Constantine First Appearance: Swamp Thing #37 Value

John Constantine first appeared in Swamp Thing #37, cover-dated June 1985, created by Alan Moore, Stephen R. Bissette and John Totleben (Wikipedia). The cover title at the time was The Saga of the Swamp Thing, which is how PriceCharting lists it. Moore said the artists wanted a character who looked like the musician Sting, and Constantine became what Moore called an almost blue-collar warlock (Wikipedia).

Some collectors point to earlier issues:

• Swamp Thing #25 (June 1984): in one panel, a man who resembles Sting stands on a crowded sidewalk next to Abigail Arcane. Wikipedia calls it an earlier background appearance; ComicBook.com (May 24, 2026) says the resemblance was a coincidence, because the artists simply reused a design they liked.
• DC Sampler #3: ComicBook.com mentions a pseudo-Constantine design in a preview of Swamp Thing's future.
• Swamp Thing #37: the first issue where he is named, speaks and acts as the character. Wikipedia, ComicBook.com and PriceCharting all treat it as his first appearance.

For buying and grading, #37 is the key. #25 sells as a curiosity, not as his debut.

PriceCharting values for the standard edition by grade, retrieved September 25, 2026:

• Ungraded: $151.25
• 4.0: $102.80
• 6.0: $164.63
• 8.0: $247.18
• 9.2: $283.36
• 9.8: $1,033.37

The jump is at the top: a 9.8 is worth about 3.6 times a 9.2. PriceCharting's recent 9.8 sales ran from about $800 to $1,708, with white pages at the high end. It also lists other editions: the newsstand copy at $265 ungraded, a Canadian price variant at $271.45 ungraded, and a copy it calls the Jewelers variant at $622.92 ungraded. Check which edition you have before comparing prices.

Start where he starts: Alan Moore's Swamp Thing from #37 onward, where Constantine guides Swamp Thing through a supernatural crisis. Then move to Hellblazer, his own series from 1988. Wikipedia calls it the longest continuously published Vertigo title, running about 300 issues. Later runs include Constantine: The Hellblazer (2015).

Wikipedia describes him as one of the most powerful sorcerers in the world who still relies heavily on deception, and as weaker than other magic users such as Doctor Fate and Zatanna. He wins by bluffing, bargaining and knowing the right secret, not by raw power, so a straight fight with Superman is not how his stories work.

Yes, he is bisexual. Wikipedia says this was first established in a 1992 comic that mentioned his male and female exes in passing, and later runs, especially Constantine: The Hellblazer (2015), made it explicit.

He was not DC's first LGBTQ hero. DC says its first openly gay superhero was Extraño, introduced in the 1988 Millennium event by Steve Englehart and Joe Staton.

Keanu Reeves played an American version of the character in the 2005 film Constantine. Matt Ryan played him in NBC's Constantine (2014) and later in the Arrowverse series (Wikipedia).

• Indicia: the small print on the first page or inside cover gives the title, issue number, date and publisher; reprints and facsimiles say so there.
• Cover price and barcode: a price or barcode that did not exist in the cover year means a later edition.
• Paper: decades-old newsprint tans at the edges; bright white pages on an old date are a warning sign.
• Restoration: color touch, trimmed edges and replaced covers are common on expensive keys; a grading service such as CGC can detect them.

Shoot the front cover flat and straight on in even light, then the indicia and the back cover. Get the upper-left corner box and the barcode area in frame: that is where the newsstand, direct and Canadian price editions differ, and PriceCharting prices them differently. ComicLens reads the title, issue number and cover art from the photo, and there are free scans every day.

Research and drafting were assisted by AI and checked line by line against the sources listed on this page. Prices are the figures shown by the named source on the date given; they change with the market.