Over at the Beat, Heidi MacDonald considers what’s next for Karen Berger and the Berger-less Vertigo:
At the most brutal level, there is no place in corporate comics for creator-owned comics. That is just a fact. And on another level, Vertigo’s mission has become almost unnecessary. It isn’t a choice between Hawkman and X-Force any more. It’s a choice between Hark a Vagrant and XKCD, Saga and The Walking Dead, Ganges and Sailor Twain, Building Stories and The Freddie Stories.Vertigo, the brand, is still a valuable name on the spine of many of DC’s best selling backlist books, but how long will a book publishing program remain important to Warner Bros? In the face of declining sales, Vertigo tried to relaunch a bunch of monthly titles earlier this year—most recently with Saucer Country and New Deadwardians and so on and…well, that was it. The graphic novel program launched years ago and still has books in the pipeline, but has had dwindling internal support from all signs. Would the market have supported these projects with a new imprint, like DC Blaze or something? Corporate comics don’t do new too well.
Following the news of Berger’s departure, the question of Vertigo’s place in the “new” DC Entertainment remains an open question, and one worth asking. That there was no successor announced as head of the imprint in yesterday’s press was worrying, as is Heidi’s off-handed comment that “Berger was making plans for new projects as recently as last week, according to one freelancer I spoke with.” It’s seeming, increasingly, as if this was a rushed announcement for some reason, perhaps connected with the mysterious meetings going on at DC right now, if Rich Johnston is to be believed. It’s possible that there is no longterm plan for Vertigo right now, due to things being in flux with DC in general. If that’s true, that just makes things all the more worrying…
December 5th, 2012 at 12:40 am
Corporate comics don’t do new too well.
December 5th, 2012 at 2:20 am
I can’t see Vertigo not being around. I really can’t. Sure, there’s Image and others, but this is a very powerful brand, and from what I understand, the editors under Berger are taking over.
Very interested to see where Karen goes from here, but it sounded like she was leaving the industry. My guess is leaning towards Legendary and Bob Schreck. Whatever she’s attached with I’ll certainly look at.
Sorry to see her go.