Embedded Files
Originally published at www.comicsbulletin.com, 2003
THE FINAL DRAFT: SILVER SOAPBOX
by Alan Donald
Digging Deeper
This is an occasional column where I dig a little deeper into a story from the last month or so.
I'm looking at Vertigo's tenth anniversary and to celebrate it I've annoyed the hell out of some top comicbook people! I wanted to do something more personal, more subjective to celebrate 10 years of DC's mature reader line than many others had and here it is:
1) When was the first time you heard about Vertigo and what did you think?
Chris Weston: I remember thinking, "Hmmm, I don't like that band down the side obscuring Brian Bolland's beautiful covers." They got rid of it later, thank God.
Bryan Talbot: Before Vertigo began publication, knowing Alan Moore and all the other British writers involved with it. I thought it was a great idea to have a DC imprint for mature readers.
Grant Morrison: it was probably in 1992 prior to the launch. I was wrapping up my run on Doom Patrol, one of the 'proto-vertigo' titles, as science has called them, in preparation for the launch of the Vertigo Doom Patrol by Rachel Pollack. I then went off round the world to get some new ideas and in another strand of the plot, editor Art Young moved to Disney, of all things, to launch an unlikely 'adult' comic line called Touchmark - which still sounds more than faintly seedy, I feel (I still have the badges which read 'Touchmark - Deal With It!' and again, hint at some vague, damp, abusive encounter with the unsuspecting writer of the x-ultimates) it didn't work out in the end so Art moved back to DC along with his gaggle of creators.
Sebastian O was originally conceived as a Touchmark project and then became my first Vertigo series.
2) What is your favourite work published by Vertigo (either your own or not)?
Chris Weston: It's a toss-up between the first four Issues of The Invisibles and Garth Ennis' War Stories. Both writers have an incredible knack of picking the best artists for the job, and getting the best out of them. Yeah, I realise I did one of Garth's War books... sorry!
Bryan Talbot: Certain Sandman stories, Flex Mentallo, Enigma, some of Jamie Delano's 20/20 Visions, certain Preacher or Transmetropolitan episodes.
Grant Morrison: Probably Flex Mentallo: Man of Muscle Mystery and Kill Your Boyfirend are my favorites of my own short-form stories but i like them all. Otherwise, I vote for Rogan Gosh by Pete Milligan and Brendan McCarthy and The Enigma by Milligan and Duncan Fegredo.
3) What is your least favourite (see above)?
Chris Weston: Do Helix books count? If so, then Time Breakers has got to rate as the most wasted year of my life! Sorry, Stuart!
Bryan Talbot: Can't remember. I probably threw them away half-way through.
Grant Morrison: Anything with fucking vampires in it, I'm afraid. No slight on anyone's talent but I absolutely despise the undead and all their works. When I was a child, the old lady next door - who used to send me to the shops for her cigarettes and cat food - was allegedly some kind of vampire and since those days of begrudged errands, I've despised Dracula, his unholy brood and his goth record collection.
The bit about Dracula's records is true - I was talking to Van Helsing in the bar of the Standard Hotel on Sunset Boulevard and all he was pissing himself about Dracula's crap taste in music. The last time he broke into the Count's castle, he says he found a coffin filled with 12' vinyl and a ton of CDs - Sisters of Mercy, Cassandra Complex, Vampire Lestat - the real cheesy end of the fangs 'n slap market.
The only vampire I ever liked is Barlow from 'salem's Lot' but he doesn't have his own Vertigo title yet...unlike 'Death', 'Lucifer', 'Misery' and 'Cancer'.
4) What do you think Vertigo has done (if anything) for the industry?
Chris Weston: Firstly, it created a valuable space where creators can do work that doesn't involve capes and spandex. Secondly, it's brought a few dollars into the British coffers. More importantly, it's given sad Goths something to spend their money on, other than "snakebite".
Bryan Talbot: The most important thing, I think, is the inroads it's made into the mainstream. Sandman especially had a large readership outside comic fandom and still has today in bookstores, if the continuing royalty payments are anything to go by.
Grant Morrison: Vertigo provided a platform for some of the most distinctive and revolutionary voices in the comics industry, or anywhere else, deny it if you can - Gaiman, Ennis, Ellis, Milligan etc, the result being some of the most explosive and creative work ever done in the comics field. The concept of the 'Graphic Novel' flourished into ambitious and ground-breaking long-form, creator-controlled works like Sandman, Preacher, The Invisibles and Transmetropolitan. Vertigo opened doors into the bookstore market which are now starting to look like escape hatches for many creators as specialist store monthly comic sales float in the doldrums and book shop sales go up.
Vertigo also introduced progressive creator ownership deals which remain the best in the business.
Best of all, and for a few glorious years only before cost-cutting set in, there was Art Young and Vertigo's 'British Office' - the comics equivalent of the 'Loaded' HQ in the 90s. Vodka, mushrooms, Es, sex, money, travel and the pure unleashed creativity of young people having a good time together. Those were the glory days of Bizarre Boys - the lost Milligan/Morrison/Hewlett project.
5) What do you think Vertigo has done for your career?
Chris Weston: Hey, Vertigo IS my career! Oh yeah, like I'm constantly fending off offers to do the X-Men!
Bryan Talbot: Widened the potential audience for my own work.
Grant Morrison: It's allowed me to make money by telling stories about my own characters. Thanks to Vertigo, I own several lucrative intellectual properties and make almost half my earnings on sales of book collections and 'Graphic Novels'.
More importantly, I've met many long-term friends and accomplices thanks to Vertigo.
6) Did you think Vertigo would last this long?
Chris Weston: Definitely... who else is providing an alternative to the Superhero antics that dominate this industry?
Bryan Talbot: I don't remember considering it at the time but probably not.
Grant Morrison: Yes. It'll last at least as long as Karen Berger, who has a radioactive half-life of seven thousand Earth years. I should imagine Vertigo will be around well into the 91st century and then it'll just stop dead when Karen does, like an old grandfather clock.
7) What's your favourite Vertigo memory?
Chris Weston: Hearing Grant's tale about wearing white jeans on a long plane flight, whilst suffering dysentery....
Bryan Talbot: Glen Fabry biting the bottom of a Vertigo editor (who shall be nameless) at a drunken DC party in Soho, London.
Grant Morrison: It's hard to say...the '93 tour with Jill, Steve, Shelly, Tom and others was a 'Doors'-style hoot and no mistake, and all winding up at the '50 Years of LSD Celebrations' in San Francisco but...for me one moment stands out and it was that day in 1996 when I was feeling pretty down and all the Vertigo characters came round to cheer me up with a bottle of Lucozade and some Salt & Vinegar Square crisps - the Sandman was there talking about all the racy wet dreams that never made it into his comic. John Constantine appeared late with a lot of stupid excuses and it turned out he's actually quite shy in real life, very unlike the way he appears on the page. When he finally did talk it was to say how much he'd enjoyed a Peter Ackroyd book of mine he'd ended up with via a mutual friend.
Death gave me a bit of a start but that's how it is with Death, I suppose. I soon settled down when she told me she'd only come to 'claim' the influenza bugs that were bothering me. Lovely lass once you get past all the make-up...
HUGE thanks to all those who took part, their sites are listed below. If your favourite Vertigo creator is missing don't panic just yet I'm still bugging quite a few of 'em at the moment and I'll run their answers as and when I get them but not everybody was easily contactable and some simply didn't want to take part (such as Warren Ellis whose response was that he wasn't that important to Vertigo! Or poor Carlos Ezquerra who admitted to been very proud of his Vertigo work, particularly Condors but who doesn't actually read American Comics because they don't ship 'em to Andorra and DC don't send him any).
www.bryan-talbot.com, www.Westonfront.com, www.warrenellis.com, www.internet.ad/ezquerra/, www.grant-morrison.com and www.neilgaiman.com
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