Vertigo Comics is an imprint of DC comics that was aimed at adult audiences and allowed creatives to use mature themes and more R-rated content that didn’t fit with DC’s superhero brand. It produced some fantastic series over the years before being discontinued this past January. Compared to your average superhero comic which never truly comes to an end, many of these series had true beginnings and endings which make them a very satisfying binge read when you’ve got the time. Which, right now, you do.
- Hellblazer: Vertigo’s flagship series served as a proving ground for some of the greatest artists and writers to come out of the UK in the last 35 years. Focused on an amoral, supernatural con man John Constantine, Hellblazer asks questions about morality and mortality that will have you questioning your pre-conceived notion of right and wrong. Rebellious and defiant, if punk rock were a comic book it would be Hellblazer.
- The Sandman: Neil Gaiman has carved out a spot as one of the world’s great storytellers. Whether it’s American Gods, Stardust, Good Omens, Neverwhere, or one of his other novels; odds are you are familiar with his work. But before all there were comic books, there was Sandman. It is a masterpiece. Every word, every image loaded with meaning. One of those works of art in which you discover something new about yourself with every re-read. The gold standard of broody, dark fantasy.
- 100 Bullets: What if someone gave you a gun with 100 untraceable bullets? What would you do? That is the question Brian Azzarello’s 100 Bullets claims to ask. But as you delve deeper into the history of those bullets and the man who hands them out, you’ll find a complex mythology that will have you losing yourself in conspiracies and gun play. Roanoke.
- Scalped: It is very easy to for stories set on Native American tribal land to fall flat. Often the characters can be one-note, only seen through the eyes of white outsiders. Or more recently writers can go too far the other way, treating their characters with kid gloves for fear that character flaws will be extrapolated as stereotypes. Scalped avoids both these traps. It is a compelling crime series with complex characters written in shades of grey with fidelity to the culture the story uses as its vehicle. 60 issues of perfection.
- Fables: What if all your favorite fairy tale characters swore like sailors, slept around, and lived in the middle of Manhattan? Fables. The draw is to see what your favorite childhood stories become when they don’t get their happily ever after. But really this is a story about refugees driven from their homes and the choices we make in order to survive. 150 issues along with a number of spin-offs that flesh out a rich, detailed world(s).
- Y: The Last Man: The TV adaptation is currently in production (well was in production) so now is a great time to get ahead of the trend and be one of those annoying readers who knew what was coming. This award-winning Brian K. Vaughn series follows Yorick Brown and his monkey Ampersand the last two males on the planet after every other living thing with a Y chromosome around the world die at the exact same time. What follows is a global spanning epic that show’s how what remains of humanity deals with a world without men.
- Preacher: I don’t even know how to appropriately describe this series. Imagine the most fucked up things you can; smash them all together; add Nazis, demons, and angels and then you might just have a baseline for how crazy this series can get. Garth Ennis will scare your psyche with this one but in a good way. A warning, what is seen cannot be unseen.
- Transmetropolitan: I’m a fan of every series on this list but this one is the favorite amongst favorites. Imagine Hunter S. Thompson but in a futuristic cyberpunk dystopia and you’ve got yourself Spider Jerusalem, renegade gonzo journalist, and protagonist of this series. A passion project of author Warren Ellis, this turn of the millennium social satire only feels even more on point here in 2020.
- DMZ– In a series that might hit a little to close to home these days, Brian Wood tells the tale of a war-torn Manhattan. Following the Second American Civil War, Manhattan has been designated a demilitarized zone by the mutual agreement of the U.S. government and the Free States of America. Blunt and Brutal, DMZ is an honest deconstruction of the War on Terror and the real-life consequence for those who find themselves trapped in the crossfire.
- The Invisibles: Grant Morrison’s Invisibles is a mind-bending, paranoia filled, conspiracy-laden romp complete with Mayan prophecies, alien invasions, and covert killing squads. Bizarre doesn’t begin to cover it. But its entertaining and you’ll keep turning pages hoping to figure out what reality you are living in.