Latest Comic Guest Announcement - JAMIE DELANO

[SM Comic Zone]

JAMIE DELANO

 

Writer: Hellblazer; Captain Britain; Animal Man; Batman: Manbat; Outlaw Nation

 

Attending: Saturday Only

 

UNDOUBTEDLY best-known for Hellblazer, the Vertigo series that many consider the DC mature readers imprint's flagship title, Jamie Delano began his comics career some five years before Alan Moore hand-picked him to chronicle the exploits of the streetwise magician the acclaimed British writer had introduced in 1985's Swamp Thing #37.

 

Delano's first professional writing assignments were for Marvel UK where, beginning in 1983's Daredevils #11, he authored text stories featuring Night Raven. These were illustrated by Alan Davis, with whom the British writer would move on to launchCaptain Britain in 1985.

 

With all but one of the first 12 issues of that Marvel UK comic under his belt, Delano spent the next two years contributing to other titles, primarily Doctor Who Magazineand 2000 AD, before Moore suggested DC hire him to launch Hellblazer, which marked Delano's US debut. That was in 1988 and across 37 of the first 40 issues of that series he fleshed out John Constantine's character and background, creating a template from which subsequent writers of the comic have seldom strayed.

 

In 1990 Delano scripted DC's World Without End six-parter and then the following year the Night Raven: House of Cards graphic novel, his first work for Marvel itself. After that, his Hellblazer run at an end, he took on Animal Man, scripting 29 straight issues of that DC title. That took him into 1995 but as his run was coming to an end he also authored two 1995 Vertigo projects – the Tainted one-shot and the six issues of Ghostdancing.

 

Next Delano, who'd previously authored a single 1994 issue of Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight, wrote 1995's Batman: Manbat three-parter and then reunited with John Constantine for The Horrorist, a DC/Vertigo two-parter. The writer's 1996 output was limited to Dynamite's first Vampirella Strikes Annual although he did also contribute to Showcase '96 #3 for DC and script Twisted Metal 2. An extremely rare one-shot, DC produced it for Sony to use to promote its video game of the same name.

 

Come 1997, Delano launched 2020 Visions (a DC/Vertigo 12-parter) but also signed on with Valiant for an 11-issue run on Shadowman. The following year he authored Vertigo's Hell Eternal one-shot. Then with 2020 Visions and Shadowman at end, he migrated to Dark Horse (where he'd previously made a contribution to a 1995 issue ofDark Horse Presents) for the four issues of The Territory before ending 1999 back at Vertigo where he collaborated with fellow writer Tom Peyer on the Cruel & Unusual four-parter.

 

Although he kicked off 2000 with a two-issue serial for Legends of the DC Universehe was soon back at Vertigo where he authored the three issues of Hellblazer Special: Bad Blood before launching Outlaw Nation for which he scripted all 19 issues. That series ended in 2002 at which point Delano's comics output dwindled to virtually nothing until 2008.

 

It was then that he resurfaced at Avatar with two four-parters, first Narcopolis, thenRawbone. Although he would return to Avatar in 2012 for six issues of Crossed Badlands, his last major project was back at Vertigo where he revisited Hellblazer – for which he'd scripted the occasional fill-in down the years – for John Constantine, Hellblazer: Pandemonium, a 2010 graphic novel.