Tag: Vertigo Comics

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 Preacher, Fables, Y the Last Man and more over its more than 25-year history.

The imprint will under 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.”

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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.

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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.”

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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.

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‘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.”

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‘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.”

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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.

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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.

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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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Lemire gives an update, reveals art from new ‘Sweet Tooth’ comic

The new series will come out under DC’s Black Label imprint.

After teasing the return of Sweet Tooth to comics in May, creator Jeff Lemire has revealed more details about his work on the new series in his email newsletter.

He said the new series will fall under DC’s Black Label imprint, and like the original, will be written and drawn by Lemire and colored by Jose Villarrubia.

“I know a lot of Sweet Tooth fans are anxious to know story details and also apprehensive because they liked how I ended the old series, and don’t want me to do anything that will ruin that,” Lemire wrote. “All I can say is that I had all of these exact same concerns and it wasn’t until I came up with an idea that I really believed in that I considered going back to the world of Gus and the gang.”

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‘American Vampire 1976’ wraps up the series this fall

Scott Snyder and Rafael Albuquerque’s former Vertigo title returns for its last ride in October.

Skinner Sweet, the lovable, deadly star of Scott Snyder and Rafael Albuquerque’s long-running, Esiner-winning American Vampire, will take one more ride in October.

The former Vertigo series will find new life this fall as a nine-issue miniseries, American Vampire 1976, under DC’s Black Label banner.

“Scott, Rafael, and I, we cut our teeth together on American Vampire 10 years ago,” said Executive Editor Mark Doyle. “Returning to finish the story we started a decade ago is a thrill. Working on American Vampire 1976 has been so creepy and cool, especially because the parallels between ’70s paranoia and today are really chilling.”

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Taylor + Robertson have a ‘twisted’ John Constantine story coming in September

‘Hellblazer: Rise & Fall’ brings the Vertigo bad boy to DC’s Black Label for a three-issue series.

DC Comics has announced Hellblazer: Rise & Fall, a new three-issue Black Label series by Tom Taylor (Suicide Squad, DCeased) and Darick Robertson (The Boys, New Warriors). The story involves a police detective, Aisha Bukhari, trying to solve the mystery behind the bodies of billionaires falling from the sky — with some help from her childhood friend, John Constantine.

If there’s any character who screams “Black Label,” it’s gotta be John Constantine.

“This is a very twisted book,” said Taylor. “But, I actually want to give people exactly the John they’ve seen before. I want to write the bloke who steps out of the shadows with the smirk, the lit cigarette and all the answers. I want a story of shocks and sadness and triumph in the face of utter horror.”

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