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Peter Hogan
First off, Peter, I'm going to confess that your name doesn't ring a bell -
apart from your upcoming SANDMAN PRESENTS work, have you had any other comic
work published ?
Yup. I was in 2000AD on a pretty regular basis for nearly four years, and
wrote a lot of their stock characters - Sam Slade, Strontium Dogs, Durham Red
… I even did one Judge Dredd story. Then Vertigo signed me up to do a story
for THE DREAMING with Steve Parkhouse - 'The Lost Boy' - which came out in
'96. Last year I did another one with Gary Amaro - 'Ice' - and since then I've
written several more. The next one to come out will be #25, due in April. It's
called 'My Year As A Man', and it's set in ancient Greece.
Have you any other projects lined up apart from the aforementioned Vertigo
books ?
Yes, mainly in THE DREAMING, where there's a long storyline about to start
that's being co-written by myself and Caitlin Kiernan - we plotted the whole
thing together and are each writing separate bits of it. That's keeping me
busy for the next few months, but Vertigo want me to do some more stories for
SANDMAN PRESENTS as well, plus there's a couple of things I can't tell you
about yet. I've also written a short Christmas Spirit story for Kitchen Sink's
new Spirit anthology, but I don't know when it's coming out or even who the
artist's going to be.
What's the difference between the upcoming SANDMAN PRESENTS and THE
DREAMING ? Judging from what you said in your initial e-mail, the SANDMAN link
is minimal at best.
Well, they're trying to get a bit of continuity going in THE DREAMING - hence
this long storyline. The idea behind SANDMAN PRESENTS is - I think - to be a
bit more varied, and not so confined to the Dreaming itself. It sort of sprang
from this story I wrote called 'Love Street', which features the teenage John
Constantine. Vertigo were thinking of making it a DREAMING/HELLBLAZER
crossover mini-series. Then Neil Gaiman suggested THE SANDMAN PRESENTS as an
umbres so they
could make it a semi-regular title - it's not a monthly, but there'll be at
least four issues a year, maybe more.
As to the SANDMAN connection … 'Marquee Moon' is sort of a spin-off from a
story of Neil's called 'The Hunt', but 'Love Street' is a bit more directly
linked. One of the key scenes is a party at Alexander Burgess' house in 1968 -
and more than that I'm not saying, because it'll spoil the surprises.
John Constantine is scheduled to make a cameo appearance in your 'Marquee
Moon' one-shot and the sarcastic Englishman is also set to play a part in your
three-part 'Love Street' arc (both to appear as part of the SANDMAN PRESENTS
line). What's the attraction in writing J.C. ?
He's a rogue, and rogues are fun. I actually think Constantine works best as a
guest star - that's what he was originally designed as - and that if you flesh
him out too much, you start to lose him. But I wanted to do something
different with him, and what I've gone for in 'Love Street' is to show you a
whole chunk of his life that no one's seen before. I know that might sound
like I'm fleshing him out even more, but what I wanted to do was prove there's
bits you don't know yet. I suspect there's bits we'll never know - Constantine
plays a lot of stuff close to his chest. I hadn't planned to write him again
after that, but Neil asked me to do a story about the early days of punk, and
a cameo by Mucous Membrane was kind of inevitable.
Favourite issue of HellBlazer you've read ? Do you have a favourite
HellBlazer era - (i.e. Jamie Delano's angry Constantine, Garth's hellraising
John or Paul's quieter model) ?
Alan Moore is a hard act to follow ! I've liked bits of everybody's runs …
though I think I actually liked Paul's the best. I liked his anniversary issue
a lot. And I liked the one-off that Neil did…
What's your take on John Constantine's character ? What do you think makes
him tick ?
He's not the bastard he makes himself out to be. Like I said, he's a rogue,
and rogues are always lovable though heaven help you if you loved them or worked with them. I
think he's honourable but flawed - a bit bloody-minded and stubborn, a bit
vain. He can't help but get mixed up in the weird stuff, because it's always
interested him. Beyond that, he just does what he can … And he's probably a
lot smarter than he lets on. I wrote one scene which got junked that was set
in the British Library, simply because I figured he probably spends a lot of
time there.
Which title would you most like to work on and why ?
Title, I'm not sure … There's lots of characters I'd like to have a stab at.
Dr Strange and/or Dr Fate - the old one, with the helmet - are probably top of
the list, just because there's so much that could be done with them. I suppose
I have a thing for solitary mystics …
Favourite drink ?
Always Coca-cola.
You've been approached by the Vertigo crew to handle the last 12 issues of
HellBlazer, with free reign to do what you will - how would you end the series
?
If they asked ? I'd jump twenty years or so into the future, and show him in
his mid-sixties. Pretty much unchanged and unrepentant, but overweight and out
of breath. And I'd have him fight alongside Tim Hunter in the Last Battle, and
I'd have them win it. And then I'd have him stroll off into the sunset holding
hands with Zatanna, a ciggie dangling from his lip till the very end. .
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