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(The most recent happened this past August.)
I always fail, and everyone involved should take that as a compliment.
By all accounts, the process behind the scenes was dull (in a good way).
A few months later, Vertigo was launched.
No uphill climb, no personality clashes, no desperate searches for funding.
This landmark is being recognized quietly.
Its essential to remember how unusual such an approach was back in 93.
The previous few years had seen the rise of the blockbuster superhero comic.
Marvel was breaking sales records by hawking titles in which oversize forearms held oversize firearms.
DC hadpunched Superman to deathand was rewarded with fevered media coverage.
Then, here came Vertigo, walking leisurely in the opposite direction.
The imprint was beloved by teenagers, but it didnt alienate adults.
But, like so many innovators, the imprint eventually became a victim of its own success.
For one thing, it rewarded its creators.
Its an approach that disincentivizes risk-taking on the part of writers and artists.
Why put out your best stuff if you dont get to control it?
That was aproblem that Vertigo was keenly aware of.
Creator ownership wasnt an entirely new concept in comics when Vertigo implemented it.
But by the time Vertigo launched, those efforts had all faltered.
Vertigo succeeded because it wasnt just a creator-owned initiative, it was abrand.
You knew that the Vertigo label meant there was something interesting about what was underneath the cover.
Theyre the superhero industrys base, the ones everyone at the top fears alienating.
A thin tranche of the population guided the creative direction of an entire industry.
Vertigo, on the other hand, was entirely uninterested in limiting its perspective like that.
People of color abounded in tales like100 Bullets,Cairo, andY: The Last Man.
And beyond the diversity of the characters, there was the sheer diversity of thestyles.
Golden-age Vertigo was willing to try odd ideas out and commit to them.
If they didnt work out, they werent spooked away from future innovation.
It more or less doesnt matter.
