DC Closes Vertigo label earlier than expected

[caj]

Very sad to see it go. Vertigo was such an important part of DC Comics in the 90s and 00s. Vertigo was expected to stay around until 2020.
https://www.newsarama.com/47699-dc-c...int-early.html

DC has retired the Vertigo label earlier than they initially announced.

The Sandman Universe titles, which were under the Vertigo label, were segued under DC Black Label beginning with October 30's The Sandman Universe Presents Hellblazer #1 - as signified by the change in label on the bottom left.

DC Black Label is also the declared grouping for November 6's The Dreaming #15 and November 13's House of Whispers #15.

The Sandman Universe titles were the sole remaining titles under the Vertigo umbrella.

Barring some surprise change, effectively the last DC/Vertigo issue was October 23's Books of Magic #13.

[Denirac]

Constantine being the Death of Vertigo seems Fittingly in Character for him

[LP22]

There's a saying "go woke go broke".

[WillieMorgan]

There's a saying "go woke go broke".

I'm no SJW but I can't for the life of me understand what you're getting at there. What was woke about Vertigo?

As for the demise of the label, well, it's a sad indictment of the current state of the industry for me. This is a damn shame. These were cutting edge comics back in the 80's and 90's. That there might be another telling statement also.

[qwertyuiop1998]

For me, It looks more like DC just removing Vertigo titles to their Black Label, I'm fine with it tbh

[Claude]

For me, It looks more like DC just removing Vertigo titles to their Black Label, I'm fine with it tbh

There's a saying "go woke, continue producing the same material under a different classification".

[WillieMorgan]

Okay, so I went and researched this as I was confused by that 'get woke, go broke' statement above. Now I understand why that accusation is getting bandied about.

It still seems a self-defeating argument though. Criticising the modern Vertigo for being 'progressive and subversive' completely ignores the fact that those were the storytelling principles that the label was founded on and thrived with for so many years. And again, I'm not an SJW.

The label was also struggling in the face of the strong competition that was being put out by the independent publishers as well.

[Nine Crocodile]

The label was also struggling in the face of the strong competition that was being put out by the independent publishers as well.

They made a huge mistake changing the contracts for creators.

[Hybrid]

I'm no SJW but I can't for the life of me understand what you're getting at there. What was woke about Vertigo?

As for the demise of the label, well, it's a sad indictment of the current state of the industry for me. This is a damn shame. These were cutting edge comics back in the 80's and 90's. That there might be another telling statement also.

He's talking about the 2018 relaunch being political propaganda rather than focusing on actually good stories.

[Hybrid]

I actually covered this elsewhere, and why Vertigo 2018 was a total failure.

Let's not kid ourselves for a moment. If the 2018 relaunch had actually been a success, this wouldn't have happened. It's really clear that the utter failure of their woke relaunch is what made them go broke, and they paid the price.

Shame really. But that's what happens in many cases when agendas take precedent over storytelling and fun.

I mean, how do you even go from Hellblazer, Doom Patrol, Sandman, Preacher, 100 Bullets, Y: The Last Man, Fables etc. to cringe like Border Town, Hex Wives, American Carnage, Goddess Mode, High Level, Second Coming, and Safe Sex -- all of which are such were such failures that they're only known for that fact. Hell, Second Coming got cancelled before launch due to peer pressure from ethic groups.

Sure, they'll try to say "we're restructuring ourselves" or "the edgy elements are more acceptable than back then" (they aren't really). The real reason was because they tried to cram SJW politics into the line and ignored everything else. Newsflash: No one wants that.

I mean, the narrative beforehand was that they were bringing Vertigo back so they can compete with Image. Yet just a year later, the entire line gets cancelled. Wonder what the cause of that was. Actually, no I don't, because anyone could figure that out.

And before anyone says that the books beforehand had politics to them, let me get one thing clear: There's a difference between a story having political elements to serve the narrative, versus one where it's just propaganda to push an agenda and nothing more. I shouldn't have to explain that, but I did.

This is a failure of the highest order. Andy Khouri should be fired for this. He killed the longstanding legacy of Vertigo over the course of a year, just because he had an agenda he just had to push to an audience that wasn't interested.

[iron chimp]

Original vertigo couldnt have been any more "woke" or "sjw" or whatever hokey term is in vogue. Easy to see who read vertigo and who imagined what it was like in the gardens of their mind

[Hybrid]

Original vertigo couldnt have been any more "woke" or "sjw" or whatever hokey term is in vogue. Easy to see who read vertigo and who imagined what it was like in the gardens of their mind

Dude, that's a false equivalence. It's like defending Champions by saying "Yeah, well the X-Men did political themes too!". Again, compare 100 Bullets and Preacher to Border Town and Goddess Mode.

[iron chimp]

So books promoting 60s ecology, veganism, magic, the occult, killing god, transvestites, transexuals, gay, bi, pansexualism, having sex with trees, drug use and altered consciousness, calling readers of superhero books as having latent homoerotic tendancies, etc is all fine but its Goddess Mode that is a bridge too far.

[superduperman]

There's a saying "go woke go broke".

Which has nothing to do with this. Image now is basically Vertigo 20 years ago. So it seems their failure has less to do with too much diversity as it does with too much competition for the same type of material. There are number of contributing factors for why it failed. Changing the contracts. Image being a Vertigo clone at this point. Characters like Constantine being shoehorned into the mainstream DCU. When Vertigo was first created, there was nothing like it on the shelves. That's not true anymore. Hell, one of the first titles they put out was about a gay superhero. And if you don't think the original Vertigo was "woke" go back and re-read Sandman. Anyone who thinks that Vertigo is "too woke" clearly hasn't read anything it put out in the nineties.

[LP22]

Which has nothing to do with this. Image now is basically Vertigo 20 years ago. So it seems their failure has less to do with too much diversity as it does with too much competition for the same type of material. There are number of contributing factors for why it failed. Changing the contracts. Image being a Vertigo clone at this point. Characters like Constantine being shoehorned into the mainstream DCU. When Vertigo was first created, there was nothing like it on the shelves. That's not true anymore. Hell, one of the first titles they put out was about a gay superhero. And if you don't think the original Vertigo was "woke" go back and re-read Sandman. Anyone who thinks that Vertigo is "too woke" clearly hasn't read anything it put out in the nineties.

to clarify the sandman u books are fine at least to me but titles such as Border Town,Hex Wives,Goddess Mod,High Level is filled with so much identity politics and adenda to the point that telling an entretining story that will appeal to many readers was trowen out the window those books wern't made to tell good stories but for the writers give themselves a pat on the back on how progressive they are and the sells shows exactly that