DC’s Rebirth for John Constantine meant moving the character back across the ocean to his home of England where he could cause his usual trouble. The first few issues has had Constantine teaming up with Swamp Thing in some ways as a bigger threat is slowly teased.

I got a chance to talk to writer Simon Oliver about the series and what we can expect next for DC’s resident bad boy.

Graphic Policy: For you, who is John Constantine?

Simon Oliver: A lot of people see him as a magician and a grand wizard. I see him as a con man and a wanker who isn’t really all that good at magic. I think he’s far more con man than he is magician.

GP: Interesting.

SO: It’s what we used to call in England a blagger. Only in this world he’s a supernatural blagger.

GP: In the first three issues it feels like there’s an emphasis that his magic isn’t as good as he thinks it is. He doesn’t have his act together. In the past he’s gotten people injured, but seemed to know what he’s doing. But here it feels more like it’s being made up on the fly and he doesn’t.

SO: I think he wants everyone to think that John Constantine is the man with a plan, that he’s always in control. But the truth of it is he doesn’t really have a plan. He’s making it up as he goes along. I think he’s not really that good at magic. That’s not his strong point at all.

GP: The first three issues deals a lot with Swamp Thing. They’re two characters that have revolved around each other for quite some time.

SO: Yeah.

GP: What go you to want to bring Swamp Thing so early into the story arc as opposed to just focusing on Constantine and saving Swamp Thing for down the road?

SO: I was a little apprehensive to put him in just because I’ve dealt with Constantine in the past. Swamp Thing I was a little more apprehensive because to me he feels even more like an iconic figure. When I went back to really look at it and read all of the points in the past and where they’ve interacted, I love the interaction that they’ve had and for me it’s always where those two characters are at their best, is when they’re interacting. I think it brings out a certain side of John I really like and I think it brings out something in Swamp Thing. I think he’s really funny. There’s a sort of sense of humor in Swamp Thing that Constantine manages to bring out. Before the word frenemy existed, those two characters epitomized the meaning. They’re kind of friends, but they’re kind of not. They kind of use each of other. They kind of distrust each other. But they kind of like each other as well. I think it’s really interesting complex relationship that I really enjoy.

GP: With the two it strikes me as buddy cops in a way. You have the straight man. You have the loose cannon. Is that how you see the two?

SO: I hadn’t thought of it in those terms, but it is. I think a lot of the Constantine character lends himself to that. He definitely has a little bit of that with his relationship with Chaz. But Chaz and Constantine aren’t always on equal footing with Chaz pressured, tricked, dragged along on these adventures. There is the inherent craziness of one of them being a plant. I tried to double down on that. Constantine finds it pretty funny that he has this relationship with a plant.

The whole thing has become, even to me, a very real three-dimensional character. Every now and again when I’m writing it… it’s a fucking plant. I think that’s what Constantine does that every now and then.

There’s the scene where Constantine doesn’t tell him where they’re going and to get in to the car and then he just complains about the cigarette smoke and the whiskey from last night. It’s the little things like those moments and their history together like the tattoo on Constantine’s ass, to me those are the touchstones of their relationship.

GP: The history is an interesting part. I’ll admit I’m still relatively new to Constantine and Swamp Thing. Talking to others, your series does touch upon a lot of the past. For you as a writer, how do you find that balance in touching upon past events without being off-putting for new readers?

SO: Yeah. It’s tricky. You try to write that line. I went back and read the first 220 Hellblazers from Vertigo in order. I really wanted to see what there was and get into the mythology and really prepare me to go toe to toe with any Hellblazer fanatic. I wanted to be on top of that.

It has felt like the most recent New 52 run neglected that history which is a shame because there’s so much there. It was crazy not to.

It’s a fine line.

For some people there’s complaints that there’s too much continuity. For other people they really enjoy it and enjoy the fact you’re tipping the hat to past characters and events.

For me it was possible to touch upon those things while laying the groundwork for the greater story arc I’m writing at the moment which is primarily between John Constantine and the Mercury character.

I think the Mercury character for me was interesting because I wanted to find a character that I could pick up from the old continuity but then I could reinvent on my own. Mercury first made her appearance in issue 14 I think, so way book as a child. I could use her and bring her up to date. She’s a character that knows him but I could make her my own. So to me going forward that Mercury character is key to connecting this version of Constantine to the old one.

It’s funny because when I do signings at stores I always make of point of asking people of their experience of picking up the book. A lot aren’t even old enough to have read it when it first came out. And it’s interesting and the answers are from all over the place. There’s people who got to know him from the movie, or television show, or the New 52 run. I always ask them if there’s anything you’re not quite sure about? And most of them say “no” and if there is anything it makes them want to go back and find out more about it.

It is a balancing back. Hopefully you don’t lose people in old continuity and going forward you’re able to explain who these characters are and how they fit in.

GP: That’s my experience. It doesn’t hamper the story at all for me.

SO: I had a really good time going back to the beginning and watching the evolution of the character. I knew who he was when they offered it to me. I had done with stuff with him before so I knew what I was getting in to and who that character was. But going back and rereading all those issues I learned exactly where all those pieces of those characters came from.

GP: The character has had live action. There’s the movie and television show. The show has a cult following about it. Does that weigh in at all? Those are two different takes on the character than the comics.

SO: I didn’t watch all of the episodes. I saw what I thought what I needed to. I thought the character had the John Constantine DNA. At the same time it was omitting certain things. It felt like the network version. It felt like a monster of the week. The point I knew my version and their version was going to be different was in the pilot where he does a magic trick to save the day in the final act. With that character you try to avoid that as much as possible. With that, I did do that with the Rebirth issue where he saved the day by doing that at the end. But we’ll give me a pass on that. I think Matt Ryan did a really good job. He got the DNA of the character.

Initially when they offered me the book I was picking up on the last run and nothing about Rebirth was mentioned. So I was picking up on the character in the States and theoretically I could have picked him up and moved him anywhere. But with Rebirth I asked if I could pick him up and move him back to England? And they’re like sure. To me, that’s where he’s grounded and he lives in the real world. In the tv show I didn’t think he was living in the real world.

With Constantine it’s about the characters around him and help ground him and I didn’t the tv show was grounded enough.

GP: With Rebirth I think of that as a renewal and getting them back to their roots. With Constantine the biggest thing was moving him back to England. What is it about that location for the character? He’s one of the few characters as a “British hero” like Superman or Batman are “American.”

SO: I left England in 1992 and for me, John Constantine is rooted in that preserved in amber version of England I have in my head. Nasty pubs filled with old men spitting in their beers so you don’t steal their beer when they go to the bathroom. It’s packets of cigarettes and bottles of cider and sad couches in sad apartments. To me, he’s rooted in that version of England which I don’t think exists anymore. But to me, he’s rooted in that and mentally I have to go back to for that character.

There’s definitely for some to be had of putting John Constantine in a fish out of water situation. And New York is about as close to London as you can get. I think he’s very much at home but England is where he’s most at home and where the characters are. It’s hard to separate him from those elements for a long time.

GP: The third issue is coming up. Where can we expect the series to go?

SO: We’re going to finish that arc out in London with John realizing the genies are taking over London and bad things are going to happen. Then we pick him up and move him to Paris for an arc  and ultimately we look at the root of the genies and the old legends. I definitely wanted to move it away from the Heaven and Hell angels and devils and wanted to move it a bit Middle Eastern in some ways. So we’re going to move it out to the desert and a little Indiana Jones. John’s going to save the world from itself.

GP: Thank you so much for chatting and looking forward to what’s next!