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Underground > Comic Books >

Vertigo revisted

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12:56 / 17.11.04

Lately, I've been on a Peter Milligan kick.

It started with picking out his Girl and Extremist minis out of the lcs dollar bins, but right after I decided to finally start reading Shade. I picked up six issues (30-35) and read them all in one sitting. I found more than half of the series in the dollar bins and so far have upto issue 60. I've bought some off ebay and will fill in my gaps. I've discovered that I feel an affection for the book that I really don't feel for books like, say, the Invisibles for one.

I also bought the first issue of Minx but discovered it was an abortion of sorts so I gave up on that.

Got Rogan Gosh, Enigma which should be arriving soon.

I have no idea what Egypt is about, and I'm looking for a copy of Skin.

Is John Smith's Scarab a complete story? Is it any good?

I was looking through backissue bins and found Kill Your Boyfriend (never had my copy before) which was a bit overpriced (seven bucks?) and Tainted, part of the Vertigo Voices thing they did.

They didn't have Milligan's Face though. Should I be disappointed?

Jamie Delano is the best prose horror writer in comics, there is a sense of dread and unpleasantness in his prose that I haven't found elsewhere. I think you should all check out Tainted. I'm going to check out some of his stuff (sooner or later, I do plan to get around to buying his Animal Man). I'm not sure about Outlaw Nation, people were raving about it but it sold for turds and was cancelled fairly quickly.

The point of this thread is to be pointed in the direction of lesser known or underrated Vertigo comics.

Haus of Mystery

13:16 / 17.11.04

American Freak, by erm...the guys who did the brilliant'Beautiful Stories for Ugly Children' series, was pretty great. Art was perfunctory but it was agreat tale of what happened to Arcane's 'Unmen'. Very touching, and devoid of the 'Sandman's' negative influence on theearly Vertigo launches. Should be able to pick up all five parts for tiddlings.

13:21 / 17.11.04

Egypt was Ok, but no great shakes. Still worth a read.
Vincent Me gets embalmed by College students and reincarnated in Egypt.

Have you read The Eaters? It's from around the same time, pretty definate it was Milligan but I could be wrong. About a family of cannibals on a road trip. Think that was on Vertigo Voices too.

13:27 / 17.11.04

I really enjoyed the Face - a lovely little claustrophobic horror tale - with a flavour of Shade The Changing Man...

You might have trouble finding a copy of Skin, and any copy you do find is likely to shed its pages...

13:27 / 17.11.04

it's been gone over before, but scarab is very much a 'if it's your cup of tea' sorta book. an aborted vertigo take on dr fate hastily rejigged to be its own thing with less than amazing consequences. a very meagerly disguised indigo prime turn up near the end - if you know what that means at all then you'll probably enjoy scarab enough, but keep expectations low.

13:32 / 17.11.04

I rather enjoyed Millennium Fever by Nick Abadzis and Duncan Fegredo, though it's been years since I've read it.

13:36 / 17.11.04

i have most of the first two arcs of Sandman Mystery Theater, and it's solid noir Golden Age stuff. i keep meaning to get more of it.

Haus of Mystery

14:08 / 17.11.04

With you on Millenium Fever - Nick Abadzis' tale of teenage hormones gone awry and millenium angst was a breath of fresh air at the time- meaning it prolly sold for shit. May not hold up, as it's soap opera have been done to death now.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

16:20 / 17.11.04

Sorry, Gambit, I have to totally disagree with you on Scarab... I thought it was fucking fantastic. (Yeah, I'm the kind of person who likes that thing, I guess...)

Kind of sets itself up as a bizarre superhero/horror hybrid- I wasn't thinking so much Dr Fate but more GM's Kid Eternity, or maybe (hypothetically) Clive Barker doing Shade...

16:27 / 17.11.04

I thought Millennium Fever was great.

Milligan's EXTREMIST was another enjoyable one as was MULTUK:hardboiled Shaman/

16:48 / 17.11.04

Muktuk Wolfsbreath, that would be.

Also: are you high? I've never read anything by Terry LaBan that wasn't utter gash.

17:44 / 17.11.04

Face is well worth a read, i really remember enjoying it as with all the Vetigo one-shots from about that time (Geek, Dr Occult etc).

May I also add to this Seekers Into the Mystery which I though was great but was sadly rushed towards the end to give i closure - it was meant to be on-going but stopped around issue 12 due to poor sales in America (sold well in the UK though).

Oh and Delanos Animal Man run.

18:19 / 17.11.04

I was probably High while reading it Jack... and liked it. I sorry this disturbs you.

Seekers was really popular amongst my new agey friends but in retrospect it's probably not all that now. Better I suspect was The Last One by the folks who did Beautiful stories for ugly Children... or at least one of them.

Dan Fish - @Fish1k

20:05 / 17.11.04

I really liked 'Seekers into the Mystery' too - it ran 15 issues, with rotating art teams. I remember reading a 'On the Ledge' (one of the vertigo hype columns), which went hinted at a lot more than ever got published. The finale in 15 seemed a little like an advert for JM DeMatteis' religion though.

Scarab was an odd little thing - There was a multi-part arc I think, followed by a couple of shorter arcs, and it seemed to drift without a satisfactory ending for me (Scarab was later killed off in JSA #1!)

'Eaters' was nice, Milligan on top form, with Dean Ormston.

22:47 / 17.11.04

Another Milligan piece that was fun was the "VertigoVERETE" GiRL

Keith, like a scientist

01:19 / 18.11.04

I liked Outlaw Nation A LOT.

It was kind of like taking Jesse out of Preacher and inserting Hunter S. Thompson.

Seekers was OK...would have been nice to see it go somewhere.

I know some people will probably pooh-pooh this, but Children's Crusade is a pretty interesting crossover series... The first issue (with art in the original Bachalo style) is pretty entertaining.

01:54 / 18.11.04

Girl had some good gags. Hasn't aged well though.

A

04:16 / 18.11.04

It's been a while since I read it, but Sandman Mystery theater was excellent. It hardly ever gets mentioned nowadays (although I think Joe Casey called it the "Best Comic of the 90's" or something like that.)

06:29 / 18.11.04

Seekers was all right, but it didn't hold my interest longer than about 5 issues (out of curiosity, what is DeMatteis aforementioned religion? 'cause Seekers seemed to me, at the age of about 18, to have some weird cultish overtones). Speaking of J.M., if you can find his "Brooklyn Dreams", from Paradox Press, pick it up. Very charming.

Face has to be one of my favorite Milligan comics ever. Find it, scan it, send it to me, as I lent my copy out long ago. (and if anyone can remember the name of the "bee story" that came out under the same thematic imprint as Face, please let me know. I barely remember it, and would like to find it again)

The first 3 issues of 2020 Visions were pretty good, although I may just be ignoring the story in favor of the gorgeous Quitely art. The rest of the series looked flat and bland by comparison.

Someone mentioned Rogan Gosh, another favorite. I'm still looking for more Brendan McCarthy stuff; His covers for Shade drew me back into the world of comics.

06:34 / 18.11.04

Oh, and Terminal City is a lot of fun too, and a hell of a lot less "Vertigo" than anything else that cane out around the time. Never read the sequel, though...

06:58 / 18.11.04

if anyone can remember the name of the "bee story" that came out under the same thematic imprint as Face, please let me know.

I think that'd be "TAINTED", written by Jamie Delano. Can't remember the artist.

11:16 / 18.11.04

Tainted was brilliant.

SMT is very underrated.

11:44 / 18.11.04

Thats the one! Thanks.

12:51 / 18.11.04

out of curiosity, what is DeMatteis aforementioned religion?

DeMatteis is a follower of Meher Baba.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

14:01 / 18.11.04

The one I'm really after (and can't find anywhere) is Delano's one-shot "Hell Eternal"- based on a true case of some Slimelight kids who went to the States, got mixed up in a far-right group and ended up dead. I seem to remember it being excellent... but it was a while back now.

Haus of Mystery

14:13 / 18.11.04

Hey Solid! recently bought Terminal City for cheap and it absolutely rocks. Noirish but whimsical, with stunning art by michael Lark. Like a screwball 40's comedy caper crossed with Metropolis. City as the main character -aces.
Never read 'Aerial Graffiti' either.

Stoat: are you a big Delano fan? I've always been bored by hi storytelling. He's like Moore without the zip. Aside from his Captain Britain work which shines. Perhaps because the subject matter was far from his heart, he rose to the challenge. He's an admirable guy, but he's never floated my boat. He's also the king of 'cancelled' comics.

The Natural Way

14:22 / 18.11.04

Terminal city is indeed great.

Pappuce. Soft.

18:01 / 18.11.04

I still think Delano's Hellblazer was the best stuff that ever happened on that book -- though his track record elsewhere has been a little spotty. His Animal Man was good, but I haven't read it in a long time, and I'm sure it's quite painfully dated by now.

18:54 / 18.11.04

I got Hell Eternal recently + Face, both excellent. I was surprised by Hell Eternal because I really has no idea where the story was going, plus it has gorgeous Sean Phillips art.

The Minx looked interesting, but I have not read it yet + the Kid Eternal mini. The Winters Edge anthologies are good. I also liked Scene of the Crime.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

21:56 / 18.11.04

I still think Delano's Hellblazer was the best stuff that ever happened on that book

Damn straight.

Haus of Mystery

08:14 / 19.11.04

Nnyeh.. some of it was OK, but it got mired in new-age ponderousness. And some of the early stories were a bit literal - yuppy demons etc... for my taste.

08:24 / 19.11.04

yeh delano's prose is basically insipid , an often embarassing shade of purple and never quite as clever as you want it to be. that said i think the fear machine/family man stories, just after the new age stuff and before he left, are about the best constantine has yet been. he managed to get more mundanity and humanity out of the character than anyone else i think.

10:58 / 19.11.04

Well I think Delano's prose can be truly terrific, purple at times (yeah, that whole ten part hippie story? shudder) but stories like the Family Man, When Johnny Comes Marching Home, The child brides story and best of all...In another part of hell make it all worthwhile. I haven't read the last ten or so issues of his run and I hope I can find 'em somewhere soon.

I'm all giddy they're collecting "In Another Part of Hell" in Rare Cuts along with Garth's best "Finest Hour" and Morrison's twoparter (which I only read part 1 of years ago). Now if only they could put in "Hold Me" (dont wanna buy Midnight Days just for that) in there...

Tainted was unnerving...Delano's prose was only occasionally insipid and purple! Occasionally!

I know Rare Cuts has the aforementioned stories but I think there's about two more in there. I wish I wish it's John Smith's fill-in though he isn't credited in the solicitations.

Haus of Mystery

12:30 / 19.11.04

According to him Karen Berger dislikes his work intensely, so maybe she vetoed it. It would be a waste, as it's a real corker. Alan Bennett meets Lovecraft in a truly English setting.

17:21 / 19.11.04

How about the Vertigo anthology series - Heart throbs, Gangland, Tainted (? the horror series that ran for a while - is this the right name?), Wierd War Tales - from what i remember all were generally strong stories.

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