CBR's Top Ten Vertigo Titles of All Time

[csis]

Not a bad list, though I'm disappointed not to see Lucifer on there somewhere. It was really a wonderful series, and one that I would put above Sandman.

[Karl O'Neill]

Dalkey Archive is damn marvelous!

Is the 8 reviews comment sarcastic?

No, 100% for real. Honest. Check how many reviews Da Vinci Code or Twilight has on Amazon. Do it. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm mature enough to not get offended when popular stuff is, you know, popular, but imagine a fraction of those thousands of readers re-directed towards Jorge Borges, Italo Calvino, Georges Perec or Raymond Queneau!

So as not to completely derail this thread, I'd say that Preacher is vastly overrated. It's just very immature.

[Sacorn69]

My top five would be Sandman, Transmetopolitan, Lucifer, Scalped, and Preacher in that order.

Wouldn't it be great to see what Karen's top 10 are, has this ever been disclosed anywhere?

[Johnny P. Sartre]

No, 100% for real. Honest. Check how many reviews Da Vinci Code or Twilight has on Amazon. Do it. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm mature enough to not get offended when popular stuff is, you know, popular, but imagine a fraction of those thousands of readers re-directed towards Jorge Borges, Italo Calvino, Georges Perec or Raymond Queneau!.

Ah, okay, I was just a bit confused by what you said.

And yes, it would be nice. I would also like to add to that list: Juan Goytisolo, Jose Donoso, Italo Svevo, Ignacio Padilla, Enrique Vila-Matas, and a whole list of other amazing writers.

[LightningBug]

Wait, first you say that they forgot about Transmet and then you see that it made it? O.o

reread my post. I said that newsarama left out transmet, and that this list is better than theirs because it is included.

[Billy Batson]

Oh, my bad.

[passer-by]

I can never understand Preacher love myself, great lead characthers but uneven and crude early Ennis. Brillant Saint of killers special but i think Ennis HB run is better.

This list is too much popular creator name only imo. Transmetro is hardly best Vertigo, 100 bullets.....
Where is Scalped?

And what do you think made these creators so popular?
Preacher for Ennis and Transmetropolitan for Ellis are among their very best work. Same with 100 Bullets and Azzarello, not forgetting Risso's fantastic storytelling.

[jesse_custer]

I'm not sure that Hemingway 'won' it. He made his way work for him, certainly, but not every author subscribed to it, nor should they have.

Length CAN be a curse, but I don't mind a lack of tight focus; that sort of meandering, exploratory freedom can produce some astoundingly wonderful experimental works.

There is no question Hemingway changed literature forever with his style. A lot of people adopted his philosophy. Whoever said that every author writes the same way, though? That's an obvious strawman on your part.

You don't have to explain to me how length can be a strength. It was not me who made a dismissive remark about long series but rather you who made an inaccurate statement about shorter series.

You call it 'filler' I call it 'depth'. I call it 'color'. I call it 'ideas'.

So do you now deny that filler doesn't exist? It's hard to tell with the way you worship long works and denigrate short works.

It should be pointed out that filler can exist in both long and short series, just as ideas can exist in both as well.

[Karl O'Neill]

And yes, it would be nice. I would also like to add to that list: Juan Goytisolo, Jose Donoso, Italo Svevo, Ignacio Padilla, Enrique Vila-Matas, and a whole list of other amazing writers.

Jeez, anyone would think you read a book or two in your time with all this name-dropping

[thebozo]

For me it's Y. Nuff' said.

[Shellhead]

Scalped deserves a place on any top ten Vertigo list.

Books of Magic deserves more love, though the quality dropped after the first three years. Might not quite be top ten for Vertigo.

[Johnny P. Sartre]

Jeez, anyone would think you read a book or two in your time with all this name-dropping

Hey, I'm an aspiring librarian and digital preserver, so I have read like crazy.

That and I'm hoping all these name-dropping will get people to check them out.

[Should_have_sent_a_poet]

Also, for Shade, only from issues #1-50.

Is there any other way to view Shade? Honestly it's almost a crime to see the narrative he constructed in the first fifty issues weighed down by the twenty he phoned in with little care afterwards. Still I'm pretty pleased and surprised to see Shade in a lot of these lists, it's definitely on mine too, though I doubt it'd ever make any official lists considering how it was always the least popular publicly in it's litter of titles.

[Johnny P. Sartre]

Is there any other way to view Shade? Honestly it's almost a crime to see the narrative he constructed in the first fifty issues weighed down by the twenty he phoned in with little care afterwards. Still I'm pretty pleased and surprised to see Shade in a lot of these lists, it's definitely on mine too, though I doubt it'd ever make any official lists considering how it was always the least popular publicly in it's litter of titles.

Nope but I know some would view as all 70 issues, just to be encompassing.

[nepenthes]

Cool thread - reminds me there's still a lot of great stuff to be discovered! (thanks hondobrode )

Agreed on Scalped and in particular, Unknown Soldier. Wow I loved that series. Would easily make my own Top 5.

And with that, with everyone putting up their own lists, I'm wondering... is it worth doing this properly? A CBR Vertigo Board poll comprised of member submissions. I'd be happy to kick it off and count the votes - it would be similar to a Batman trades poll I've run the last two years the latest which can be seen here (another link inside that post will take you to the full count, voting rules, eligible entries etc)

The only thing is I don't think it'd be worth doing unless people were submitting lists of 1-20. If not 20 then at least 15. The result of a 1-10 poll would just be too predictable, and there's too much great Vertigo stuff out there. Making a ranking should require effort and a vote of 20 would produce list with really interesting results in the 15-30 range, interesting to new and old Vertigo fans alike. Doing this on the Batman board requires a serious investment of time, I know I myself would be very keen to see the outcome of a Vertigo poll but only if enough others are interested too. ??