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Degrees of Separation by Josh Whitener I’m a fan. I’m a really big fan of Hellblazer; especially the writers that put their time and effort into making it a book that people like me want to read constantly. So I would like to give special consideration to DC comics and the Vertigo line and everyone else associated with Hellblazer and make sure they get the respect they very much deserve. I’ve always felt that writing the character of John Constantine, or any other character for that matter, must be a fulfilling and exciting thing. When I decided to write some stories of my own I started the same way he came around to begin with by then Swamp Thing writer Alan Moore. Because of this I decided to include what I like to call my “forgive me” explanation. The reason I put this at the beginning of the stories is that I feel if you’ve got the main ideas in your head then there is really no reason to point them out later. I would like to extend credit to someone who openly wanted to participate in “Degrees of Separation”. The character of Tyrone, a naďve street punk from the wrong side of the streets, was devised by a friend named Katie who as it turns out thought of my take on Constantine very creative. How I will never know. All the dialogue and most of the story taken from his point of view belongs to her, I’ve only edited it slightly to fit with the story as I developed it. To be honest she really didn’t have any prior knowledge to Hellblazer and after introducing it to her she was equally interested but still claimed she would think of mine first. Here’s to that one Katie! Ironically it’s her that’s the native to England and me, a college student, originally from Boston who thinks he can write Hellblazer fanfic. Ultimately the reason I asked John McMahon to post these here is to get a little feedback. I give him the much needed credit and thanks as well. I enjoy writing and these fan fictions were kind of like my first dive into the water, but I still plan on putting out various other stories as I go along. Now I would like to start by saying this first arch “Degrees of Separation”, I feel, is flawed in many ways. Pointing these out might give you better insight into the story which is my ultimate goal. When I wrote this it was back and forth on a message board where I currently post the stories and still continue to, there was no division of stories and it just came out as one very large story. This I felt wouldn’t work the same as if I split it up, but I found that in parts one works better than the other. The characters in the story were devised from a very number of things and some where from stories in the past that I never really developed. Some of the things I would like to keep to myself in terms of how or why these people do what they do in the story to a) keep it over for interpretation; and b) perhaps further in other stories. I do intend to put a story before my opening five-part to ensure some kind of continuity. Originally I intended another story to go before “Degrees of Separation” which involved a character another friend of mine created and John but also using the Tate Club, and Clarice from both Warren Ellis’s run and Mike Carey’s current one. I also included a few more names to the roster created by myself. That, unfortunately, has yet to be put to script yet so I had to go through and edit certain parts accordingly. The character of Lucas comes into play both before this story, and after it and in some ways that kind of takes the ending feel away. “Degrees of Separation” was the only story I had my doubts with, but when looked at for the general tone and quantity of the writing it comes off as a rather large story that one could say I had no intention of taking seriously. The first portion puts John in a place I’ve always wanted to see him go – Russia and for good reason. It provides a good setting for something that takes place later on in the stories I’m currently working on. I hope everyone responds to these honestly. That’s the reason I would want to show them around in the first place after all. I may not necessarily agree with some views but it’s all in good fun for fanfic anyway. I’ll try and keep that in mind, but like I’ve heard John Constantine is like a ghost. He just keeps haunting you. |