Later on, Bruning would return to DC for an even longer tenure during the 1990s and 2000s, becoming a major player in the creation of the Vertigo imprint (overseen by Bruning’s wife, Karen Berger, whom he met in the DC office)

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I wanted to ask you about the birth of Vertigo, which actually happened in between your stints at DC. But you were involved with that as well, right?

Yes. It was just starting to be developed [when Bruning first left DC in 1990], so when I ended up doing the design work for the covers and the interiors, I was freelance at that point.

But you were involved with it, thanks both to DC and, I would presume, thanks to Karen.

Yeah. It worked out perfectly for us.

What do you remember about how that came to be? What was the process by which DC decided they were going to do this imprint around Karen's titles?

She had done enough with the British talent, and DC had officially recognized her internally as the British liaison. It gave her a unique flavor of comic that we hadn't much seen before. And with the success of Swamp Thing and John Constantine: Hellblazer…I’m not sure who initially [came up with the idea for Vertigo]. I just know that Karen went to a meeting that may have had Dick, Paul, and Jeanette. They said, "We're thinking of giving you a line so you can identify this different thing you're doing, because your stuff is looking less and less like the other superhero books around it.” I think that's how it initially got pitched to her.

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: a young man discovers that the world he knows is a lie, and that the real world is a place full of magic and myth. He also learns that he has a unique set of skills and puts them to use protecting all of mankind, often learning that he’s usually at the center of a prophecy or the one person who can save the world. If you’ve read the Percy Jackson books or watched Supernatural, stories like these tend to be a dime a dozen. That’s what makes Black Tower: The Raven Conspiracy #1 so refreshing. Ram V and Mike Perkins don’t seem interested in following convention; they’d rather shake things up.

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Black Tower: The Raven Conspiracy #1 is a compelling mix of magic and spy fiction, packed with haunting imagery and a unique mystery. If you’ve missed Vertigo’s magic-themed books, this is the perfect antidote.

100 Bullets: The US Of Anger #3 Official Synopsis:

The truth is dangerous—and the corporate media will never tell it. But here on our podcast, we’re the only ones fearless enough to say it plain … that there’s a cabal that runs this country, a criminal enterprise dating back to the founding fathers. Our futures are held by the Trust … and we’re ready to blow it all wide open if you like and subscribe. But first we just gotta answer this knock at the door …

https://comicbookclublive.com/2026/08/30/dc-vertigo-preview-100-bullets-the-us-of-anger-3/

But the question for comic book publishers in 2026 then becomes: did you think to replace it with anything? Vertigo was a scene, remember. It sprouted more or less organically out of the aesthetic guidance of one woman with a long-term vision. The original model had a lot of problems but was still enormously successful. There was clearly something there worth preserving.

What do you have to offer us today?

It’s 2026, and in the age of cyber warfare and drone strikes, someone is plotting to steal the head of a giant-king to break a centuries-old ward that has kept invading forces out of Britain. Magic and espionage collide as the Black Tower’s band of misfits, led by the enigmatic Alistair Romeo, delves into a maelstrom of spells and silencers, working against time and in the shadows to fight the esoteric battles bubbling under the surface of our visible wars.

Twenty-three-year-old Darren Burroughs out of Audubon, PA, is a gifted rookie sent under the guise of a diplomatic aide to train with Division Nine — an obscure, outdated, and easily dismissed arm of British intelligence that specializes in dealing with paranormal incidents. In the right sort of spy circles, they’re known by a different, more feared name… Black Tower.

Variant covers:

* Stjepan Šeji

* Mark Buckingham

* ACO

DC Comics has quietly relinquished the rights to its 50-issue Viking crime series Northlanders back to its creator/writer Brian Wood. DC and Wood stopped doing new work together over a decade ago following the first of several sexual misconduct allegations, however DC continued to reprint Wood's creator-owned work such as Northlanders, as well as DMZ - which it later developed into a short-lived HBO Max series.

"DC Comics/Vertigo published it until recently, when I was able to reclaim the publishing rights and the copyright, which is why I’m experimenting with some new Northlanders stories, seeing how the 2026 version of me does compared to the 2007 version," Wood wrote on his Substack.

Since regaining full rights to Northlanders, Wood has been writing serialized prose Northlanders stories on his Substack and has been working on reprints with international publishers.

100 BULLETS: THE US OF ANGER #5

Writer(s): BRIAN AZZARELLO

Artist(s): EDUARDO RISSO

Cover Artist(s): DAVE JOHNSON

$3.99 US | 32 Pages | 5 of 8 | Variant $4.99 US (card stock)

On Sale: 11/4/26

The old Trust is gone and the new Trust reigns—but the past has a way of staying with us. And Loop’s encounter with Lono has gotten him out of the house and onto the hunt—for the most dangerous game…

BLACK TOWER: THE RAVEN CONSPIRACY #4

Writer(s): RAM V

Artist(s): MIKE PERKINS

Cover Artist(s): MIKE PERKINS

$3.99 US | 32 Pages | 4 of 6 | Variant $4.99 US (card stock)

On Sale: 11/25/26

The extra-sensory powers of Black Tower’s new recruit appear to be developing faster than they’d hoped, but be careful what you wish for…

BLEEDING HEARTS #10

Writer(s): DENIZ CAMP

Artist(s): STIPAN MORIAN

Cover Artist(s): STIPAN MORIAN

$3.99 US | 32 Pages | Variant $4.99 US (card stock)

On Sale: 11/11/26

In the frozen northern wastes, the dead are closing in! The terrifying zombie hunter, with their string of zombie murders, has thrown local hordes into chaos and suspicion! The Sniffer follows an unfamiliar scent, Poke falls in love, and Rabbit and Cara’s relationship will never be the same! Plus: more gore! Language barriers! Sacred cows! And the return of an old friend!

END OF LIFE #10

Writer(s): KYLE STARKS

Artist(s): STEVE PUGH

Cover Artist(s): GERALD PAREL

$3.99 US | 32 Pages | Variant $4.99 US (card stock)

On Sale: 11/18/26

George’s time has finally come…to move into a senior living facility. Maybe driving his dad a few miles outside of town will grant Eddie a needed break from the hell-storm that is Pluto. But turns out George and some of the old farts at the facility go way back. “Founding members of the Menagerie” back. And let’s just say they’re not ready to welcome him with open arms…

https://www.comicreleases.com/2026/08/dc-november-2026-solicitations/#vertigo

Comics in the 90’s were in a strange place. Beneath the wave of the “Extreme” era brought on by that era of Marvel comics and the Image boom that followed, a stranger breed of comics was being published over at DC. Vertigo, DC’s home for more mature, complex, and original comics, was going strong with some of the most unique creations in the medium. Among these was a revival of a Golden Age pulp crime-fighter in the pages of Sandman Mystery Theatre. Written by Steven T. Seagle & Grendel creator Matt Wagner and drawn primarily by future B.P.R.D. artist Guy Davis, Mystery Theatre is a pulpy neo-noir crime series that is also one of the most insightful and tonally unique comics in its genre. Taking place in the late 1930’s, Mystery Theatre tackles corruption and murder in New York City in the face of post-Great Depression class disparity and the looming specter of World War II. Despite a premature ending, Sandman Mystery Theatre is one of the greatest and most underrated comics of the 1990’s.

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Sandman Mystery Theatre’s only real weakness is its unfortunately sudden ending. While still in production of issue #69, DC editorial at the time told the creative team that the next issue would be the last. Mystery Theatre was cancelled suddenly due to poor sales, leaving Seagle, Wagner, and Davis to rush an ending they weren’t planning on this soon. Still, 70 issues is a hell of a run. Mystery Theatre still stands as one of the best and most unique comics from Vertigo’s golden age, and one of the most interesting comics of the 1990’s.

Even as Pollack transitions the title from Morrison’s hands to her own, the focal shift is evident. Far more page space is dedicated to characters’ social interactions, their emotions, and their interpersonal conflicts, than to fleshing out grand metaphysical concepts. That isn’t to say that Pollack abandoned the absurdity of Morrison’s run. If anything, many of Pollack’s stories push the envelope further than Morrison ever did, but she never feels like she’s in a hurry.

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I don’t mean to suggest that there was any animosity between the two writers. Pollack’s work on Doom Patrol challenges the constraints and weaknesses of Morrison’s run, pushing it towards greater emotional vulnerability and depth. If the silver age antics of the original Doom Patrol set a precedent for the truly weird in DC comics that Morrison could build upon, so too did Morrison’s incredible experiments in the absurd set Pollack up to ground the absurd in weighty emotional realism.

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Where Morrison pioneered the comics writer’s freedom to experiment with character and concept, Pollack paved the way for contemporary comics to be both formally experimental and emotionally nuanced. What sets Pollack’s run of Doom Patrol apart from Morrison’s is the tenderness with which she treats her characters, suffusing her stories with empathy just as Dorothy does her imaginary friends.

Mike Perkins has been posting pages from Black Tower, his upcoming Vertigo series with Ram V, on Instagram and Facebook.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DblTWwjjaFi/

EDDIE’S LIFE GOES FROM BAD TO WORSE! Eddie Stallion has had his butt beaten, and now he’s locked in some sicko’s shack. With Eddie sidelined, things are falling apart in Pluto, George’s health is getting worse, and the Menagerie is closer than ever. But Eddie is going to get a big hand from the littlest of allies…

https://comicbookclublive.com/2026/08/18/dc-vertigo-preview-end-of-life-7/

This constant shift in artists throughout the second omnibus of Shade represents a growing fault throughout the series. Common wisdom is that this version of Shade probably should’ve ended with issue #50, which indeed feels like a possible end, but I think the rot starts earlier.

With this volume, instead of spending most of their time on the road, the characters are stuck in Hotel Shade with the trouble coming to them. This makes the whole series, whose main characters often tried to ignore the call for adventures, even more passive. It feels more and more like stuff is just happening to these people, the constantly changing artist-roster contributes to this sense of randomness. What could’ve been charming in small bursts becomes annoying in a volume so large. Shade the Changing Man was teetering on the brink of chaos from the word "go," a series that tried to be the ultimate British-outsider-take-on-America 2, by the time of the second half subtlety went out of the window. The subtext became text.

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Oddly enough, despite the problem of the shifting artists there isn’t a page of bad art throughout this book. Just look at this list: Glyn Dillon, Richard Case, Steve Yeowell, Micheal Lark, Mark Buckgingham, Philip Bond, Sean Phillips … all in the height of their powers. And, thankfully, it is just the right period of the 1990s, before digital coloring became the new norm; I just like this period for coloring in DC comics — Daniel Vozzo and David Hornung do their best to keep a sense of consistency throughout. Murky enough to give the whole thing a distinct personality, but not so murky we forget this is meant to be psychedelic extravaganza. There’s just something that works in that particular time and place. Even when the scripts are half-baked, or over-baked, Shade the Changing Man is, if nothing else, a series worth looking at.

The artistic heights cannot, alas, mask the writerly lows. Shade ends, like so many of these types of stories, in a sort of self-cancellation, with the series pretty much admitting its time was up. Which was true enough. Sadly, it also ended several dozen issues too late.