Vertigo Comics is no longer. Long the “adult” imprint of DC, Vertigo was a great place for lovers of comics and graphic novels that took on deep issues with often dark or horror content.

I’m not the best person to write about what Vertigo meant, but I thought I’d share three things Vertigo printed that I have loved.

The Sandman

A panel from The Sandman #48, in the collection Brief Lives 8: Journey's End. One person with a light leads another with a cape from a cottage at night, with the sky looming behind them filled with stars.

Of course I love Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman. Linked is volume one of The Absolute Sandman, which I think is the best way to read this comic. You can’t be a fan of dark fantasy and not devour this complex mythology. You can’t be a fan of comic book art and not drown in every page. Follow the tales of the Seven Endless: Destiny, Death, Dream, Destruction, Desire, Despair, and Delirium. 1

American Vampire

Pearl, a classic 20s Hollywood type hoping to make it in the movies is excited by the idea of new movies with sound, speaking to a menacing looking producer, unaware there's more than the usual exploitation happening

A violent traipse through iconic American settings, American Vampire shows two creators, Scott Snyder and Rafael Albuquerque at their best. 2

Y: The Last Man

Brian K. Vaughan is one of my favorite authors, and these days may be as well known from Saga as Y: The Last Man. What if there was a virus unleashed into the world that killed all males, including animals, except one man and his male monkey companion? Y: The Last Man is a great post-apocalyptic tale and a perennial recommendation from comic readers to someone who as never clicked with the genre.

  1. I chose this panel from this Reddit post. ↩︎

  2. I chose this panel from this blog post about American Vampire. ↩︎