Vertigo Comics – SMASH PAGES

Slugfest | Vertigo returns in DC’s February solicitations

Plus: Gotham City Sirens go Black Label, a return to Dakota, and a DC K.O. special that opens the forbidden door …

Slugfest is a roundup of cool announcements about projects coming to a shelf near you. This edition focuses on DC’s February 2026 solicitations.

One of the big announcements to come out of the 2024 New York Comic Con was the return of Vertigo, DC’s long-running mature readers imprint that was shuttered back in 2019 in favor of DC’s Black Label imprint. While Black Label will continue as the home for more mature stories about DC’s existing characters, Vertigo is back as a creator-owned imprint, and at this year’s New York Comic Con, DC announced a full Vertigo slate for 2026 — which kicks off in February.

The first four out the gate include three new creator-owned titles and the return of another — The Nice House by the Sea, whose seventh issue leads the pack.

NYCC | Rick Veitch + Michael Zulli’s unpublished ‘Swamp Thing’ story will finally come to print

‘Swamp Thing 1989’ will be published as a four-issue Black Label series next year.

One of comics’ most infamous “lost” stories is finally coming to print. At New York Comic Con during their Vertigo panel, DC announced that Rick Veitch and Michael Zulli’s unpublished Swamp Thing #88 from 1989 will finally be published, the first issue of a four-issue miniseries that’ll wrap up the story Veitch originally intended to tell.

Swamp Thing 1989 will kick off in April of next year as a Black Label title, with the first issue containing the completed but never published issue. It’ll be followed by three new issues, written by Veitch with art by Tom Mandrake and Trish Mulvihill. Zulli, unfortunately, passed away last year.

NYCC | Vertigo is back next year with new ‘100 Bullets,’ Deniz Camp, Kyle Starks, Ram V + more

DC’s creator-owned imprint returns with 10 titles in 2026.

It’s been almost a year since DC announced they were bringing Vertigo back from the dead as their creator-owned imprint, with the only project coming out under the banner being The Nice House by the Sea by James Tynion IV, Alvaro Martínez Bueno and Jordie Bellaire.

At New York Comic Con this week, DC pulled back the curtain on a full wave of creator-owned titles set to roll out in 2026. The panel “DC Vertigo: We’re Back,” moderated by Executive Editor Chris Conroy, was the first public showcase of the imprint’s comeback and the creators — some new, some familiar — who will bring it back to life.

The return will see 10 titles in 2026, including the return of The Nice House by the Sea with issue #7 in February. Joining Nice House are nine more series spanning horror, science fiction, noir and more:

Vertigo will return as DC’s creator-owned imprint

Jim Lee announced the return of the iconic brand this weekend during the New York Comic Con.

At his Jim Lee & Friends Panel during this weekend’s New York Comic Con, DC Publisher Jim Lee announced plans to revive Vertigo, the long-running imprint that was home to comics like Preacher, Fables, Y the Last Man and more over its more than 25-year history.

The imprint will fall under editor Chris Conroy and will feature creator-owned titles.

“This is my editorial dream come true,” Conroy said on social media. He currently oversees DC’s Black Label imprint as well, and confirmed Vertigo isn’t replacing it.

“DC Black Label continues, with some red-hot stories for DC’s superhero characters still on the way for years to come,” Conroy said. “Vertigo puts us back into the creator-owned business in a very big way. Yes, I’m running both; no, I haven’t lost my mind yet.”

DC Universe Infinite adds 5,000 Vertigo, Black Label titles

Subscribers to the “Ultra” tier can now access ‘The Books of Magic,’ ‘The Unwritten,’ ‘Shade the Changing Man’ and much more.

Despite the fact that DC shut down its Vertigo imprint at the end of 2019, the publisher still seems to find ways to keep the brand relevant, whether that’s by bringing back beloved properties like Fables and Sandman, or by adding more than 5,000 mature reader titles from the imprint to their DC Universe Infinite digital comics service.

Today Dc announced the addition of a “metric ton” of Vertigo titles to the service — everything from Sheriff of Babylon to Sandman Mystery Theatre — along with some more recent Black Label titles like Wonder Woman: Dead Earth and Dark Knight Returns: The Golden Child. These new titles are only available to subscribers to the recently revealed Ultra tier, which also gives you access to new comics about a month after release.

The Corinthian faces venture capitalists in a new ‘Nightmare Country’ miniseries next year

The Sandman Universe series by James Tynion IV and Lisandro Estherren returns.

Nightmare Country, the Sandman Universe series featuring The Corinthian, will return next year as another miniseries — Nightmare Country: The Glass House. James Tynion IV and Lisandro Estherren, who worked on the previous series, will return.

“I’m thrilled to announce that Nightmare Country’s follow-up miniseries, The Glass House, is coming early in 2023,” said Tynion. “The Corinthian is going to be making his way to Silicon Valley, where he will go head-to-head with angels, demons and a breed of creature far more terrifying that anything he’s faced before—venture capitalists. Lisandro and I are excited to continue this nightmare tour through modern America and can’t wait for you all to see what we’ve got in store for you.”

Cornell + Kelly crowdfund the finale to ‘Saucer Country’

The former Vertigo series will finally conclude if it hits its goal on Zoop.

Paul Cornell and Ryan Kelly’s Saucer Country has followed a rocky road — or would that be turbulent flight? — to publication over the years, starting out at Vertigo in 2012 before returning at IDW in 2017 for a new miniseries, Saucer State, that was never finished.

But now Saucer Country is back — Cornell and Kelly have teamed with Syzygy Publishing to kick off a crowdfunding campaign on Zoop that will fund publication of not only the final chapter of their story, but also a complete collection of the entire tale. The creators are looking to raise $20,000 to bring the saucer in for a landing.

“This project is so close to my heart,” Cornell said on his blog. “And this is my first crowdfunding campaign, which makes me extremely nervous. So please take a look and see if you’d like to help. As you’ll see from the page, we’re well on course to deliver exactly what we’re offering pretty swiftly once we’re funded. Zoop have successfully landed many such campaigns, which is why I went with them.

‘Dead Boy Detectives’ are on the case in December

Pornsak Pichetshote and Jeff Stokely bring Charles Rowland and Edwin Paine back for new adventures.

One of the many beloved concepts to come out of Neil Gaiman’s Sandman were the Dead Boy Detectives, Charles Rowland and Edwin Paine, who debuted in Sandman #25 and won over our cold, dead hearts with their cold, dead bodies.

Now they’re coming back for a new series, The Sandman Universe: Dead Boy Detectives by writer Pornsak Pichetshote (The Good Asian, Infidel) and artist Jeff Stokely (The Ludocrats).

“The genius of Sandman is how seamlessly it fits different genres, histories, and folklores together, something that definitely inspired Jeff and I for Dead Boy Detectives,” said Pichetshote. “As a Thai-American, I grew up around all this wonderful Thai folklore that’s never made it to American pop culture, so by introducing some of my favorite Neil Gaiman characters to the truly terrifying and bizarre world of Thai ghosts, we will give horror and Sandman fans something new.”

‘Fables’ returns from DC Black Label for a crossover + a new 12-issue run

Bigby Wolf will meet Batman in a six-issue series this September as ‘Fables’ returns for a 12-issue run next May.

Fables, the long-running Vertigo series by Bill Willingham, Mark Buckingham, Steve Leialoha and many others, will make its return later this year and in 2022 with several new projects.

First, September brings Batman vs. Bigby! A Wolf in Gotham, a six-issue miniseries featuring Fables’ resident detective, Bigby Wolf, teaming up with Batman for a case in Gotham. It will be released under DC’s Black Label imprint. Willingham will work with Brain Level, Jay Leisten, and Lee Loughridge on the project.

“I’ve wanted to do this since the very first year of Fables,” Willingham said. “Why? Because Batman is a detective, and Bigby is a detective, and I love a well-crafted story crossing over characters from two different fictional worlds. It’s automatically a fish-out-of-water story for at least one of the main characters, and that sort of story always works. Plus, I knew from the very beginning of Fables that my fictional universe would allow for many ways to get Bigby Wolf into the DCU and Gotham City. Even though those cosmic story structures wouldn’t be introduced in the Fables books for a year or more, they were baked in from the very beginning.”

Smash Pages Q&A: Scott Snyder on ‘Nocterra’

The writer of ‘American Vampire,’ ‘Death Metal,’ ‘Batman’ and more discusses his newest creator-owned title, his Best Jackett Press imprint and more.

Scott Snyder has been in the driver’s seat for many of DC’s biggest projects over the last decade or so, including crossover titles like Metal and Death Metal, and of course his runs on Batman and Justice League. At the same time, he’s also kept a foot in the creator-owned world, writing titles like American Vampire, Wytches and Undiscovered Country, among others.

Last summer, he hit the gas on his creator-owned work, launching a Kickstarter for Nocterra, a new creator-owned series with Tony S. Daniel and Tomeu Morey that’s coming out from Snyder’s Best Jackett Press imprint. The crowdfunding effort brought in more than $200,000 and set the stage for the launch of the Nocterra ongoing title, which debuted last month from Image Comics. The explosive first issue introduced readers to truck driver Val Riggs, a woman who lives in a world where the sun stopped rising 10 years ago, plunging humanity “into an everlasting night that turns all living creatures into monstrous shades.” The only defense is artificial light; luckily Riggs’ 18-wheeler is heavily illuminated.

I spoke with Snyder about the comic, its villain, the differences between launching a creator-owned comic vs. a DC title, his plans for Best Jackett Press and more.

DC Universe Infinite launches this week

The service eliminates some features as it focuses exclusively on comics.

DC’s revised and rebranded comics subscription service, DC Universe Infinite, will officially launch this Thursday. Formerly known as DC Universe, the service will feature comics, as its video programming, like Titans, Doom Patrol and the Young Justice cartoon, have all moved over to HBO Max.

In addition, the community forum can be found outside the app at community.dcuniverseinfinite.com, while the store will also live at a new web address: https://shop.dccomics.com/. It’s up and running with several T-shirt designs, masks and more.

DC Universe Infinite will be available for iPhone, iPad, Android Phone and Tablets and online for web and mobile web at dcuniverseinfinite.com. Some platforms it was on before, like Apple TV and XBox, for example, no longer carry the app as of last month.

So, for the service itself, that leaves comics, and DC is adding a whole bunch of them to the service this week.

Mail Call | ‘X-O Manowar’ returns, ‘Death Metal’ one-shots and more

A round-up of news from DC, Marvel, Image Comics, Valiant and more.

Mail Call is a roundup of the announcements we’ve received from comics publishers in our mailboxes recently. Hit the links for more information.

The Dark Nights: Death Metal event grew again this week, as DC announced two new anthology one-shots for November prior to releasing their full November solicitations.

The first one is focused on Lobo and is titled Dark Nights: Death Metal Infinite Hours Exxxtreme! #1. It will feature “Uncle Lobo” telling “familiar yet freaky stories of the DC Universe, exactly as he remembers them: with blood and guts and exxxtreme gratuitous violence.” The creators involved include Frank Tieri, Becky Cloonan, Dale Eaglesham and more, with a cover by Kyle Hotz.

If that one isn’t ridiculous-sounding enough, the second one, Dark Nights: Death Metal The Multiverse Who Laughs “offers the curious—and the brave—a glimpse into the nightmare realities that the Batman Who Laughs has created in tales by creators who know what it means to have a truly twisted sense of misfit humor.” As you can tell by the cover, one of those worlds features evil super pets. It includes stories by Amanda Conner, Patton Oswalt, Jimmy Palmiotti, Scott Snyder, Brandon Thomas, James Tynion IV, Joshua Williamson, Chad Hardin and more.

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