I read this going off the advice of a list on the net since it seems the Hellblazer collections are not in sequential order. This is more of a series of stories that show Constantine in different flashbacks to earlier parts of his life. It is a good read and you could almost read this before the Original Sin collection but reading it right after it does give the events in Original Sin a new light. I enjoyed the book and I'll pick up more of them but probably not at the rate I was first reading Fables or Hellboy.
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I first met John Constantine in Neil Gaiman's Sandman and Book of Magic, and immediately fell in love with the character. He's badass, yet kind to small children! He's a magician, yet wears a trench coat and chain-smokes! Also he is English. That always helps.

So obviously I was very pleased to discover that the local library had finally got some Hellblazer paperbacks. I had read part of the first issue online, but the art was kind of lurid and the prose was kind of purple, so I wasn't immediately excited about it. However, I'd heard that the series got better as it went on.

Rare Cuts is a collection of very good never-before-printed issues of the comic series, so it's a neat sampler, and it definitely pulled me into the series. The storytelling is creative, dark, and funny, the writing and art get a lot better, and John Constantine is still a fantastic character.

At worst, I think the comic tries a little too hard to deal with "dark themes" and becomes cliched or dull - that's what was wrong with the first issue - but this collection had some truly creepy stories, as well as some more thoughtful ones - "Dead Boy's Heart," a tale of John's childhood, was probably my favorite.

Anyway, I'll be reading more of the series! I've been looking long and hard to find a comic series that would fill the Sandman-shaped hole in my heart, and while this is a bit different, I'm still very intrigued. ( )

Five assorted stories (one being a two-parter) that haven't been collected in any of the previous Hellblazer trade collections. Now, one might think that a collection of odds and ends that were not seen as being worthy enough for collecting before this might simply be filler material. But that is certainly not the case - these are mostly high-quality tales ('Dead Boy's Heart') in particular is exceptionally powerful and the two parter ('Early Warning' & 'How I Learned to Love the Bomb' written by Grant Morrison) is horribly creepy. In fact, its worthwhile noting that a couple of the stories here are definitely not for the faint of heart. I'm fairly inurred to gore and violence, but I was cringing at just how gruesome some of these stories can get.

The collection is of particular interest to Hellblazer fans because it collects several key episodes from John Constantine's life, deepening our understanding of his history and what makes him what he is. Highly recommended. ( )

It is perhaps a bad idea to jump into reading the Hellblazer series by grabbing at whatever graphic-novel collection I happen to come across first, but... ah, well. At least I know enough about the overall content of the series to keep my head above water, plotline wise.

Remainder of review moved offsite for more flexible HTML formatting. ( )

A number of previously uncollected Hellblazer stories, mostly one or two issue story arcs. It's most notable for finally collecting the Newcastle Incident that's referred to repeatedly throughout the series. It's probably mainly of interest to people who have already read much of the series and are looking for more. ( )