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Written by Eddie Argos Friday, 18 September 2009 01:14

Eddie Argos discusses his love of Chicago and John Constantine, and takes a look at the Hellblazer star's contribution to the new Vertigo Crime line, Dark Entries, from crime novelist Ian Rankin.

We've been playing over in the States a lot recently. More specifically, we have been playing in Chicago a lot. We played there a couple of months ago for five sold-out nights in a row at Schubas, and then again just recently we played two nights in a row there—one night at the Subterranean and then a festival the next day. We play in Chicago more than most local bands that live there. It is almost like we have moved there. We haven't though, unfortunately, so it's a long commute to get to 'work.' I've spent quite a few hours flying to Chicago recently. 

Chicago is an amazing place. On our first visit to America, I decided it was my favourite place in the whole country. Everyone we met was so down to earth, friendly, kind, and funny, and I  especially liked the fact that more than any other city we'd been to the people spoke like professional wrestlers. I've changed my mind about that last bit now. I think we just happened to have met some very over-excited people the first time we were there, but still, Chicago is the place in America where we have made the most friends. The people there are also incredibly generous. During our five-day run at Schubas, every night people would turn up with presents for us. I've recently written a song about The Replacements, and because of that I was given so many Replacements bootleg CDs and Big Star albums (they are sort of musical godfathers to The Replacements), and I even was given a book about The Replacements. This time when we played the Green Festival, probably because of our DC Comics song, somebody gave me a copy of Ian Rankin's new John Constantine book (before it was even out, which was quite impressive). It was just in time, as I think I'd read every other Hellblazer book over my very frequent flights to and from Chicago.

My friend Keith TOTP, who I live with, has a huge suitcase full of comics which he keeps in our front room. Whenever I have a long tour or flight, I raid it. I thought I'd pretty much finished all of the comics in it. Delving through it this time though, I found a huge pile of Hellblazer books. I didn't know much about Hellblazer so I took all of them and read them over the course of my many flights to Chicago. They were all pretty ace. I read most of Garth Ennis' run on my first flight, and then on my next I read all of Mike Carey's run. On my third, I read Andy Diggle's and Denise Mina's. You don't need me to tell you that it's ace. Hellblazer is Vertigo's longest running title, and I'm clearly  coming to it really late. I'm just setting the scene to let you know that I am a relatively new fan of Constantine in case I put a foot wrong with what I'm about to write.

Ian Rankin's Hellblazer book is called Dark Entries and I read it, like I had read all the others, on the plane home from Chicago to Los Angeles.

That was a few weeks ago now. So bear in mind that I'm writing this from a dressing room in Augsburg, Germany, without Dark Entries or any other Hellblazer books with me to compare with each other, but Ian Rankin's Hellblazer felt very different than the previous books I had read.  Before I go any further, I should probably write SPOILER ALERT in big capital letters to let you know I'm about to give some of the plot away.

In Dark Entries, Constantine goes into a reality TV show without reading the contract properly and has to work out what's going on. I know what I'm about to write makes me sound like a whiny comic book guy asshole, but I'm saying it anyway: THAT ISN'T HOW CONSTANTINE SHOULD ACT. Yeah, he can be a bit lackadaisical, but he's a wily trickster con man who is used to pulling the wool over the eyes of demons and demigods. I'm sure he reads the small print when he signs a contract. Now I understand that different writers bring different aspects to the long history of the character they are writing, and just because I love the character John Constantine doesn't mean that I own him, but it was quite hard for me to to go from reading stories about a very complex, guilt-ridden, compelling  character to the more straightforward two-dimensional character Ian Rankin has written. It is almost as if by putting Constantine into a reality TV scenario, he has made him as featherweight as the people that populate those programmes.

I'm also used to the idea of Hell in a Hellblazer book being a terrifying place. In this book it seems to be full of potato-shaped people watching reality TV. For no discernable reason.

You can probably tell I didn't really enjoy Dark Entries, but this might just be because I was expecting something else: a traditional John Constantine story, which this didn't really feel like.  I don't know how I would feel about this story if it wasn't a Hellblazer story, although to be honest if the choice was based on the plot alone, I probably wouldn't have picked it up at all. The idea of a satire of reality TV feels a bit stale in 2009.

In the unlikely event that you haven't read any Hellblazer books before, I don't recommend you start with this one.  Start with maybe The Laughing Magician, Dangerous Habits or Original Sins to see what a complex, fascinating and ballsy character John Constantine can really be. And if you want to see a very good satire of reality TV, watch Charlie Brooker's Dead Set: a series about contestants on Big Brother who are blissfully unaware of the fact that zombies have overrun the world. It has made any other commentary on reality TV feel redundant. I'm not really sure what Dark Entries is for. I'm going to lend my copy to my mum as she is a fan of Ian Rankin (his Rebus novels are very good). She wouldn't normally pick up a comic book; perhaps it's aimed at people like her. In that case, I suppose it is ok to read Dark Entries as your first Constantine book. If only because I like the idea of my mum becoming a Hellblazer fan. | Eddie Argos

In this edition: Dark Entries (DC/Vertigo Crime)

216 pgs. B&W; $19.99 hardcover