This upcoming Wednesday, comic book writer novelist, and all around good guy Paul Cornell launches Saucer Country a brand new series through Veritigo, with artist Ryan Kelly. The subject? Alien abductions, mythology, and how they may throw a little crux in one Governor’s bid for the Presidency. It’s a trippy, tricky book where nothing - and everything - is what it seems. To find out more, we chatted with Cornell about his take on those little green men... And found out that they’re actually grey. Oops: Read More...
asdfMTV Geek > Vertigo Comics
Paul Cornell Visits 'Saucer Country' For Vertigo [Interview]
Posted 3/9/12 11:30 am EST by DanicaDavidson in Comic Books, Vertigo Comics
FABLES Spin-off 'Fairest #1' Proves Looks Are Everything [Review]
Posted 3/8/12 12:00 pm EST by DanicaDavidson in Comic Books, Vertigo Comics
The most shocking thing about Fairest #1, the new spin-off title from Vertigo’s hit Fables, is that no women at all appear in the book until Page 13. And at that, there’s only one line the entire issue from a member of the fairer sex. Given that this is supposed to be a spotlight book, showcasing the ladies of the Fables Universe? That’s downright weird.
That’s not to say that it isn’t also a rollicking good adventure tale, filled with all the humor, creativity, and stellar art Fables fans have come to expect from Bill Willingham’s mini-empire of fair tale based comics. The book looks superb, with some of the best art from the already not-too-shabby Phil Jiminez we’ve seen in years. Credit to the whole team, including Andy Lanning on inks, and Andrew Dalhouse on colors… From the ruins of a major Homeland city on Page 2, to the reveal on Page 13, Fairest is gobsmackingly beautiful. Read More...
The Real Princesses of 'Fairest #1': A Who's Who Guide
Posted 3/7/12 3:30 pm EST by DanicaDavidson in Comic Books, Vertigo Comics
Are you ready for the next great Fables spin-off from mastermind Bill Willingham? Well get ready, because where Fables itself focuses on what happens when fairy tale characters live together and start being real; Jack of Fables gave us the debauched solo adventures of everyone’s favorite titular cad; and the various Cinderella series posited that everyone’s favorite shoe obsessed character was actually the world’s greatest secret agent... Fairest, which launches today from Vertigo Comics, focuses instead on the real housewives (and, er, Snow Queens) of Fabletown. Read More...
Vertigo Confirms November Release for "Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" Graphic Novel
Posted 1/13/12 4:00 pm EST by clintmize in Vertigo Comics
Vertigo’s Graphic Content blog announced this morning the full creative team and scheduled November release date for the graphic novel adaptation of late author Stieg Larsson’s internationally best-selling The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.
Scottish crime novelist Denise Mina, author of the Vertigo Crime GN A Sickness in the Family, has been confirmed for the adaptation. Joining her on art will be longtime Hellblazer artist Leonardo Manco, as well as Andrea Mutti, who first worked with Vertigo on the Vertigo Crime GN The Executor before doing a stint on the recently concluded DMZ.
Covers for the series will be provided by regular Vertigo Crime cover artist Lee Bermejo, whose Batman: Noel GN is a New York Times bestseller. Read More...
The Best Ongoing Comic Books of 2011
Posted 11/23/11 4:00 pm EST by Brigid Alverson in Best Of, Boom Studios, Comic Books, Dark Horse, DC Comics, IDW, Image Comics, Marvel, Vertigo Comics
Looking through our picks for the best comics of 2011, I've been trying to divine some kind of theme among the Geek staff's choices. Without really going out of our way to do so, the list of books we all gravitated towards ran the gamut from creator-owned to long-running franchises, from big, superhero fiction in revamped universes, to quietly personal dramas about relationships.
What I'm saying is, I guess: keep making things different, diverse, and strange in 2011 comic books, and we'll keep reading you.
Read More...
Coming From Vertigo: The Annotated Sandman, A Fables Spinoff, And Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy
Posted 10/21/11 12:47 pm EST by TJ Dietsch in New York Comic Con, Vertigo Comics
By Elizabeth Keenan
If you're eager to find out what edgy new comics and graphic novels DC's Vertigo imprint has coming out over the next year, the Vertigo Visions panel at New York Comic Con offered a full slate of talent and a spate of announcements, including digital titles going day and date.
Berger first discussed the already-announced end to Jason Aaron and R.M. Guéra’s critically acclaimed Scalped, describing it as “on a short list of the best things we’ve done.” Aaron was on hand to describe the final arc of the series, in which “quite a few people meet their demise.”
“Things that have been brewing for five years are coming to an end,” he said. The final arc, “Trail’s End,” will conclude next spring.
Next up, Berger announced A.D.D., a new series by Douglas Rushkoff, starting in January, 2012. Rushkoff described the project as answering a hypothetical question. Read More...
Exclusive: Vertigo To Publish New Ongoing Series "Dominique Laveau: Voodoo Child"
Posted 10/11/11 9:00 am EST by TJ Dietsch in Vertigo Comics
Vertigo is announcing a new ongoing comic book today, Dominique Laveau: Voodoo Child. Slated to start February 2012, the series tells the story of Dominique Laveau, outcast and half-breed heir to the Voodoo Queenship of New Orleans:
Lingering on the threshold between history and legend, the home of Mardi Gras and the birthplace of Jazz, New Orleans is also known as the most haunted city in America: a town of centuries-old ghosts and new spirits of those drowned by Katrina; where Loup Garous, Vampires and Voodoo Spirits make their home. Ruling over all of this are the powerful Voodoo Queens, maintaining a delicate balance between the mortal and supernatural worlds, and whose influence stretches into politics, business and crime. But today, everything has changed. The Queen has been murdered and Tulane grad student Dominique Laveau is the number one suspect.
Dominique Laveau: Voodoo Child is written by Selwyn Seyfu Hinds, former Editor-in-Chief of the Hip-Hop magazine The Source, and illustrated by comic book legend Denys Cowan, one of the founding members of Milestone Media and best-known for his work on Static Shock and The Question. Hinds and Cowan have worked with each other before, collaborating on the short story “Case 21” in the Vertigo comic book anthology Strange Adventures earlier this year, and the short story “Blink” published in this month’s Vertigo comic book anthology The Unexpected. Read More...
New Comics I'm Excited About! For May 25th: Strange Adventures, Lucid, and more!
Posted 5/25/11 2:18 pm EST by Brandon Freeberg in Archaia, Comic Books, Dark Horse, DC Comics, Dynamite, Image Comics, Marvel, Vertigo Comics
The name of this new weekly column is "New Comics I'm Excited About!" because I just don't blog about comic books...I'm also a fan and go to the comic shop every week to pick up my stack.
Let's look at my pull list for this week...
PICK OF THE WEEK:
I chose Strange Adventures from Vertigo as my pick of the week not just because of the content, but the fact that I'd really like to see more anthologies like this and Dark Horse Presents on the stands. These books often serve not only as forums for familiar creators to let loose and try something new (Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso's "Spaceman"), but edgy indie talents who deserve more exposure to get their work out there (Kevin Colden's “Postmodern Prometheus”). Books like Strange Adventures are the cauldrons from which we might all get those exciting new concepts, characters and talent fans are always requesting instead of the "same-old, same-old" -- too bad it's only a one-shot, and here's hoping DC puts out more of the same in the future. Read More...
Scott Snyder On 'Detective Comics' And Creating The 'American Vampire'
Posted 3/29/11 4:20 pm EST by Brigid Alverson in C2E2, Comic Books, DC Comics, Interviews, Vertigo Comics
Writer Scott Snyder has been having a pretty good year at DC and Vertigo. As the co-creator of American Vampire he’s been getting a lot of attention for his spin on the evolution of the vampire mythos, and he’s currently at the helm of DC’s second-longest running title, scripting the adventures of Dick Grayson in Detective Comics.
Over at Detective Snyder has set up the goal of trying to give the Gotham underworld a rethink with Dick under the cowl. To Snyder’s mind, Batman’s villains are reflections of his psyche—Joker, Two-Face, and the Riddler are all somehow mirror reflections of who Bruce is as a character. “We’re focusing on a story about the way that Gotham, now that Dick Grayson is Batman, is sort of changing itself to be a better enemy for him. It’s almost like anyone who takes on the cowl Gotham will throw their worst nightmares at them.” This current storyline is in its 4th part, with the fifth and final issue of the arc occurring in issue #875 which hits shelves on March 30th.
Issue 875 also has a standalone story by Snyder with art by Francesco Francavilla (Scalped, Fear Agent, Black Beetle) featuring the return on Jim Gordon’s son, James. Apparently the character hasn’t been seen in comics since he was a small child and Snyder hints that his return will have ramifications for the Detective cast, with everyone—from the Commissioner, to Barbara, to Dick—harboring an intense fear of the now-adult James. Read More...
The Five-Minute Recap: Fables
Posted 3/22/11 2:17 pm EST by DanicaDavidson in Comic Books, DC Comics, Five Minute Recap, Vertigo Comics
Getting into a comic book mid-way through its run is hard! So we’ve made it easy for you: in just five short minutes (or less), we’ll get you caught up on a comic book you need to pick up tomorrow… Today! Oh, and in case it wasn’t clear: spoilers on.
Fables should be one of the easier titles we’ve had to cover for the Five-Minute Recap. Sure, Vertigo is releasing its one hundred and third issue this Wednesday, but the central premise is simple to explain: every character from every story ever lived together in a fantastical land, until driven out by the Adversary, a terrifying being who forced them to live in our non-magical world with regular people, (also know as “Mundies.”)
Though this is still true, writer Bill Willingham made a seismic change to the series in issue seventy-five, when the Fables finally beat the Adversary, revealed to be a bitter, angry Geppeto (yup, the carpenter from Pinocchio) and regained control of their Homelands. Rather than end the series here – the original plan – Willingham decided to see what would happen next… Which turned out to be very, very bad for our fantastical friends. With the Adversary out of power, magical items that were previously protected were left without guards, and various beasties got loose.
The worst of these is Mr. Dark, an actual, physical representation of the fear of the dark given life. Mr. Dark sucks the life essence from Mundies, and likes to eat their teeth, which is gross. And though he was beaten in combat by the Fables once before, he wasn’t beaten down for good. Teaming up with the bitter, angry wife of Jack Sprat, Mr. Dark has gone on a journey back to the Homelands to take revenge on the Fables who still live there.
Meanwhile! Jack Sprat’s wife is in New York City, which has been turned into a smoke filled, grey wasteland filled with stumbling zombies who go about their days ignoring each other, doing nothing but their sad little jobs. So in other words: every day in new York. Just kidding! Sort of.
The rest of the Fables are split between two locations. One is The Farm, a secret place upstate for Fables who can’t mingle with human society (Snow White can hang out in Times Square, but the Three Little Pigs might have a problem). The other is Haven, a kingdom in the Homelands where refugee Fables, and goblins who defected from the Adversary’s army live together in harmony, protected by the magic of their king, Flycatcher (long story). Read More...
Crossovers We Want To See: Xombi & iZombie
Posted 3/17/11 5:00 pm EST by kevinkelly in Comic Books, Crossovers We Want To See, DC Comics, Vertigo Comics
Welcome to Crossovers We Want to See, a fairly self-explanatory recurring feature in which we pitch the meeting of a pair of characters or teams from different comic companies. Playing editor, we'll dream up writer and artist combinations and basic story points.
Xombi & iZombie
Written by John Rozum and Chris Roberson, drawn by Mike Allred and Frasier Irving
The world has zombie fever and why not? Zombies are the perfect bad guys. They're pure engines of evil that no one feels bad about killing. However, not all stories of the undead follow the George Romero model, some branch out and do their own thing. Xombi, a former Milestone comic now integrated into the main DC Universe follows David Kim, a scientist kept alive forever thanks to nanite technology that he developed while Vertigo's I, Zombie stars Gwen, a zombie who eats freshly dead brains once a month and finds herself compelled to take care of their unfinished business. The former launched this week by writer John Rosum and artist Frasier Irving while the first six issues of the latter—written by Chris Roberson and drawn by Mike Allred—are collected in this week's I Zombie Vol 1 Dead To The World. Read More...
ECCC 2011: The Vertigo Panel
Posted 3/6/11 11:00 am EST by Brigid Alverson in Announcements, Comic Books, Emerald City Comicon, Vertigo Comics
I don’t know about the other attendees, but for my money, the most interesting revelation at the Vertigo panel was that the DC Imprint’s Editor-in-Chief, Will Dennis refers to artist Sean Gordon Murphy (Joe the Barbarian) as the “honeybadger of comics.” Oh, yeah, and Murphy will be providing covers and art for this summer’s WWII-set mini, American Vampire: Survival of the Fittest, where all hell breaks loose when a group of Romanian scientists attempt to find a “cure” for vampirism.
Also on hand at the panel were writers Chris Roberson (iZombie, Cinderella), Matt Sturges (Jack of Fables, House of Mystery), Jeff Lemire (Sweet Tooth), and artist Chrissie Zullo (Cinderella: Fables are Forever, Madame Xanadu) to talk about the slate of upcoming titles from Vertigo. There weren’t a lot of new titles announced but there were some interesting developments coming for existing titles.
American Vampire's Scott Snyder Hits Midtown Comics For Their Inaugural Book Club
Posted 2/28/11 12:04 pm EST by DanicaDavidson in Comic Books, DC Comics, Midtown Comics, Vertigo Comics
Midtown Comics in NYC's Times Square was buzzing and packed at 6pm on a Friday night, as I headed in for the very first Midtown Comics Book Club. The retailer was featuring newly hot American Vampire scribe Scott Snyder, with a focus on the recently published first collection of his Vertigo series. The Book Club wouldn’t start until 6:30pm though, so I spent a little time browsing, figuring I could pick up some recommendations from friends, and then set up early to cover the event.
At about 6:15pm, I decided it was enough dilly-dallying, bought the books in my hand, and asked he guy behind the counter where the Book Club would be held. He paused for a second, and then said, “Downtown.”
Oops.
You see friends; Midtown Comics has three locations in Manhattan, including a recently opened downtown space with an alcove for events like the Book Club. But on auto, I had headed to Times Square, and now had fifteen minutes to travel the equivalent of half the island. Thank goodness for the MTA actually running on time for once, as I only missed the introduction, and was all set up by the time hosts Thor Parker and Zoe welcomed Snyder up in front of the packed crowd.
The 10 Best Vampires in Comics
Posted 2/24/11 1:43 pm EST by DanicaDavidson in Comic Books, Marvel, Vertigo Comics
There’s no denying it: vampires are still hot. We thought they’d go away, or at least retreat into their coffins for a while. But the entertainment consuming public can’t get enough of the evil blood-suckers. Like most things, though, comics have been publishing tales forever about vamps, from Tomb of Dracula, to Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Here are ten of the best vampires from comics:
10. Cassidy
An Irish Vampire, Cassidy is bitten by a “hag” in the comic Preacher, and turned into a blood-sucking monster. Or rather, a mostly hard drinking, kind of a-hole-ish monster who sometimes sucks blood for fun, or if people annoy him. Cassidy learns to be honorable over the course of the series, and even settles down to open up a bar; but we like him best when he’s just being a lovable drunk.
9. Zechariah
SPONSORS
AD:
Creator's Commentary: 'Sweet Tooth' #19 With Jeff Lemire
Posted 3/4/11 11:33 am EST by Brigid Alverson in Creator's Commentary, DC Comics, Vertigo Comics
This month’s issue number 19 of Jeff Lemire’s post-apocalyptic odyssey Sweet Tooth comes as something of a change of pace, as story switches its focus from leads Gus and Jepperd to fellow survivors, Lucy, Becky, and Wendy. In an even bigger change Lemire shares scripting and art duties on this issue with indie collaborators Nate Powell (Swallow Me Whole), Matt Kindt (Superspy), and Emil Lenox (Emitown), as the plot switches to flashback mode and the three characters reveal how their lives were impacted by the plague.
Mr. Lemire was kind enough to join us in digging into some of the secrets of this issue—so if you picked it up this week, follow along!
****WARNING: PLOT POINTS AND INFORMATION OF AN ARTISTIC NATURE WILL BE SPOILED BELOW!****
MTV Geek: [Pg. 1] How did you decide to place the emphasis on the ladies of the cast this month?
Jeff Lemire I felt like all three characters needed to be fleshed out a bit more before we move forward. Because so much of the plot revolves around Jepperd and Gus, I hadn’t had a chance to do that yet, and they really need to be developed a bit more before [the next arc] “Endangered” Species moves forward. As the book progresses into its second half these three characters will play an increasingly important role.
Geek: [Pg. 3] The first panel in this page by Nate Powell—the outstretched hands of the homeless man—is a really arresting image. In fact, isolated limbs are kind of a motif throughout his piece. To what degree was that a conscious element of his script?
JL You’d have to ask Nate. Truth is I let them each do whatever they want, figuring I would bit up on what they laid down and run with it later. We talked very briefly about his idea and about focusing on Lucy’s “trust issues.” I love those hand images he did though… very visceral and effective.
Geek: [Pg. 4-7] With your collaborators this month, how was the script handled, exactly? Did you give them any notes or beats to hit with each character? Read More...