The Importance of Vertigo II

Vertigo 2000’s

 

American Century was a comic book series published by DC Comics as a part of the Vertigo imprint starting in early 2001. It was co-written by Howard Chaykin and David Tischman.

The story concerned a former American pilot who fakes his death and goes on the run in the 1950s. Chaykin intended it as a "left-wing version of Steve Canyon", and wrote all of the issues. The comic ran for approximately two years.

Harry Block, a World War II veteran, fakes his own death and makes his way to Central America to create a new identity for himself as Harry Kraft, a hard-drinking smuggler. During a war in Guatemala, a CIA operative blackmails Block into assassinating Rosa de Santiis, a popular leader in opposition to the CIA puppet dictator General Zavala. Afterward, he heads back to the United States, taking a road trip from Hollywood to Chicago to New York, exploring myriad avenues of 1950s American culture.

Air was an ongoing comic book series published by DC Comics as part of the Vertigo imprint. It was created by writer G. Willow Wilson.

Blythe, an acrophobic flight attendant for the fictional Clearfleet Airlines, is invited to join the "Etesian Front", who claim to be an anti-terrorist organization. The Etesians trick Blythe into transporting plans for a terrorist attack. When she discovers this, she and a man named Zayn are kidnapped and taken on board the plane that is the hijack target. Later, Zayn and Blythe leap clear of the plane as it crashes into the sea. The head of the Etesian Front, a man named Benjamin Lancaster, also survives. Zayn is later accosted by Lancaster in Narimar, a place that ostensibly disappeared from maps during the 1947 Partition of India, and interrogated as to the whereabouts of an Aztec artifact. Blythe follows him to Narimar, where she is designated by the Etesian Front a "hyperpract", that is, someone with the power to move into different dimensions or realities. The three escape Narimar, while their plane is followed by a mysterious winged serpent.

As the story progresses, the ambiguous concept of 'hyperpraxis' is introduced, as what seems to be a supernatural form of teleportation. The story develops more eccentric and fantasy elements, introducing Amelia Earhart and Quetzacoatl as supporting characters.

American Vampire is a comic book series created by writer Scott Snyder. The first five issues featured two stories — one by Snyder and the other by Stephen King, both drawn by Rafael Albuquerque. As of the sixth issue, Scott Snyder has taken over as sole writer.

The series will explore notions of vampire evolution and trace the bloodline of a new kind of vampire, an American species, with new powers and characteristics, through various decades of American history.
The Story starts at a book conference due to the reediting of the book Bad Blood. Here, the author claims that his work which has been long considered a fictional western/terror story is actually based on true events which he has either witnessed or has collected reliable information on.

Cinderella: From Fabletown with Love was a comic book limited series published by Vertigo Comics in 2009 and 2010, and set in the world of Fables. The story portrays Cinderella as a secret agent, performing missions on behalf of Fabletown.

The story centers on one of the covert espionage missions undertaken by Cinderella for Fabletown's government. Her latest assignment is to track and prevent the sale of magical items from the Fables' Homelands dimensions to "mundies," the non-magical people of Earth. Cindy's search takes her to Dubai where she encounters Aladdin, who is on a similar mission for the Arabian Fables. The two are initially at odds but soon become friends and eventually, lovers. The series also introduces several of Cinderella's agents, whom she can call upon with a magic bracelet. These include Puss in Boots, Jenny Wren (the former love of the deceased Cock Robin), and Dickory (a mouse with power over time and clocks).

The Crusades is an American comic book series published by the Vertigo imprint of DC Comics. It was created by writer Steven T. Seagle and artist Kelley Jones.

The series was set in a fictionalised San Francisco and featured a large cast of characters whose lives are thrown into disarray by the sudden appearance of a murderous 11th Century Knight in the city. Main Characters included Anton Marx, a leftwing political radio "shock jock", his fact checker girlfriend Venus, her friend Detective Addas Petronas and the rival gangsters Tony Quetone and "the Pope".

Daytripper is a comic book series from Vertigo that focuses on the life of Bras de Oliva Domingos at different ages in his life.  Each issue deals with a separate issue in life, ranging from being overshadowed by the work of his parents to the birth of his first child, and how precious each of these moments are in one's life.  Unfortunately, Bras never gets to enjoy those moments, as the series runs a gimmick that features Bras de Oliva Domingos dying at the end of each issue.

Most commonly, Bras de Oliva Domingos is portrayed as a writer of some sort, mainly an obituarist but occasionally as an author of books.  From issue to issue, other characters that have shown up in previous issues will appear in the issue directly following it as some role in Bras' life.

Fables is a comic book series created by writer Bill Willingham, published by DC Comics's Vertigo imprint beginning in 2002. The series deals with various characters from fairy tales and folklore – referring to themselves as "Fables" – who have been forced out of their Homelands by "The Adversary" who has conquered the realm. The Fables have traveled to our world and formed a clandestine community in New York City known as Fabletown. Fables who are unable to blend in with human society (such as monsters and anthropomorphic animals) live at "the Farm" in upstate New York.

Willingham reinterpreted many of the characters, evident in the divorce of Snow White and Prince Charming due to his infidelity. The former is deputy mayor of Fabletown as the series begins. Another principal character is the Big Bad Wolf (calling himself "Bigby"), who has not only reformed, but gained the ability to take on human appearance, and serves as Fabletown's sheriff at the series' beginning.

I,Zombie, Gwen Dylan is a gravedigger in an eco-friendly cemetery ... and a zombie detective. Once a month she has to eat a human brain--both to keep from going all "Night of the Living Dead" and to keep her own memories intact. As a result, Gwen's mind is crowded with the dead person's thoughts. And lately she feels compelled to fulfill their final requests. Torn between a mysterious mummy and a dashing young monster-hunter, Gwen is set for adventures beyond imagination!

A were-terrier, a swinging '60s ghost, and a pack of paintball-blasting vampires complete the cast of I, Zombie, a monster of a tale with razor-sharp prose and powerful pop artistry.

Jack of Fables is a spin-off of the comic book Fables, both of which are published by DC Comics as part of that company's Vertigo imprint. It shows the adventures of Jack Horner after his exile from Fabletown. A preview of the series was shown in Fables #50, and the series itself debuted in July 2006. It is written by Fables writer Bill Willingham and Matthew Sturges.

The series follows Jack's adventures following his time in Hollywood where he successfully completed a hugely popular series of movies based on himself and his life. However, he had his power and money stripped from him by Fabletown authorities.

In the first issue Jack was abducted whilst hitch-hiking across America and taken to the Golden Boughs Retirement Village, where he is essentially held prisoner. Following his first encounter with "Revise", who wants to purge the world of superstition by locking up Fables until the world forgets them, he then plans and executes the first successful breakout from the Golden Boughs. While some of the escapees were captured or killed, many are now free and on the run from Revise's team.

House of Mystery is an occult and horror-themed comic book anthology series based on the classic House of Mystery series that ran from 1951 to 1983. Cain (of Cain and Abel) attempts to return to the House of Mystery, his home in the Dreaming, and finds that it has disappeared. Meanwhile, in Texas, a former architecture student named Bethany "Fig" Keeler flees her burning house, saving only a handful of sketches she once made of a house from her dreams. Keeler is pursued by a "Pair of the Conception", agents of an entity known as the "Omneity"; they are two people, a male and a female, always holding hands. If they let go of one another, they will disappear. The pair chases her through a door and unwittingly into the House of Mystery, where she meets the inhabitants of the house bar and discovers the terms of what is apparently her imprisonment. Everyone must pay for their drinks with stories, and no one can leave without being picked up by the house's mysterious coachman. None of the house's occupants are sure why some people might get to leave and others not, so each person's stay is at least ostensibly eternal until the coachman inexplicably turns up to take them away. This doesn't stop some of the inhabitants from trying to get out, nor does it stop Cain from attempting to get back in.

Joe the Barbarian is an eight-issue comic book limited series written by Grant Morrison and drawn by Sean Murphy.

Joe is a teenage boy with Type 1 diabetes. When his blood sugar drops and he enters a state of hypoglycemia, he begins to hallucinate, and enters a fantasy world populated with his toys and other fantasy characters. Here he becomes embroiled in a war with King Death, while in the real world he searches for a soda to fix his blood sugar.

Lucifer is a DC Comics character that starred in an eponymous comic book published under the Vertigo imprint, whose entire run was written by Mike Carey. The series, a spin-off of Neil Gaiman's The Sandman, concerns the adventures of the fallen angel Lucifer Morningstar on Earth, in Heaven and through other realms of creation after abandoning Hell in the Sandman series. Lucifer also appears as a supporting character in issues of The Demon, The Spectre, and other DC Universe comics. Two angels, several demons, a human, and briefly, Superman, have taken his place as ruler of Hell, and the Reign in Hell series further straightened things out.

In the earlier related series The Sandman, written by Neil Gaiman, Lucifer abandoned his lordship over Hell. While Lucifer had previously appeared in various stereotypical guises in earlier DC books, Gaiman's version was unique and premised on English poet and prose writer John Milton's Paradise Lost. In the Sandman series, Lucifer had ruled as lord of Hell for ten billion years, after rebelling three seconds after Creation. Over that time, he had manipulated the various demons of Hell against each other, provided a place for dead mortals to be tormented, and led the war against Heaven.

However, at some point during his rule, he had become bored with his existence. He became tired of the various stereotypes that mortals held of the devil, such as the idea that he purchased and traded for souls, which were largely untrue, and that he forced mortals to commit evil acts. He had become tired of his reign over Hell, and felt it an unfair punishment that he should have to rule there forever simply because he once rebelled. In the Sandman story Season of Mists, Lucifer expels all demons and damned souls from Hell before locking Hell's gates and handing over the key to Hell to Dream of the Endless, the title character of The Sandman series. Eventually, control of Hell was handed over to two Angels, Duma (the angel of silence) and Remiel ("set over those who rise"), while Lucifer simply retired to Earth, initially to Perth, Western Australia and later to Los Angeles, California.

 

Northlanders is an American comic book series published by DC Comics under their Vertigo imprint. The stories are fictional but set in and around historical events during the Viking Age.

Northlanders is written by Brian Wood, illustrated by various artists on a per storyline basis, and with painted cover art by Massimo Carnevale. The first issue of the series was published on December 5, 2007.
Wood has said that the series will be divided into long story arcs alternated with short arcs.

In the first arc, "Sven the Returned," (issues #1-8) we follow the protagonist Sven, a self-exiled Viking warrior serving in the Byzantine Varangian Guard, as he returns (in A.D. 980) to his birth region in the Orkney Islands in order to reclaim his rightful inheritance.

The second arc, "The Cross + The Hammer," (issues #11-16) is set around Dublin, Ireland circa the Battle of Clontarf (A.D. 1014), and follows the chase of an Irishman who attacks the occupying Viking forces using guerrilla tactics. He also accompanies his daughter Brigid while on the run.

The third arc, "Lindisfarne," (issues #9-10) is about a young boy and the sacking of the Lindisfarne monastery in A.D. 793, the beginning of the Viking Age.

Outlaw Nation is an American comic book series originally published by Vertigo Comics from 2000 to 2002, and created by Jamie Delano and Goran Sudzuka.

A preview for the series, suggesting that its original title was intended to be The Great Satan, was published in Vertigo's winter special Winter's Edge #3. The story introduced members of the Johnson family and showed them discussing the myth that was Story Johnson. Delano created the series to be "the big, sprawling, hallucinatory "American Adventure Story" that [he had] always wanted to write", and crafted the idea of his central family of character, the Johnsons, with reference to the work of the beat poets:
Drawing on the established "Johnson" concept, Delano created his own version of the family: a semi-immortal family of mythic outlaw anti-heroes that have lived through three hundred years of American history. Touching on typical Delano concerns, Outlaw Nation shows Story Johnson fighting back against corporate greed, corruption and the limits of resistance in a modern society to come to terms with life in the 21st century.

Scalped is a ongoing crime/western comic book series written by Jason Aaron and illustrated by R. M. Guéra, published monthly by Vertigo Comics. Issue #1 was published on January 3, 2007.

The series is set on the fictional Prairie Rose Indian Reservation in modern-day South Dakota; the story is concerned with organized crime as well as the culture and living conditions of the Oglala Lakota living on the reservation.

Dashiell Bad Horse returns to the "rez" after fifteen years of absence, picking fights with whoever crosses his path. His belligerence quickly leads him to a run-in with Chief Lincoln Red Crow, chief of the Oglala tribe, chief of the local police, and a wealthy mob boss. Red Crow assesses Bad Horse's fighting ability and enthusiasm for getting his hands dirty, and coerces him into joining the tribal police force. Bad Horse's primary duty is breaking up fights and shutting down meth labs—Red Crow is about to open a $97 million dollar casino, and is anxious to clean up the tribe's public image, not to mention taking out competition for his illegal interests.

Bad Horse, an undercover FBI agent, is tasked with infiltrating Red Crow's organization. Dashiell's immediate superior wants to bring Red Crow to justice for the murder of two FBI agents thirty years ago, when Red Crow was a militant Native American rights activist alongside Dashiell's mother, Gina Bad Horse.
Dashiell develops an obsession with Red Crow's estranged daughter, Carol, who resents Dashiell for leaving the reservation. Dashiell speaks to her occasionally, but mostly follows and observes her as she tries to escape the crushing boredom and poverty of the reservation through alcohol, drugs, and sexual promiscuity.

Sweet Tooth is an American comic book ongoing series written and drawn by Canadian Jeff Lemire and published by DC comics' Vertigo imprint. Dubbed by some as "Mad Max meets Bambi", it takes place in a mostly rural post-apocalyptic setting where some creatures are human/animal hybrids. Although the story is initially set in Nebraska, the landscape is inspired by Lemire's past home of Essex County.

Twelve issues are slated for Sweet Tooth's first year (as part of Lemire's initial contract). Because the nature of monthly comics is dependent on sales, not even Jeff Lemire knows how many issues Sweet Tooth will run. The main plot points were planned out with loosely 40 issues for DC/Vertigo. Vertigo comics are known to be dependent on trade paperbacks, so monthly sales may play a reduced part in the fate of this young series.^]Editor Brandon Montclare says, "Sweet Tooth is taken down and rebuilt every issue—sometimes every page. And as far down the road as I can see, who knows where Gus’ journey ends. Not even Jeff knows yet, although it’s in his head somewhere."

The Unwritten is an American comic book ongoing series written by Mike Carey with art by Peter Gross and published by the Vertigo imprint of DC Comics. The book follows Tom Taylor, who was the inspiration for a series of hugely successful children's fantasy novels in the vein of Harry Potter. The series deals with themes related to fame, celebrity, and the relationship between fiction and human consciousness.

The plot revolves around Tom Taylor, son of Wilson Taylor, an author who disappeared without a trace at the height of his career. Wilson wrote a series of books about a boy wizard called Tommy Taylor, filled with fantasy, even being compared to the Harry Potter series. Tom is generally portrayed as being somewhat rude and jaded about his status as a minor celebrity. His father had made a fortune off of a character modeled on young Tom, but Tom himself is without accomplishment, even claiming that his only real skill is an encyclopedic knowledge of literary geography. Tom makes most of his money through appearances at comic book and fantasy conventions. At one of these he is confronted by a man dressed as the villain of the Tommy Taylor novels, Count Ambrosio. Believing him merely to be an obsessive fan, Tom dismisses him but he is later kidnapped and held captive by the man, who appears to be a real vampire like Count Ambrosio. Taylor manages to escape with the kidnapper being killed by an explosion. His troubles are just beginning as a young woman named Lizzy Hexam confronts him at a convention where she publicly asserts that Tom is not the real son of Wilson Taylor. A media firestorm ensues in which various theories, such as Tom being a gold digging impostor, or his having been bought by Wilson Taylor from Romanian Gypsies, circulate.

The Vinyl Underground is a comic book series published by the Vertigo imprint of DC Comics, created and written by Si Spencer with art by Simon Gane. The title debuted in October 2007 and ran for twelve issues before its cancellation in September 2008.

The Vinyl Underground is described by its author, Si Spencer as "a love-hate story about the streets [of London] that shaped its characters, and that shaped its author." Spencer—who writes for TV series EastEnders -- credits London, his "adopted home now for ten years," with "[t]wo thousand years of violence [which] have shaped its streets," as well as fiction set within them. Spencer writes in the Vertigo column "On the Ledge" that the city "constantly barg[ed] into the story uninvited," informing in the process the "right narrative voice" for the Vinyl Underground series.

The four-man group is led by minor celebrity DJ Morrison Shepherd, the "son of an ex-footballer" recently released from prison. Shepherd is aided by Perv (Callum O'Connor), an ex-con clairvoyant "whose seizures give him clues to crimes long before the cops," Leah King, a morgue assistant who moonlights as an internet model/pornstar, and Shepherd's ex-girlfriend Kim "Abi" Abiola, an "African tribal Princess in exile" whose witchdoctor father is accused of the murder which becomes the groups first mystery. Abi is also described by Spencer as "an expert in the psycho-geography of London," a theme which has also informed the works of writers Alan Moore, Iain Sinclair and Will Self, among others.

Living in an abandoned Underground station, the group investigates occult crimes in a manner evocative of fellow-Vertigo character John Constantine, providing anonymous tip-offs to the police force through D.S. Caulfield.

Y: The Last Man is a comic book series by Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra published by Vertigo beginning in 2002. The series is about the only man to survive the apparent simultaneous death of every male mammal (barring the same man's pet monkey) on Earth. 

On July 17, 2002, something (referred to as a plague) simultaneously kills every living mammal possessing a Y chromosome — including embryos, fertilized eggs, and even sperm. The only exceptions appear to be New York residents Yorick Brown, a young amateur escape artist, and his male Capuchin monkey, Ampersand.
Society is plunged into chaos as infrastructures collapse, and the surviving women everywhere try to cope with the loss of the men, their survivor guilt, and the knowledge that - barring a rapid, major scientific breakthrough or other extraordinary happening - humanity is doomed to extinction.

The mysterious Agent 355 is sent to help and protect Yorick, determined to find his girlfriend Beth who was in Australia when the plague struck. Agent 355 has other plans for Yorick however as she was instructed by Yorick's mother, Jennifer Brown (Congresswoman prior to the deaths of the majority of government figures and Secretary of the Interior thereafter), to bring Yorick to Washington.

Vertigo 2000’s

Title	Series	Issues	Dates
Lucifer		#1 - 75	Jun 2000 - Aug 2006
Outlaw Nation		#1 - 19	Nov 2000 - May 2002
The Crusades		#1 - 20	May 2001 - Dec 2002
American Century		#1 - 27	May 2001 - Oct 2003
Fables		#1 - ongoing	Jul 2002 -
Y: The Last Man		#1 - 60	Sep 2002 - 2008
Jack of Fables		#1 - ongoing	Sep 2006 -
Scalped		#1 - ongoing	Mar 2007 -
The Vinyl Underground		#1 - 12	Dec 2007 - Nov 2008
Northlanders		#1 - ongoing	Feb 2008 -
Air		#1 - 24	Aug 2008 - Aug 2010
House of Mystery		#1 - ongoing	July 2008 -
The Unwritten		#1 - ongoing	Jul 2009 -
Sweet Tooth		#1 - ongoing	September 2, 2009 -
Cinderella: From Fabletown with Love		#1-6	October 2009 - April 2010
Daytripper		#1 - ongoing	Feb 2010 -
I, Zombie		#1 - ongoing	Apr 2010 -
American Vampire		#1 - ongoing	Mar-10
Joe the Barbarian		#1-8	Mar 2010 -