds — allowing Tim to escape to the Inn Between the Worlds using his mother's glamor stone to disguise himself as a girl called Mary but also freeing the Wild Hunt, the god-killing band trapped for two-thousand years by a compact of rulers from Heaven, Faerie, Hell and other realms. Living as Mary and working at the Inn, Tim becomes best friends with

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