“A sad time for misfits everywhere” as Hellblazer draws to a close.

Comics Alliance runs an excellent history of Hellblazer’s 20+ year history over here as the title’s final issue hits stands this week, featuring a cover by Bisley as iconic as any Slaine picture.

Hellblazer #300 is a powerful conclusion to an amazing story, and Peter Milligan, Giuseppe Camuncoli, and Stefano Landini send Vertigo’s John Constantine off in proper fashion. It’s a fitting, heartbreaking goodbye. As far as Constantine goes, my love for the character and respect for the creators involved means I’m going to give it an honest shot — and you should too. But it already feels wrong. It’s too colorful; it looks too much like a superhero book. He can’t even say f**k anymore.

The entire collection of Simon’s covers are here, as well as his excellent interiors for Hooked. When I spoke to him about the interior art for ‘Hooked’ he admitted that in trying to impress his editor he did some of his best work and ‘made a rod for his own back’, meaning that he’d have to continue to produce at an exceptionally high level because that’s what Vertigo had come to expect… So, by his own admission, Simon’s contribution to the Hellblazer canon is some of his best; I think it’s great that he got to paint the last ever cover for this title and give John his goodbye.

Here’s that cover again.