Welcome to 31 Days of Horror Comics, where I will spotlight some of the best horror comics around, as chosen by a bunch of my favorite horror comic writers and artists around!

Today's creator is Jae Lee, the brilliant artist who has been delivering stunning Gothic-style horror ever since his Image series, Hellshock, debuted in 1994...

In the years since, Lee has done a number of other horror-related works, like the Dark Tower series for Marvel...

and Dead Irons for Dynamite (where was the art director for the book)...

Jae recommended the opening arc on Jamie Delano and John Ridgway's Hellblazer, which is typically described as "Hunger." It's the first two issues (the first nine or so issues are often collected in a trade together, but most of the stories are unrelated outside of being, you know, John Constantine stories. So while Jae very well might have meant some of the later issues, I'm going to stick with "Hunger" for now).

Jae explained, " I remember some really amazing moments I've never seen in comic books before. It's so hard to pull off a horror comic. This is Rosemary's Baby level stuff here in the first few issues. "

He's absolutely right, as Delano and Ridgway really did deliver some striking moments in the arc, which opens with a man trying to gorge himself on food, but actually starves to death in front of them all!

John Constantine returns home to England, where he meets an old friend, Gary Lester, a junkie who doesn't understand that he literally IS crawling with bugs!

Damn, that's quite the visual.

One of the key aspects of the early issues of Hellblazer was Delano setting up the "Newcastle Incident," a major event in Constantine's life that altered his life track forever and ended up with a number of people dead. Gary was present at the incident and he continued to work in magic afterwards, even trapping a demonic spirit known as Mnemoth...

Gary was falling apart after he trapped the demon, as it kept trying to trick him into freeing it. He mailed the trapped demon to Constantine in New York, but Constantine was no longer there and his former girlfriend, Emma, who lived there, was ALSO dead, so the package was eventually returned and the demon got loose.

Constantine turns to Papa Midnite for help...

As I noted, the Newscastle Incident was first alluded to in these stories and we meet the ghostly entourage that follows Constantine around. The people who died because of their contact with John....

They would gain a member by the end of this arc.

Thanks for the pick, Jae!