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Vertigo Comics AI simulator
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Vertigo Comics AI simulator
(@Vertigo Comics_simulator)
Vertigo Comics
DC Vertigo, also known as Vertigo Comics or simply Vertigo, is an imprint of the American comic book publisher DC Comics. Vertigo publishes comics with adult content, such as nudity, drug use, profanity, and graphic violence, that do not fit the restrictions of DC's main line. Its comics include company-owned series set in the DC Universe, such as The Sandman, Swamp Thing, and Hellblazer, and creator-owned works, such as Preacher, Y: The Last Man, and Fables.
Vertigo originated from DC's 1980s adult comic line, which began after DC stopped submitting The Saga of the Swamp Thing for approval by the Comics Code Authority. Following the success of two adult-oriented 1986 limited series, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen, DC's output of adult comics, edited by Karen Berger, grew. By 1992, DC's mature readers' line was editorially separate from its main line and Berger received permission to manage them under a separate imprint. Vertigo was launched in January 1993 with a mix of existing DC ongoing series and new series.
Although its initial publications were primarily in the horror and fantasy genres, Vertigo expanded to publish works dealing with crime, social commentary, speculative fiction, biography, and other genres. Vertigo also reprinted comics previously published by DC under other imprints, such as V for Vendetta and Transmetropolitan. In North America, Vertigo pioneered a publishing model in which monthly series are periodically collected into editions for bookstore sale. Vertigo became DC's most popular and enduring imprint; several Vertigo series have won the comics industry's Eisner Award and have been adapted to film and television.
Vertigo began to decline in the 2010s, as certain properties like Hellblazer and Swamp Thing were re-integrated into DC's main comic books, while Berger departed in 2013. Berger's departure was followed by a series of editorial restructures. An attempted relaunch in 2018 suffered a multitude of setbacks, including numerous cancellations. DC discontinued Vertigo in January 2020 as part of a plan to publish all comics under a single banner. Most Vertigo series moved to DC Black Label until 2024, when DC revived the imprint.
Vertigo originated in 1993 under the stewardship of Karen Berger, a former literature and art-history student, who had joined DC Comics in 1979 as an assistant editor. Berger edited proto-Vertigo titles from the start of her time with DC, beginning in 1981 with House of Mystery. She took over editorship of Alan Moore's Swamp Thing run from Swamp Thing co-creator Len Wein in 1984, and in 1986 "became DC's British liaison", bringing to DC's pre-Vertigo titles the individuals who would be instrumental in the creation and evolution of Vertigo seven years later, including Neil Gaiman, Jamie Delano, Peter Milligan, and Grant Morrison. She "found their sensibility and point of view to be refreshingly different, edgier and smarter" than those of most American comics writers.
Berger edited several new or revived series with these writers, including superhero/science fiction series such as Animal Man, Doom Patrol vol. 2, and Shade, the Changing Man vol. 2, fantasy series The Sandman vol. 2, and horror titles Hellblazer and The Saga of the Swamp Thing. She also edited limited series such as Kid Eternity, Black Orchid (Gaiman's first work for DC) and The Books of Magic limited series.
These six ongoing titles, all of which carried a "Suggested for Mature Readers" label on their covers, shared a sophistication-driven sensibility the comics fan media dubbed "the Bergerverse". In a 1992 editorial meeting with Paul Levitz, publisher Jenette Kahn, and managing editor Dick Giordano, Berger was given the mandate to place these titles under an imprint that, as Berger described, would "do something different in comics and help the medium 'grow up'". Several DC titles bearing the age advisory, such as Green Arrow, Blackhawk, and The Question (the last two cancelled before the launch of Vertigo), did not make the transition to the new imprint.
Meanwhile, Disney Comics and former DC editor Art Young had been developing an imprint to be called Touchmark Comics, analogous to Disney's mature-audiences Touchstone Pictures studio. This project was abandoned following the so-called "Disney Implosion" of 1991. Young and those works were brought into the Vertigo fold, allowing Berger to expand the imprint's publishing plans with the limited series Enigma, Sebastian O, Mercy, and Shadows Fall.
Vertigo Comics
DC Vertigo, also known as Vertigo Comics or simply Vertigo, is an imprint of the American comic book publisher DC Comics. Vertigo publishes comics with adult content, such as nudity, drug use, profanity, and graphic violence, that do not fit the restrictions of DC's main line. Its comics include company-owned series set in the DC Universe, such as The Sandman, Swamp Thing, and Hellblazer, and creator-owned works, such as Preacher, Y: The Last Man, and Fables.
Vertigo originated from DC's 1980s adult comic line, which began after DC stopped submitting The Saga of the Swamp Thing for approval by the Comics Code Authority. Following the success of two adult-oriented 1986 limited series, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen, DC's output of adult comics, edited by Karen Berger, grew. By 1992, DC's mature readers' line was editorially separate from its main line and Berger received permission to manage them under a separate imprint. Vertigo was launched in January 1993 with a mix of existing DC ongoing series and new series.
Although its initial publications were primarily in the horror and fantasy genres, Vertigo expanded to publish works dealing with crime, social commentary, speculative fiction, biography, and other genres. Vertigo also reprinted comics previously published by DC under other imprints, such as V for Vendetta and Transmetropolitan. In North America, Vertigo pioneered a publishing model in which monthly series are periodically collected into editions for bookstore sale. Vertigo became DC's most popular and enduring imprint; several Vertigo series have won the comics industry's Eisner Award and have been adapted to film and television.
Vertigo began to decline in the 2010s, as certain properties like Hellblazer and Swamp Thing were re-integrated into DC's main comic books, while Berger departed in 2013. Berger's departure was followed by a series of editorial restructures. An attempted relaunch in 2018 suffered a multitude of setbacks, including numerous cancellations. DC discontinued Vertigo in January 2020 as part of a plan to publish all comics under a single banner. Most Vertigo series moved to DC Black Label until 2024, when DC revived the imprint.
Vertigo originated in 1993 under the stewardship of Karen Berger, a former literature and art-history student, who had joined DC Comics in 1979 as an assistant editor. Berger edited proto-Vertigo titles from the start of her time with DC, beginning in 1981 with House of Mystery. She took over editorship of Alan Moore's Swamp Thing run from Swamp Thing co-creator Len Wein in 1984, and in 1986 "became DC's British liaison", bringing to DC's pre-Vertigo titles the individuals who would be instrumental in the creation and evolution of Vertigo seven years later, including Neil Gaiman, Jamie Delano, Peter Milligan, and Grant Morrison. She "found their sensibility and point of view to be refreshingly different, edgier and smarter" than those of most American comics writers.
Berger edited several new or revived series with these writers, including superhero/science fiction series such as Animal Man, Doom Patrol vol. 2, and Shade, the Changing Man vol. 2, fantasy series The Sandman vol. 2, and horror titles Hellblazer and The Saga of the Swamp Thing. She also edited limited series such as Kid Eternity, Black Orchid (Gaiman's first work for DC) and The Books of Magic limited series.
These six ongoing titles, all of which carried a "Suggested for Mature Readers" label on their covers, shared a sophistication-driven sensibility the comics fan media dubbed "the Bergerverse". In a 1992 editorial meeting with Paul Levitz, publisher Jenette Kahn, and managing editor Dick Giordano, Berger was given the mandate to place these titles under an imprint that, as Berger described, would "do something different in comics and help the medium 'grow up'". Several DC titles bearing the age advisory, such as Green Arrow, Blackhawk, and The Question (the last two cancelled before the launch of Vertigo), did not make the transition to the new imprint.
Meanwhile, Disney Comics and former DC editor Art Young had been developing an imprint to be called Touchmark Comics, analogous to Disney's mature-audiences Touchstone Pictures studio. This project was abandoned following the so-called "Disney Implosion" of 1991. Young and those works were brought into the Vertigo fold, allowing Berger to expand the imprint's publishing plans with the limited series Enigma, Sebastian O, Mercy, and Shadows Fall.