My Comic Post

Vertigo Crime Stories

At the 2008 Comic-Con International Karen Berger outlined plans for a new “sub-imprint” called Vertigo Crime: “it’s a line of graphic novels, in black and white, hardcover”. It was launched in 2009 with two titles: Brian Azzarello’s Filthy Rich and Ian Rankin’s Dark Entries, the latter featuring John Constantine. Each volume features a cover illustration by Lee Bermejo.

The following original graphic novels have been published under the Vertigo Crime imprint (in order of publication):
- Dark Entries by Ian Rankin and Werther Dell’Edera
- Filthy Rich by Brian Azzarello and Victor Santos
- The Chill by Jason Starr and Mick Bertilorenzi
- The Bronx Kill by Peter Milligan and James Romberger
- Area 10 by Christos N. Gage and Chris Samnee
- The Executor by Jon Evans and Andrea Mutti
- Fogtown by Andersen Gabrych and Brad Rader
- A Sickness in the Family by Denise Mina and Antonio Fuso
- Rat Catcher by Andy Diggle and Victor Ibanez
- Noche Roja by Simon Oliver and Jason Latour
- 99 Days by Matteo Casali and Kristian Donaldson
- Cowboys by Gary Philips and Brian Hurtt
- Aaron and Ahmed by Jay Cantor and James Romberger

The following original graphic novels are planned for publication under the Vertigo Crime imprint:
- Return to Perdition by Max Allan Collins

Dark Entries – Occult detective John Constantine has seen his share of strange things in his career, but nothing could prepare him for the horrors of…reality television. “Haunted Mansion” is currently the hottest show on tv, but when the macabre house actually starts attacking the contestants, Constantine is hired to be the ultimate mole. Locked inside with a cast of wannabe-celebrities, his every move being monitored by a deadly figure from his past, Constantine must figure out who (or what) is pulling the strings before he gets cancelled—permanently. DARK ENTRIES is a classic locked-room mystery starring HELLBLAZER’s John Constantine from Ian Rankin, the #1 international best-selling crime writer best known for his “Inspector Rebus” novels. Rankin has won numerous awards, including the Edgar Award in 2004 and is joined in this graphic novel by Italian artist Werther Dell’Edera, the illustrator of a number of American comics – most notably Vertigo’s LOVELESS.

Filthy Rich – Richard “Junk” Junkin has always lived on the wrong side of trouble. A former pro football star whose career was cut short by injury (and a nasty gambling problem), Junk now spends his time dreaming of what might have been, selling cars in Jersey and lusting after the boss’s unbelievably spoiled, unbelievably sexy and unbelievably rich daughter, Victoria. So when the boss asks him to be Victoria’s personal bodyguard while she tears up the New York City club scene, Junk leaps at the chance. But before long, he’s finds that Victoria wants a lapdog and not a chaperone, someone who’s going to do all of her dirty work—all of it—someone who wants to get filthy rich… From Brian Azzarello, the multiple Eisner Award-winning writer of Vertigo’s long-running crime series 100 BULLETS and the smash-hit graphic novel, JOKER, and artist Victor Santos, the creator/writer/artist of the hit French series Young Ronin.

The Chill – It’s summer in New York, but a “chill” has settled over the city – a serial killer is on the loose, and the ritualized murders are becoming increasingly sadistic. The NYPD and the FBI have a suspect: a gorgeous young woman named Arlana. The only problem is that every witness provides a different description of her. None of it makes any sense to anyone except Martin Cleary, a beaten-down Irish cop from Boston with a whopper of a secret in his past – and a past that may go back a century or two . . .
Chapter Titles
- Chapter One: Initiation
- Chapter Two: Havoc
- Chapter Three: The Protector
- Chapter Four: Revelation
- Chapter Five: Glamours
- Chapter Six: The Visit
- Chapter Seven: Defiance
- Chapter Eight: Chaos

The Bronx Kill – Being a cop was in the Keane blood. But Martin wanted to be a writer even if it meant turning his back on the family legacy. Then his wife goes missing, and Martin is forced to delve into the dark history – and darker secrets – of that same family. It’s a path that will lead him back to the Bronx Kill: that lonely, godforsaken stretch of land where many years earlier his grandfather had been brutally murdered, and where finally he will learn the truth about his wife’s disappearance. It’s a truth more monstrous than he could ever have imagined. Entertainment Weekly “It” writer Peter Milligan (GREEK STREET, HUMAN TARGET) joins forces with New York cartoonist and fine artist James Romberger (Seven Miles a Second) for an urban mystery drenched in family secrets. Don’t miss the newest sure-fire hit from Vertigo Crime!

Martin’s dad wanted him to be a cop. It was in the Keane blood, but he had other ideas. Martin wanted to be a writer.

And then Martin’s lovely wife goes missing. Slowly but surely Martin’s life unravels, as he tries to explain her disappearance. His desperate search forces Martin to delve into the very thing he’s spent his whole life trying to run from: te dark history and darker secrets of the Keane family – bringing him to the Bronx Kill, the lonely, godforsaken stretch of land where many years earlier his great-grandfather had been brutally murderer – the place where he’ll learn the truth about his wife and his family…

…a truth more shocking and monstrous than he could ever have imagined.

Area 10 – In New York City, a killer known as “Henry The Eighth” leaves a trail of decapitated corpses — keeping the severed heads to use for unknown purposes. NYPD Detective Adam Kamen leads the investigation, until a seemingly unrelated freak incident leaves him with a brain injury in the section known as “Brodmann Area 10.” When he recovers, Adam’s perceptions of time are altered. He becomes slowly convinced that his bizarre condition could be tied directly to the “Henry” case — and that the key may lie in the ancient, mystical practice of trepanation.

A killer known as “Henry the Eighth” leaves a trail of decapitated corpses. There are no apparent clues, except that he keeps the severed heads to use for purposes unknown.

For NYPD Detective Adam Kamen, reeling from a personal tragedy and bitter divorce, cracking the “Henry” case offers a chance to get his life back on track — until a freak incident leaves him with a bizarre injury to his brain.

Then he recovers, Adam’s perceptions of time are altered. He soon becomes convinced that his condition is tied to the “Henry” killings and that the key may lie in the ancient art of “trepanation,” the macabre, ritual practice of drilling holes in the skull to achieve enlightenment. Adam must learn to use his strange symptoms to his advantage, in order to stop Henry before he drills again.

The Executor – New from Vertigo Crime, THE EXECUTOR is the story of Joseph Ullen, a retired pro athlete, who returns to his hometown in upstate New York when he’s named executor of his high-school sweetheart’s will. In a search to find out what really happened to Miriam following her mysterious death, Joseph is confronted with his own haunted past and the possibility that the two are connected.

As a star enforcerer in the NHL, Joe Ullen was the biggest thing ever to come out of the backwater town of Elohra, New York.

But, when he is unexpectedly named the executor of his high school sweetheart’s will, he decides to return to his hometown and see what’s changed. What he finds is that his ex-girlfriend’s death may not have been an accident and that a dark secret from his past has come back to haunt him in a big way.

Will Joe’s desire to uncover the truth of her death force him to reveal his own buried secrets? Or will he simply become a brutal killer’s next victim…

Fogtown – New from Vertigo Crime! Frank Grissel is a hard-knuckled private eye – and a deeply closeted homosexual – set in the very real world of 1953 San Francisco. Aided by his long-suffering secretary (and sometime live-in lover) Loretta, Grissel’s search for a runaway girl winds up with his becoming a suspect in a string of gruesome murders. The case takes twists and turns through the Golden Gate’s greasy underbelly: the beguiling arms of a Chinese shipping heiress (and smuggler); an unexpected reunion with the daughter he abandoned long ago; the loss of Loretta to the sadistic clutches of the high-powered “Colonel”; and finally to the horrifying, gender-bending truth.

It’s 1953 and Frank Grissel is a man from the old school — a tough-talking, hard-drinking, womanizing private dick who’s seen it all and done it all… twice.

So When young hookers start turning up dead on the streets of San Francisco’s Tenderloin district, Frank barely raises an eyebrow. But after an apparently simple missing persons case goes dizzyingly complex, Frank sees that all the vice in this town is connected — and that he is now caught in a twisted web of sex, money drugs and murder.

And that’s not all… because, like the city itself, Frank Grissel is not all that he appears. Dig beneath the surface and there’s a complex and tortured soul who now realizes that exposing the truth of thi case may well reveal the truth about himself…

A Sickness in the Family – Denise Mina, award-winning crime novelist, brings her psychological style of crime fiction to Vertigo Crime. Meet the Ushers. The parents, Ted and Biddy. Grandma Martha. The three kids, William, Amy and Sam. Just a normal, middle-class family gathered around the table on Christmas Day. Until they start dying. Violent deaths. One by one. Is there a curse on their house, as a recently unearthed history of witchcraft in the area would suggest? Or has one member of the Usher clan declared open season on the rest? As secrets and resentments boil to the surface, it becomes clear that more than one Usher has a motive for killing off the others. But in the end, the truth turns out to be far more shocking than anyone in this ill-fated family could have imagined.
Chapter Titles
- Chapter One: Merry Fucking Christmas
- Chapter Two: Slice the Heart Out
- Chapter Three: The Center Cannot Hold
- Chapter Four: The Death of Innocence
- Chapter Five: The Night of the Hunter

Rat Catcher – According to underworld legend, the Rat Catcher is a peerless assassin who specializes in silencing mob snitches. There’s just one problem – he doesn’t exist. At least, not according to the U.S. Marshals who oversee the Witness Protection Program… Now there’s a pile of dead bodies in a burning safe house outside El Paso. The Rat Catcher has finally slipped up, and a washed-up FBI agent has one last chance to hunt him down before he disappears forever. But as the two master manhunters spiral in towards each other in a deadly game of cat-and-mouse, each of them hides a secret from the other – secrets that could destroy them both. New York Times best-selling author Andy Diggle (THE LOSERS, Daredevil) partners with future superstar Victor Ibañez in a tense Vertigo Crime thriller that’s unrelenting to the very last twist.

Noche Roja – In the tradition of Chinatown and L.A. Confidential, writer Simon Oliver explores a hidden world of corruption where money, sex, politics and crime all add up to the same thing. In the desert just south of the border, young women are turning up murdered. No suspects. No clues. And authorities seem uninterested in uncovering any. When ex-private eye Jack Cohen is hired to find one missing girl, he is drawn back into the shadow world between North and South. And there, he must face the terrible tragedy in his past that he’s been running from all these years. Featuring the gritty, stylized artwork of Jason Latour, NOCHE ROJA is a gripping noir tale of how the insatiable craving for cheap consumer goods leads to the ultimate cheapening of life itself.

Cowboys – From the author of the “Ivan Monk” detective novels comes a riveting original graphic novel about violence and race in modern society. COWBOYS revolves around a racially motivated police shooting of Deke Kotto, a young African American man, by Tim Brady, a white undercover cop, inside a swanky club frequented by hip-hop stars, gangsters, Hollywood celebs and the drug kingpins that finance the whole operation. But the victim is actually an undercover officer on the trail of the gangsters, caught in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Vertigo Crime: A Sickness In the Family Vertigo Crime: Area 10 Vertigo Crime: Cowboys Vertigo Crime: Dark Entries Vertigo Crime: Filthy Rich Vertigo Crime: Fogtown Vertigo Crime: Noche Roja Vertigo Crime: Rat Catcher Vertigo Crime: The Bronx Kill Vertigo Crime: The Chill Vertigo Crime: The Executor