I've told the story so many times you're probably sick of it, but for some of my newer readers (welcome!), when I was a kid I did not like superhero comics. They were all right, but I was more interested in GI Joe and Transformers comics. When they ended Transformers I felt betrayed and gave up on comics. Fast forward to my senior year in high school when my friend, CJ (who since has worked for Universal, I believe, as a model and is currently a stand-up comedian), put the trade of Evil Ernie: Youth Gone Wild into my hands, and suddenly I was back into comics. I have every Chaos! Comic ever (except for the fake ones Dynamite made), but my favorite publisher in those days was DC's imprint, Vertigo. Preacher was the second comic CJ put into my hands, and from there I took off with a heavy interest in the things Vertigo published.
Then Vertigo died, and DC tried doing Black Label books for adult readers, but the problem was, the Black Label books were all superhero books, and I still, to this very day, dislike superhero comics. There are exceptions, like Watchmen (and I don't know what the rest of the world is talking about, but as far as I'm concerned Watchmen ended in the 'Eighties) and The Boys. I gleefully own the Azzarello Batman Black Label book where they showed Batman's batdick (which they edited out of subsequent reprints), but that's where my enjoyment of the Black Label stuff ends.
Lo! and behold! DC is bringing Vertigo back! I thought that was great news, even if the titles they revealed don't look all that great. One is a DC reprint, which does not speak highly of this great return.
Remember yesterday when I posted a link to Mark Millar interviewing Garth Ennis? It's super long, and I posted it only for those interested in what anyone else would consider a slog. Hidden in that interview, however, is Garth Ennis's assessment of why Vertigo was initially killed.
If you don't know, DC is owned by Warner Bros. Warner, ever hungry for more comic book movies, wanted to raid DC's back issues for movie ideas. Some Warner exec stumbled upon these great books being published by Vertigo and wanted to make movies out of them. Except for one problem: DC actually doesn't own the rights to those books. They are creator owned. That generation of comics writers actually listened to Alan Moore and insisted on owning their own stories.
Someone explained this to the exec, who then responded, "Then why are we publishing these books? Fuck 'em. Get rid of the imprint." And so Vertigo died.
Which makes utter sense. I found myself talking with my comics guys about this today when a fellow customer mentioned that they were reviving Vertigo. Before I could even think, these words were out of my mouth: "I'll bet they're not going to be creator owned."
That first title, as I said, is a reprint of a DC book. DC books are definitely owned by DC. The second title is a continuation of that first title. Things aren't looking good, folks. I'm going to keep my eye out for other books they announce. If they, too, are not creator owned, then resurrecting Vertigo will be a waste of everyone's time.
There's a reason I don't read DC or Marvel books. I think they suck. I have zero interest in Batman beating the shit out of the mentally ill. I have zero interest in the teenage jerk off fantasies that Spider-Man embodies. I have even less interest in two-fisted battles across the galaxy. I parodied that nonsense with the war at the end of And Jesus Came Back. I have a character using the Empire State Building as a club, for fuckssake.
There are exceptions of course. For the last few months I've read a Marvel book, but it was Get Fury. Neither Nick Fury nor Frank Castle are superheroes, though. It ended recently, so I'm back to reading zero Marvel books. I'm also reading a DC book, but it's Hellblazer: Dead in America, and I've been following John Constantine's adventures for two decades plus. That may have ended today, though. What we got in issue ten could be an ending or a to-be-continued. Hard to say.
I'll be interested in seeing *who* wants to work with the new Vertigo. I don't think I'm going to see any of the usual creatives I follow, but if I do, then maybe I'm wrong in my assessment. More likely I'll see their names attached to Image projects, though. Time will tell.
