Farewell, Vertigo
January 9, 2022•399 words
Originally posted: Sat, 22 Jun 2019 08:50:05
I've not really talked about my love of comic books and graphic novels here. Not that I'm an obsessive, but I do have a few titles I'm heavily attached to. Hellblazer, Lucifer, The Sandman, The Invisibles, Preacher, 100 Bullets, DMZ, to name but a few. A large portion of these have a one specific thing in common: they were all released, or continued, on DC's Vertigo imprint.
History
Started in 1993 under the guidance of Karen Berger, an editor of legendary status for good reason. Its mandate was to find a home for the more adult-themed comics largely spawned by the British Invasion. This was necessitated by not wanting to draw the attention of the Comics Code Authority. DC's latest imprint became home to some of the more influential, as well as freethinking, offerings of the American format.
Another thing of note with regards to Vertigo is that, at least in its early days, a large amount of the work remained creator-owned, something that had been a
challenge for writers and artists for decades, and still can be.
Impact
As someone who grew up with the Vertigo imprint, albeit coming in a little later, I can honestly say I found a home there. The titles evoked fear, horror, elation, beauty; took you on journeys wondrous and complex. You had no choice but to face up to the changing face of society and its ethics: these books took you on a quest to confront it all, whether you liked it or not.
Readers became more than passing dabblers in the occult, bore witness to the conflict at the heart of creation, and saw a conspiracy that operated across all levels of the United States bear its fruit and then collapse. We saw a world bereft of men, and a US civil war played out in Manhattan. Nothing was held back, no sacred cows here: everything was fair game.
Sunset
On the 21st of June 2019, DC announced that the Vertigo imprint would be sunsetted by the end of the year. It will move all its mature reader titles to DC Black. Just like that, 26 years of comic book history, large amounts of it being made on the imprint, gone.
I am deeply sorry to see it go, given the many hours of entertainment, intrigue, and wonder I have enjoyed in its pages.