DC’s Dark New Grandchild
DC comics is expanding their Vertigo imprint with an imprint of its own. I caught wind of Vertigo Noir in this month’s Previews, and I must admit to being slightly curious. Vertigo is more or less the only DC stuff I’ve ever picked up, and as I’ve posted before, I loves me some crime stories.
I don’t have the magazine in front of me at the moment, and I can’t find an iota of information on the new line anywhere on the internet, but of the two books, one of them is being written by Brian Azzarello, who just so happens to have a time slot open with the conclusion of that other noir book he was writing for Vertigo this week.
With the last trade paperback of 100 Bullets being rushed into stores, and now the opening of this new line, DC will be sitting pretty on a pile of casings and cornering the black market of crime tales. At least, until Ed Brubaker gets to work on the next issue of Criminal.
I just looked through some galleys of the first two books. The Azzarello one is terrible, and the Rankin one is pretty good. I’m pessimistic about the future of the line, though, as the books apparently are going to be priced north of $20 a piece. If the Minx books wouldn’t sell for $10 a pop, that doesn’t bode well for Vertigo noir, though it’s going for a different audience, obviously.