Vertigo, DC’s long-running adult-focused comics imprint, is getting a big shake up this fall—heralding in a new swathe of creators for seven new comics series.
Officially unveiled today, DC Vertigo (its new official name) will kick off a line-wide relaunch of its comics output that begins this September, helmed by editor Mark Doyle—who returned to Vertigo last year after the exit of longtime editor Shelly Bond amid a restructuring of the imprint in 2016. Four of the seven new titles will launch in the last four months of 2018, while the remaining trio will publish in early 2019.
Each series—described in a provided press release as coming from “bold voices across various entertainment backgrounds”—is meant to offer high concept commentary on a variety of social issues, from immigration to the rights of sex workers, across various genres. Here’s the lowdown on the four series launching this year:
- September will kick off the relaunch with Border Town from Eric M. Esquivel and Ramon Villalobos, which is about a small town on the Mexico-US border beset by supernatural creatures from Mexican folklore, leading to racial tensions between among the town’s population with a young kid and his misfit friends caught in the middle.
- October sees the launch of Ben Blacker and Mirka Andolfo’s Hex Wives, about a coven of witches with vast magical power brainwashed by men to become subservient housewives, only to discover that their suburban lives are a lie.
- In November there’s American Carnage from Bryan Hill and Leandro Fernandez, about a biracial FBI agent who can pass as white infiltrating a gang of white supremacists to investigate the death of a fellow agent.
- Finally, December has Goddess Mode, from Zoë Quinn and Robbi Rodriguez, which is set in a near future where a powerful A.I. manages all of humanity’s needs, only for the tech support in charge of monitoring its systems to discover a secret cyberworld where female superheroes fight to save the “cheat codes to reality” from being stolen by horrific monsters.
The remaining three series don’t currently have release dates beyond early 2019, but they’re as follows:
- Rob Sheridan and Barnaby Bagenda’s High Level, a post-apocalyptic story about a smuggler tasked with bringing a supposed child messiah to the mysterious, mythical city of High Level.
- Safe Sex, by Tina Horn and Mike Dowling, a dystopian thriller set in a future where the government regulates and controls sexual pleasure, leading to an underground resistance led by sex workers.
- Mark Russell and Richard Pace’s Second Coming, which sees the son of God return to modern-day Earth (because God hopes Jesus will learn a lesson in godliness from the almighty superhero Sun-Man), only for Christ to discover that the message of his gospel has become horrifically twisted in the years since his crucifixion.
It’s a big step for DC Vertigo—especially coming off the back of DC’s recent announcement of a line of comics based around one of Vertigo’s prior huge successes, Sandman. It’s exciting to see the imprint get a huge influx of new talent, ready to tell some very intriguing-sounding stories.