CBR's Top Ten Vertigo Titles of All Time

[Billy Batson]

...I'd read it too.

[Billy Batson]

There will be as many lists as people in the thread and that's natural. I see no point in giving mine,

C'mon. Do it.

[passer-by]

Well, it'd contain Daytripper, V for Vendetta, War Stories, We3, Preacher, Transmetropolitan, 100 Bullets, The Losers, Hellblazer and Lucifer, more or less in that order.

[Billy Batson]

Nice to see the Losers getting some love.

[Trey]

10. DMZ
9. Human Target
8. Pride of Baghdad
7. Spaceman
6. Swamp Thing
5. War Stories
4. Unknown Soldier by Dysart
3. We3
2. Hellblazer (some Ennis, Carey, Azz, all of Milligan, the delano/jock mini, awesome)
1. 100 Bullets (read in trade)

[Johnny P. Sartre]

There will be as many lists as people in the thread and that's natural. I see no point in giving mine, but I think there's another Vertigo series that doesn't get enough buzz and was only mentioned once so far by jesse_custer - the maxiseries Daytripper. A beautiful look at life and death. A well-deserving Eisner Best Limited Series winner in 2011.


(And I second Ennis' War Stories.)


http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8477057-daytripper

Need more comics like this.

The last two issues made cry, hard.

[hondobrode]

Doctor Terrence Thirteen and his wife Marie go to marriage counseling, as Marie is becoming increasingly alienated from Terrence due to his overbearing behavior and the fact that he refuses to take payment for his services and therefore lives off her bank account. Doctor Thirteen becomes trapped in a virtual reality and embroiled in a conflict between benign and malicious artificial intelligences with the ability to manipulate media and sensory perceptions on a global scale. At the conclusion of the comic, Thirteen is seen in a mental institution, having apparently suffered a mental breakdown during the visit to the marriage counselor and hallucinated everything, although the AIs are also seen to be real.

by Matt Howarth, Michael Avon Oeming, and Cliff Nielsen




It begins in election year '96 with the country coming apart at the seams. Prez Rickard, long missing and presumed dead, has been sighted at a roadside diner in the American heartland. A trio of restless young misfits, one of whom believes he is Prez's son, sets out across America in search of answers to their country's woes - answers that only the former Chief Executive can provide.

by Ed Brubaker & Eric Shanower



A long time ago, in an Age of Innocence called "The Sixties," there was born into the world a floppy, mop-topped Doll Elemental. His friends, themselves a mop-topped bunch, called him Brother Power. Everyone else called him the Geek. His only desire was to spread tidings of peace, love and universal harmony, but the Bosses didn't like it, so they shot him into space. Brother Power returned, but when he got back, he realized that he didn't know America anymore and set out in search of it and also for a particular friend of his, a girl named Cindy. Threatened by his innocence, the Corruption Elementals tempted Brother Power into assuming a bewildering succession of self-destructive identities - a junk bond dealer, a white supremacist, a codependent. Shattered and alone, tortured by his descent into narcissism, greed and corruption, Brother Power became the one thing he hated most, a circus freak - a geek. Brother Power returns to reclaim his lost innocence. It's the tale of Brother Power's battle with the diabolical Dr. Cull and his agents of corruption!

by Rachel Pollack & Michael Allred with Matt Wagner

[hondobrode]

The Phantom Stranger was a fallen angel who sided with neither Heaven nor Hell during Satan's rebellion and thus condemned to walk the Earth alone for all time. This adds the story of the woman Naamah, who was condemned to Hell for loving an angel. This angel is strongly hinted to have become the Phantom Stranger.

by Alisa Kwitney and Guy Davis



DC's classic frontier hero of the Revolutionary War is updated with a Vertigo twist. Thomas Hawke is a traditional European colonist, until he ventures too deep into the woods. Tomahawk is captured by native americans and forced to undergo mystic rituals which change him forever.

by Rachel Pollack & Tom Yeates



Tales by Brian Azzarello, Ian Edgington, Paul Jenkins, Peter Kuper, Joe Lansdale, Peter Milligan, Grant Morrison, Gordon Rennie, and John Ney Reiber

Art by Richard Corben, Randy DuBurke, Duncan Fegredo, Frank Quitely, Sam Glanzman, Peter Kuper, James Romberger, and Eric Shanower

[hondobrode]

Tales by Dave Gibbons, Greg Rucka, Paul Pope, Darko Macan, Joe Lansdale, Brett Lewis, Nick Burns, Scott Cunningham, Peter Milligan, Bruce Jones and Jen Van Meter

Art by Dave Gibbons, Paul Pope, Rick Burchett, Marcelo Frusin, Paul Gulacy, Sam Glanzman, Daniel Zezelj, Dough Wheatley, Eduardo Risso, Cully Hamner, David Taylor, and Duncan Fegredo



When a group of barbarians brutally slaughter and rape a coven of their followers, Mildred, Morganna, and Cynthia, the three dark witches of ancient Greece, unleash a centuries-spanning maelstrom of vengeance. Resurrecting their slain priestess over and over again, the Three Witches aid their faithful servant in her endless mission of revenge against the reincarnation of the barbarian chief. But after bloody and horrific encounters in the Middle Ages and the Victorian Era, the vicious cycle of death and rebirth comes to an end as killer and victim meet for one final, fateful confrontation in the 1990s.

by James Robinson with Teddy Kristiansen, Michael Zulli, Steve Yeowell, and Peter Snejbjerg

[hondobrode]

Breezy, lighthearted one-shot celebrating the sexiness and overall likability of master magician Zatara's daugther.

by Paul Dini & Rick Mays with a Brian Bolland cover



Billed as a "graphic movie", Paul Pope's black, white, and gray vision of Manhattan life in the year 2038 focuses on the separate, but fatefully entwined, lives of three star-crossed young couples. Against a futuristic backdrop of sleazy boxing, hardcore performance art and underworld crime, the six characters experience the joys of sex, love, and urban nightlife at 100% impact. Unfortunately, when you're living life in the fast lane, the inevitable crash seems to connect harder too.



More autobiographical comics from Harvey Pekar and his happiness despite his meager existence as a clerk in a Cleveland hospital.

By Harvey Pekar with art by Dean Haspiel, Ty Templeton, Hilary Barta, Greg Budget, Gary Dumm, Richard Corben, Eddie Campbell, Chris Samnee, Leonardo Manco, Chandler Wood, Chris Weston, Rick Geary, Josh Neufeld, Zachary Baldus, Steve Vance, Hunt Emerson, Gilbert Hernandez, Ho Che Anderson, and Bob Fingerman

[Owned by pugs]

Just a personal list (but aren't they all?)

1. Sandman
2. Preacher
3. Scalped
4. Hellblazer
5. Fables
6. Swamp Thing
7. Shade the Changing Man
8. Lucifer
9. Animal Man
10. Outlaw Nation

I'd read every one of them again (and have). V for Vendetta too, though for some unknown reason I've never mentally associated that with Vertigo.

[hondobrode]

Beloved charlatan and show biz impresario P.T. Barnum is pressed into the service of his country, bringing along some of his most famous performers and side show anomalies for the ride. His adversary: electrical genius Nikola Tesla, who with a secret cabal of moneymen, is plotting to take over the United States. Barnum's troupe travels across the country in pursuit of Tesla and his mistress Ada (every would-be world dominator needs a sultry mistress, right?), encountering serial-style perils along the way.

by Howard Chaykin & David Tischman with Niko Herichon



Adam, a teenager who is a born-again Christian preacher, and the struggle of his sexuality and faith, accompanies his stepsister Cyndi, who's sexually liberated. The caption on the cover of the first issue reads "From the Bible belt to the chastity belt".

by Steven Seagle & Becky Cloonan



The main characters are Gwendolyn Price, a revenant gravedigger in Eugene, Oregon and her friends Ellie, a 1960s ghost, and Scott, a wereterrier.

Gwen can pass for a regular girl, but she needs to eat a brain once a month to keep from losing her memories and intelligence. As a gravedigger she has plenty of access to recently deceased people; when she consumes their brains she "inherits" part of the deceased's thoughts.

The "monsters" in iZOMBIE are explained via the concepts of over- and undersoul. The oversoul (as in Ralph Waldo Emerson's The Oversoul) is "seated in the brain, contains the thoughts, memories, and and personality", while the undersoul (as in Michael McClure's poem Dark Brown) is "seated in the heart, contains the appetites, emotions and fears". Ghosts are thus bodiless oversouls; poltergeists, bodiless undersouls; vampires bodies without undersouls (thirsting for emotions); and zombies, bodies without oversouls. Revenants, like Gwen, are unique in that they possess both oversouls and undersouls. Souls can also "infect" the living, which accounts for the possessed and werewolves and the like.

by Chris Roberson & Mike Allred

[hondobrode]

The story follows the adventures of a unit of New Jersey National Guard in "Afbaghistan", a fictional Middle Eastern country based on Afghanistan.

The unit includes both men and women, a great deal of the action following the amorous adventures of various members. The contrast between the surreal combat in Afbaghistan and the comfortable lives of the rear echelon and the people the Guardsmen and -women have left behind is also a recurring theme.

by Rick Veitch and Gary Erskine



The Dark Ages Begin Again... An enigmatic 11th century Crusader has come to render a terrible justice on the citizens of 21st century San Francisco. His acts of unspeakable violence spark a firestorm of moral soul-searching in the hearts and minds of the city's most colorful figures. Putting together the pieces of the Knight's mysteriously brutal puzzle is the voluptuous Venus Kostopikas, a fact checker for a dying newspaper with aspirations to rise above her station and lead her own crusade.

by Steven Seagle & Kelley Jones



The book centers around a group of 20-somethings in modern day New York City, though the story quickly expands to other parts of America and the world. All of them have disturbing secrets about themselves that they keep from the others, and even the readers are left to decide what is true and what are lies.

by David Lapham

etc etc etc

This is why I hope DC doesn't abandon Vertigo.

If they do away with the imprint, I hope another in the same spirit and tone takes it's place. Maybe they're thinking they need to freshen things up, but to me Vertigo is a long-running, cutting edge brand that instantly conveys innovation and some of the best talent in the industry in it's own singular world outside the DCU.

[Karl O'Neill]

Lots of pictures of Vertigo comics being added to this thread, but what makes them top ten list material? Posting a picture is not enough!

[Karl O'Neill]

Re- Mini/Maxi series versus ongoings.

Well, I agree that both have their strenghts and weaknesses, and both have the potential to tell a great story and even experiment a lot. I remember a professor in college talking about how once upon a time poets were the elite in the literary world ahead of novelists (Sure a poet can write novels as well, and vice versa) because of their ability to condense and distill their work down to a few sentences(Don Juan and Hyperion being exceptional cases) and say so much. I don't know, I love big sprawling, epic, meandering novels.

Hemmingway had lots of imitators, sure, where they as great as him? It's hard to tell, Some of Camus's work is crisp and to the point, was he a fan of Hemmingway?