[ DRAWN & QUARTERED ]
Graphic Arts As Literature
Vertigo marks decade
with run of new titles
2003 marks 10 years of "mature audience" comic books and graphic novels published under the DC Comics imprint Vertigo. It has been, and continues to be, the trailblazer for provocative adult, complex and literate fare -- namely, no superheroes.In a couple of previous columns, I've praised past and present Vertigo titles "100 Bullets" (the best crime comic book out now, hands down, by the crack creative team of Brian Azzarello and Marcelo Frusin) and the distinctive sci-fi cyberpunk work of Paul Pope and his "Heavy Liquid" and "100%," which just completed its five-issue run.
Since then, Vertigo has further distinguished itself with a run of newer titles that have made this anniversary year an especially rewarding one, strengthening its hold on fans like myself while bringing in new ones. Editors Karen Berger, Shelly Bond and Will Dennis continue to push the envelope with the following:
"American Century" (writers Howard Chaykin and David Tischman; illustrator Marc Lanning): It's a return to the hard-boiled action-adventure genre, the postwar years when the "guys and dames" of pulp fiction were part of the country's popular culture. There's your handsome and rugged macho antihero, Harry Kraft, constantly down on his luck but always willing to do the dirty work (and equally dirty and hardened women) to get by. I particularly enjoy how the tough, scatological dialogue is combined with the conventional, nearly bland artwork (plus, I confess, the gratuitous sex and nudity).
"Beware the Creeper" (writer Jason Hall, illustrator Cliff Chiang): This is just two issues old, but I was made a fan right off because of Chiang's finely rendered artwork, which I first saw in the "Josie Mac" miniseries in the "Batman: Detective Comics" title. Yet another pulplike title, it's set in Paris of the 1920s, a time of cafe and club nightlife, and jazz and artistic restlessness, and tells the tale of twin sisters Madeline and Judith Benoir. To put it simply, Madeline's the good, chaste one and Judith's the sexy hedonist and, right now, readers are still trying to figure out what their relation is to a wild, costumed woman who cackles madly while preying on a respectable French family of their acquaintance. The jury's still out on the story line, but Chiang's art makes it worth a look.
"Fables" (writer Bill Willingham, illustrator Mark Buckingham, inker Steve Leialoha) and "Y -- The Last Man" (writer Brian K. Vaughan, co-writer and illustrator Pia Guerra, inker Jose Marzan): These two titles, in particular, have put Vertigo back in the spotlight, their issues flying off comic-book store shelves as soon as they're released, snatched up by readers both old and young. "Fables" concerns the adventures of the fairy-tale occupants of Fabletown, where characters such as Snow White, Prince Charming, the Big Bad Wolf and Old King Cole live together in the modern world, but as exiles, driven from their respective homelands by a mysterious figure only known as the Adversary. "Y" is a thriller-cum-social commentary about Yorick Brown, the last man on Earth -- literally -- who survives a mysterious virus that kills off every other male. Women now find themselves in a position of power and want to get to Brown to either kill him, capture him or use him as a breeder. Both books are wittily written.
"The Filth" (writer Grant Morrison, illustrator Chris Weston, inker Gary Erskine): Scotsman Grant Morrison, who made his reputation with the earlier Vertigo series "The Invisibles," is back with an equally disturbing and fantastical story line, filled with a well-oiled conspiracy, glam sci-fi characters, nasty nanotechnology and equally nasty psychos. They populate this near-future world out of control. "The Filth" is so pervasively caustic and relentlessly weird (but just as well done) that it leaves one with a sour opinion about humans in general. If you don't think this is your cup of tea, better you should go with his fine work on Marvel's "New X-Men" title, which is relatively tamer.
"Vertigo Pop!": This overall title of miniseries has taken readers through Tokyo, London and now Bangkok. The first two story arcs distinguished themselves with sharply told tales and illustrations, both distinctive in their own rights. The London series featured British vets Peter Milligan and Warren Pleece spinning an entertaining tale about a washed-up rock legend getting a second chance by switching bodies -- and lives -- with a young, handsome but talentless musician. Jonathan Vankin and penciler Seth Fisher's Tokyo take was an appealingly stylized story about a clueless gaijin who gets into a misadventure with two schoolgirls, yakuza and pop stars.
Vankin returns for the Bangkok miniseries, this time with Giuseppe Camuncoli and Shawn Martinbrough, for their take on life in this Asian capital of both natural beauty and urban sleaze. A young American couple, after saving a rare white elephant from ivory merchants, attempts to do the same with a teenage prostitute -- no matter the cost. The first issue looks promising and should continue the run of success this overlooked series has garnered with issues past.
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