Tag: Vertigo

Vertigo Comic fans got a glimpse of the future — which includes an adaptation of “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo,” a graphic novel by chef Anthony Bourdain and a 10th anniversary “Fables” collection — during the publisher’s Friday evening panel at WonderCon. Editor Will Dennis, writer Scott Snyder and artist Dennis Nguyen spoke during the panel for Vertigo — the edgy-spirited imprint of DC Comics – highlighting a slate of comics, including “Fables,” “The New Deadwardians,” “Saucer Country,” “Voodoo Child,” “American Vampire,” “American Vampire: Lord of Nightmares,” “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo,” “Get Jiro,” “Sweet Tooth” and “Scalped.” The “Dragon Tattoo” book, adapted by Scottish crime author Denise Mina from Stieg Larsson’s bookshelf sensation,  is slated for a November release and will be the first in a set of six — two graphic novels for each book in the original trilogy. “It’s ...

Yes, “The New Deadwardians” is another comic about vampires and zombies, but the new miniseries from Vertigo also throws in a generous helping of Sherlock Holmes and a dash of “Downton Abbey.” The miniseries follows Chief Inspector George Suttle, a lonely detective in post-Victorian England, where members of the lower class are zombies, and members of the upper class voluntarily become vampires to escape them. The first issue doesn’t come out until March but is previewed in the “Vertigo Preview 2012″ free sampler, which hits comic stores today. “The New Deadwardians” is illustrated by I.N.J. Culbard and written by popular comics writer Dan Abnett. Culbard has made a name for himself in the comics world, turning classic books into graphic novels — among them Oscar Wilde’s “The Picture of Dorian Gray,” Arthur Conan Doyle’s “The Hound of the Baskervilles” and most recently H.P. ...

In the introduction to Marzena Sowa’s soon-to-be-released graphic memoir, “Marzi,” she describes herself as a “mute and insignificant witness” to life behind the iron curtain while growing up in 1980s communist Poland. Hers is a bleak world – quite literally, as the book is drawn in muted, reddish brown tones — which is “drowning in politics and problems.” But Sowa is anything but mute or insignificant. Her memoir is filled with seemingly banal, everyday vignettes – visiting family in the countryside, scrounging for toilet paper and bread, playing in cramped apartment hallways with neighboring children – that collectively paint a vivid picture of both a country awash in poverty, politics and war, as well as a lonely only child who longs, more than anything, to be heard. Sowa now lives in Paris with her boyfriend, the artist Sylvain Savoia, who ...

Scott Snyder, a rising star in comics, worked with horror writer Stephen King on “American Vampire,” Snyder’s ongoing Vertigo series. Hero Complex contributor Travis Walecka caught up with Snyder to chat about the series, about horror in general and about King, who today announced “Dr. Sleep,” a sequel to “The Shining,” in a three-part interview. In Part One of the interview, Snyder talked about “Swamp Thing,” one of two revered titles under DC’s relaunch. His second title, “Batman,” is the topic of Part Two of the interview. This is Part Three, the final installment. TW: Horror plays a big role in your books. Where did you get this wild imagination? SS: I don’t know, man. I feel like I watched too many horror movies as a kid. Growing up in Manhattan on East 23rd Street, there was a video store ...

The artwork of Jeff Lemire just gets inside your head. Like David Lynch, Lemire is at his best when he puts trembling innocents face-to-face with the predatory and the perverse in settings that play out with the rhythms of fable. This Wednesday, Lemire is one of the contributors to the 80-page ”Strange Adventures” from Vertigo Comics (others include Brian Azzarello, Peter Milligan, Sylvain Savoia, Ross Campbell, Denys Cowan and Inaki Miranda) and we’re happy to show you an exclusive preview of two pages from Lemire’s short story about Ultra the Multi-Alien, a character who dates back to the LBJ years. “Strange Adventures” (Vertigo)  Ultra the Multi-Alien’s history may be long but it’s not distinguished. He made his first appearance back in 1965 in the pages of “Mystery in Space,” that grand old DC sci-fi series that veered from the old-school sublime to the retro ...

Find the best and the brightest of the comic book world right here, before the books hit the shelves. We’ll update the post throughout the month so check back to see this growing gallery of covers and pages from upcoming releases from top publishers. To see more art from recent releases, check out our comic book news section and archive of comics-art galleries. RELATED ‘Green Lantern’: Reynolds promises  ‘a space epic’ ‘Hunger Games’: Hutcherson and Hemsworth join in ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ and Season 9 ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’: New film will make sense Kelley: ‘Wonder Woman’ is ‘out of my comfort zone’ Rick Baker sets sail with ‘Tales From the Grave’ Nintendo 3Ds: 3-D brings a depth of discovery

On Sunday, Hero Complex contributor Deborah Vankin wrote about Joyce Farmer and her 208-page illustrated family memoir “Special Exits.” Today we continue our look at  female cartoonists, with Vankin’s snapshot portrait of Sarah Glidden. Sitting on the sidelines doesn’t come naturally to Sarah Glidden. In 2007, she yearned to better understand the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, so she signed up for a free, two-week Birthright trip to Israel. “How to Understand Israel in 60 Days or Less” is her literary debut, a 206-page graphic memoir rendered in simplistic drawings that are rounded out with careful, delicate watercolors. Just out from Vertigo/DC, the book is part travelogue, part coming-of-age memoir and part intrepid if relentless quest for cultural understanding. Despite the intensity of the subject matter, it’s dotted with humor — especially in Glidden’s fictional depictions of historical figures —that add moments of intermittent ...

Alicia Lozano is back as a contributor to Hero Complex and today she revisits “The Unwritten.” It’s been almost a year since writer Mike Carey and illustrator Peter Gross launched “The Unwritten,” the Vertigo Comics literary adventure that follows the exploits of Tom Taylor, a man whose childhood has been immortalized by his author-father through a popular fictional character named Tommy Taylor. In the series’ first issue, Tom is outed as a con. Nothing in his past appears to be real and soon he begins to question if he actually exists outside of the Tommy Taylor books, which bear a not-so-subtle resemblance to the “Harry Potter” franchise. The series spins in a magical, mysterious whirlwind of self-discovery that blurs fact and fiction for the reader and, more often than not, reluctant Tom. The result is fantastical storytelling laced with literary allusions and an undercurrent ...

THREE-PAGE PREVIEW BELOW When it was announced in October that Scott Snyder’s new monthly comic book series, “American Vampire” from Vertigo, would feature the contribution of suspense novelist Stephen King, it wasn’t long before the phone started ringing. “We got all these crazy phone calls from movie producers wanting to know when they could see it, who they should cast in it. … It was nuts,” Snyder said. “It only existed as a script then, and DC and Vertigo weren’t showing it. It hasn’t physically existed until now. … Hopefully, people will still be interested.” The comic book’s first story arc, which hit shelves last week, centers on two primary characters in two different eras — aspiring actress Pearl in the 1920s and violent cowboy-turned-vampire Skinner Sweet in the 1880s. So who does Snyder, best known for his short stories, ...

BILL WILLINGHAM INTERVIEW: PART 1 Over the last decade, one of the most consistently compelling comic-book runs has been writer Bill Willingham’s “Fables,” an intricate tapestry that weaves together familiar characters from fables, fairy tables, literature, children’s rhymes and folklore. It’s a great time to revisit the Vertigo series — or discover for the first time — with the recently released hardcover “Fables: The Deluxe Edition, Book One,” which collects the first 10 issues of the dark refugee epic that chronicles the very unexpected modern-day adventures of Bigby (aka, the Big Bad Wolf), Snow White, Jack Horner, Mowgli, Geppetto, Old King Cole and many, many others. The 53-year-old Virgina native has also recently published “Peter and Max: A Fables Novel,” which takes his franchise into the prose novel sector with a tale of Peter Piper and his brother Max. GB: ...