From: [k--t--e] at [physics12.Berkeley.EDU] (Katie Schwarz)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.comics.dc.vertigo
Subject: FAQ: Vertigo Frequently Asked Questions
Date: 14 Aug 1996 18:54:19 GMT
Welcome to the Vertigo comics newsgroup! This is a Frequently Asked Questions
list about Vertigo. Please send e-mail if you have any suggestions or
questions: [k--t--e] at [physics.berkeley.edu]
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Vertigo Frequently Asked Questions
Last updated: August 1, 1996
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* indicates new or changed material in a question.
1. What Sandman/Endless comics are coming out soon? Is Sandman going to be
continued in prose form?
2. * What are the Sandman collections in order?
3. Where are the Sandman Frequently Asked Questions and Annotations?
4. What's up with the Sandman movie?
5. What comics has Tim Hunter been in besides the current Books of Magic
ongoing series? Where did Tamlin first appear?
6. Who wrote which issues of Doom Patrol? Where did Flex Mentallo first
appear?
7. Why is The Invisibles going on hiatus? When will it be back? Is Grant
Morrison seriously ill?
8. When is Alan Moore's Swamp Thing going to be reprinted? Why will it be in
black and white?
9. Are Vertigo books part of the DC universe?
10. * Where are some Vertigo-related web sites?
11. What Vertigo titles besides Sandman are available in collected versions?
12. Are Starman and Spectre Vertigo books? Why not?
13. Which Vertigo creators participate in this newsgroup?
14. How can I send letters to Vertigo by e-mail?
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1. What Sandman/Endless comics are coming out soon? Is Sandman going to be
continued in prose form?
The Sandman: Book of Dreams is not a continuation of the Sandman comic, but a
collection of Sandman-related short stories by various authors using characters
from the series. It was published recently by HarperPrism Books. The collection
is edited by Neil Gaiman and Ed Kramer with a cover by Dave McKean, and
contributing authors include Nancy Collins, Gene Wolfe, Will Shetterly, Karen
Harber, George Alec Effinger, John M. Ford, Tad Williams, Barbara Hambly, and
more.
Vertigo is reprinting Sandman issue by issue with the original cover art. The
"Essential Vertigo" reprints, priced at $1.95, started in June with Sandman #1.
There will be no new material in the reprints.
Neil Gaiman says (in his afterword to Sandman #75, written January 1996) that
he would like to do a story for each of the Endless. In the early planning
stages are a Delirium miniseries with Jill Thompson art and a Despair story
with Barron Storey art. At the 1996 Comic Con in San Diego, Vertigo editors
said a Delirium book or series is expected by the end of 1997.
For news on Neil Gaiman's non-comics projects, please check the newsgroup
alt.fan.neil-gaiman.
The Dreaming is a new ongoing series from Vertigo featuring rotating creative
teams and stories with Cain and Abel, Eve, and the Three Witches. It will not
be written by Neil Gaiman (although he will be a creative consultant) and will
not feature the Endless.
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2. What are the Sandman collections in order?
The following collections are available in hardcover and softcover:
1. Preludes and Nocturnes (#1-8 [story arc called "More than Rubies"])
2. The Doll's House (#8-16)
3. Dream Country (#17-20)
4. Season of Mists (#21-28)
5. A Game of You (#32-37)
6. Fables and Reflections (#29-31 and 50 ["Distant Mirrors"], #38-40
["Convergences"], the Sandman Special ["The Song of Orpheus"], and "Fear
of Falling" from the Vertigo Preview)
7. Brief Lives (#41-49)
8. Worlds' End (#51-56)
9. The Kindly Ones (#57-69 and "The Castle" from Vertigo Jam) (softcover came
out July 31)
Collections of the last six issues of Sandman will be released in hardcover
around the end of 1996, and in softcover a few months later.
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3. Where are the Sandman Frequently Asked Questions and Annotations?
http://www.holycow.com/dreaming/sandfaq0.html
Sandman Frequently Asked Questions
http://theory.lcs.mit.edu/~wald/sandman-index.html
Sandman Annotations
Plain text versions are also available by anonymous ftp:
ftp://ftp.hiof.no/pub/Comics/FAQ/Sandman.FAQ
Sandman Frequently Asked Questions (unfortunately, the version here is a
few years old and outdated)
ftp://theory.lcs.mit.edu/pub/people/wald/sandman
Sandman Annotations
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4. What's up with the Sandman movie?
Warner Bros. have optioned a Sandman movie. A script has been written based on
Sandman #1-8, and Roger Avery is rumored to be directing. Neil Gaiman has no
involvement with it. Be warned: many readers of this group are heartily sick of
speculation about this, especially lists of who you think should play various
parts. Those who have seen it over and over again will be grateful if you take
your casting calls to rec.arts.comics.other-media.
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5. What comics has Tim Hunter been in besides the current Books of Magic
ongoing series? Where did Tamlin first appear?
* The Books of Magic (1991 miniseries): Tim's first appearance; he is
introduced to the magical and occult characters of the DC universe.
Written by Neil Gaiman.
* Arcana: The Books of Magic Annual (1993): Part of the Children's Crusade
crossover, introduced Marya and Daniel; also started the Tamlin storyline.
John Ney Rieber's first work on the title.
* The Children's Crusade 1 and 2: "Bookends" of the crossover.
* The Lot: 6-page story introducing the Narls and the Wobbly; first appeared
in Vertigo Rave, reprinted in Summonings collection.
* Mr. E miniseries (4 issues, 1991). By all accounts this is not recommended
to fans of the ongoing Books of Magic series, since Tim's powers and
characterization are totally inconsistent with it. Current writer John Ney
Rieber says as far as he is concerned, this miniseries never happened.
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6. Who wrote which issues of Doom Patrol? Where did Flex Mentallo first appear?
Grant Morrison took over Doom Patrol, previously a standard superhero book by
Paul Kupperberg, with issue 19 and immediately turned it into a cult favorite.
Morrison continued with artist Richard Case until #63; the first storyline
(#19-25) was reprinted in the Crawling from the Wreckage trade paperback,
although the collection omits the subplots setting up the next storyline in the
series. Rachel Pollack wrote the book from #64 until its cancellation with #87,
including Annual 2.
John Bullough explains the backstory of Flex Mentallo, a character from
Morrison's Doom Patrol currently starring in a four-part miniseries: "Flex
first appeared in issue #35, but only for a couple of panels, and we didn't
learn his name until #36. The storyline in which he was involved didn't start
until #42, but he or other characters from his past such as Dolores Watson and
Harry Christmas, appeared in issues #37 through #41.
#42 was his origin story and one you won't want to miss (it also is the first
appearance of The Fact and his Fact cards).
The storyline Flex was involved in ran through #44. He was absent from #45 and
showed up in a "wrap-up" section of #46 where it was revealed that Flex has
decided to become the world's merriest crimefighter."
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7. Why is The Invisibles going on hiatus? When will it be back? Is Grant
Morrison seriously ill?
From editor Stuart Moore:
"The INVISIBLES hiatus, following issue #25, will be three months. It has
nothing to do with Grant's health or other commitments (though it will help him
to catch up); it's purely to allow new regular penciller Phil Jimenez to finish
his other commitments and not start on the book already behind schedule.
As I've said before, sales on INVISIBLES are not great; we've released the
trade paperback as a way of hopefully drumming up more interest in the title.
The relaunch (which was Grant's idea) is another step in that direction. We do
believe in the book, and we're hoping that the new start, Phil's steady
presence as penciller, and new regular cover artist Brian Bolland will spark
more interest in it."
Grant Morrison was hospitalized in the spring of 1996 with a collapsed lung and
pneumonia caused by a fungal parasite. He has recovered and attended the Comic
Con in San Diego. Contrary to occasional fan speculation, he does not have AIDS
or HIV. "I think Grant would be insulted by the assumption he would be in the
closet about that," writes DC marketing director Martha Thomases.
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8. When is Alan Moore's Swamp Thing going to be reprinted? Why will it be in
black and white?
From editor Stuart Moore:
"ESSENTIAL VERTIGO: SWAMP THING begins in September, a month after the
conclusion of the regular monthly SWAMP THING title. It's a 24-page comic that
will reprint in black and white the Alan Moore run of SWAMPY from the mid-'80s,
beginning with issue #21 ("The Anatomy Lesson"). Some of this material is
available in trade paperback, but not all; this series is intended to allow us
to get back into print a lot of terrific material we haven't been able to
collect fully in trade paper. Again, there'll be no new material (though there
may be a few pinups sitting in our inventory that will sneak in when & if
there's a blank page).
Why is it in black and white? Two reasons: (1) the original color separations
were done for letterpress printing, which literally doesn't exist anymore. Old
letterpress separations used for offset printed reprints look terrible; the
dot-screen is very coarse and the art ends up buried under the color. To
reseparate the books would drive the price up, defeating the purpose of these
relatively low-priced ($1.95) reprints. (2) Titan Books in England reprinted
the entire Alan Moore run of SWAMP THING some years ago in b&w and it looked
terrific; there's a delicacy and density of the linework that comes out more
clearly. So we weighed the factors and decided to go with b&w. (THE SANDMAN,
being a more recent book, will reprint fine with the original color.)
So that's it. Obviously all this is an experiment, and we're looking forward to
feedback. As to whether it's a sinister plot or a worthy effort, I guess that
depends on whether you want the books or not. It will NOT affect our trade
paperback program, which we've stepped up this year to good effect and which
will continue at (at least) the current level."
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9. Are Vertigo books part of the DC universe?
The ones that started out in the DC universe are still there, sort of. Swamp
Thing, Hellblazer, Doom Patrol, Sandman, Animal Man, and Black Orchid were DC
universe titles before the Vertigo imprint started, and Sandman Mystery
Theater, Books of Magic, and a few one-shots use characters created in the
mainstream DC universe. Here's how Neil Gaiman answers the question:
"Vertigo's creation wasn't intended to remove characters from the DCU, no. But
the subsequent division of the line into Vertigo and DCU seems to have made
that somewhat the case. Depends how you define DC universe.
I used to describe Sandman as being a long bus ride from the world that
Superman and Batman live in; these days it's probably a long plane ride, but
obviously Superman exists somewhere in the same world as Tim Hunter et al.
(And I've tried to keep a certain amount of continuity within Sandman with the
DC universe.)
But it's now a lot harder to cross characters over between DCU and Vertigo.
Permissions need to be sought and so forth. There obviously isn't a 'Vertigo
Universe', or if there is it's just a subset of the giant DC universe.
I think.
Nobody left the DC universe (as a big concept, not as defined as 'those comics
edited by Mike Carlin') when Vertigo was started; Sandman 5, Swamp Thing,
Animal Man 1-20, didn't un-happen. The Amazing Herschel and Wanda are still out
there somewhere, fighting communism and rays, wherever they may lurk.
Some characters commute, too. Zatanna, for example. Dr Occult. Others..."
About Black Orchid, Phillip B. Hume notes: "In between the miniseries and the
series, there were several changes made in the story (changing the evil
corporation from Lexcorp to the new corporation, etc.) which tended to distance
it from the DC universe that the original was set in. ... Black Orchid did join
in the Children's Crusade, and also had an early crossover with Swamp Thing,
but ... there is no further interaction with the DC universe, which becomes
completely unbelievable in the final story arc."
Shade's continuity is dubious. Mike Collins opines: "I don't think Shade was
conceived as a DCU book - the only time it's ever shown any link with the DCU
was post-Vertigo. I know this has been discussed before, but I don't think it
can be DCU. Firstly, the DCU has its own Rac Shade, from its own Meta, both of
which are radically different from the character and place presented in the
Vertigo series. Secondly, there's the small matter of nuking San Francisco in
Shade, which hasn't (afaik) happened in the DCU. Of course, the John
Constantine appearance kind of muddies things up a bit, but I think that makes
more sense as an out-of-continuity kind of thing."
On the other hand, Michael Blakeman Cleveland writes: "The jury's still out on
Shade's presence in the DC universe. The Shade appearing here is clearly not
the Ditko Shade nor the Shade from the Suicide Squad. (These two are
compatible.) Also, people have objected that it can't be the DC universe
because no other books react to the (possible) destruction of San Francisco in
issue 9. I maintain that the government used a small-scale strike, much like
the one used in Philadelphia a few years back, not that they nuked SF."
The rest of Vertigo (Invisibles, Preacher, etc.) is independent of the DC
universe.
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10. Where are some Vertigo-related web sites?
http://www.redweb.com/wraithspace/Company/DC_Vertigo
Lots of links to Vertigo creator and fan pages
http://www.maths.tcd.ie/mmm/Vertigo.html
Reviews from the Forbidden Planet: tons of Vertigo reviews
http://www-vms.oit.umass.edu/~watson/vertigo.html
Andrew Watson's overview of all Vertigo titles with his comments
http://www.holycow.com/dreaming
One of the best of many Sandman/Neil Gaiman fan pages
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/mdavidsona/hellblaz.htm
http://www.evil.org/hellblazer/
http://www.skidmore.edu/~brussell/HBlazer/hellblazer.html
Some Hellblazer fan pages; first two have indexes of storylines
http://www.rpi.edu/~bulloj/Doom_Patrol/DoomPatrol.html
Doom Patrol summaries and annotations
http://dhalgren.english.washington.edu/~steve/doom.html
Book on the Doom Patrol and postmodernism by an English professor
http://www.rt66.com/bobek/gmvlf/
Grant Morrison Voodoo Love Fetish
http://www.rt66.com/bobek/gmvlf/exposed.html
The Invisibles Semi-Exposed
http://copper.ucs.indiana.edu/~tgatkins/preacher.html
"The UNofficial Preacher homepage", story synopses and images
http://www.evil.org/ennis
Garth Ennis fan page
http://pantheon.cis.yale.edu/~sascha/books.html
Books of Magic page: character guide, dangling plot list, etc.
http://theory.lcs.mit.edu/~wald/books-of-magic-index.html
Annotations of the Books of Magic original miniseries
http://www.princeton.edu/~jtlevy/stranger.html
The Phantom Stranger
http://www.idyllmtn.com/rac/dc/vertigo/
ftp://ftp.idyllmtn.com/pub/rac/dc/vertigo/vertigo.faq
This FAQ
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11. What Vertigo titles besides Sandman have been collected into trade
paperbacks?
* Animal Man (#1-9)
* Black Orchid (original 3-issue miniseries)
* The Books of Magic (1991 miniseries)
* The Books of Magic: Bindings (ongoing series #1-4)
* The Books of Magic: Summonings (#5-13 plus "The Lot")
* Death: The High Cost of Living (3-issue miniseries, Sandman #8, and "Death
Talks About Life," a public service announcement about AIDS prevention
that first appeared as an insert in Hellblazer #62, Sandman #46, and Shade
#32)
* Doom Patrol: Crawling from the Wreckage (#19-25)
* Enigma (8-issue miniseries)
* Hellblazer: Original Sins (#1-9)
* Hellblazer: Dangerous Habits
* Hellblazer: #62-67 (the first Ennis/Dillon issues, due out in 1997)
* Invisibles: Say You Want a Revolution (#1-8)
* Jonah Hex: Two-Gun Mojo
* Preacher: Gone to Texas (#1-7)
* Sandman Mystery Theatre: The Tarantula (#1-4)
* Saga of the Swamp Thing (#21-27)
* Swamp Thing: Love and Death (#28-34 plus Annual 2)
* V for Vendetta (collection is now under the Vertigo imprint)
Hellblazer and Swamp Thing have also been reprinted in black and white
collections by Titan Books, a British comics publisher. The Swamp Thing series
reprinted Alan Moore's entire run (bar his very first issue, which merely tied
up loose ends from the previous plot, so they actually start with "Anatomy
Lesson") in 10 volumes. There were 4 volumes of Hellblazer, reprinting the
first 14 issues, so each volume has 4 issues reprinted, except for Volume 3,
which has two issues of Hellblazer and the two issues of (Veitch's) Swamp
Thing, with which a story crossed over (was this the story where Tefe was
conceived?).
These were UK releases only and are all out of print now, which makes them hard
to find, but most likely pretty cheap when you do find them.
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12. Are Starman and Spectre Vertigo books? Why not?
Starman and Spectre are two DC titles which are more sophisticated than the
average mainstream superhero book. Many Vertigo readers enjoy them, but they
are not and never will be part of Vertigo, because the writers want to keep
their ties to the rest of DC. See rec.arts.comics.dc.universe for discussion of
these books.
Starman writer James Robinson commented in Starman #4's letter column: "...
Starman will never become a Vertigo book. One of the reasons I do this book is
that it gives me the opportunity to work with [editor] Archie Goodwin. That's
not something I'm giving up any time soon. Secondly, the mix of mainstream and
mature that I'm trying to achieve with Starman is something I'm very definitely
going for. As much as I admire and enjoy many Vertigo titles, I fear I'd have
to forgo too much of the mainstream which is a part of that Starman balance."
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13. Which Vertigo creators participate in this newsgroup?
* John Ney Rieber, writer on Books of Magic
* Paul Jenkins, writer on Hellblazer
* Peter Gross, artist on Books of Magic
* Steve Dillon, artist on Preacher
* Dave Rawson, creator of Chiaroscuro
* Stuart Moore, editor
* Nancy Collins, former writer on Swamp Thing
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14. How can I send letters to Vertigo by e-mail?
Effective immediately, Vertigo has a new e-mail address for letters of comment:
[D--e--l] at [aol.com.] Letters should include the sender's home address, and it
helps if you tell them whether you want your home and/or e-mail address
printed.
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Compiled by Katie Schwarz ([k--t--e] at [physics.berkeley.edu]) with help from:
Mike Collins ([m--ll--s] at [nyx.net]) referenced the UK Titan reprints, and discussed
Shade.
Achim Reinschmidt ([c--r--a] at [netspace.net.au]) and Phillip B. Hume
([p--u--e] at [arctic.nmt.edu]) noted Tim Hunter's appearances. Matthew Daly
([d--y] at [ppd.Kodak.com]) reviewed the Mr. E miniseries.
John Ney Rieber informed the Vertigo newsgroup that he rejects the Mr. E
miniseries.
Doug Scott ([d s cott] at [col.hp.com]) suggested the Starman question.
Michael Blakeman Cleveland ([c--ve--n] at [cae.wisc.edu]) discussed Shade's continuity
and Doom Patrol writers.
Andrew Farrell ([a--rr--l] at [maths.tcd.ie]) and Donald MacPherson
([donal d m] at [gov.nb.ca]) noticed Vertigo creators in the newsgroup.
John Bullough ([b--ll--j] at [rpi.edu]) referenced Flex Mentallo's origin.
Tom Galloway ([t--g] at [netcom.com]) passed along Neil Gaiman's comments on whether
Sandman is in the DC universe.
Stuart Moore ([d--mo--e] at [aol.com]) is a good source about what books are coming
out and when.
Charles R.L. Power ([k--l--v] at [access.digex.net]) observed Nancy Collins's presence
in the newsgroup.
and miscellaneous suggestions from:
Andrew Watson ([w--ts--n] at [som.umass.edu])
Anthony John Bailey ([b--l--a] at [cs.man.ac.uk])
Curt Shehow ([m--ph--s] at [cent.com])
([c--i--d] at [chat.carleton.ca])
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Katie Schwarz - [k--t--e] at [physics.berkeley.edu]
Last updated: August 1, 1996