A nice eulogy to the Vertigo imprint, Dave. One part that wasn't covered, (or possibly you covered it in another article) is that Karen Berger's reign as editor of SWAMP THING was kind of the beginning of Vertigo (before there was a Vertigo), when she opened the fountain and recruited Alan Moore from the U.K., and that led to the vast movement of British talent from the U.K. to DC over the 1984-1990 period. Including Alan Moore, Grant Morrison, Jamie Delano, Neil Gaiman, Garth Ennis and many other writers and artists.
Honestly, I didn't like Vertigo all that much, it wasn't my cup of tea. I found its titles dark, overly cynical, trendy, and ultimately, pretentious. And as Vertigo evolved into the early/mid 1990's, vulgar and profane.
But I still recognized in those years (1988-1997 or so) that Vertigo was expanding comics readership, bringing in readers from other subcultures and literary circles who normally would never give a second look to the episodic superhero genre that has existed for decades.
I mostly agree with your points about Vertigo opening up the field to new kinds of storytelling, in stories that are less episodic, and more focused on stories with a beginning, middle and an end, as compared to what DC and Marvel overwhelmingly offer.
But I do think you overstate Vertigo as uniquely doing that. Vertigo was one publishing outlet that did push in new directions, yes.
But it was preceded by many other comics publishing ventures, such as the SABRE graphic novel, that evolved into Eclipse Comics, and Dave Sim's CEREBUS, and EPIC ILLUSTRATED and the Epic comics line, and Pacific Comics, and First Comics. And Dark Horse. And Frank Miller's RONIN and DARK KNIGHT RETURNS that opened new outlets. And Art Spiegelman's Pulitzer-winning MAUS.
All of which preceded Vertigo.
I also think that Vertigo, while different from Superman and Batman and the DC establishment mindset, also to some degree is a franchise as well, such as the many spin-off Sandman titles, or similarly FABLES, and others.
But hey, I agree that Vertigo is an innovative outlet that expanded comics storytelling in new directions. And as you say in your article, while Vertigo is dead, it has spawned children in other publishing ventures that would not exist if not for Vertigo, and will carry the creative torch in new directions, on past Vertigo's demise.
Maybe you covered this in another article, but since you mentioned Jim Lee, DC also used to have a Wildstorm imprint, and I never quite understood why it existed or why it was ended. I guess it obviously ended for the same reason Vertigo was ended, to reign in all the imprints, and the creative control, under the one DC umbrella. But I wasn't sure why it ever began or existed in the first place.
I was also surprised, with DC's other imprints you listed, that you didn't mention Piranha Press.
https://www.mycomicshop.com/search?pl=Piranha The best of that line for me was the two EPICURUS THE SAGE graphic novels. The rest, similar to Vertigo, just wasn't my cup of tea.
