There’s a scene with John in a hospital bed wearing a Misfits t-shirt. For those of you who don’t know, John is a British character with a British punk background. If he’s going to be wearing a t-shirt, it should reasonably be a British punk band like The Sex Pistols or somethingnot an American punk band like the Misfits. So why did I want to upset Hellblazer readers like this?
I did two issues of Hellblazer in the past with Jason Aaron, #245 and #246. I really like Aaron’s workgot a big kick out of the scriptand I think the issues came out pretty well considering two American guys were handling a British book. As I’ve stated before, the editor at the time didn’t fill me in on the back-story of Hellblazer, so my only understanding of the character came from a quick Wikipedia search. I didn’t know that Hellblazer was the flagship title of Vertigo, so I didn’t think twice about messing with the character’s look. I also made sure the editor approved it before moving forward. He said it looked fine, so I went ahead and did the two issues.
A lot of the feedback was good, but I raised a few eyebrows regarding my choice of clothing. To play up the punkiness of John, I gave him suspenders and a leather jacket. But since John usually wears a long coat, I lengthened the leather motorcycle jacket into a knee length ordeal. If it was a movie, this would look stupidthe 90s are over. But for a comic, I thought it worked graphically. The only problem was that the colorist didn’t make the jacket black, he made it the normal brown. Apparently the editor didn’t pass on my color notes.
The eyebrow raising wasn’t just confined to the jacket. It was also the suspenders, John’s age, his hairline and his nose.
One of my peeves with some comic book people is that they don’t allow enough give-and-take with their characters. So what if John looks a little old? So what if he’s wearing suspenders? I think people with distinct noses look cool. And because I was frustrated with some of the criticism, I decided to further push those points of contention on City of Demons. And because the book was an under-the-radar stock story, I was able to get away with liberties that my new editor assures me wouldn’t fly nowadaysI like Shelly Bond a lot, so I mean that with complete respect. And I know she’s rightit’s stupid for an artist to passive aggressively challenge long-time readers like that.
Two years ago, when I was drawing issue 2, I hadn’t understood that yet. I probably had just read a comment somewhere bashing my take on John, so when it came down to deciding which punk band to put on his shirt, I went with an American band as a fuck-you to people who took the book too seriously.
And I wish I hadn’t done that.
Not because I’m afraid of ruffling feathers, but because what I did was irresponsible storytelling. If I’m as committed to being a storytelling foremost, then I wouldn’t have done that. John is a British guy with a British punk history, and my choice of t-shirt will take some people out of the story. If you’re taking people out of the story, then you’re not a good storyteller.
But I’m happy to report that City of Demons seems to be making some people’s #1 pick of the week. Also, there are a few mentions of people buying it who have never read a Hellblazer book. A few hitches aside, most people are digging the art. Hellblazer fans have been very kind this time around, so if you’re one of them, thank you. I tried hard to get the UK vibe correct (the buses, the city, the subway signs, etc) and dropped the ball a few times, so I appreciate people rolling with it.
In the end, Hellblazer turned me into a fan of the character, so here’s hoping I can do another run at some point.