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141-534: Vertigo grew out of DC's mature readers' line of the 1980s, 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 mature readers titles, edited by Karen Berger , grew. By 1992, DC's mature readers' line

282-538: A silicon creature. The primary artist for the bulk of Pasko's run was Tom Yeates ; towards the end of the run he was replaced with Stephen R. Bissette and John Totleben (who began by inking Yeates' pencils). Bissette and Totleben, who had known Yeates at the Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art , had been ghosting various pages for Yeates, and were given the assignment on Pasko's recommendation. In issue #6, editor Len Wein declared, in response to

423-414: A 75-cent Vertigo Preview comic featuring a specially written seven-page Sandman story by Gaiman and Kent Williams . In addition, a 16-page Vertigo Sampler was also produced and bundled with copies of Capital City Distribution 's Advance Comics solicitation index. Vertigo publications generally did not take place in a shared universe. However, several of the early series which had begun as part of

564-464: A Planetary Elemental, due to his belief that he was more effective a figure as a normal elemental being living in the swamp. After being overlooked for inclusion in countless DC Universe crossovers since Invasion! , the Swamp Thing reappeared in the coda for the DC Universe crossover event The Final Night , appearing at Hal Jordan's funeral alongside John Constantine. In 1997, the Swamp Thing

705-449: A close bond with Arcane's niece Abigail Arcane . Also involved in the conflict was the Swamp Thing's close friend-turned-enemy Matthew Cable , a federal agent who originally mistakenly believed the Swamp Thing responsible for the deaths of Alec and Linda Holland. Despite Wein's writing the first 13 issues, only the first 10 issues of the original Swamp Thing series had been collected in trade paperbacks or reprint comics, primarily due to

846-463: A company wide relaunch by DC comics. It was written by Scott Snyder and drawn by Yanick Paquette . Taking off from the end of Brightest Day , the series follows a resurrected Alec Holland who wants to put the memories of the Swamp Thing behind him. He is approached first by an earlier incarnation of the Swamp Thing, representing the Parliament of Trees . This Swamp Thing informs Holland that he

987-399: A degree in art history, Kahn eventually founded three magazines for young people. The original publication, Kids , was entirely written by children for one another. Its subject matter included drug abuse, diversity, animal protection, and the environment. Kahn's second magazine was Dynamite , for Scholastic Inc. Kahn followed with Smash for Xerox Education Publications . Kahn

1128-528: A fit of rage and escaped deep into the Green. Woodrue went insane after attempting to connect to the Green through the Swamp Thing, and Abby had to revive the Swamp Thing in order to stop Woodrue after Woodrue killed an entire Louisiana town. Swamp Thing returned to the swamps of Louisiana, and encountered Jason Blood ( Etrigan the Demon ), then gave a final burial for Holland's bones. Matthew Cable, gravely hurt in

1269-466: A going concern. To mark her new direction for the company, Kahn officially renamed National Periodical Publications to DC Comics, complete with a bold new company logo, nicknamed the DC Bullet, designed by Milton Glaser . Furthermore, she moved to centralize editorial from its individual fiefdoms to place the characters in a more interactive DC Multiverse with a more systematic approval process for

1410-469: A healthy body. The ongoing stress from constant attacks and dealing with Tefe's powers leads to Abby rejecting Tefe and eventually leaving town with her new boyfriend. Fearing for Tefe's safety, Lady Jane betrays the Swamp Thing and kidnaps Tefe into the Green, so that she can be trained by the Parliament of Trees. Swamp Thing Annual #7, published around this time, was the final annual issue as part of

1551-432: A mythic atmosphere. Characters spun off from Moore's series gave rise to DC's Vertigo comic book line, notably The Sandman , John Constantine, Hellblazer , and The Books of Magic ; Vertigo titles were written with adults in mind and often contained material unsuitable for children. The Saga of the Swamp Thing was the first mainstream comic book series to completely abandon the Comics Code Authority (CCA) ; after

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1692-430: A new sentient being that believed itself to be Alec Holland. The Swamp Thing would never be human again because he never was human to start with. Woodrue also concluded that, despite the autopsy, the Swamp Thing was still alive and in a deep coma due to the bullet wounds and imprisonment in cold-storage. Moore would later reveal, in an attempt to connect the original one-off Swamp Thing story from House of Secrets to

1833-459: A planet that was amenable to his new psychic wavelength. In the first tale of the Swamp Thing's extraterrestrial activities ("My Blue Heaven", #56), the Swamp Thing came upon a planet colored entirely in shades of blue, and on which there was no intelligent life. In this particularly popular issue, the Swamp Thing populated this lonely blue planet with mindless plant replicas of Abby and other reminders of his lost Earth. In issue #60, entitled "Loving

1974-471: A popularity which was further fueled by them not being distributed in the U.S. Release of hardcover reprints began in 2009, with the first volume including Swamp Thing #20 for the first time. Jenette Kahn Jenette Kahn ( / k ɑː n / ; born May 16, 1947 ) is an American comic book editor and executive. She joined DC Comics in 1976 as publisher, and five years later was promoted to president. In 1989, she stepped down as publisher and assumed

2115-524: A published letter, that Alec never had a brother and that every Swamp Thing series story after issue #21 of the original series never happened. The letter, however, questioned why the Swamp Thing had reverted, which had already been explained in the Challengers of the Unknown run. A later column pointed this out, so they said they would not deliberately contradict it, even though they would still go from

2256-494: A relatively unknown writer in America whose previous work included several stories for 2000 AD , Warrior and Marvel UK ) free rein to revamp the title and the character as he saw fit. Moore reconfigured the Swamp Thing's origin to make him a true monster as opposed to a human transformed into a monster. In his first issue, he swept aside the supporting cast Pasko had introduced in his year-and-a-half run as writer, and brought

2397-533: A relaunch of Vertigo, independent from DC Black Label. 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

2538-532: A roommate with a modern-day superhero – blasphemous and offensive. The series was cancelled before the first issue was published; Russell and Pace later published the series through Ahoy Comics . Safe Sex by Tina Horn and Mike Dowling was also cancelled before its debut, and later published as SFSX by Image Comics . DC Comics discontinued Vertigo imprint in January 2020. The DC Zoom and DC Ink imprints for children and young adolescents were also eliminated. Under

2679-772: A showdown with Lex Luthor (and Superman) in Swamp Thing (vol. 2) #79 and a confrontation with the Batman in Swamp Thing Annual #4. It was during this time that the Swamp Thing first encountered the Black Orchid in Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean 's three-part graphic novel. Later, during the Invasion! crossover event, the Swamp Thing was thrown into the past, and traveled through time trying to return to

2820-460: A six-issue miniseries was published, written by Swamp Thing co-creator Len Wein and pencilled by Kelley Jones . The new series, retitled as The Swamp Thing , started March 2021 and being written by Ram V and pencilled by Mike Perkins . A new character Levi Kamei takes over the role as the new Avatar of the Green. The series was planned to be a ten-issue miniseries until it was extended to 16 issues. Swamp Thing has so far been collected in

2961-742: A title whose "sensibilities echo crime genre fiction ". Joining it was J. M. DeMatteis and Paul Johnson's 64-page one-shot Mercy . New series that began in the months that followed include Kid Eternity (ongoing) by Ann Nocenti and Sean Phillips (continuing from the earlier Morrison-penned limited series), Grant Morrison and Steve Yeowell 's three-issue steampunk limited series Sebastian O (another ex-Touchmark project), Skin Graft by Jerry Prosser and Warren Pleece , The Last One by DeMatteis and Dan Sweetman , Jonah Hex : Two-Gun Mojo by Tim Truman and Sam Glanzman , Black Orchid (ongoing) by Dick Foreman and Jill Thompson (continuing from

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3102-532: A widely publicized creative dispute, when DC refused to publish issue #88 because of the use of Jesus as a character despite having previously approved the script, in which the Swamp Thing is revealed to be the cupbearer who offers Jesus water when he calls for it from the cross. The move was said to be made due to controversies then arising from the Martin Scorsese film The Last Temptation of Christ . Artist Michael Zulli had already partially completed

3243-471: Is a unique individual who would have become a legendary warrior for the Parliament and the Green, the essence of all plant life. When Holland died, the Parliament created a creature which thought it was him as a substitute. Holland rebuffs the creature's entreaties that he assume the mantle of the Swamp Thing. Next, he is approached by Abigail Arcane, the former lover of the Swamp Thing. She enlists him to help save her half-brother William Arcane, before he becomes

3384-549: Is rendered powerless and mortal. Meanwhile, a rogue consciousness, calling itself the Holland Mind, was living in the Green . As of issue #15, botany professor Jordan Schiller, an influential man from Alec Holland's past, has been summoned to the swamp by strange visions and memories, apparently manipulated by this rogue consciousness. The full purpose for this manipulation was revealed in issues #21–24. In sacrificing his power,

3525-589: Is shown most notably with the final resurrection of Anton Arcane who, during his most recent stay in Hell, befriended a priest that was unfairly condemned to Hell and in the process renounced evil and became a born-again Christian. The Swamp Thing thus spares humanity and becomes a Planetary Elemental, representing Earth itself, and joins the Parliament of Worlds, which is made up of all the other "enlightened worlds" (the only others actually named were Mars , who greeted

3666-462: Is strongly associated with the imprint for his work on Swamp Thing and his creation of John Constantine, but he never produced work for the Vertigo imprint, having refused to work for parent company DC in the late 1980s. His Swamp Thing work and the V for Vendetta reprint-maxiseries were retroactively collected as Vertigo-issued TPBs. Grant Morrison left Animal Man and Doom Patrol before

3807-829: The Clinton Administration , Secretary of State Madeleine Albright , the United Nations, and the Department of Defense for her work on land mines . The FBI honored Kahn for her efforts on gun control, as did former Governor Douglas Wilder of Virginia, who credited her with helping to pass stricter gun control legislation in his state. She was honored by the World Design Foundation for outstanding creative achievements. Kahn created The Wonder Woman Foundation in honor of Wonder Woman's 40th Anniversary. In its three years of existence,

3948-543: The Paradox Press "Big Book" series as well as several other non-comics works. He edited Harvey Pekar 's Vertigo work: The Quitter hardcover and eight issues of Pekar's American Splendor autobiographical series. His other Vertigo editing credits include The Exterminators , Douglas Rushkoff 's Testament , novelist Denise Mina 's run on Hellblazer , Incognegro by Mat Johnson , and The Alcoholic by novelist and essayist Jonathan Ames . Alan Moore

4089-528: The mad scientist Anton Arcane . Though they only met twice during the first series, Arcane and his obsession with gaining immortality, aided by his nightmarish army of Un-Men and the Patchwork Man (Arcane's brother Gregori Arcane who, after a land mine explosion, was rebuilt as a Frankenstein Monster -type creature by his brother), became the Swamp Thing's nemesis, even as the Swamp Thing developed

4230-559: The " Season of Mists " storyline, and Gaiman's own return to the mythos with the hardcover Sandman: Endless Nights collection of short stories spotlighting the seven members of the Endless (an eight-page Endless Nights Preview issue was also released before the hardcover). Berger oversaw the entire Vertigo line, and was promoted to the position of "Senior Vice President—Executive Editor, Vertigo" in July 2006. Her promotion came as Vertigo

4371-529: The "American Gothic" storyline introduced the character John Constantine (later to star in his own comic John Constantine, Hellblazer ) in issues #37–50, where the Swamp Thing had to travel to several parts of America, encountering several archetypal horror monsters, including vampires (the same clan he fought in The Saga of the Swamp Thing (vol. 2) #3), a werewolf , and zombies , but modernized with relevance to current issues. Around this time, Moore had

Vertigo Comics - Misplaced Pages Continue

4512-452: The "DC Explosion" of new titles and formats which was followed in 1978 by a company downturn referred to as the " DC Implosion . Along with editor and executive vice president Paul Levitz and managing editor Dick Giordano , Kahn then revitalized the company through the remainder of the decade and the 1980s, including the introduction of " Dollar Comics " publications, as well as limited series to allow for more flexible arrangements for

4653-449: The "Vertigo Voices" titles in 1995, as well as Shadows Fall , Ghostdancing , Egypt , Millennium Fever and both Tank Girl miniseries. Young's last editorial credit for Vertigo was Flex Mentallo #1 (June 1996). Shelly Bond was Vertigo's executive editor until 2016. Berger hired her as an assistant editor in the winter of 1992, making her the last of the original Vertigo team to join. Bond worked on many of Vertigo's top titles over

4794-667: The 1996 one-shot Dhampire: Stillborn . Matt Wagner wrote the early Vertigo series Sandman Mystery Theatre and co-wrote the Sandman Midnight Theatre special with Neil Gaiman. Wagner later wrote the 29-issue Madame Xanadu series. The Saga of the Swamp Thing The character the Swamp Thing has appeared in seven American comic book series to date, including several specials, and has crossed over into other DC Comics titles. The series found immense popularity upon its 1970s debut and during

4935-585: The Alien", the Swamp Thing actually becomes the father of the numerous offspring of an alien cosmic entity after she "mates" with him against his will. Moore's run included several references to obscure or forgotten comic characters (the Phantom Stranger, Cain and Abel, the Floronic Man), but none so prominent as in issue #32, when he broke with the serious and moody storyline for a single issue. In

5076-480: The CCA denied issue #29 the seal of approval, DC created an imprint to publish the series under and no longer submitted issues of The Saga of the Swamp Thing to the CCA for approval. Moore's final issue, #64, was dated September 1987. At that point, regular penciller Rick Veitch began scripting the series, continuing the story in a roughly similar vein for 24 more issues. Shortly after issue #65, Swamp Thing Annual #3

5217-756: The Challengers of the Unknown, encountered the supernatural being known as Deadman (though they were unaware of Deadman's presence), a fact that would confirm the post-Wein Swamp Thing stories existence in DC Universe continuity years later when Deadman and the Swamp Thing met again during Alan Moore's run as writer. The Swamp Thing also appeared with the Batman twice in The Brave and the Bold #122 and 176 and with Superman in DC Comics Presents #8. In

5358-600: The Changing Man (starting with #33), The Sandman (#47), Hellblazer (#63), Animal Man (#57), Swamp Thing (#129), and Doom Patrol (#64, with new writer Rachel Pollack ). The first comic book published under the "Vertigo" imprint was the first issue of Death: The High Cost of Living , a three-issue series by Neil Gaiman and Chris Bachalo . The second new title was the first issue of Enigma , an 8-issue limited series initially planned to launch Touchmark, written by Peter Milligan (also author of Shade,

5499-433: 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

5640-402: The Changing Man ) and drawn by Duncan Fegredo , the artist from Grant Morrison's earlier Kid Eternity limited series. The following month saw the debut of Sandman: Mystery Theatre by Matt Wagner and Steven T. Seagle , and illustrated primarily by Guy Davis , described as "playing the '30s with a '90s feel... haunting, film noir -ish...", and starring original Sandman Wesley Dodds in

5781-441: The Changing Man . He later edited Doom Patrol , Animal Man , Kid Eternity , and Black Orchid , as well as two "Vertigo Visions" one-shots. Peyer left editing behind in 1994, returning to DC as a writer. Stuart Moore edited a wide range of Vertigo titles between 1991 and 2000, including Swamp Thing , Books of Magic , Hellblazer , The Invisibles , Preacher and Transmetropolitan . One of his most important contributions to

Vertigo Comics - Misplaced Pages Continue

5922-524: The Cutting Edge of Comics was a 2000 collection of artwork from various Vertigo titles, with commentary by Alisa Kwitney. The Vertigo Voices featured creator-owned "distinctive one-shot stories". The short-lived "Vérité" line, evoking the realism of Cinéma vérité , "was a 1996–98 attempt to promote new Vertigo projects devoid of the supernatural qualities that had gotten to define the publisher". The " fifth-week event " brand V2K (Vertigo 2000),

6063-479: The Green by becoming one of the Parliament of Trees and grabbing Woodrue to tap into the power of the Avatar. He manages to convince the Parliament that he is better by making all plant life, including the algae in the oceans and seas, to become hyperactive and produce massive amounts of oxygen, which makes all other beings feel lazier. The Parliament agrees and makes him the Avatar once more. From March to August 2016,

6204-564: The Martian Manhunter, partaking in relationships with human beings), the Swamp Thing was ambushed by soldiers using a weapon designed by Lex Luthor . Luthor's weapon destroyed the Swamp Thing's psychic connection with the Earth, whilst the Swamp Thing's body was destroyed by napalm. Unable to regrow a new Earthly body, the Swamp Thing was presumed dead. However, the Swamp Thing's consciousness had instead fled to outer space, in search of

6345-495: The Parliament of Trees. Wheeler's run was drawn by Pat Broderick and Mike Hoffman. Broderick's work had a more traditional, adventure-comics look than previous artists on the series. John Totleben continued to contribute painted covers up to issue #100. Seeking to revive interest in the series, DC brought horror writer Nancy A. Collins on board to write the series, first with Swamp Thing Annual #6 before moving on to write Swamp Thing #110–138. Collins dramatically overhauled

6486-545: The Sunderland Corporation (a villainous group out to gain the secrets of Alec Holland's research) to the forefront, as they hunted down the Swamp Thing and "killed" him in a hail of bullets. The Saga of the Swamp Thing (vol. 2) #21 (Feb. 1984), "The Anatomy Lesson", signaled a change in the character's mythos by having an obscure supervillain, the Floronic Man (Jason Woodrue), perform an autopsy on

6627-548: The Swamp Thing , featured in its first Annual the comic book adaptation of the Craven movie. Now written by Martin Pasko, the book loosely picked up after the Swamp Thing's appearances in Challengers of the Unknown #81-87, DC Comics Presents #8, and The Brave and the Bold #176, with the character wandering around the swamps of Louisiana as something of an urban legend that was feared by locals. Martin Pasko 's main arc depicted

6768-407: The Swamp Thing also encountered the Batman's enemy Killer Croc , in a failed attempt to resolve the character's ongoing storyline in 1995's Batman #521–522, Swamp Thing (vol. 2) #159-160, and The Batman Chronicles #3. The series was later cancelled. Explanations for the cancellation vary, from low sales to Millar himself having become bored with the series. Despite this, Millar decided to leave

6909-426: The Swamp Thing and Hawkman was promised for the next issue, but no such battle occurred until Swamp Thing (vol. 2) #58. During the short-lived revival of Challengers of the Unknown in issues #81-87, also by Gerry Conway, the Swamp Thing returned as Alec Holland who, without continually producing and self-medicating with the bio-restorative formula, reverted into the form of the Swamp Thing. Holland, along with

7050-401: The Swamp Thing and Abby deepened, and in Swamp Thing (vol. 2) #34 ("Rites of Spring") the two confessed that they loved each other since they met, and "made love" though a hallucinogenic experience brought on when Abby ate a tuber produced by the Swamp Thing's body (this served as a segment in the film The Return of Swamp Thing , where the Swamp Thing produces a fruit and the ingestion of

7191-403: The Swamp Thing and Abby set up shop in southern Louisiana and attempt to live a normal life with friends and family, culminating in the introduction of the elemental babysitter Lady Jane into the supporting cast. It was during her run that DC officially launched the Vertigo imprint and Swamp Thing #129 was the first issue to carry the Vertigo logo on the cover. Collins wrapped up her run by having

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7332-550: The Swamp Thing dead, grew a Sprout to replace him. Unwilling to sacrifice an innocent life, he convinced them that he would take the Sprout as his own child, and eventually impregnated Abby (now his wife) with it by possessing John Constantine 's body. After the completion of this storyline, the Swamp Thing sought to resolve his need for vengeance against those who had "killed" him during his showdown in Gotham City, culminating in

7473-481: The Swamp Thing encounter Superman a second time, in DC Comics Presents #85. The storyline began with the Swamp Thing's old body being completely destroyed, and growing a new one. Constantine encourages the Swamp Thing to use the power for transportation, and the Swamp Thing learns to do so with increasing speed. The "American Gothic" storyline ended with a crossover with Crisis on Infinite Earths , where

7614-567: The Swamp Thing from destroying humanity so that the Parliament Elementals could claim control over Earth. In the end, the Swamp Thing unites all of the Elemental Parliaments into one collective hive mind with him in control of it. Achieving a global sense of consciousness, the Swamp Thing sees through the worldview of every living thing upon the planet and find the good and the potential in even his worst enemy. This

7755-573: The Swamp Thing had to solve the battle between Good (Light) and Evil (Darkness). He also met the Parliament of Trees in issue #47, which was where Earth elementals like him lay to rest after they have walked the Earth, and it was here Moore solved the continuity problem of the first and second Swamp Thing: the first Swamp Thing, Alex Olsen, was now a part of the Parliament. Although Abby was eventually released (the Batman having pointed out that there were probably several non-humans, such as Superman, Metamorpho, Starfire ( Dick Grayson 's girlfriend), and

7896-587: The Swamp Thing into their number, and Oa ; due to its destruction some time before [in Green Lantern #0], Mars lamented Oa could not witness Earth's induction). This was the most significant change made to the character since Moore's reinterpretation, though in the Michael Zulli story "Look Away" (found within the 2000 special issue Swamp Thing Vertigo Secret Files and Origins #1) the Swamp Thing ultimately returns to normal and renounces his status as

8037-406: The Swamp Thing lost much of his Alec Holland personality. Now he is restored to his proper station and power and has resumed his romantic relationship with Abby, as of issue #25. Beginning with issue #21 onward, Eric Powell ( The Goon ) provided covers for the series. The Floronic Man returned in #27–29, his mind splintered in the aftermath of Infinite Crisis . Issue #29 was the final issue of

8178-455: The Swamp Thing promise Abby that he will never leave her side. He then breaks his promise and creates a secret double to stay and protect Abby as he goes into the Green during an environmental crisis. Abby feels betrayed and leaves a despondent Swamp Thing behind. He retreats into the Green, and when Lady Jane reaches out to him, it sparks into a love affair. Arcane returns and arranges an abduction of Abby to force Tefe to use her powers to grow him

8319-525: The Swamp Thing roaming the globe, trying to stop a young girl (and possible Nazi -affiliated Anti-Christ) named Karen Clancy from destroying the world. The series also featured back-up stories involving the Phantom Stranger by Mike W. Barr , which led to a collaboration between the Swamp Thing and the Stranger in a guest run by Dan Mishkin that featured a scientist who transformed himself into

8460-403: The Swamp Thing was forced to kill Arcane. Pasko left the book with issue #19, which featured the (third) death of Arcane, the second of which, from Swamp Thing #10, was reprinted in The Saga of the Swamp Thing (vol. 2) #18. He would be replaced by British writer Alan Moore . As Swamp Thing was heading for cancellation due to low sales, DC editorial agreed to give Alan Moore (at the time

8601-422: The Swamp Thing's body and discover it was only superficially human, its organs little more than crude, nonfunctional, vegetable-based imitations of their human counterparts, indicating that the Swamp Thing could never have been human. The Swamp Thing was not Alec Holland, but only believed it to be so: Holland had indeed died in the fire, and the swamp vegetation had absorbed his consciousness and memories and created

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8742-699: The Swamp Thing) and Cable's restoration to his dream raven form. Matthew the Raven died in The Dreaming story "Foxes and Hounds" in issues #42–43, a fact that was later touched upon by the 2000 special issue Swamp Thing Vertigo Secret Files and Origins #1. The final week of 1999 saw the Swamp Thing teaming up with other Vertigo heroes from the DC Universe in the one-shot special Totems . Written by Brian K. Vaughan and drawn by Roger Petersen (issues #1 – #11) and Giuseppe Camuncoli (issues #12 – #20) in 2001,

8883-421: The Vertigo crossover event " The Children's Crusade ". Collins also wrote a Swamp Thing story for the anthology one-shot Vertigo Jam . Shortly after Collins' departure, Black Orchid series writer Dick Foreman wrote a two-part crossover between the two titles, Black Orchid #5 and Swamp Thing #139. With issue #140 (March 1994), the title was handed over to Grant Morrison for a four-issue arc, co-written by

9024-595: The Vertigo imprint celebrated its 10th anniversary by branding its books cover-dated April 2003 to February 2004 (i.e. released between February and December 2003 ) with the label Vertigo X . This special subtitle was debuted on the Vertigo X Anniversary Preview (April 2003), a 48-page special previewing Vertigo's upcoming projects and featuring a short Shade, the Changing Man story by Peter Milligan and Mike Allred. Other projects highlighted included Death: At Death's Door , Jill Thompson 's first manga -ized version of

9165-408: The Vertigo launch. His Shade, the Changing Man was launched in 1991, pre-Vertigo, and ran 70 issues until 1996, by which time it was under the Vertigo imprint. He also wrote the creator-owned eight-issue miniseries Enigma (1993). Milligan and Brett Ewins 's 1989 mini-series Skreemer was subsequently collected by Vertigo. Milligan also wrote both a Human Target mini-series and ongoing series,

9306-498: The art. The move disgusted Veitch and he immediately resigned from writing. Neil Gaiman and Jamie Delano , who were originally slated to be the next writers, sympathetically declined to take up the helm. Gaiman, however, was cooperative enough with the editorial staff to write Swamp Thing Annual #5, featuring Brother Power the Geek , to fill the series hiatus, which led into the run of the new Swamp Thing writer, Doug Wheeler. The Annual

9447-435: The artistic staff to produce fewer and commercially sounder titles. To that end, Kahn sought to hire young staff to revitalize the content such as an unsuccessful attempt to recruit Marvel Comics mainstay artist, John Buscema , and a successful recruitment of major Marvel writer, Steve Englehart . Later in her administration, Kahn's recruitment goals became easier for the fact that Marvel Comics' Editor-in-Chief, Jim Shooter ,

9588-468: The assumption that it never happened. The arrival of Bissette and Totleben came as Pasko, who wrote the second Brave and the Bold team-up shortly before he began the series, resurrected plotlines from the original series. Abigail Arcane and Matt Cable were brought back and shown to be married, though this development had a darker side: Cable had been tortured via repeated electroshock treatments by his black-ops superiors over his decision to stop working for

9729-722: The boards of Exit Art and Harlem Stage, and is an advisor to The Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company . She is a founding member of The Committee of 200 , a nationwide forum of key women in business. Her first book, In Your Space , was published by Abbeville Press in 2002. Kahn received the Library of Congress Living Legends award in the "Writers and Artists" category in April 2000 for her significant contributions to America's cultural heritage. She received an Inkpot Award in July 2010. President Ronald Reagan honored Kahn for her work on drug awareness, and she has been honored by

9870-483: The books did not have a consistent " house style " of art, the cover designs of early Vertigo series featured a uniform trade dress with a vertical bar along the left side, which included the imprint logo, pricing, date, and issue numbers. The design layout continued with very little variation until issues cover-dated July 2002 (including Fables #1) which introduced an across-the-top layout ahead of 2003's "Vertigo X" 10th anniversary celebration. The "distinctive design"

10011-494: The champion of the Rot, the force of decay, once known as the Swamp Thing's archenemy, Anton Arcane . While traveling cross-country, Holland and Arcane find themselves increasingly attracted to each other. After confronting William, who has already become a servant of the Rot, Abigail is captured and taken away. At the same time, the Parliament of Trees comes under attack and is about to be destroyed. Realizing his mistake, Holland accepts

10152-965: The characters from Neil Gaiman's series, written by other creators. Other long-running series have been The Invisibles by Grant Morrison and various artists (1994–2000); Preacher by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon (1995–2000); Transmetropolitan by Warren Ellis and Darick Robertson (1997–2002); 100 Bullets by Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso (1999–2009); Lucifer by Mike Carey , Peter Gross , and Ryan Kelly (2000–2006); Y: The Last Man by Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra (2002–2008); Daytripper by Fábio Moon and Gabriel Bá (2010); DMZ by Brian Wood and Riccardo Burchielli (2005–2012); and Fables by Bill Willingham , Mark Buckingham , and various other artists (2002–2015), which launched spin-offs including Jack of Fables by Willingham, Lilah Sturges (credited as "Matthew Sturges"), and various artists (2006–2011), and Fairest by Willingham and various artists (2012–2015). In 2003,

10293-515: The comics fan media dubbed "the Bergerverse". In a 1992 editorial meeting with 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

10434-540: The coming year, under Doyle's editorship. These included a new sub-imprint based on Neil Gaiman's Sandman with four new ongoing series, announced in March, and seven new series announced in June. The relaunch experienced a number of complications. Border Town by Eric M. Esquivel and Ramon Villalobos dealt with immigration and Latino identity, for which Esquivel received death threats in advance of its publication. The series

10575-509: The company to pursue a career as a film producer. Kahn is a partner in Double Nickel Entertainment, a film production company she co-founded with Adam Richman after leaving DC Comics. Double Nickel's first film was The Flock (2007) starring Richard Gere and Claire Danes and directed by Andrew Lau . Its second was Gran Torino (2008), starring Clint Eastwood , who also directed. In addition, Kahn serves on

10716-459: The company's mainstream titles. One exception to this editorial stance was Kahn cancelling an issue of Swamp Thing where the title character interacts with Jesus, which led to the writer and artist Rick Veitch quitting, citing censorship concerns. She oversaw a diversification of the originally overwhelmingly male staff at DC, to the point where when she left, almost half the employees were women. Kahn left DC Comics in 2002 after 26 years with

10857-472: The conclusion of Scott Snyder's tenure on the series, Charles Soule took over with issue #19. His run on the series has the Swamp Thing fighting with Jason Woodrue, now known as the Seeder in the new continuity, who gained power over the Green after saving Alec Holland in the past. The Seeder eventually becomes the new Avatar of the Green after the Swamp Thing chooses not to kill him. Holland manages to escape from

10998-400: The course of her tenure, including The Sandman , Shade, the Changing Man , Sandman Mystery Theatre , iZombie , Paul Pope 's Heavy Liquid , Fables , Ed Brubaker 's Deadenders , David Lapham 's Young Liars , Mike Carey 's Lucifer , and The Invisibles . She was promoted to executive editor and vice president of Vertigo Comics in 2013, taking the place of Berger. In April 2016, Bond

11139-526: The creature was on the cover of the 24th and final issue of the series (albeit transforming into human), Holland appeared as human throughout the interior story. The cover illustration showed a yellow muscular creature, Thrudvang, beating up the Swamp Thing; the interior showed Holland imagining the Swamp Thing beating up Thrudvang, in similar positions but with roles reversed—the issue itself depicting Holland and his new love interest (and his brother's research assistant) running away from Thrudvang. A battle between

11280-461: The earlier Gaiman/McKean limited series), The Extremist by Peter Milligan and Ted McKeever , Scarab by John Smith with Scot Eaton and Mike Barreiro, and The Children's Crusade , a crossover involving several of the imprint's ongoing series. The Books of Magic limited series was relaunched as an ongoing series written by John Ney Rieber , and illustrated by Peter Gross (later also writer), Gary Amaro, and Peter Snejbjerg . Although

11421-512: The end of the series, the writers attempted to revive interest by introducing fantasy creatures, sci-fi aliens, and even Alec Holland's brother, Edward (a plot point that was never referred to or even mentioned again by later writers), into the picture. The appearance of Holland's brother toward the end of the series marked a series of plot developments, designed to provide the series with a happy ending, which generated much controversy. In Swamp Thing #23, Alec finally regains his humanity and while

11562-410: The following collections published by Vertigo and DC Comics : The entire Alan Moore run (save his first issue, Swamp Thing #20, which was not reprinted until 2009) from #21-64 was first collected in the U.K. in the late 1980s as a series of black and white trade paperbacks. Because DC had been reluctant to reprint the complete Moore run, these trades became highly popular amongst fans of the series,

11703-509: The four-issue DC/ Helix miniseries Bloody Mary (1996–7) – have had collections released under the Vertigo label. Rachel Pollack , who was writing Doom Patrol when Vertigo launched, continued on that title until #87 (Feb. 1995), the final issue. She is known for creating the first openly trans superhero, Coagula . She also penned two "Vertigo Visions" specials — 1993's The Geek and 1998's Tomahawk . Nancy A. Collins , who wrote Swamp Thing #110–138 (Aug. 1991 – Dec. 1993), also wrote

11844-500: The fourth volume, which had been cancelled due to low sales numbers, despite fan-supported efforts to save the series. The Dysart series deals with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in the last 12 issues of the series. Most notable is the fact that real estate tycoons had been wanting to develop the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans . The Swamp Thing was relaunched as an ongoing series in 2011 as part of The New 52 ,

11985-475: The fruit makes Abby to see the Swamp Thing as a handsome man, and then they make love). The controversial relationship between a plant and a human would culminate in Abby being arrested later for breaking the laws of nature and conducting a sexual relationship with a nonhuman. Abby ultimately fled to Gotham City, leading to a story arc featuring the fourth encounter between the Swamp Thing and the Batman . Before that,

12126-433: The general character of Vertigo, have been reprinted under this imprint. This has included V for Vendetta , earlier issues of Vertigo's ongoing launch series, and books from discontinued imprints such as Transmetropolitan (initially under DC's short-lived sci-fi Helix imprint) and A History of Violence (originally part of the Paradox Press line ). Two of the new ongoing series did not last long; Kid Eternity

12267-420: The government in order to marry Abigail. The electroshock treatments caused permanent brain damage for Matt, resulting in him being unable to work and, ironically, granting him psychic ability in the form of being able to create lifelike mental illusions. Pasko also resurrected Anton Arcane, now a grotesque half-human/half-insect cyborg with an army of insectoid Un-Men who ultimately cannibalized their creator after

12408-412: The head of Vertigo was filled by Shelly Bond , who had begun editing for the imprint in 1993. However, in 2016, DC "restructured" Vertigo, eliminating Bond's position, and oversight of Vertigo was placed under Jamie S. Rich , until May 2017 when Mark Doyle became the new editor. In 2018, DC Comics announced a "line-wide relaunch and rebranding" as "DC Vertigo", including 11 new ongoing titles planned for

12549-492: The imprint's publishing plans with the limited series Enigma , Sebastian O , Mercy , and Shadows Fall . Vertigo was launched in January 1993 with a mixture of existing ongoing series continued under the new imprint, new ongoing and limited series, and single-volume collections or graphic novels. Their publishing plan for the first year involved two new titles – whether ongoing/limited series or one-shots – each month. The existing series (cover date March 1993) were Shade,

12690-563: The imprint: Art Young started out as Karen Berger's assistant and worked on pre-Vertigo issues of Animal Man , Hellblazer , Swamp Thing , The Sandman , Doom Patrol , Books of Magic , Skreemer , and Kid Eternity . He then left DC in 1991 to work for Disney in setting up Touchmark, before returning with those projects to Vertigo in early 1993, when he edited debut title Enigma , and later miniseries and one-shots such as Sebastian O , The Extremist , Mercy , Rogan Gosh , The Mystery Play , and Tank Girl: The Moovy . He edited all four of

12831-497: 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,

12972-441: The job [of publisher] was rightfully his." In February 1981, she became president following the retirement of Harrison. She was the youngest person in the company to become president of a division, and the first woman. Furthermore, before Kahn began her new position, she was instrumental in dissuading the head of Warner Publishing Services from simply ending National 's publishing in favor of simple license maintenance, and kept it

13113-484: The latter, by Steve Englehart , he tried in vain to stop Superman from committing what he perceived as genocide (using a compound developed by S.T.A.R. Labs ) on 60 Solomon Grundys living in the sewers of Metropolis . In an issue dated May 1982, DC Comics revived the Swamp Thing series to try to capitalize on the summer 1982 release of the Wes Craven film of the same name . The title, called The Saga of

13254-700: The launch in 1993 of the Vertigo imprint and of Milestone Media , a minority-founded and ethnically diverse line of comic books that DC published for several years and from which Static Shock , the animated show on The WB television network, was developed. Kahn is credited with overseeing a successful period of reinvention for DC's classic characters, including the death and rebirth of Superman . Giordano commented that Kahn had no editorial restrictions on creators, as far as he could tell. Under Kahn's leadership, DC became known for pushing boundaries in subject matter by addressing issues of domestic violence, sexual orientation, gun violence, homelessness, racism, and AIDS in

13395-438: The launch of The Sandman for DC Comics, a title that became the backbone of the initial Vertigo line-up. His Death mini-series was part of the Vertigo launch, and his work on the first The Books of Magic miniseries (also released as a DC title, 1990–91) laid the groundwork for the long-running Vertigo Universe series of the same name, which featured young wizard Timothy Hunter . Peter Milligan contributed two titles to

13536-429: 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

13677-634: The launch of Vertigo, but their work on those titles was similarly retroactively branded as "Vertigo" when collected. They wrote three volumes of The Invisibles between 1994 and 2000 . In addition, they had produced a number of one-shots and miniseries including Sebastian O (1993), The Mystery Play (1994), Kill Your Boyfriend (1995), the Doom Patrol spin-off Flex Mentallo (1996), The Filth (2002–03), Seaguy (2004), Vimanarama (2005), We3 (2004–05) and Joe The Barbarian (2010). Neil Gaiman came to prominence four years pre-Vertigo with

13818-476: The line was hiring Garth Ennis to write Hellblazer . He helped start the DC imprint Helix , and brought Transmetropolitan to Vertigo after Helix's demise. Axel Alonso began his editorial career at Vertigo editing titles like Hellblazer , Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso 's 100 Bullets , and Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon 's Preacher . He left Vertigo for Marvel Comics in 2000 and eventually ascended to

13959-459: The main DC Universe had a "crossover" in 1993-94: The Children's Crusade . The event "did not yield smashing results" or garnered many positive reviews, in large part due to its "gimmicky" nature, which ran counter to Vertigo's quirky, non-mainstream appeal and customer-base. The event was defended as "no marketing ploy" by one of the event's editors, Lou Stathis, who wrote of his dislike of

14100-418: The main Swamp Thing canon, that there had been dozens, perhaps hundreds, of Swamp Things since the dawn of humanity, and that all versions of the creature were designated defenders of the Parliament of Trees , an elemental community also known as "the Green" that connects all plant life on Earth. The Swamp Thing went catatonic due to the shock of discovering what he really was, after having killed Sunderland in

14241-438: The mantle of the Swamp Thing as the only way to save Abigail and prevent the Rot from triumphing. Issues #8 and 9 were drawn by Yanick Paquette and Marco Rudy. Issue #10 was drawn by Francesco Francavilla, and #11 by Marco Rudy. Issue #12, which featured Animal Man, was a collaborative effort between Scott Snyder, Jeff Lemire, Marco Rudy, Dan Green, and Andy Owens. Issue #13 subsequently returned to Yanick Paquette drawing. After

14382-466: The mid-late 1980s under Alan Moore , Stephen Bissette , and John Totleben . These eras were met with high critical praise and numerous awards. However, over the years, the Swamp Thing comics have suffered from low sales, which have resulted in numerous series cancellations and revivals. The first Swamp Thing series ran for 24 issues, from 1972 to 1976. Len Wein was the writer for the first 13 issues before David Michelinie and Gerry Conway finished up

14523-508: The monthly comics in volumes, which were also sold in general-interest bookshops. Vertigo's success in popularizing this approach, beginning with Sandman , led to a wider take-up in the American comics industry of routinely reprinting monthly series in this format. Vertigo Visions was an irregular series of self-contained short stories featuring characters from the DC Universe, reinterpreted or recontextualized. Vertigo Visions: Artwork from

14664-453: The new plan, all of the company's comics were published under the "DC" brand, and categorized by intended reader age: DC Kids (8–12 years), DC (13+), and DC Black Label (17+). The Sandman -related titles retained their new branding as " The Sandman Universe ". In October 2024 at New York Comic Con , DC announced the Vertigo imprint would be returning after its discontinuation in 2020. Chris Conroy, editor of DC Black Label, confirmed not only

14805-412: The often "crass manipulation" of crossover events, defending The Children's Crusade as having come not from marketing, but the writers' minds, and therefore being "story-driven" rather than manipulative. The crossover did not become an annual event, however — indeed, "annuals" linked to Vertigo series rarely reappeared after this event. Works previously published by DC under other imprints, but which fit

14946-426: The one-shots The Eaters and Face for the "Vertigo Voices" sub-imprint, and a number of other miniseries, including The Extremist , Tank Girl: The Odyssey , Egypt , Girl , The Minx , and Vertigo Pop!: London . Jamie Delano was the original writer of Vertigo's flagship series Hellblazer , which spun-off from Moore's run on Swamp Thing . Moore himself recommended Jamie Delano for Hellblazer . Delano left

15087-537: The popularity of Wrightson's artwork, stopping rather than concluding the story arc. Wein ended his run as writer by having the Swamp Thing reveal his identity to Matt Cable and ultimately avenging the death of his wife by killing Nathan Ellery. The full Wein 13-issue run was released in hardcover by DC in June 2009 as Roots of the Swamp Thing , volume 4 of the 9-volume book series the DC Comics Classics Library . As sales figures plummeted towards

15228-458: The present. The story was published in Swamp Thing (vol. 2) #80–87. One issue of this storyline [#84] focused upon the Swamp Thing's regular supporting cast. In this issue, Matthew Cable died during his coma and arrived in the land of the Dreaming, where he encountered Morpheus and Eve. Cable would later be written into The Sandman by Neil Gaiman as Matthew the Raven. Veitch's term ended in

15369-539: The previous storyline, was revealed to have been possessed by Anton Arcane, and Abby unwittingly had an incestuous relationship with him. After a fight, Cable was thrown into a coma, and Abby's soul was sent to Hell . In Swamp Thing Annual #2, modeled on Dante 's Inferno , the Swamp Thing followed Abigail, encountering classic DC characters such as Deadman , the Phantom Stranger , the Spectre , and Etrigan en route, and eventually rescued her. The relationship between

15510-526: The property in the 1970s as he was under contract with his return to Marvel, Kahn's faith in the property was borne out in the 1980s when the toy company, Kenner Products , judged it ideal for their Super Powers Collection action figure adaptation of the DC characters. This enabled Kahn to invite the now available Kirby to not only return to his characters in the first two Super Powers limited series , but also design their action figures for Kenner, earning his first royalties for his work. Kahn initiated

15651-433: The proto- and early Vertigo titles Sandman , Shade , Kid Eternity , Books of Magic , Death: The High Cost of Living and Sandman Mystery Theatre . As the imprint's initial ongoing series came to their ends, new series were launched to replace them, with varying degrees of success. The Sandman was replaced following its completion by The Dreaming (1996–2001) and The Sandman Presents , which featured stories about

15792-548: The publishing model in which monthly series sold through comic book shops are periodically collected into editions which are kept in print for bookstore sale. As DC's most popular and enduring imprint, several Vertigo series won the comics industry's Eisner Award , including for "best continuing series", and were adapted to film and television. The imprint 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

15933-486: The relaunch of the imprint, but also that he would also be running Vertigo as well. In addition, James Tynion IV and Álvaro Martínez Bueno's series The Nice House by the Sea was announced to be switching from releasing under DC Black Label to releasing under Vertigo. Similarly, The Sandman Universe line of books will be folded back into the imprint as well. In addition to Berger, several other editors have become linked to

16074-409: The role of editor-in-chief, a title he held until 2017. Will Dennis attended film school with Bond, who later recruited him as an assistant editor. He was promoted to editor a few months after Alonso departured for Marvel. Dennis took over the editing of 100 Bullets and later edited Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra 's Y: The Last Man and Vaughan's Pride of Baghdad graphic novel. Dennis

16215-400: The series in 1991, before the launch of Vertigo, and was writing the imprint's Animal Man series at the time. His other Vertigo works included Outlaw Nation , Ghostdancing , and two Hellblazer miniseries, The Horrorist and Hellblazer Special: Bad Blood . Garth Ennis took over Hellblazer from Delano and wrote it at the time of Vertigo's launch. Ennis's best-known Vertigo work

16356-415: The series, restoring the pre-Alan Moore tone of the series as well as incorporating a new set of supporting cast members into the book. Collins resurrected Anton Arcane , along with the Sunderland Corporation, as foils for the Swamp Thing. Collins also moved the series, which had focused on the Swamp Thing's time travel adventures and explorations into other-dimensional realms, back to normal society by having

16497-440: The series. Horror artist Berni Wrightson drew the first 10 issues of the series, while Nestor Redondo drew a further 13 issues, the last issue being drawn by Fred Carrillo . The Swamp Thing fought against evil as he sought the men who murdered his wife and caused his monstrous transformation, as well as searching for a means to transform himself back to his human form. The Swamp Thing has since fought many villains, most notably

16638-420: The story "Pog", Walt Kelly 's funny animal comic character Pogo (created in 1943) and all of his woodland friends show up as costumed visitors from another planet, looking for an unspoiled world after their own utopia was overrun and destroyed by brutal monkeys. Moore began a trend (continued by Neil Gaiman , among others) of mining the DC Universe 's vast collection of minor supernatural characters to create

16779-425: The talent. Kahn supported creators' rights in an industry in which royalties and other traditional publishing rights were not the norm, thus giving the talent a stake in the commercial success of their work that the industry's traditional work-for-hire arrangements never encouraged. In 1989, she assumed the title of editor-in-chief while retaining the office of president but stepped down as publisher. Kahn oversaw

16920-429: The then-unknown Mark Millar . As Collins had destroyed the status quo of the series, Morrison sought to shake the book up with a four-part storyline which had the Swamp Thing plunged into a nightmarish dream world scenario, where he was split into two separate beings: Alec Holland and the Swamp Thing, which was now a mindless being of pure destruction. Millar then took over from Morrison with issue #144, and launched what

17061-408: The third series focused on the daughter of the Swamp Thing, Tefé Holland . Even though she was chronologically 11–12, the series had Tefe aged into the body of an 18-year-old with a mindwipe to try to control her darker impulses, brought about by her exposure to the Parliament of Trees. Due to the circumstances under which she was conceived (the Swamp Thing, possessing John Constantine, was not aware he

17202-513: The title of editor-in-chief while retaining the office of president. After 26 years with DC, she left the company in 2002. Jenette Kahn grew up in Boston. Her father was a rabbi . Her brother, Si Kahn , is a singer-songwriter and activist. She was an avid comics fan, a practice supported by her parents, with particular favorites being Batman , Superman , Little Lulu , Uncle Scrooge , and Archie . After graduating from Radcliffe College with

17343-529: The title which, in turn, caused DC to cancel the series. Millar was given the job to wrap up the series, which would end with Swamp Thing (vol. 2) #171. John Totleben would return to illustrate the covers for issues #160–171. Millar's final arc for the series had the Swamp Thing, due to his success in beating the other Elemental Parliament Champions, become godlike and unapproachable by mortals, even as his estranged wife Abby returned to try to reconcile with him. With help from John Constantine, Abby sought to keep

17484-431: Was 28 years old on February 2, 1976, when she became publisher of DC Comics , a division of Warner Bros. and home to over five thousand characters, including Superman , Batman and Wonder Woman . Sol Harrison served as the company's president. Kahn stated in a 2012 interview that "I can't really say that Sol and I had much of a working relationship. He, more than anybody, resented my being hired because he felt that

17625-454: Was a "much hyped concept" whose titles were designed to "usher...in the new millennium" and, as such, several of them were limited series rather than one-shots. The Vertigo Pop limited series were designed "to be about pop culture around the globe in some vaguely defined way". At the 2008 Comic-Con International Karen Berger outlined plans for a new "sub-imprint" called Vertigo Crime, a line of graphic novels, in black and white, hardcover. It

17766-491: Was cancelled after 16 issues, and Black Orchid continued for only 22. Sandman Mystery Theatre and most of the pre-existing series continued for several years, including Sandman which reached its planned conclusion with #75. Hellblazer was the last of the original ongoing series to be canceled, ceasing publication in February 2013 with #300. Berger won Eisner Awards for her editing in 1992, 1994 and 1995 for her work on

17907-776: Was editorially separate from its main line and Berger was given permission to start her own imprint. Vertigo was launched in January 1993, with a mix of existing DC ongoing series and new series. The first original Vertigo series was Death: The High Cost of Living , a Sandman spin-off featuring the character Death . Although its initial publications were primarily in the horror and fantasy genres, over time Vertigo published works dealing with crime, social commentary , speculative fiction , biography, and other genres. Vertigo also adopted works previously published by DC under other imprints, such as V for Vendetta and Transmetropolitan . The imprint pioneered in North America

18048-456: Was fired by DC Comics after restructuring. "Shelly will never get full credit for all of the amazing things she did at Vertigo", Mike Allred wrote in 2016 in a tribute to Bond that featured many of the creators she worked with over the years. Tom Peyer was a founding editor of Vertigo. Tom was editor in 1990 with Karen Berger what would become the pillars of Vertigo: Hellblazer , Sandman (taking over from Art Young), Swamp Thing and Shade,

18189-430: Was followed by a series of editorial restructures, culminating in the imprint's relaunch as DC Vertigo in 2018, but the relaunch suffered a multitude of setbacks, including numerous cancellations. Vertigo imprint was discontinued in January 2020 by DC Comics as part of a plan to publish all the company's comics under a single banner, with DC Black Label taking its place as DC's mature readers' imprint. In 2024, DC announced

18330-480: Was given a blood transfusion by a demon), she held power over both plants and flesh. The fourth series began in 2004, with rotating writers of Andy Diggle (#1–6), Will Pfeifer (#7–8) and Joshua Dysart (#9–29). In this latest series, the Swamp Thing is reverted to his plant-based Earth elemental status after the first storyline, and he attempts to live an "eventless" life in the Louisiana swamps. Tefé, likewise,

18471-573: Was his and artist Steve Dillon 's creator-owned Preacher , which ran for 66 issues and six spin-off specials between 1995 and 2000. Ennis has also written several miniseries for Vertigo, including Goddess (1995–96), Pride & Joy (1997), Unknown Soldier (1997), and Adventures in the Rifle Brigade (2001–02), as well as eight one-shot War Stories between 2001 and 2003. Two of his pre-Vertigo works — True Faith (serialized in Crisis) and

18612-489: Was initially conceived as an ambitious 25-part storyline where the Swamp Thing would be forced to go upon a series of "trials" against rival elemental forces. This led to a series of lengthy storylines by Millar as the Swamp Thing fought rival elemental beings and in the process, became champions of the five main Elemental Parliaments: Trees, Stone, Waves, Vapor and Flames. It was during this time that

18753-433: Was intended to be used on "all Vertigo books except the hardcovers, trade paperbacks, and graphic novels". Berger noted that DC was "very" committed to the line, having put a "lot of muscle behind" promoting it, including a promotional launch kit made available to "[r]etailers who order[ed] at least 25 copies of the February issue of Sandman [#47]", a "platinum edition" variant cover for Death: The High Cost of Living #1 and

18894-504: Was launched in 2009 with two titles: Brian Azzarello 's Filthy Rich and Ian Rankin 's Dark Entries , the latter featuring John Constantine . Each volume features a cover illustration by Lee Bermejo . Vertigo Crime ended as a sub-imprint in 2011. The following original graphic novels have been published under the Vertigo Crime imprint (in order of publication): Karen Berger left the company in March 2013. Berger's position at

19035-411: Was produced, this time focusing on DC's super-apes, such as Congorilla , Sam Simeon , and Gorilla Grodd . The Batman guest-starred in issue #66. Hellblazer also began soon after Swamp Thing (vol. 2) #67, and the two series had storylines which crossover to each other during Hellblazer' s first year under writer Jamie Delano. In Veitch's Swamp Thing stories, the Parliament of Trees, having believed

19176-463: Was proving alienating to much of his company's creative staff and they consequently proved receptive to Kahn's offers including major talents like Roy Thomas , Gene Colan , Marv Wolfman , and George Perez . In addition, Kahn, unlike her predecessors, was impressed by Jack Kirby 's seminal Fourth World titles, like The New Gods , and viewed their abrupt cancellation as a serious mistake. While Jack Kirby could not return to DC when Kahn revived

19317-527: Was reprinted in Neil Gaiman's Midnight Days . From September 1989 to July 1991, Doug Wheeler wrote issues #88–109. Wheeler quickly wrapped up Veitch's time travel arc and oversaw the birth of Abby and the Swamp Thing's daughter Tefé Holland . The remaining tenure of Wheeler's run focused upon a longstanding war between the Parliament of Trees and the Gray, a fungus-themed elemental realm in opposition to

19458-426: Was responsible for bringing writers Brian Wood ( DMZ ) and Jason Aaron ( Scalped ) to Vertigo and teamed writer Andy Diggle and artist Jock on their breakout series The Losers . He was the editor who presided over the Vertigo Crime line of graphic novels. Jonathan Vankin was hired as an editor at Vertigo in 2004 after previously writing two of the line's Vertigo Pop miniseries and several entries in

19599-401: Was said to be equivalent to "the fourth largest American comic book publisher" in 2005, with Paul Levitz praising her personally as having "built Vertigo into an imprint which is simultaneously one of comics' leading creative and commercial successes". The financial success of many Vertigo titles relied not on monthly issue sales, but on the subsequent "trade paperback" editions that reprinted

19740-490: Was well received by critics, but after four issues were published, Esquivel was accused of sexually and emotionally abusing a former partner. Villalobos and colorist Tamra Bonvillain withdrew from the project, and DC cancelled the series, including issues that were ready for publication. Meanwhile, Second Coming by Mark Russell and Richard Pace came under criticism from Christians and conservatives who considered its announced premise – in which Jesus Christ returns and lives as

19881-561: Was written into Aquaman (vol. 5) #32–33 by Peter David and attended the funeral for the ghost of Jim Corrigan in The Spectre (vol. 3) #62 by John Ostrander , which was the final issue of that series. Early 1998 saw the production of Jon J. Muth 's Vertigo graphic novel Swamp Thing: Roots . The Sandman spin-off The Dreaming #22–24 written by Caitlin R. Kiernan saw Matthew Cable's return to human form, his uneasy reunion and final departure from his ex-wife Abby (now married to

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