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[NYCC] VERTIGO PANEL: WELCOME TO THE EDGE | | New mature readers series coming from Grant Morrison among highlights | | | By Andy Serwin | | Posted 4/18/2008 | |  | | DC Comics' mature readers imprint Vertigo left heads spinning with its announcements at the New York Comic Con on Friday.
Vertigo Executive Editor Karen Berger moderated the "Vertigo: Welcome to the Edge" panel, which consisted of creators Grant Morrison (Doom Patrol), Brian Azzarello (100 Bullets, Loveless), Brian Wood (DMZ, Northlanders), Jason Aaron (Scalped), Mark Buckingham (Fables), G. Willow Wilson (Cairo), Amy Hadley (Madame Xanadu), David Tischman (Bite Club) and Russ Braun (Jack of Fables).
Among the announcements made at the panel were:
| | ![[NYCC] VERTIGO PANEL: WELCOME TO THE EDGE](http://ep.yimg.com/ip/I/wizarduniverse_2059_1287580139) -Grant Morrison, who held court at one point with a lively description, even lapsing into an American accent at one point, will be doing two, three-issue follow-up miniseries to Seaguy with artist Cameron Stewart, as well as a brand new book called Warcop, about everything that's happened since 9-11: "I was interested in the fetishism of soldiers," said Morrison. "It's about how media, video games, comics, movies, etc., are basically primers for teaching people how to kill. It's about one soldier who goes off to war and comes home looking for a new war; it turns into a conflict between kids and adults for control of the planet." Morrison also teased another new project, Me and an Atomic Bomb, quipping, "What happens when you're 15 and James Bond wants to kill you? It's like the daughter of Ernst Blofeld dating James Bond."
-Air by artist M.K. Perkins and writer G. Willow Wilson, who explained, "Air sort of began with a layover I had in Amsterdam. I got stopped by this little blonde stewardess for all my crazy stamps to places like Iran and Iraq in my passport. I got to thinking, 'What if I were cooler and what if she were cooler and this was a comic book?' It’s about how flight has remained sort of magical to us, and in the post-9-11 world, it’s been really politicized. It sends an acrophobic stewardess who has to stop a would-be terrorist during a hijacking. It’s worth checking out, if I do say so myself. It's like if Umberto Eco and Hayao Miyazaki worked on the 'Alias' TV show together."
Greatest Hits by David Tischman and Glenn Fabry.
"Glenn doesn’t do a lot of interiors, so it's always a treat. It's sort of superhero comic for Vertigo, but not really," explained Berger. Tischman noted: "It is a Vertigo superhero book, it's about the Mates, the greatest superheroes of all time. They're not the Beatles, but they share the same zeitgeist. We see that if we really had superheroes in our reality, they would act like rock stars, they would do drugs, sneak girls, they would go on tour. It draws a parallel between rock stars and superheroes."
| |  -The already announced House of Mystery by Matthew Sturges and Bill Willingham with art by Luca Rossi. It’s an entirely different take on the classic anthology series,” said Berger. "Essentially, it's a story about Fig and her struggle to escape from the house, where you must tell a story in order to move on." It's open House for Mystery come May.
-Madame Xanadu in June by Matt Wagner and Amy Hadley. According to Berger, "Matt came up with a great idea to give her an origin that she'd never really had." Said Hadley, "It's an origin story that spans several periods of time, so we’re trying to to give her more of an identity and make her more human. Even though it spans centuries, it's kind of a story about growing up. It's her trying to learn about her environment.”
As the final word, Berger noted, "You learn why she's called Madame Xanadu."
100 Bullets
The crime series by Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso continues its inevitable march towards the issue #100 finale, but details are scarce as Azzarello's playing it close to the vest. The only thing he'd say is a quip about the cover art show, joking, "That cover's a metaphor of my past and my present blurring into my future."
Other announcements made included the upcoming release of the fourth and final Absolue Sandman in November...P. Craig Russell is adapting Dream Hunters, the prose novel by Neil Gaiman with illustrations by Yoshitako Amano, into a four-issue comic miniseries...Un-Men and Loveless come to an end this summer, with Azzarello noting of his Western series: "I failed you guys and the book, I didn't do enough to get the book a wider audience. I've said that book had a birth defect and just could not survive. Anyway, if we can come back to it, we will. It's done, one more issue [#24] and that’s it."...Morrison’s going to be launching a new Website later this year to put out more original, creator-owned content and stories.
| |  Hellblazer Presents: Chas—The Knowledge by Simon Oliver
Described Berger: "It's the story of the cab driver. When you happen to be the guy who takes Constatine around all the time, he’s got his own story to tell. It taps into the zeitgeist of what cab drivers in England are like, they know everything. It's a real profession over there. You have to mentor with other cabbies and study the knowledge, every arcane alley and side street, there's a lot you’ve got to learn. The promise to the Knowledge is that there’s a whole underground web that regulates the magic under London. It comes through into London, and Chas has to tackle the demons by himself because John Constantine has gone to the South of France to hang with his new girlfriend."
Hellblazer: Pandemonium
"It's a new graphic novel by Jamie Delano and drawn by Jock, it’s about Constantine being sent by the secret service of England, Scotland Yard, he’s sent to Iraq because there’s an old ancient force bubbling up there, and they think only Contstantine can fix it. He ends up falling in love with a woman who may or may not be a spy. What’s cool is that you find Constantine in Baghdad and dealing with the current political situation with echoes to his past.”
Fables Cover Book
Check out this oversized coffee table book spotlighting James Jean, the amazing award-winning Fables cover artist. “We’re putting together a coffee table book of all his covers,” said Berger. “Bill Willingham does a Q&A with him for the book as well. James is an amazing illustrator, and we’ve done art books in the past. Look for this is October, even if you’re not a Fables fan, his art is quite outstanding.”
Unkown Soldier by Josh Dysart and Alberto Ponticelli
According to Dysart, who went to Uganda on his own dime to do research for the series: “We were told Vertigo was looking to revamp the Unknown Soldier, so I sat down and thought about what that notion means to me. I landed on this great unknown war of the African continent going on in Uganda. I just felt like they needed an Unknown Solider. It’s a fascinating story of almost two million people have been displaced, so we’re going to exploit it heavily by doing a war book.” Dysart also mentioned another new project he’s working on, a comic adaptation of the classic Neil Young concept album, “Greendale.”
Besides new series, Berger also provided some updates on currently running Vertigo series, including:
Northlanders
Said writer Brian Wood about his upcoming arcs on the book, “As you may know, the series is made up separate and distinct arcs by different artists, Dean Ormstrom does the next two-part arc with painted artwork. It’s more historical story about the first Viking raid on an English settlement. The next arc after that is drawn by Ryan Kelly, who I worked with on Local; it’s going to be very, very cool.”
Fables #75
Said series artist Mark Buckingham about this much-anticipated battle issue, titled “War and Pieces”: “It’s 56 pages, and we finally get to the big war, we’ve reached that moment where Fabletown has to take the fight to the homelands. Nobody’s safe, and there are big changes are coming; the makeup of the world will be different after this. And someone will die; probably me after drawing 56 pages. I think people have been itching for the final conflict for a while, and this is it.”
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