WW PHILLY: VERTIGO

**MattBrady** · 05-31-2008, 07:45 PM

by Sarah Jaffe

Bob Schreck and Adam Philips from Vertigo, DC’s “edgy” imprint, have a lot that they’re excited about.

Madame Xanadu is the next classic character to be resurrected by Vertigo, though few people at the panel seemed to remember her. The June-debuting Xanadu will be written by Matt Wagner, in his first time back at Vertigo in 16 years, and drawn by 27-year-old artist Amy Reeder Hadley, who Schreck described as, “An amazing visual storyteller and illustrator.”

Schreck said that there will be an “Arthurian legend vibe” to the character, whose story takes place across space and time, with a stop in Whitechapel at the time of Jack the Ripper and encounters with the Phantom Stranger.

“Mike Kaluta is very well known for his covers with Xanadu back in the day…” Schreck said, hinting at more news to come with the character.

House of Mystery’s second issue hits stands in June, written by Bill Willingham and Matthew Sturges of Fables and Jack of Fables fame, and will include guest art from Eisner Award winner Jill Thompson (Sandman).

Another new ongoing series, Air by G Willow Wilson and M.K. Perker, is the story of a flight attendant and her involvement with a frequent flier who may or may not be a terrorist. “It reminded me a lot of LOST in terms of depth of storytelling,” Philips said.

DMZ and Northlanders drew rounds of applause from the crowd, and Schreck agreed, saying “If any of you haven’t read anything by Brian Wood, you’re fools.”

Northlanders will have a new storyline starting with issue #9, and will feature guest art from Dean Ormston (Judge Dredd, Sandman)

Glenn Fabry (Preacher) will be illustrating a new miniseries, Greatest Hits, written by David Tischman (Bite Club), about a British superhero team called the Mates. Schreck described it as “Sort of a VH1 history of this superhero team, who were as popular as the Beatles.”

The end of October will see a collection of James Jean’s Fables covers. Jean “is so good you want to hate him, but you can’t because he’s the nicest guy in the world,” said Schreck.

In other Fables news, issue #75 will be a 64-page special that Philips said, “will shake up the status quo of the series in ways you won’t even believe.”

Though there are no current plans to expand the Fables universe, Schreck and Philips did confirm that Fables will be ongoing as long as Willingham has ideas for it, and that there is no end in sight.

100 Bullets, however, is “speeding toward its epic finale,” though it will pass the 100th issue mark before it ends, making it one of the longer Vertigo series.

Another long-running Vertigo series will see some new offshoots soon, as Chas from Hellblazer gets his own miniseries, Hellblazer Presents: Chas—The Knowledge, and the first Hellblazer writer, Jamie Delano, returns with an original graphic novel, Hellblazer: Pandemonium, set during the Iraq war.

Army @ Love will be returning in August, with a series subtitled “The Art of War” featuring covers that will be homages to great works of art—the one they showed featured the Mona Lisa.

Just in time for the 20th anniversary, the final Absolute Sandman, Volume 4, will be out in November, and P. Craig Russell will be adapting the Sandman: Dream Hunters book into regular comic form soon afterward.

The Nobody, an original graphic novel written by Jeff Lemire, nominated for an Eisner for his work on Essex County Line, will be out next spring. It’s “got an Invisible Man bent to it,” Schreck said, “but goes off on another tangent.”

Another original graphic novel will be Second Lives, by Peter Bagge, who has “made an entire career out of making fun of nerds,” Schreck said. The story will focus on the Second Life gaming phenomenon, and will be due out in the summer or fall of 2009.

The Alcoholic by Jonathan Ames and Dean Haspiel rounds out the new offering of graphic novels, and is a semi-autobiographical story that touches on events of September 11, among other things. “I can’t recommend that one enough,” said Philips.

Questions from attendees centered on the decision to release original graphic novels, as several readers were unhappy with the need to cancel comics that weren’t selling well as single issues.

“As a publisher you do your best,” Schreck said, “You can’t do it by committee,” adding that you really have to believe in a book beyond its sales, but that sometimes it’s impossible to keep running a book that doesn’t even pay for itself.

The balance between graphic novels and single issues “really is kind of a yin-yang thing,” he continued, noting that the Vertigo reader is not the same as the typical comic reader, and that 50% of comic sales these days are trades, which are more expensive to put out.

They are feeling good about their imprint though: when asked about feedback from retailers on their line, Schreck replied, “They love Vertigo.”

Tweekin56 · 05-31-2008, 07:57 PM

I enjoy fables quite a bit and hope this status quo shake-up will be a good thing. No new news about scalped though, could be a good thing I suppose.

Michael Heide · 05-31-2008, 07:58 PM

Still no announcement of a new Brian K. Vaughan project?

Kent Horton · 05-31-2008, 08:03 PM

Madame Xanadu looks like it's going to be awesome. And House of Mystery was waaaay better than I was expecting.

KirkWarren · 05-31-2008, 08:04 PM

Weird, I thought 100 Bullets was set for 100 issues. Didn't know it was going to exceed it.

I suspect Peter Pan and those characters should be entering the Fables title soon with their rights up for fair use now. Can't wait for the James Jean cover book.

PhilipAMoore · 05-31-2008, 08:11 PM

WERE THE HECK IS UNKNOWN SOULDIER?

jeremy(UK) · 05-31-2008, 08:27 PM

Northlanders is amazing in every way, not least the colours which brilliantly echo the dyes used at the time.

pez dispenser · 05-31-2008, 08:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KirkWarren

Weird, I thought 100 Bullets was set for 100 issues. Didn't know it was going to exceed it.

That's what I thought as well.
I'm all for it, though. Its been one of my favourite series ever since it began. Its going to be a sad day for me when it finally ends.

lobot1137 · 05-31-2008, 08:47 PM

I wonder, is Hellblazer : Pandemonium set during the current Iraqi war or Operation Desert Storm in the early 90's? Whatever the case it's nice to see Jamie Delano return to the character.

Michael Heide · 05-31-2008, 09:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lobot1137

I wonder, is Hellblazer : Pandemonium set during the current Iraqi war or Operation Desert Storm in the early 90's? Whatever the case it's nice to see Jamie Delano return to the character.

It's always nice to see him return to the character. Hellblazer: Bad Blood was awesome.

violentmarv · 05-31-2008, 10:16 PM

I'm pretty stoked about the new Peter Bagge book. Hate is the greatest comic series I've ever read.

PhilipAMoore · 05-31-2008, 11:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by violentmarv

I'm pretty stoked about the new Peter Bagge book. Hate is the greatest comic series I've ever read.

true Hate was good stuff but what he'd done since is hit or miss. but truth is it isn't fare to be critical of his post buddy stuff Bat boy is very funny as is his coments on presdentual history Just never got in to Yea. if I found a copy I might read it but the consept didn't grab me

good day

PhilipAMoore · 05-31-2008, 11:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Michael Heide

It's always nice to see him return to the character. Hellblazer: Bad Blood was awesome.

that was one the funniest books Vertigo ever published I git chuckel thinking about the
anerexic Princess Diana cult.

good day

chrispy21 · 06-01-2008, 01:10 AM

is other world EVER going to get finished? y do the best comics out there either fly 90 feet under the radar (fallen angel, manhunter) or get left in obscurity without real endings (kiss kiss bang bang, el cazador, and OTHERWORLD)???

ShinAkuma666 · 06-01-2008, 01:12 AM

Really excited about Greatest Hits with Glen Fabry, sounds like a cool series, I might try an original graphic novel when they come out.

Baron Banter · 06-01-2008, 02:07 AM

"Verigo" on the main page.

EMeadow · 06-01-2008, 09:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chrispy21

is other world EVER going to get finished? y do the best comics out there either fly 90 feet under the radar (fallen angel, manhunter) or get left in obscurity without real endings (kiss kiss bang bang, el cazador, and OTHERWORLD)???

Bless you for saying that but I think Jiminez has said he's not going to finish the story due to low sales for the first arc.

Then again, ask him again when he's no longer Marvel exclusive.

KraziJoe · 06-01-2008, 09:47 AM

Quote:

WW PHILLY '08: THE VERIGO PANEL

Are you sure there are not any more T's Pat?

ThatNickGuy · 06-01-2008, 09:51 AM

Wait....fourth Sandman Absolute?

Has the third one been solicited and I missed it?

ThatNickGuy · 06-01-2008, 09:55 AM

Never mind. Just looked up on the DC website. I didn't realize it was already coming out.

Kevin T. Brown · 06-01-2008, 10:41 AM

Quote:

Another new ongoing series, Air by G Willow Wilson and M.K. Perker, is the story of a flight attendant and her involvement with a frequent flier who may or may not be a terrorist. “It reminded me a lot of LOST in terms of depth of storytelling,” Philips said.

Well, that just killed my wanting to buy it..... "Lost" lost me as a viewer at the end of season 2.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kent Horton

Madame Xanadu looks like it's going to be awesome. And House of Mystery was waaaay better than I was expecting.

And I wholeheartedly agree with both those statements!

GeorgeG · 06-01-2008, 11:42 AM

I suspect Peter Pan will become the new Adversary, after Gipetto, since he was going to be the one originally--until it was found out he couldn't be used at the time because of his public domain status.

McAlice · 06-01-2008, 02:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GeorgeG

I suspect Peter Pan will become the new Adversary, after Gipetto, since he was going to be the one originally--until it was found out he couldn't be used at the time because of his public domain status.

Yeah but that was all sorted before the first issue had even been written, it would be too obvious (i feel) to move that way seeing as we all know about his initial idea.

poc · 06-01-2008, 03:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pez dispenser

That's what I thought as well.
I'm all for it, though. Its been one of my favourite series ever since it began. Its going to be a sad day for me when it finally ends.

I think they just meant it would reach 100 issues before it ends. Brian Azzerello hasn't said anything different in his issue "commentaries" he's doing on the wizard website.

EMeadow · 06-02-2008, 08:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kevin T. Brown

Well, that just killed my wanting to buy it..... "Lost" lost me as a viewer at the end of season 2.

And I wholeheartedly agree with both those statements!

The preview that they did of the book on Myspace was enough to have me pre-order the book when I send my order in.