The Vertigo Thread

British comics in complete decline by then, sales had dropped to the point where Battle merged with Eagle in 1988 (and it had already absorbed Action in 1977). Tiger was kind of the daddy of them all, taking in lots of titles (such as my well-loved Speed) before it finally folded in the early 80s(?) and was kind of taken over by the Roy Race comic which ran until the early 90s. Scream only ran for about 3 months before it became part of Eagle. Starlord and Tornado were both fairly short-lived before 2000AD co-opted them, Vulcan had about 2 years before merging with Valiant which then merged with Eagle a couple of years later.

Most of the people you associate with, say, 2000AD and the remainder of the IPC line were also doing the girls' comics such as Jinty and Misty (both of which I really like).

The biggest success story in terms of publication was, and still is, Commando by DC Thomson which has an awful lot of art that's recognizable by e.g. John Ridgway and famously (according to him) refused to let Garth Ennis write for them, which was why he did War Stories.

Weren't Crisis, Revolver, Deadline, Toxic and 2000AD doing quite well? There was another title that was a lot like Heavy Metal but I don't think it was successful (explains why I can't remember but I think I have an issue somewhere).
I have no idea what kind of sales Marvel UK titles like Motormouth and Death's Head did.

Crisis only ran for three years, was mainly reprints for the last half of that and was a monthly for the final year. Revolver was only 7 issues. Toxic ran for 6 months. Deadline had a good run at it, but was as much a music magazine as comics and arguably was more interested in that side of things until Tank Girl blew up. After the failure of the TG movie it mainly reprinted US stuff like L&R, Flaming Carrot and Milk & Cheese.

Also honorable mentions to The Man At The Crossroads and his attempts through psst! and Escape to promote bande dessinee in Britain, to complete market disinterest.

> Deadline had a good run at it, but was as much a music magazine as comics

only in the last year or so. and by that time it was mostly reprints (albeit reprints of good american things that i hadn't read before).

i think they were victims of their own success really - the hewletts and bonds and dylans going on to bigger and better things.

Not at all, Blur as an example were in it all the time around the time of Leisure (91), Curve were on the front iirc before they were signed (1990), Ride were old hat by the time of Going Blank Again (early 92), Carter had a big feature when Sherriff Fatman came out (89?)...

but there'd be one or two pages of cud interview and 20 of comics.

My memory is definitely that it was about half and half. The real reason for the success imo is that it was bought by a lot of people who didn't buy comics, and they didn't start doing that because of the comics.

i have a complete set sat by the bed at the moment, having dug them out to scan all the wired world strips*, so i'll have a look tonight. it changed a lot over the years, was quite sad to see.

(*
http://www.flickr.com/photos/31962137@N00/sets/72157626379868868/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/31962137@N00/sets/72157626254976253/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/31962137@N00/sets/72157626379764964/
etc
)

http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Glyn-Swerve-cover.jpg

Take this cover for example - the strip on the cover gets top billing then four bands are billed above Hugo Tate.

Even issue one only has Tank Girl listed as content (although Bolland interview tenuously).

http://www.tankgirl.info/tankgirl/images/strips/covers/deadline/dead1.jpg

Actually, that Tank Girl site has all the TG covers - which for the first couple of years is basically everything - and there's next to no comics content on the covers other than the strip which is on the front. It takes 6 months for them to have the name of 2 on the front, and by #14 there are none for months.

skottie young sketches spider

http://images.cdn.bigcartel.com/bigcartel/product_images/141011302/max_h-1000+max_w-1000/Transmet.jpg

So rather than attempt to alter modern day Vertigo to make it resemble the old school version we all love, DC is starting a whole new sub-imprint called Young Animal, featuring a Doom Patrol reboot and Shade the Changing Girl, among others. The creative teams are basically unknown to me, but it seems to be going for the spirit of '90s Vertigo (another new title: Cave Carson Has a Cybernetic Eye). My interest is piqued, if hesitantly so. Because, y'know, DC.

Gerard Way's been doing comics regularly for many years now. Cecil Castellucci and Becky Cloonan have both been around for more than a decade, Oeming and Edwards since the '90s. No idea about any of the guys co-writing with Way.

Amazing that moving the entire company across a continent hasn't prompted any examination of Didio/Lee's "reboot a bunch of shit at once with no planning and see if it sticks" policy, over and over again.

Is Gerard Way the guy who wrote Umbrella Academy? Because that was some teen-angsty Goth bullshit. He'd be better fit for writing Harley Quinn or something than Doom Patrol.

gerard way's a big morrison disciple so i guess he makes some sense as a doom patrol writer

i just hope they honour the spirit of 90s vertigo with shitty, muddy colouring in every book

A Morrison disciple? I didn't get that vibe from Umbrella Academy, except maybe for the bit about the Eiffel Tower. Has he written any other major comics?

i've never read any of his stuff - i just know they're buddies and i've read some interviews where way expresses his admiration for morrison's writing

apropos of nothing other than they've both worked for vertigo: i met both grant morrison and frank quitely a few weeks ago in glasgow and they were fucking awesome

I can see him being influenced by Morrison in a superficial way, like having one of the main characters in Umbrella Academy be a dude with gorilla hands and other such surreal details, but the vibe of UA is all gloomy and doomy in way that's almost antithetical to Morrison's optimism. It's more like Chris Claremont style superhero soap opera combined with goth angst.

(xpost)

There's more than no connection:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egG7fiE89IU

Oh yeah, I forgot Way was also the dude who was in a big(?) band. I keep confusing him with the guy who wrote some Green Lantern comics in the 90s, but I guess that was some other Gerard...

You're thinking of Gerard Jones.

I should've specified that I'm not familiar with the writers inasmuch as I haven't read their stuff. I am familiar with the existence of Gerard Way and Umbrella Academy. I guess I should check it out to see how I feel about him taking over these characters.

Just re-reading DeMatteis's Doctor Fate run, which is very Vertigo-y: muddy colours, vampires, claptrappy captions, Shawn McManus art. It's very good tho'

Just read a fun Vertigo miniseries that rarely gets mentioned, Steve Gerber's Nevada. Completely bonkers and a lot of fun with it. Great character, too. My only problem was that it seemed to have been set up for a sequel, or further stories which never materialised.

There were short Nevada stories in two of the Vertigo Winter's Edge specials. But yeah, that was pretty much it.

I'll have to track those down!

I had a similar problem with the ending of his (otherwise excellent) Foolkiller mini, but that story took place within the Marvel universe, so other writers could potentially use him. It was still one of the best takes on the "what if a vigilante superhero were REAL?" idea I've ever read.

So it's well-established at this point that I'm a total sucker wrt comics (at the very least), but oh my am I ever salivating over what appears to be the re-partitioning of the old school Vertigo universe (or the Sandman Universe, as it's now being called), despite Si Spurrier being the only writer on the line whose work I'm familiar with.

Look, I know it probably won't be good, but I have a deep attachment to that shared universe prior to its being ported over to the DCU proper. If nothing else, this'll prompt me to reread all of the classic stuff.

that shared universe prior to its being ported over to the DCU proper

???

I'm talking about the New 52 nonsense of putting Tim Hunter on a Justice League team and having John Constantine battle Dark Orko.

this'll prompt me to reread all of the classic stuff.

i dunno if i could stomach that much muddy, indistinct colour work these days tbh

Swamp Thing was fighting (with? against?) Batman in the 70s...

(first ST i bought was #46, the crisis crossover issue)

Yes, the DC-owned properties that eventually became part of the Vertigo imprint did in fact originate in and among the DC Universe proper. And then Vertigo happened and those characters were more or less sealed off in their own little corner of the world for a couple of decades. I promise I'm not making this up. You can check the history books and everything.

bg, the material largely and surprisingly holds up (I reread everything from Moore's ST through Lucifer about ten years back) even if some of it has the color range of a rusted rain barrel full of mud.

As big a Marvel Zombie as I am, I might be an even bigger zombie for the best of this stuff. If such a thing is even possible. The parallel runs of Rick Veitch on ST and Jamie Delano on Hellblazer remain some of my favorite comics of all time.

bg, the material largely and surprisingly holds up (I reread everything from Moore's ST through Lucifer about ten years back) even if some of it has the color range of a rusted rain barrel full of mud

oh yeah, i have a lot of fondness for a lot of vertigo stuff (and precursors like morrison's animal man, which is still maybe my favourite-ever run out of everything he's ever done) but damn i also have a lot of teenage memories of squinting at brown-and-purple-smeared pages trying to work out wtf is going on

The recolourings are worse though, esp Sandman

90s computerised mud >> 00s computerised recolouring

has anything from Vertigo ever been recoloured? even Sandman wasn't afaik

(went to Vertigo circa #37 iirc)

checked: #47.

I know at the very least that Flex Mentallo was controversially and fairly radically recolored for the collected edition.

oh ya

not muddy brown-&-purple to begin with though

Sandman was recolored for the massive omnibus versions.

I've been tempted to re-read Shade the Changing Man but idk

I really soured on Sandman on my last re-reading (some thoughts here: Neil Gaiman - S/D)

Swamp Thing is still all-time great of course. That Bissette/Totleben artwork is some of the greatest comics art ever imo, I never get tired of looking at it.

I don't know that Shade held up as well on a reread but there are bits that are still fantastic. It was probably my favorite of the bunch by the time Vertigo proper was underway.

Books of Magic is a sleeper. I love the majority of that first series. The initial Gaiman miniseries is also good.

yeah the initial Books of Magic miniseries is p good

Sandman was recolored for the massive omnibus versions.

the question was about Vertigo comics

Gaiman's Sandman wasn't Vertigo?

sic, you're slipping, man.

this is a v upsetting development

sic are u okay

Gaiman's Sandman wasn't Vertigo?

bg, the material largely and surprisingly holds up (I reread everything from Moore's ST through Lucifer about ten years back) even if some of it has the color range of a rusted rain barrel full of mud.

― I really like the acting, dialogue and especially the scenes (Old Lunch), Friday, May 25, 2018 10:15 PM (yesterday)

oh yeah, i have a lot of fondness for a lot of vertigo stuff (and precursors like morrison's animal man, which is still maybe my favourite-ever run out of everything he's ever done) but damn i also have a lot of teenage memories of squinting at brown-and-purple-smeared pages trying to work out wtf is going on

― i am fast and full of teeth. i willl die in a barn fire (bizarro gazzara), Friday, May 25, 2018 10:26 PM (yesterday)

The recolourings are worse though, esp Sandman

90s computerised mud >> 00s computerised recolouring

― Chuck_Tatum, Saturday, May 26, 2018 2:43 AM (three hours ago)

has anything from Vertigo ever been recoloured? even Sandman wasn't afaik

...

(went to Vertigo circa #37 iirc)

...

checked: #47.

― we used to get our kicks reading surfing MAGAzines (sic), Saturday, May 26, 2018 3:31 AM (two hours ago)

I know at the very least that Flex Mentallo was controversially and fairly radically recolored for the collected edition.

― I really like the acting, dialogue and especially the scenes (Old Lunch), Saturday, May 26, 2018 3:32 AM (two hours ago)

oh ya

not muddy brown-&-purple to begin with though

― we used to get our kicks reading surfing MAGAzines (sic), Saturday, May 26, 2018 4:05 AM (two hours ago)