John Constantine, Hellblazer # 1

"Hunger"

Writer: Jamie Delano
Artist: John Ridgway
Colorist: Lovern Kindzierski
Letterer: Annie Halfacree
Editor: Karen Berger
Cover Artist: Dave McKean

John Constantine returns to his apartment in London and finds his old friend Gary Lester waiting for him. While in the Sudan, Gary trapped a hunger demon named Mnemoth in a bottle, traveled with it to London, and then mailed it to New York City to try and get it to Constantine. John travels to the Sudan, learns the origin of the demon, then goes with Lester to New York. Constantine meets up with Papa Midnite, the local voodoo magician of Manhattan, and encounters the ghost of his dead lover, Emma. He finally confronts Mnemoth but runs away when he realizes he's not strong enough to defeat the demon.

Notes From the Underworld

As the first chapter presented in the "Original Sins" collection, "Hunger" offers up our introduction to the world of John Constantine.

John had been a supporting character in Swamp Thing for a few years by this point, and though it was due to his appearances in that series that he became popular enough to warrant his own title, nothing had really been established about his personal life. Constantine was the quintessential "man of mystery", popping up to tease out plot details and lead Swamp Thing on merry chases for things around the world. We knew Constantine was English, sure, but that was about all that Alan Moore had said about his background.