Vertigo is my favorite comic publisher of all time and is what ushered me back into reading comics. Not only that it matured me into the reader I am today. I've been meaning to delve back into the classic works of the company for a while now. The revelation of the "dark" line of new DCU comics coming in September really made me want to take a look at the real version of these characters before I take on their DCU incarnations. Sandman's my favorite comic of all time and Gaiman's my favorite writer (sorry Silkcuts). Alan Moore's my close second, in fact he's 1-B and I own all his essentials aside from his Swamp Thing which I will own before I die! I have a short list of things I want to read but am open to any suggestions from my fellow viners. What are your favorite Vertigo works? What would recommend?
Things I've Read/Reading: Sandman, Preacher, V for Vendetta, Watchmen, Y: The Last Man, Dysart's Unknown Soldier, Unwritten, American Vampire
Things I want to read more into: Transmetropolitan, Fables, Ex Machina, Hellblazer...definitely Hell Blazer.
Things I KNOW I should've read already but haven't yet: Moore's Swamp Thing, Milligan's Shade, Morrison's Animal Man/Doom Patrol, Carey's Lucifer, Scalped, Madame Xanadu, Hell Blazer...yes I have Constantine on the brain lately.
Things I'd like some feedback on: The Dreaming, Sandman Mystery Theater
Creator-Owned
In terms of quantity, it is much more common for characters to be creator-owned (or company-licensed) than owned by their publisher. However, in comics two of the biggest publishers worldwide (DC and Marvel) traditionally own all their characters. This page is meant to help distinguish characters that are owned by the creator from those owned by the publisher in cases where it's not immediately obvious.
Recommended Vertigo Reading?
You haven't read Moore's Swamp Thing? What the hell, go do that NOW! Morrison's Animal Man and Doom Patrol are great too. If you're planning to pick up Lemire's Animal Man title this September, you might wanna pick Morrison's Animal Man, since it's based upon that interpretation of him.
Give Morrison's 'Invisibles' a go.
You haven't read Moore's Swamp Thing? What the hell, go do that NOW! Morrison's Animal Man and Doom Patrol are great too. If you're planning to pick up Lemire's Animal Man title this September, you might wanna pick Morrison's Animal Man, since it's based upon that interpretation of him. Give Morrison's 'Invisibles' a go.I know, I know it's the grand daddy of this "genre" and it's blasphemous that I haven't read it :(
I'm definitely reading Lemire's Animal Man. I've heard nothing but good about Morrison's run and the bits I've been able to peak at were great, great stuff. I definitely will read it in whole. I'm really on the fence about reading Invisibles checked some reviews of the series on Amazon and it was split right down the middle. With it's detractors siting many of the things I don't like about Morrison as turn offs for them. Anyways, sooo glad Lemire's going to continue his Animal Man based on Morrison's.
And yeah, Lemire's Animal Man should be good. His Frankenstein, whilst not Vertigo (I think) should be good too, I think it's based on Morrison's Seven Soliders of Victory, which I enjoyed a lot.
@JonesDeini: I've only read a few volumes of Invisible, it starts off a little weak, but it get's better as you read more, in my opinion. I'm borrowing the volumes of one of my friends - who's opinion in particular I value a lot - and she says it's pretty engaging stuff once you get up-to-date with it. It does seem like a marmite 'love-it-or-hate-it' sorta thing though. And yeah, Lemire's Animal Man should be good. His Frankenstein, whilst not Vertigo (I think) should be good too, I think it's based on Morrison's Seven Soliders of Victory, which I enjoyed a lot.Yeah, after the appearance of the Creature Commandos in JL: Generation Lost I was really hoping to see them again in the DCU. glad Lemire's taking over that title if I had the dough I'd spring for his Flashpoint tie in. I'm on the fence on getting Frankenstein Agent of S.H.A.D.E. because I have an already large pull list as is. But man, the DCU Dark titles sound more and more appetizing the more I hear about them from the creators. And yup he's using that Frank from SSOV
I higly recommend Sandman: Mystery Theater. In the first volume alone we get a great muder mystery with fantastic characterization across the bord. It's simply great pulp storie's, also it has some tie's to Neil Gaiman's Sandman, since Wesley Dodds has prophetic dreams. So happy readings.
@aztek the lost: You included Watchmen even though, as you agree, its not a Vertigo?
I realize that stuff like Swamp Thing/Watchmen/etc. "aren't " Vertigo books, but let's not kid ourselves, they are. That's where the spirit started. The moment Alan Moore penned his first Swamp Thing script the Vertigo imprint was born into reality. And yeah I realized Ex Machina was a Wildstorm book after I posted this. Thanks for the suggestions and comments.
Aztek the lost has pretty much covered most of it lol.... I personally really enjoyed The Invisibles (Check it out now, if you haven't already, the first three graphic novels are up there with ' a game of you' and ' Watchmen' for me), Moore's Swamp Thing, Shade The Changing Man, Moonshadow ( Totally underrated, not originally a vertigo title but they now publish it, as a Sandman/Gaiman fan your bound to fall in love with it as I did). From the 'newer' Vertigo titles ( Yeah I'm kinda old school, lol) I really liked 100 Bullets. Gaiman consider's Mr Punch one of his best works, and I'd recommend that ... Oh and Doom Patrol, that's great too.
I'm certainly no expert on The Dreaming and Sandman Mystery Theatre, but from the few issues I read they definitely maintained Vertigo's level of quality but for me weren't up there with better known works if you see what I mean. They're definitely worth further investigation though.
Aztek the lost has pretty much covered most of it lol.... I personally really enjoyed The Invisibles (Check it out now, if you haven't already, the first three graphic novels are up there with ' a game of you' and ' Watchmen' for me), Moore's Swamp Thing, Shade The Changing Man, Moonshadow ( Totally underrated, not originally a vertigo title but they now publish it, as a Sandman/Gaiman fan your bound to fall in love with it as I did). From the 'newer' Vertigo titles ( Yeah I'm kinda old school, lol) I really liked 100 Bullets. Gaiman consider's Mr Punch one of his best works, and I'd recommend that ... Oh and Doom Patrol, that's great too. I'm certainly no expert on The Dreaming and Sandman Mystery Theatre, but from the few issues I read they definitely maintained Vertigo's level of quality but for me weren't up there with better known works if you see what I mean. They're definitely worth further investigation though.I just started Shade a few weeks ago. Thanks for the heads up on the other books. I've been interested in Mr. Punch and Black Orchid.
Sandman mystery theatre is a great noir crime fighter tale. fun villians and arts that's diffrent enough to set it apart from anything else.
Please Log In to post.
This edit will also create new pages on Comic Vine for:
Beware, you are proposing to add brand new pages to the wiki along with your edits. Make sure this is what you intended. This will likely increase the time it takes for your changes to go live.Comment and Save
Until you earn 1000 points all your submissions need to be vetted by other Comic Vine users. This process takes no more than a few hours and we'll send you an email once approved.
Log in to comment