Vertigo and young Animal

[fin5]

What's going on with this. I heard young Animal comics are ending with 6 and I don't know what's going on with Vertigo anymore. Is nobody buying them. Should dc just get rid of the imprint

[Adset]

What's going on with this. I heard young Animal comics are ending with 6 and I don't know what's going on with Vertigo anymore. Is nobody buying them. Should dc just get rid of the imprint

i can't speak for young animal, but vertigo is planning a big relaunch late this summer:

https://www.cbr.com/dc-vertigo-relaunch/

[SJNeal]

I'd love it if this relaunch is along the lines of the original line up of 1993; the dark, quirky DCU books that struggle to find a place of their own.

In addition to the new Sandman Universe of titles, fold the Young Animal books into the Vertigo imprint, add whatever Swamp Thing project Capullo is working on, give us a new Animal Man book and voila!

[iron chimp]

i wish they'd get garth ennis on a sgt rock book on vertigo. Why on earth he isnt writing war comics for dc i will never know

[ed2962]

i wish they'd get garth ennis on a sgt rock book on vertigo. Why on earth he isnt writing war comics for dc i will never know

He just finished a decent one a Marvel not long ago. It was about Frank Castle (punisher) during Viet Nam War as told by his war buddies.

[numberthirty]

I'd love it if this relaunch is along the lines of the original line up of 1993; the dark, quirky DCU books that struggle to find a place of their own.

In addition to the new Sandman Universe of titles, fold the Young Animal books into the Vertigo imprint, add whatever Swamp Thing project Capullo is working on, give us a new Animal Man book and voila!

Even if that is what they have in mind, it won't really change that the landscape for creators is entirely different from what it was back then.

[iron chimp]

That early 90s vertigo was so strong. Basically half the uk comics industry airlifted in full of E and given the keys. Rereading a lot of those books they read even better now compared to current comics industry. Sadly those days are gone and cant come back but it was one of Dc's very finest moments

[Lee Stone]

I think the main problems Young Animal and Vertigo have right now is vision.
Gerard Way is a good person for Young Animal, but it's possible that he can't make the kinds of commitments that Karen Berger made with Vertigo.
Or DC is holding him back in some way.

Another problem with Young Animal was that after the initial launch and push, there was very little new stuff coming out to keep the imprint in the news. When Vertigo launched, there was a new ongoing, mini-series, graphic novel or trade coming out every month. It was busy. Boom, boom, boom, boom. It was a relentless assault of new material.
Young Animal was kinda left to float once it started.

Vertigo also had the benefit of having a built in readership right from the start. Animal-Man, Doom Patrol, Sandman, Swamp Thing and Hellblazer were well past their normal attrition and had leveled out on readers. The Vertigo launch came with none of them ending and relaunching, so old readers continued on and new readers came in from the buzz of it kicking off. Matter of fact, the biggest title at the time, Sandman, was in the middle of a story arc.

Another thing that helped Vertigo was that it helped pioneer the directions that Image and Dark Horse, among others, have adopted since then. Image, in particular, was a totally different company at the time, looking more like a superhero universe designed to compete against the Big Two's main universe titles.
There really wasn't much else like it at the time.
Today, Vertigo and Young Animal have a lot more competition. Especially from Walking Dead, Saga, Hellboy and other titles that owe more to Vertigo opening the door for their existence than DC or Marvel proper.

So, for DC (or Marvel, which had similar problems with both Strange Tales and MAX) to make an impact in that area again, they really need someone who's going to give it their all to carve out an identity and keep the imprint in the news each month for an extended period of time.
Neil Gaiman might be that person. If he's totally focused on the comics. And the Sandman universe characters do seem to have a strong fanbase, even though they've been out of print for so long.
Grant Morrison, with his recent editing experience at Heavy Metal, could also be someone that could do it.
But either one would need to be given free reign to do what they want as they see fit. Something that's been kinda restrained since New52 started.

More than anything, it will need DC to be serious about making it work. And be in it for the long haul.

[MRP]

Also, Vertigo's biggest footprint in it's heyday was the book trade not the direct market. It was instrumental in building an audience for graphic novels outside the direct market (there were predecessors of course, but Vertigo brought a lot of people to comics via trades in bookstores who had never and never would step foot in a comic shop). Sales of individual issue sin the direct market was secondary to Vertigo's success and to their boom, and unfortunately the market has changed to the point where the big comic publishers have most of their eggs in the direct market basket and what can't thrive their doesn't get support from those publishers. That may be changing; DC seems to be making a commitment to the book trade with Ink, Zoom and Black Label, and the Sandman stuff looks like it is drawing upon the audiences for some of its writers in the book trade to bring eyes to it and build an audience, and whatever DC does with the rest of Vertigo has to have an eye towards that as well. If/when Young Animal comes back, it should also be geared towards the book trade not the direct market as the book trade is seeing good year to year growth and is getting material into places where readers actually are rather than waiting for readers to come to them in niche destination shops of the direct market.

As for Morrison and his "experience" at Heavy Metal, he has largely been a name on the masthead to try to draw an audience and all he does is write rambling near incoherent editorials and a couple of throwaway one offs with no depth or teeth at HM; all the heavy lifting of editorial, sifting through content, liasoning with creators, etc. has been done by others and frankly a sa long term subscriber to HM, it has been poorer since he took over than it was before, so he would be the last person I would want in charge of Vertigo. I've considered cancelling my HM subscription since he has taken over and the last 3 issues are still in the mailer bag unread because I just couldn't muster enough interest to crack them open and read, and I was excited by the news he was taking over, I thought it would be a great vehicle for him but it has been an utter disappointment.

-M

[CaptCleghorn]

I think the main problems Young Animal and Vertigo have right now is vision.
Gerard Way is a good person for Young Animal, but it's possible that he can't make the kinds of commitments that Karen Berger made with Vertigo.
Or DC is holding him back in some way.

Could Way's participation is actual creation of stories be taking away from his time in charting or steering Young Animal? Karen Berger wasn't writing or drawing anything while she was doing her thing. The timeliness of DP was frustrating.

[hsalf]

i wish they'd get garth ennis on a sgt rock book on vertigo. Why on earth he isnt writing war comics for dc i will never know

Sgt. Rock by Ennis, yes please! At least Ennis has a new World of Tanks mini starting up in a month based on the battle of Kursk. I enjoyed the earlier series that was set in Normandy. And of course his latest Punisher Max mini set in Vietnam was pretty good too. Wish it had been an ongoing.

[Lee Stone]

Could Way's participation is actual creation of stories be taking away from his time in charting or steering Young Animal? Karen Berger wasn't writing or drawing anything while she was doing her thing. The timeliness of DP was frustrating.

It's possible.
Of course, being limited to four titles, there wouldn't be much steering to do. I think the Who's Who ashcan preview and the editorial page each issue helped a lot, though.
And Bug was at least something new.

But Way's bread and butter is his music career, so the comics are naturally going to come second.

Which is something I think may be a factor in the success or failure of Sandman Universe, as well, since Gaiman is now more of a novel writer. It's to be seen just how dedicated he will be to the venture, or if he'll just be signing his name and getting paid for being associated with it.

I think DC's biggest loss since I've been reading comics is losing Berger.