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http://www.newsarama.com/comics/karen-berger-leaves-vertigo.html

Karen Berger, who shepherded Vertigo into a top source for Mature comic books, is leaving the imprint. Serving for nearly two decades as Executive Editor and Senior Vice President of Vertigo and for over 3 decades with DC Comics as a whole, Berger's contributions to comic books had her working with, and sometimes introducing, names like Neil Gaiman, Brian K. Vaughan, Alan Moore, and current DC Comics phenom Scott Snyder.


The Sandman, Hellblazer, V for Vendetta, Fables, Preacher, The Invisibles, 100 Bullets, Y: The Last Man, and American Vampire were all listed in a press release announcing her March 2013 departure, and those only scratch the surface.[/B]

Berger said the decision comes as she's looking for a professional change.

“I’ve been incredibly proud to have provided a home where writers and artists could create progressive and provocative stories that broadened the scope of comics, attracting a new and diverse readership to graphic storytelling,” said Berger in the press release. “I’d like to thank all the many immensely talented creators who have helped make Vertigo into a daring and distinctive imprint and I’m grateful to everyone at DC Entertainment and the retail community for their support and commitment to Vertigo all these years. It’s been quite an honor.”

DC Entertainment President Diane Nelson thanked Berger for her work, saying in the release, “We are extremely grateful for Karen’s commitment and dedication to Vertigo, its books and its incredibly talented team of staff and creators. In Vertigo she leaves a legacy to which we remain committed and on which we intend to build for the future. She will always be a deeply valued and respected member of the DC family.”

The aforementioned Hellblazer, Vertigo's longest lasting comic book at 300 issues, was recently announced as canceled as of February 2013, with the character moving full-time to the DC Comics New 52 Universe. This, along with prominent Vertigo characters like Animal Man, Sandman, Madame Xanadu, and more moving back to the DC imprint fueled speculation that the imprint, at least in its current incarnation, may not be long for this world.

Perhaps to help combat those specualtions, Vertigo announced a new science fiction anthology today called Time Warp, beginning in March 2013, the same as Berger's departure. A Sandman mini-series written by series scribe Neil Gaiman will also run early next year telling the story of how Morpheus got to the point he first appears in issue #1 of what became the first Vertigo ongoing series.

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That's a HUGE bummer if this does lead to the end of Vertigo...which is really the best imprint in comics today and has been for a long time.

A huge loss for DC. Lets see how they try to fill that void.

Other than one-shots, I just can't see Dream or Constantine playing around in the 'normal' DC 'verse.

Of course I haven't read them for a few years.

Still . . .

They were 'normal' DC 'verse... at least published under the DC heading with "mature readers" on the front. Vertigo came out years after Sandman started.

Yeah, they have always been part of the DC Universe. They were just not involved with the grander schemes of the Supers. Why would Constantine care about Darkside invading Metropolis when he's busy dealing with possessions and a haunting in a small town out West? He has his own problems to deal with and they aren't exactly small ether.

As for the Endless ... well, they can barely keep things running half the time, so they only get involved when something absolutely nuts is going on. Still, Destiny was originally from an old DC series (Tales of Suspense, I think?) and side characters Cain and Abel were from House of Mystery (which Cain is still part of). Hell, Death showed up in Action Comics to basically make Lex Luther get his shit together after he almost got himself killed.

Frank said:

That's a HUGE bummer if this does lead to the end of Vertigo...which is really the best imprint in comics today and has been for a long time.

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Vertigo's been suffering for a while now. Largely due to the rise of Image as a creator owned publisher.

Times, they are a changing.

It doesn't help that, from what some have heard, the higher ups at DC (basically, the Warner Bros guys) didn't understand why they had these creator contracts that made it more difficult to milk the IPs for all they're worth (spin-offs, movies, etc). Given that they've already taken three Vertigo characters (Constantine, Swamp Thing, Animal Man) and brought them back to DC proper, I'd say there's some fact behind that rumour.

Honestly, it's a huge loss, in my opinion. Berger basically helped make Vertigo what it was by putting it on the map with Sandman. And it was so different from the regular DC universe that it was almost surprising to see such amazing, high-quality, high-literary books come from the same company that made the silly books with the spandexed people (in comparison, I mean; I do love me superheroes). Vertigo helped my comic book tastes evolve into what they are today. I could always rely on great, self-contained, mostly creator owned titles usually with an endgame in mind. That's a large part of the reason I stopped reading Fables: it went from this great, self-contained book and became a franchise, with spin-off titles and the sort. I read Vertigo to get away from spin-offs and needing to read Spandex Clad #37 to understand what was going on in Another Stupid Event #3.

And Berger was a great part of that. But with Vertigo being slowly killed off, her job becomes less necessary. Personally, I hope Image, IDW, or Dark Horse snatch her and just let her go nuts bringing in established creators and finding new ones.

I don't think Image needs the help with that presently. I'm surprised at how good Kirkman is doing as COO.

sixpackshaker said:

They were 'normal' DC 'verse... at least published under the DC heading with "mature readers" on the front. Vertigo came out years after Sandman started.

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Oh, I know that. It's just gonna a be a shame if they get neutered when brought back in to the fold.

*Is/was a big Hellblazer Fan*

You were one of the few. Hellblazer was selling under 10k copies a month. For comparison the worst selling new 52 title is around 14k, and Justice League ConstantineDark sells just under 30k an issue.

*numbers are from my memory so may be off a bit.

Covar said:

I don't think Image needs the help with that presently. I'm surprised at how good Kirkman is doing as COO.

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And they are starting to branch out as company too. The Walking Dead has become a big franchise with a highly successful TV show, great video games (with another season of adventure games AND an FPS game on the way), and novels on top of the award winning and best selling comic book series. They already have a Chew show in the works (though being on Showtime means it will have less of an audience). If they can just get an Invincible cartoon out there, I think Marvel and DC would be sweating.

AshburnerX said:

And they are starting to branch out as company too. The Walking Dead has become a big franchise with a highly successful TV show, great video games (with another season of adventure games AND an FPS game on the way), and novels on top of the award winning and best selling comic book series. They already have a Chew show in the works (though being on Showtime means it will have less of an audience). If they can just get an Invincible cartoon out there, I think Marvel and DC would be sweating.

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What's really awesome about that is it's not Image but the creators that will really benefit from this. I don't know if the practice has changed, but when Larson was running the shows, Image only served to curate, print, and advertise to retailers.

Damn shame, she did some great stuff. Ah well, I just hope she's happy doing whatever new work she does and hope the innevitable Comic Critics joke making fun of this will actually be funny for once.