Vertigo, DC’s long-running adult-focused comics imprint, is getting a big shake up this spring – heralding in a new swathe of creators for seven new comics series.
Cover art for the four new Vertigo series launching in 2018 – Border Town, Hex Wives, American Carnage and Goddess Mode. Image: Ramon Villalobos, Joëlle Jones and Jordie Bellaire, Ben Oliver, Robbi Rodriguez (DC Comics)
Officially unveiled today, DC Vertigo (its new official name) will kick off a line-wide relaunch of its comics output that begins this September, helmed by editor Mark Doyle – who returned to Vertigo last year after the exit of longtime editor Shelly Bond amid a restructuring of the imprint in 2016.
Four of the seven new titles will launch in the last four months of 2018, while the remaining trio will publish in early 2019.
Each series – described in a provided press release as coming from “bold voices across various entertainment backgrounds” – is meant to offer high concept commentary on a variety of social issues, from immigration to the rights of sex workers, across various genres.
Here’s the lowdown on the four series launching this year:
- September will kick off the relaunch with Border Town from Eric M. Esquivel and Ramon Villalobos, which is about a small town on the Mexico-US border beset by supernatural creatures from Mexican folklore, leading to racial tensions between among the town’s population with a young kid and his misfit friends caught in the middle.
- October sees the launch of Ben Blacker and Mirka Andolfo’s Hex Wives, about a coven of witches with vast magical power brainwashed by men to become subservient housewives, only to discover that their suburban lives are a lie.
- In November there’s American Carnage from Bryan Hill and Leandro Fernandez, about a biracial FBI agent who can pass as white infiltrating a gang of white supremacists to investigate the death of a fellow agent.
- Finally, December has Goddess Mode from Zoë Quinn and Robbi Rodriguez, which is set in a near future where a powerful AI manages all of humanity’s needs, only for the tech support in charge of monitoring its systems to discover a secret cyberworld where female superheroes fight to save the “cheat codes to reality” from being stolen by horrific monsters.
Vertigo’s three new 2019 titles – High Level, Safe Sex and Second Coming. Image: Guillaume Ospital, Tula Lotay, Amanda Conner and Paul Mounts (DC Comics)
The remaining three series don’t currently have release dates beyond early 2019, but they’re as follows:
- Rob Sheridan and Barnaby Bagenda’s High Level, a post-apocalyptic story about a smuggler tasked with bringing a supposed child messiah to the mysterious, mythical city of High Level.
- Safe Sex by Tina Horn and Mike Dowling, a dystopian thriller set in a future where the government regulates and controls sexual pleasure, leading to an underground resistance led by sex workers.
- Mark Russell and Richard Pace’s Second Coming, which sees the son of God return to modern-day Earth (because God hopes Jesus will learn a lesson in godliness from the almighty superhero Sun-Man), only for Christ to discover that the message of his gospel has become horrifically twisted in the years since his crucifixion.
It’s a big step for DC Vertigo – especially coming off the back of DC’s recent announcement of a line of comics based around one of Vertigo’s prior huge successes, Sandman. It’s exciting to see the imprint get a huge influx of new talent, ready to tell some very intriguing-sounding stories.
Comments
5 responses to “DC Comics Is Relaunching Vertigo With Seven New Series”
Wow, DC have gone full SJW propaganda. RIP Vertigo.
Haha what are you going on about? Did you ever read The Sandman?
News alert: in overwhelmingly majority, the comic industry has sided through its short history with the marginalised and discriminated. It’s always been in the subtext, context and some times even in the text. The only thing that has changed is that it now also includes some people that you felt comfortable hating
I don’t hate anyone at all what a stupid assumption. I just feel DC is pandering, and this is a vast misdirection of what Vertigo was before, which tackled sexuality, mature themes and violence in niche and interesting ways.
That’s my point. They are doing the same here. The difference is that they’re now speaking to people different than you. So when they spoke to you, it was “interesting”, but when they speak to others, it is “pandering”?
Perhaps “hate” was a too strong word, sorry; I am too used to people who use “SJW” with such contempt to also be very hateful of those the people or causes that these “SWJs” campaign for.
Some of those titles sound pretty interesting.
I’m not sure they need to re-launch Vertigo as a label. Not really sure what purpose it serves these days. But fair enough I suppose. Now will they send stuff like Constantine to the Vertigo line?