‘Constantine’

By Rick Bentley

The Fresno Bee

LOS ANGELES

Welsh actor Matt Ryan wasn’t a big reader of comic books when he was younger, something he now regrets as he takes on the title role in “Constantine”— the latest in the growing list of TV shows based on a comic book character.

Luckily for Ryan, he’s got a comic book sidekick to help him.

“I have a friend who’s a huge comic book fan, so much so that he actually writes his own comics now. For years, he’d been telling me about John Constantine,” Ryan says. “When the audition came around, he sat me down, and he was like, ‘John’s got to be like this.’ I was like, ‘All right. All right. I’ll try my best.’”

Constantine’s story started in “The Saga of the Swamp Thing” No. 37 as the creation of Alan Moore, John Totlenben and Steve Bissette. He eventually moved into his on comics that were first called “Hellblazer” and then “Constantine.”

No matter in which comic the character appeared, Constantine always has been a cynical occult detective trying to do some good with his life despite his soul already being damned to hell. Until he has to cash in, Constantine travels the country battling supernatural terrors.

Since being cast, Ryan has had a chance to pour over the three decades of volumes of tales of the demon fighter.

The show’s executive producer, David S. Goyer has been a fan of the character for a longtime, and he even once wrote a letter to DC Comics that was printed in an edition of “Swamp Thing.”

“The thing that I always loved about Constantine is he was a smart ass. So in a world of superheroes and a world of demons and angels, he was just a complete smart ass. He didn’t have any superpowers. He had a wicked sense of humor,” Goyer says. “I also felt like it was someone that would sort of translate into television.”

The show, which premieres Friday night, plans to handle certain aspects of the character carefully, such as his chain smoking habit

Constantine isn’t as well known as Superman or Batman, but Goyer’s convinced that because he’s one of the “great characters of modern literature,” those who don’t know the character will be won over if they give the show a chance.