Comic Title: Hellblazer #35
Publisher: DC (DC Comics Inc.)
Address: 666 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY
Imprint: Vertigo
Cover Date: November 1990
On Sale Date: September 18, 1990 Shipping Date September 18, 1990
Source: Previews, #19

Shipping Date September 18, 1990
Source: Amazing Heroes, #183

Copyright Date September 18, 1990
Source: Library of Congress, Copyright Office 1990

Direct Market Date September 20, 1990
Source: Comic Shop News, #167, #168

Frequency: Monthly
Cover Price: $1.50
Page Count: 32
Editor: Karen Berger

Title: "Dead-Boy's Heart"
Pages: 24

Feature(s):
Hellblazer

Writer: Jamie Delano
Artist: Sean Phillips
Letterer: Gaspar Saladino
Colorist: Thomas J. Ziuko

Reprinted In:
John Constantine, Hellblazer:Rare Cuts TPB (2005)
John Constantine, Hellblazer:Dangerous Habits TPB (2013)

Feature Character(s)

• John Constantine (as a boy; last appearance in Hellblazer #13; next appearance in Hellblazer #31)

Supporting Character(s)

• Cheryl Masters (last appearance in Hellblazer #13; next appearance in Hellblazer #4)

Villain(s)

• Three bullies (Whitey and Nelson named; no further appearances)

Other Character(s)

• Harry and Dolly (John's aunt and uncle; no further appearances)
• Keith and his girlfriend (no further appearances)
• The bogeyman (a poor man; no further appearances)

Comments:
This story takes place in 1961. It establishes John's birth year as 1953.

Synopsis:
Young John Constantine and his sister Cheryl live with their aunt and uncle while their father is in jail for stealing woman's underwear. John has no friends, so he tries to join a group of older boys. The boys dare John to sneak into an abandoned quarry where an old man lives to steal his adult magazines. When John is inside, the boys make noise to alert the man. John runs and hides under some bushes where he discovers the remains of a dead body. He takes a petrified heart as a souvenir.

John returns home safely. He becomes fixated on the heart and rubs it on his body. He begins collecting bugs in jars and executing those that try to escape. John comes to believe that the heart is evil magic. He goes back to the quarry to dispose of it. He throws the stone, and it crashes through the roof of the shack where the man lives. When the man does not emerge, John believes that the thrown rock killed him. John now considers himself a killer. He returns home, promising to take this secret to his grave.