The debate surrounding John Constantine’s first appearance
Originally a supporting character in the pages of DC Comics’ Swamp Thing series, magical anti-hero John Constantine has become a popular protagonist, featured in his own comics, movie, and television series, as well as making numerous appearances in other comics and media.
But when did Constantine debut? According to official DC Comics sources, Constantine’s first appearance was Swamp Thing #37 (cover-dated June 1985), but some claim that the character appeared a year earlier in the series, making a one-panel cameo in issue 25 (cover-dated June 1984), while others state that the promotional publication DC Sampler #3 (published November 1984) includes Constantine’s first appearance.
When Constantine appears in Swamp Thing #37, the character is consulting with other mystics about the dire portents of a coming crisis, wearing his signature trench coat and smoking cigarettes; significantly, Constantine bears a striking, deliberate resemblance to the musician Sting.
In a 1993 Wizard magazine interview with Swamp Thing writer Alan Moore, the writer acknowledges that Sting inspired the creation of Constantine, as the comic’s artists Steve Bissette and John Totleben wanted to draw a character that looked like Sting:
“One of those early notes was they both wanted to do a character that looked like Sting. … I can state categorically that the character only existed because Steve and John wanted to do 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 was streetwise, working class, and from a different background than the standard run of comic book mystics. Constantine started to grow out of that.”
And so Constantine — the “blue-collar warlock” — appears in Swamp Thing #37. DC’s website lists this issue as Constantine’s first appearance, as does the licensed DC Comics encyclopedia, The DC Comics Encyclopedia: The Definitive Guide to the Characters of the DC Universe.
But the art team didn’t wait until issue 37 to draw a character resembling Sting. In issue 25, Abigail Arcane, a supporting character and love interest of Swamp Thing, is in Baton Rouge; in one panel, after Abigail witnesses a horrific accident, next to her on the crowded sidewalk is a character who resembles Sting, and therefore Constantine. Some argue that this nameless bystander is Constantine, and that this panel is the character’s first appearance in comics.
Online sources such as Wikipedia and a DC wiki fan site currently list issue 25 as the character’s first appearance. However, these sources provide no evidence that the creative team intended this cameo character to be Constantine. Also, the cameo character’s hair style and casual clothing are inconsistent with subsequent Constantine depictions, and the cameo may be just an artistic joke.
If this bystander is not Constantine, perhaps DC Sampler #3 (published months before Swamp Thing #37) features Constantine’s first appearance. The sampler’s contents spotlight several DC titles, and in a three-page feature, Swamp Thing’s dream foreshadows the upcoming arrival of several characters in the series, such as DC’s occult adventurer The Demon and recurring antagonist Anton Arcane; notably, an unnamed character that looks like Sting is also depicted in the third panel of the second page.
Although this character is unnamed, the feature depicts characters that arrive in future stories, and a compelling argument can be made that this character is Constantine.
With three publications as contenders for Constantine’s first appearance, there is no unanimity on the character’s debut. Given the anti-hero character’s moral ambivalence and occult nature, it is perhaps fitting that Constantine’s first appearance is subject to debate.
NOTES: An online excerpt from the 1993 Wizard interview with Alan Moore cited above can be found on the blog site www.qusoor.com.
Although Moore credits Bissette and Totleben for Constantine’s creation, Constantine’s arguable first appearance in issue 37 was penciled by artist Rick Veitch, with inks by Totleben; Bissette penciled and Totleben inked issue 25, as well as the Swamp Thing feature in DC Sampler #3.
The uncolored DC Sampler #3 artwork above can be found at the site www.comicartfans.com. Colored artwork can be found at the site rootsoftheswampthing.com.
The images above are the property of their respective owner(s), and are used here for nonprofit educational purposes only.
