Vertigo (DC Comics) - Other Early Titles

Other Early Titles

Having inherited some projects from Disney's aborted Touchmark project, Vertigo was able to plan a first year in which they were to publish "two new series month in a variety of formats, either one-shots or miniseries or ongoing monthlies." The initial two series were both miniseries, the aforementioned Death: The High Cost of Living by Neil Gaiman and Chris Bachalo and Enigma by Peter Milligan and Duncan Fegredo. Enigma was initially "going to be the launch book of Touchmark," but became the second new Vertigo title, written by the author Shade, the Changing Man, and drawn by the artist from Grant Morrison's earlier Kid Eternity miniseries.

The major launch of the second month was Sandman: Mystery Theatre, described by Berger as in the same format as Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight, "with different storylines every four issues." Written by Matt Wagner, it was described as "playing the '30s with a '90s feel... haunting, film noir-ish...," and starring original Sandman Wesley Dodds in a title whose "sensibilities echo crime genre fiction." Joining Mystery Theatre in February (cover-dated April, 1993) was J. Marc DeMatteis (and Paul Johnson)'s 64-page one-shot Mercy, while other initially talked about Vertigo projects included Grant Morrison and Steve Yeowell's 3-issue steampunk miniseries Sebastian O - another ex-Touchmark project. In addition, Steve Gerber, an influential force on many of the Vertigo writers, provided the miniseries Nevada, which was written based on Neil Gaiman's reiteration of a frequent request to write something more about the characters in "the obligatory comic book fight scene" in Howard the Duck #16.