Sting turns 61; rocker was inspiration for John Constantine

Sting speaks during an interview with The Associated Press when Ric O'Barry, the star of the "The Cove," the Academy Award-winning documentary that depicts the dolphin hunt in the town of Taiji in southwestern Japan, visited him before his concert in Tokyo Wednesday, Jan. 19, 2010. Sting wants to help save dolphins still being brutally slaughtered in Japan, but he believes the best way is by starting a debate, not by forcing foreign opinion.(AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)

The musician Sting, born Gordon Sumner, turns 61 today.  The multitalented performer was the principal songwriter, frontman and bassist for the multiplatinum selling rock band The Police before embarking on a successful solo career.

Sting has also appeared in multiple films as an actor, and is well-known as an activist.

What might be less known to non-comics fans is that he was the original inspiration for the character of John Constantine, the star of DC Comics’ “Hellblazer” title.  John Constantine was created by Alan Moore in the pages of “Swamp Thing.”

A Wizard magazine interview confirmed Moore’s intentions.

“Basically, when I take over something as a writer, I always try to work as closely as I can with the artists on the book, so I immediately did my best to strike up a friendship with Steve Bissette and John Totleben. I asked them what they would like to do in Swamp Thing. They both sent me reams of material. Things that they had always wanted to do in Swamp Thing, but never thought they would get away with. I incorporated this into my scheme of things, and tried to pin it all together.

“One of those early notes was they both wanted to do a character that looked like Sting. I think DC is terrified that Sting will sue them, although Sting has seen the character and commented in Rolling Stone that he thought it was great. He was very flattered to have a comic character who looked like him, but DC gets nervous about these things. They started to eradicate all traces of references in the introduction of the early Swamp Thing books to John Constantine’s resemblance to Sting . But I can state categorically that the character only existed because Steve and John wanted to do a character that