When I got into comics in the fall of 2000, it wasn’t too long until I walked backwards into Vertigo Comics. For anyone that doesn’t know, Vertigo Comics was an imprint of DC where they put all of their “Adult” titles. In comic parlance, adult means boobs, blood, swears, and big ideas.
Think if HBO only did lurid genera stuff. It’s everything EC Comics ever wanted to be, but that’s another story for another day.
Vertigo is gone now. Phased out this year – after it’s near decade long death-throws – for the new DC Black Label. (At least for now.)
It took me longer than I’m proud of to realize that all the comics I was collecting at the time – Transmetropolitan, Preacher, and The Invisibles – were from the same publisher. After that, I would buy books because they had the Vertigo name on them. It was a name that implied taste. (Or lack there of, depending on who you asked.)
So time has gone on and Vertigo, before it was finally killed of, re-collected most of their series into large volumes that make up two to three of the ones I already have. Some of these series I’ve either never fully finished getting: 100 Bullets, Y The Last Man. Or I’ve had some volumes damaged from over use: Transmetropolitan, The Invisibles. So I’ve started to buy the deluxe volumes and getting rid of the old.
And of course I can’t just bring these into the house and put them on the shelf, I have to read them first. Which has been really nice to re-read some of my favorite stories. I finished Transmetropolitan – even though not all the deluxe volumes are out for that – and I’m currently working on 100 Bullets. Which I never actually read all of. I’m still in stuff I’ve already read, but I’ll be getting to “new” stuff soon. So that’s exciting.
It’s been nice going back through these hard, little nuggets of angry tales. If anything, it’s kept be for doomscrolling through the news.