Hellblazer and Hellboy
I love comics. I was drawn to them because I enjoy a well-told story. Comics often combine good art with a good story.
A lot of people don’t know that a fair number of artists, writers, inkers and others in the comics industry are gay, lesbian or bi.
While religion often doesn’t appear in comics, sometimes it does in the form of fighting demons or evil. Investigation of the occult and fighting demons is the main occupation of two of my comic favorites: Hellboy and John Constantine.
John Constantine is the main character in a comic series called Hellblazer. He is bisexual and sometimes sexually ambivalent. He was outed in issue #51 (“Counting to Ten”) that he had boyfriends in the past. During the “Ashes and Dust in the City of Angels” (issues #170-174) arc he seduced a male character as part of an elaborate con.
John Constantine is a morally mixed character. He relates to the demons he encounters.
Hellboy is my favorite. Born a demon, he becomes a man. He works for the BPRD (Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense) and encounters everything from the monsters of H.P. Lovecraft to the trolls of Norwegian legend. Underneath his honesty lurks a sarcastic wit. His stories always show that choice has a part in everything we do, but we can’t escape our history either. An occult theme I can personally relate to, given my family history and curses.
