After favorable reader reaction to John Constantine‘s appearances in the comic book series Swamp Thing, where he had been introduced by Alan Moore during his authorship of the title, the character was given his own comic book series in 1988. The series was intended to bear the title Hellraiser, but this title was revised before publication due to the contemporaneous release of Clive Barker‘s unrelated film of the same name. Initial writer Jamie Delano was, in his own words, “fairly ambivalent” about the change of title.
The initial creative team was writer Jamie Delano and artist John Ridgway, with Dave McKean supplying distinctive painted and collage covers. Delano introduced a political aspect to the character, about which he stated: “…generally I was interested in commenting on 1980s Britain. That was where I was living, it was shit, and I wanted to tell everybody.” The book, originally published as a regular DC Comics title, became a Vertigo title with the imprint’s launch in March 1993 (issue #63 of the series). In October 2011, it was announced that this would join DC titles in being published digitally on the same day as its physical release, starting in January 2012.
EHT Comics 