The streetwise, chain-smoking con-magician John Constantine finds himself in receipt of a most perplexing birthday gift: a memory wrapped up in a warning. As Constantine tries to figure out what it means, the brutal African war-mage known as Mako hits London--and he's taking no prisoners...

Coincidence. Synchronicity. Damned good luck. Whatever you want to call it, street-smart sorcerer John Constantine has counted on it for survival all his life--and he's never second-guessed its source.

Until now.

From out of the killing fields of war-torn Sudan, a cannibalistic mage called Mako has come to England to feed on misery--and to find the eternal entity known as the Laughing Magician. This legendary figure is a cosmic court jester, a thumb on the scales of reality, a constant in a world of chaos... and maybe, just maybe, he's none other than John Constantine himself.

To unlock the shocking truth behind the Laughing Magician, Constantine will search for answers everywhere--from high-end London brothels to the Vatican's infamous Black Library. He'll revisit his punk days in Newcastle, and his darkest hour in the mental institution called Ravenscar. And he'll learn the hard way that if something seems too good to be true, it usually is.

Collects John Constantine: Hellblazer #239-249 and Hellblazer Special: Lady Constantine #1-4.

Andy Diggle is one of the UK's leading comic book writers, and former editor of the cult British comic 2000 AD. He has been writing professionally since 2002. Diggle and artist Jock's Vertigo action thriller series The Losers was adapted into a major Hollywood movie in 2010, starring Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Chris Evans, Zoe Saldana and Idris Elba. Diggle's other work for DC Comics includes Green Arrow: Year One, Batman Confidential, Hellblazer, Swamp Thing, Adam Strange, Silent Dragon and the Vertigo crime thriller Rat Catcher.