Pre-New52 Vertigo (aka the 'Berger Era') Appreciation - 2021

[Lee Stone]

Technically, Karen Berger's first issue of Swamp Thing was #25 but Alan Moore's epic run had just begun five issues earlier.
And Stuart Moore took over editing on Hellblazer, the longest running first wave Vertigo title, with #41...

But the classic Vertigo that launched in 1993 really began with Swamp Thing #20 in 1984 and ended with Hellblazer #300 in 2013. A massive thirty year reign of mature, suspenseful and oftentimes surreal stories that still inspire comics today.
It can be argued that without the books that comprised some of Vertigo's best, there would be no Hellboy, no Madman, no Walking Dead.
Actually, all three could have all been Vertigo comics in another life.

So for sake of defining a period, the "Karen Berger era" encompasses everything from Alan Moore's first issue of Swamp Thing that would help shape what was to come all the way to Hellblazer #300, the last issue of the original Vertigo titles.

Before the arrival of Vertigo, Karen Berger was mostly over the Legion of Super-Heroes family of books and female-centric comics, such as Amethyst, Angel Love and George Perez's critically acclaimed Wonder Woman relaunch that came after Crisis on Infinite Earths.
But it was her earliest DC works, editing House of Mystery in the early '80s, that really set her down that twisted and dark path that everyone would come to admire her for a decade later.

Six of the eight Vertigo launch titles in 1993 had been around for quite a while, tucked in a corner away from the spandex and shiny-happy superheroes of DC's core universe. And Karen oversaw most of them before she drew them under the label that would come to define their look and feel for the next twenty years.

The launch titles for Vertigo were:
Animal-Man #57
Death: The High Cost of Living #1 (a mini-series)
Doom Patrol #64
Enigma #1 (a mini-series)
Hellblazer #63
Sandman #47
Shade the Changing Man #33
Swamp Thing #129

With Sandman Mystery Theatre #1 the following month.

Pre-launch Vertigo comics include:
Animal-Man #1-56
Doom Patrol #19-63
Hellblazer #1-62, Annual #1
Sandman #1-46, Special #1
Shade the Changing Man #1-32
Swamp Thing #20-128, Annual #2-6
Books of Magic, volume 1 #1-4
Black Orchid, volume 1 #1-3

I'll let Karen describe Vertigo here...
From the Vertigo Preview:

And for a bit more information, here's her editorial from the first month's books:

For me, personally, Vertigo became associated with tales of the supernatural, harrowing psychological suspense and bouts of existentialism.

Mystical characters like Zatanna, Phantom Stranger, Demon, Deadman, Spectre and Dr. Fate really found their purpose in Alan Moore's Swamp Thing and Neil Gaiman's Books of Magic.

Books like Shade the Changing Man and Swamp Thing became just as much about the supporting cast as the main characters. Kathy in Shade and Abby in Swamp Thing were just as important as the stars of the books. It was their strength and mortal frailty that helped ground the books and give readers an entry point to easily relate to.

If I had to pick the books to show someone what Vertigo was, I'd probably point them to the first books that made the most impact on me, personally-
Death: The High Cost of Living #1-3
Books of Magic, volume 1 #1-4
Sandman #50
Swamp Thing #49-50 & 56
Doom Patrol #19-22
Shade the Changing Man #33-35
Sandman Mystery Theatre #1-4
Black Orchid, volume 1 #1-3
100 Bullets #1-5 (from a later part of Vertigo's history where they began to branch out into more crime-fiction with less of a supernatural element)

What are your fondest memories of the Karen Berger era of Vertigo?

[Timothy Hunter]

The quality of Vertigo's output in the 1990s is unrivaled.

While I slightly prefer the bizarre takes on lesser known DC characters, I think the imprint did the most good in the 2000s when their main focus was creator owned titles. For the longest time, Vertigo seemed like the hub for mainstream comic books that didn't have to fall into the superhero/sci fi/fantasy trap the rest of the industry was in.

[Lee Stone]

The rarely seen promo sheet from the November 1992 issue of Diamond Previews:

[iron chimp]

There would def have been a hellboy without vertigo simply because Mike mignola did a proto version as a back up of Ted mckeevers metropol for epic at marvel.

I wouldn't say vertigo was "new" because aardvark, fantagraphics, dark horse, marvels epic line, drawn and quarterly, eclipse etc etc were all doing similar things but the sheer amount of quality stuff vertigo published and the budgets for promotion etc really turned around peoples perceptions of dc.

It's very sad to see all that gone now but there have been some interesting things - last god I enjoyed, nice house on the Lake dominating in sales, the horror books they did recently - all good ideas.

But vertigo really helped turn around USA and euro perceptions of UK comics as just a back water of nothing and gave uk creators budgets and promo and freedom during arguably the hottest era ever of UK writers and artists.

[Bored at 3:00AM]

To be honest, I kinda preferred the pre-Vertigo era where Morrison and Gaiman got to play in the DCU proper. The moment they got siloed away from the rest of the DCU, the whole universe lost a lot of flavor.

I know it made more sense to give Berger her own little fiefdom, but it made the DCU much less interesting to me.

I like it when all the toys are in the same box...

[iron chimp]

I must admit I preferred the pre vertigo stuff but that might just be because my favourite runs were in that time frame.

It made more sense for the original works like fables dmz etc to be on separate imprint though.

It also made sense to have a clear delineation between regular dc and the more druggy, sex, and experimental stuff because it would have all got closed down otherwise in the 80s and 90s climate.

Great stuff though. It was so cool to see brit writers have cash thrown at them and them become hits in USA as it created a more confident scene in uk - that they could roll with the best and be accepted there and in turn helped fuel a bigger UK scene outside of vertigo.

Obviously that was just one bit of vertigo but the USA side of vertigo whilst having a ton of great stuff too was never as eye opening as say Daniel clowes, hernandez brothers, dave sim, Chester brown etc.

[Timothy Hunter]

Enigma, Chiaroscuro the Private Lives of Leonardo Da Vinci, and Seekers into the Mystery rank alongside Watchmen and Sandman as some of the best comics ever created. There were so many great books published by Vertigo that are completely forgotten now.

[Twice-named]

Karen Berger’s Berger Books is releasing Enigma: The Definitive Edition in November. It’s hardcover and $24.99. Here’s the product description:

Enigma is a visceral, post-modern tale of self-discovery and sexual identity told against the backdrop of outrageous superheroes and villains.

Michael Smith lives a meaningless life of routine and boredom. But when the weird characters from Enigma - his favorite childhood comic book hero - seem to come to life, Michael embarks upon an increasingly obsessive crusade to uncover the incredible secret behind their improbable existence. Teaming up with Enigma's comic creator, Smith encounters an insanity-inducing psychopath, a brain-eating serial killer, a suicide-inciting Truthsayer and a teleporting model "who really sends you" as his quest uncovers shock-ing truths about his idol... and ultimately himself.

With a brand-new cover by Duncan Fegredo and a treasure trove of nearly 50 pages of extras including development art, color sketches, and behind the scenes notes into the making of this celebrated, groundbreaking story.

[dreamglide]

To be honest, I kinda preferred the pre-Vertigo era where Morrison and Gaiman got to play in the DCU proper. The moment they got siloed away from the rest of the DCU, the whole universe lost a lot of flavor.

I know it made more sense to give Berger her own little fiefdom, but it made the DCU much less interesting to me.

I like it when all the toys are in the same box...

To me, the book that really lost something in the transition from proto-Vertigo to Vertigo proper was Animal Man. As strange and punk rock as it was, it was by far the most conventional superhero book among the bunch. That book pretty much loses me in the middle of the Delano run.

Other than that, though, I don't think too much got lost in the transition. Sandman still felt like Sandman, and Doom Patrol going from Morrison to Pollack worked well enough.

[seismic-2]

To be honest, I kinda preferred the pre-Vertigo era where Morrison and Gaiman got to play in the DCU proper. The moment they got siloed away from the rest of the DCU, the whole universe lost a lot of flavor.

I know it made more sense to give Berger her own little fiefdom, but it made the DCU much less interesting to me.

I like it when all the toys are in the same box...

It makes sense to keep the adults' toys separate from the kids' toys.

[Bored at 3:00AM]

It makes sense to keep the adults' toys separate from the kids' toys.

That was already being done with the "Suggested for Mature Readers" label.

Again, I'm sure Berger was happy to have her own sandbox to play with, but I think the DCU as a whole became less interesting once the goths and weird kids were banished into their own neighborhood and isolated from the larger world.

It doesn't help that, while Berger was given her own imprint in Vertigo, the DCU was handed to Mike Carlin, whose creative vision was so pedestrian in comparison.

[K7P5V]

Glad to know Vertigo finally has its own thread. I remember reading a few stories & enjoying them, such like...

• "The Anatomy Lesson" (Swamp Thing, Vol. 2 #21)

• "Girl on Girl" (Y: The Last Man)

• My Faith in Frankie (2004)

[K7P5V]

I must admit I preferred the pre vertigo stuff but that might just be because my favourite runs were in that time frame.

It made more sense for the original works like fables dmz etc to be on separate imprint though.

It also made sense to have a clear delineation between regular dc and the more druggy, sex, and experimental stuff because it would have all got closed down otherwise in the 80s and 90s climate.

Great stuff though. It was so cool to see brit writers have cash thrown at them and them become hits in USA as it created a more confident scene in uk - that they could roll with the best and be accepted there and in turn helped fuel a bigger UK scene outside of vertigo.

Obviously that was just one bit of vertigo but the USA side of vertigo whilst having a ton of great stuff too was never as eye opening as say Daniel clowes, hernandez brothers, dave sim, Chester brown etc.

In agreement with you about Pre-Vertigo, those days were most enjoyable. Gaiman's vision of the DCU was always interesting (IMHO):

[SJNeal]

The rarely seen promo sheet from the November 1992 issue of Diamond Previews:

Very nice! I've never seen that one before, but I love old promo stuff like this. If memory serves, Infernal Machine never actually saw the light of day...?

In general, I love everything Vertigo did in their first ~10 yrs. I didn't actually start buying any of the titles on a monthly basis until late '95, but I picked up an assortment of the titles in bargain bins from earlier yrs.

[SJNeal]

To me, the book that really lost something in the transition from proto-Vertigo to Vertigo proper was Animal Man. As strange and punk rock as it was, it was by far the most conventional superhero book among the bunch. That book pretty much loses me in the middle of the Delano run.

Other than that, though, I don't think too much got lost in the transition. Sandman still felt like Sandman, and Doom Patrol going from Morrison to Pollack worked well enough.

I may be one of the few who counts Delano's Animal Man as my favorite run on the character. The last 10 issues come close to going off the rails in trying to be weird for weirdness sake, but I think it ended just in time before actually jumping the shark.

Jerry Prosser's run, however? Seriously wtf was that?