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John Constantine: The Magic of Influence

Ian Harvey Stone’s geek-themed magic show and its connection to John Constantine

The enduring appeal of Constantine’s character and his influence on popular culture

Ian Harvey Stone writes, I’ve been a geek long, long before it was ever remotely chic or at least OK to be so. I spent my youth supping tea in a garage playing war games, role playing and hanging out with about five other friends (all teenagers, all male) debating movies, staging epic campaigns for illusory heroes and reading comics. The role playing thing graduated into acting, the hanging out changed as we grew older, went our separate ways and discovered the chops to hang around girls but the comics never really went away. Comics like the X-Men, Judge Dredd/2000AD, Daredevil, Captain Britain and Batman proved to be the gateway drug to titles like Hellblazer, Sandman, The Books of Magic, The Invisibles, Marshall Law, Luther Arkwright and Preacher. Always been a big fan of Hellblazer though, always loved Constantine.

I reckon it’s something to do with Constantine’s laconic, lop-sided, chain-smoking delivery of some of the best lines ever written, drawn by some of the finest artists working in the comic medium coupled with the magic thing that has always had me coming back for more. So I hit upon an idea. I have been a bit ‘Constantine’ for the majority of my adult life. What I mean by that is that I’ve been travelling across the planet, picking up skills and getting into and out of scrapes by manipulating the circumstances, being lucky or found charming or on more than one occasion, running away. I’ve met many interesting folk from Shaman and witch doctors to high pressure sales gurus, the pick-up artist communities, martial artists, hypnotists, holy men, grifters, storytellers, spirit mediums and magicians and mentalists. I have a pretty useful skill-set. I’m also an actor and teacher of Theatre specialising in modes of actor training and a qualified instructor of stage combat.

I feel I should add I made ‘Elite’ playing Elite on the BBC micro. 🙂 In performance when things have gone awry, I’ve winged it, trusted to luck/the universe/the powers that be/improvised (delete as appropriate to your particular flavour of belief) and has been doing exactly what mentalist comedian or ‘comedium’ Peter Antoniou voiced as his mantra by thinking ‘What Would Constantine Do?’ And I thought, hang on! There’s a show there somewhere! So I came up with a conceit based around JC, I pitched it to Alan Moore and asked his permission to use the character as he created it. He replied that he didn’t mind at all and didn’t like to look back on work over thirty years in his past. I had his grace but he said he doubted DC Comics would let me do it, as they owned the character.

I then wrote to Neil Gaiman and Jeff Lemire, pitching the idea and asking for their help with who to pitch at DC. They wrote back writing of the recent change around at DC, so didn’t know who to suggest but both wished me luck, thought it was cool and hoped I got permission. I also wrote to the current guys working on Constantine as part of the New 52, but they were in the same boat. I tweeted Dan Didio who retweeted my tweet! But it went no further. So I sent it in to rights and permissions and it got knocked back in a day or so. A solid, fat, unequivocal NO. That got me thinking. Maybe a homage to Constantine wasn’t the thing. Surely, the comic and character had influenced my ideas and my approach to magick, but rather than playing Constantine, I started to think about the archetype. Those of you who may have read Neil Gaiman’s wonderful, wonderful Books of Magic will know all about the Trenchcoat Brigade

The Art of Storytelling: From Comics to Performance

Ian Harvey Stone’s concept of “What Would John Constantine Do?” and its potential as a show

The challenges of adapting comic book characters to other mediums

I asked him to tell me more, and he did…

The Evolution of Comics and Storytelling

The Resurgence of the Four-Panel Strip

Craig E. Sawyer’s take on the four-panel strip and its relevance in the age of social media

The advantages and challenges of telling stories in a condensed format

You may know me as a writer of comics, and sometimes writer of articles that appear in the hallowed halls of Bleeding Cool, unless Rich Johnston hasn’t had his morning tea, then I receive the J. Jonah Jameson styled email telling me to write better, and take better pictures of Spider-Man (they are always blurry). I have a few subjects I want like to tackle today, the main one being the four-paneled strip. They have existed since the early 20th-century, with early American comic strips like Winsor McCay’s Little Nemo in Slumberland (1905 -27), and also the appearance of yonkoma (“four-cell”) manga in Japan. I have always loved the four-paneled medium, and I feel they are making a huge come back in the age of Instagram and other social media, especially after Instagram introduced the Carousal in 2017, which allowed comic strips to thrive. I mean, our phones are basically a one panel, right? We have become enamored with squares, so a four panel strip fits perfectly in the age of ‘quick bite’ entertainment.

I am all for standard comics, but a recent job has me drawing a four-panel western. It’s been challenging and fun to learn how to tell a captivating story with so little space. And let’s talk about what readers are reading. Recent data has shown that comic book readers are reading fewer superheros and exploring other genres. The once insular market is opening up to the arrival of a more diverse audience with different tastes, like those of the western, sci-fi, and horror genres.

Genre-Bending and the Rise of Diverse Audiences

The shift in comic book readers’ preferences and the growing popularity of western, sci-fi, and horror genres

The potential for cross-pollination between genres and mediums

The popularity of the wild west comic is nothing new. The legendary artist Jack Kirby cut his teeth on gun-wielding cowboys, on titles such as “Kid Colt Outlaw” and “The Two Gun Kid.” I am writing a new four-panel with artist Luke Archey, which is based on ‘The Rifleman’ TV series from the late 50s and early 60s. It was created by Levy-Gardner-Laven Productions Inc. The series was very well written and pretty progressive for its time, with famous guest stars such as Sammy Davis Jr., a very young Dennis Hopper, and the Dark Knight himself Adam West. There were also a series of colored comics by Dell/Gold Key in the 60s. ‘The Rifleman’ Four Panel Episodes will be released on ‘The Rifleman’s’ social media and website (see below), beginning every Sunday in June. The series will follow the adventures of a Wild West rancher, wielding a customized rapid-fire Winchester rifle, while raising his son in the sometimes lawless New Mexico Territory.