{"id":11060,"date":"2010-07-15T14:02:40","date_gmt":"2010-07-15T13:02:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/?p=11060"},"modified":"2010-07-15T18:12:03","modified_gmt":"2010-07-15T17:12:03","slug":"why-you-should-read-hellblazer-original-sins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/blog\/why-you-should-read-hellblazer-original-sins\/","title":{"rendered":"Why you should read\u2026 Hellblazer: Original Sins"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/hellblazer1.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-11061\" style=\"border: 1px solid black; margin: 10px;\" title=\"hellblazer1\" src=\"http:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/hellblazer1-200x300.jpg\" alt=\"hellblazer1\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a>This is the first Vertigo graphic novel I ever read \u2013 having heard about the legendary mature comics line through word of mouth, I thought Hellblazer would be the first series from it I&#8217;d try, given the sheer morbid tone that underpinned the cover artwork of every trade. It looked engaging, so I picked up the opening set of stories in the Hellblazer ongoing, Original Sins.<\/p>\n<p>While I didn&#8217;t think Original Sins was the most coherent of collected editions, it nevertheless does a tremendous job of portraying broken, Thatcher-governed Britain of the time through the eyes of the always overwrought John Constantine character. John Ridgway&#8217;s art is a perfect match for the type of downbeat-yet-defiant Constantine that Delano shaped in these opening stories, creating a template for the character that would be followed by other writers for years to come.<\/p>\n<p>Original Sins gave me the taste for mature comic books, leading me to try Neil Gaiman&#8217;s Sandman, Swamp Thing and Dave Gibbons&#8217; The Originals within the same year. In general, I believe the line has been creatively buoyant since its inception, and much of that credible groundwork came from the early Hellblazer stories.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A John Constantine tale.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":11061,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"MSN_Categories":"Uncategorized","MSN_Publish_Option":false,"MSN_Is_Local_News":false,"MSN_Is_AIAC_Included":"Empty","MSN_Location":"[]","MSN_Add_Feature_Img_On_Top_Of_Post":false,"MSN_Has_Custom_Author":false,"MSN_Custom_Author":"","MSN_Has_Custom_Canonical_Url":false,"MSN_Custom_Canonical_Url":""},"categories":[1,140],"tags":[1547,1548,1408],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/hellblazer1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11060"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11060"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11060\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11061"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11060"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11060"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11060"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}