Vertigo, $3.50
Short Review: Another one?
After Two Dream Gallerys and a Death one, Vertigo seem to have gotten quite fond of the idea. This is an attempt to keep the concept of charging these rates for this much comics alive beyond the finish of Sandman, as well as another installment of the "What's coming next" leaflets. This costs a lot more than the usual previews, but has the unique attractions of being both 30 pages of art, and possibly completely unique to this issue. Most of this stuff doesn't look like cover or interior material, and in the cases of Enigma, Shadows Fall and Witchcraft, it's already too late Similarly, the addition of Bill Sienkiewicz or Geof Darrow to Animal Man or Enigma at this late date is unlikely, if desirable.
It's something to be noted that even after removing these five dead or dying titles, there's still fifteen left in the 'current' section, seven of which are unlimited titles. Some of these manage to show their flavour well in a single panel, (Mark Chiarello's Hellblazer, Chris Weston's Invisibles, Tim Truman's Jonah Hex, Alex Toth's Sandman Mystery Theatre, and Geof Darrow's Shade), while some just look great (Glyn Dillon's Egypt, Mark Chiarello again, John Van Fleet's Shadows Fall, John Totleben's Swamp Thing and, again, Geof Darrow's Shade).
The ten series in preview, all of which are due out in the next year (so at least two will appear in 1997), are introduced by descriptions that make my prose look like Elements of Style, and often the picture isn't too clear either. Of these, only Ted McKeever's Industrial Gothic actually gives a good feel as to what the story is like, while only Rick Berry's Mythos or Charles Vess' Stardust can be described as actually gorgeous. Given the time constraints that the creators are under due to the re contracts to produce the work in question, it's more likely that the art from previews are actually previews of the finished comic, and Teddy Kristiansen's House Of Secrets, Stardust again, and Glenn Barr's Seekers seem most likely.
If this is the face of things to come, then it doth appear most passing seemly, and no mistake. 16 of the series have no link to DC proper, and these same series plus one are creator owned (The Mobfire rule states that John Constantine is available for cameo in any Vertigo title at any time, without jeopardising it's creator-owned status, and the Jamie Delano/David Lloyd creation The Horrorist takes advantage of that.) In fact, this has the longest indicia of any comic I've ever seen, due to copyright notices (Neil Gaiman finally gets part ownership of something at DC! Yes!) All in all, a very bright outlook.
Andrew These reviews are copyright the authors