The Road to Vertigo : The Suppression and Eventual Rise of Mature Comics and Their Readers

The legacy of Vertigo recalls the very idea of comics finally being allowed to mature; letting people swear, drink, openly take drugs for recreation, and bringing in some serious ambiguity as to what it means to be a good person. Titles such as Preacher, Transmetropolitan, Hellblazer, and Sandman cannot be separate from the very spirit of Vertigo. A new age of freedom and expression within the medium. However, to truly understand why this was so significant and praised, we need to look back at the reasons why these things were suppressed in the first place. As well as the attempts before this to allow the medium to grow up

Transatlantic Exchanges and Cultural Constructs: Vertigo Comics and the British Invasion

International audienceThe transnational phenomenon known as the British Invasion of comics demonstrates how deeply stereotypes and expectations relative to nationality can shape the way artistic practices develop and the way people speak about them. Constant references to the Britishness of the “Invaders” suggest an essentialized, unproblematic view of nationality; however, as I have shown, both Americanness and Britishness are in fact highly complex objects that the authors of the Invasion articulate within a transnational framework, both in their works and in the paratextual discourse they build around it. By questioning the stereotypes associated with both countries, they shed light on the cultural, commercial and ideological weight of national representations

Words + Pictures: A Manifesto

In the second decade of the 21st century, academic comics studies is well established as a serious intellectual subject, but for many non-specialists, including university administrators, a sense of frivolity still attaches to comics. This brief essay braids together personal history and intellectual analysis: 1) it compares the cultural position of comics today to the position of novels in the 19th century; 2) it analyzes the complementary nature of the verbal and visual channels; 3) it argues that neither words nor pictures should be considered primary in a narratology of comics; and 4) that comics are eminently well suited to be studied as a branch of literature (though fine arts departments can also stake a claim)

Chapter One: “Is this a book?” DC Vertigo and the redefinition of comics in the 1990s

Not only comics publishing but also perceptions of it have changed radically during this century and the comic book has become a graphic novel; invoking notions of permanence, literariness and artistry. This chapter will examine the changes that brought about this redefinition in the 1990s, specifically with regard to the role of DC Vertigo and the rise of the trade paperback. Building on the popularity of British creators in the 1980s and the success of titles such as Hellblazer and Animal Man, DC launched their Vertigo imprint in 1993, with Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman as their flagship title. Having the somewhat paradoxical aim of uniting unique creative voices under one imprint, the majority of Vertigo titles (which feature original characters) are creator-owned and the Vertigo stable is comprised mainly of British authors, many of whom were recruited while writing for 2000AD in the 1980s. Vertigo puts out more trade paperbacks than any other imprint and their great success in marketing the trade paperback form in many senses paved the way for other publishers to repackage their material in similar form. After summarising the position of comics at the close of the 1980s (British invasion, emergent star writers, direct distribution) this chapter proceeds to discuss the emergence of the trade paperback in the 1990s and its role in redefining comics. Relevant industry factors will include: • technical advances – digitising and reproduction has led to higher production values; but also perhaps a homogeneity of style; • employment changes – everything has been brought in-house; • marketing changes (star writer) – uses romantic ideology to assign an author function; • maxi-series versus ongoing serialisation – new permanence of product; writing for a multi-issue story-arc. Outside factors will also be discussed, including: • emergent IP law – this has given more control to the creator; but freezes shared symbols and limits development; • mechanical reproduction – comic book as product; multiple forms; • fan culture – mid 1990s speculators market crash; neglect of child market; • social context/cultural expectations – celebrity culture responsible for the emergence of star writers; youth culture and resisting definition as children’s literature; • new media – trade paperbacks mirror DVD releases (including extras); • bookstore distribution – challenge to direct marketing of 1980s; brings comics closer to ‘proper’ books; reliant upon author function. These changes in comics’ production and consumption, together with the critical attention now afforded them, have brought the contemporary comic book closer to the notion of the literary text

IMAGENS DA GUERRA FRIA NA HISTÓRIA EM QUADRINHOS "NA PRAIA" DO UNIVERSO FICCIONAL HELLBLAZER

A fertilidade das problematizações historiográficas decorrente da utilização de histórias em quadrinhos como fonte de pesquisa e recurso didático no trabalho cotidiano do historiador tem se tornado cada vez mais comum e sugere um vasto horizonte de possibilidades, perpassando os mais variados campos da história, além de reforçar contatos interdisciplinares. Em face disso, procuramos analisar neste trabalho algumas imagens da Guerra Fria (período de tensões políticas, ideológicas e militares, veladas e (in)diretas, alimentado pelos Estados Unidos e pela então União Soviética, cada qual liderando um grupo de países e zonas de influência, entre os anos 1945-1989/1991) representadas nas páginas de uma história em quadrinhos em particular, intitulada "Na Praia", publicada em 1989, integrante do universo ficcional Hellblazer. Apresentamos as características gerais da linguagem dos quadrinhos e do universo ficcional Hellblazer e como as temáticas relacionadas à Guerra Fria são inseridas na trama dessa história em quadrinhos. Para efeito de discussão, propomos um diálogo com algumas reflexões formuladas pelo historiador inglês Edward P. Thompson (1924-1993), derivadas de seu esforço em compreender os fenômenos da Guerra Fria, da corrida armamentista e das ameaças de guerra mundial nuclear que marcaram aquele período. Acreditamos que a trama dessa história em quadrinhos apresenta, pelas lentes da ficção, algumas das sensibilidades que estiveram presentes naquele ao longo dos anos 1980, nos colocando em contato com algumas das sensibilidades daquele momento histórico

Growing up with Vertigo: British Writers, DC, and the Maturation of American Comic Books

At just under thirty years the serious academic study of American comic books is relatively young. Over the course of three decades most historians familiar with the medium have recognized that American comics, since becoming a mass-cultural product in 1939, have matured beyond their humble beginnings as a monthly publication for children. However, historians are not yet in agreement as to when the medium became mature. This thesis proposes that the medium’s maturity was cemented between 1985 and 2000, a much later point in time than existing texts postulate. The project involves the analysis of how an American mass medium, in this case the comic book, matured in the last two decades of the twentieth century. The goal is to show the interconnected relationships and factors that facilitated the maturation of the American sequential art, specifically a focus on a group of British writers working at DC Comics and Vertigo, an alternative imprint under the financial control of DC. The project consulted the major works of British comic scriptwriters, Alan Moore, Jamie Delano, Grant Morrison, Peter Milligan, Neil Gaiman, Warren Ellis, and Garth Ennis. These works include Watchmen, V for Vendetta, Shade: the Changing Man, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Animal Man, Sandman, Transmetropolitan, Preacher and several other important works. Following a chronological organization, the work tracks major changes taking place in the American comic book industry in the commercial, corporate, and creative sectors to show the processes through which the medium matured in this time period. This is accomplished by combining textual analysis of the comics with industry specific records and a focus on major cultural shifts in US society and cultur

Uma transposição luciferina de Hellblazer/Constantine: dos quadrinhos para o cinema

The article intends to focus on the process of translation/adaptation of the sequels of Hellblazer, published since 1988 until now, for the movie Constantine (2005), directed by Francis Lawrence. It discusses the theme of seduction for the hellish visions and devilish pacts, a phenomenon that for many centuries has permeated the Christian imaginary and whose images have been exploited by the cinema industry. The philosophical motivation of this text comes from Vilém Flusser´s book, The Devil History. The theoretical frame includes the concept of translation as “transluciferation” (Haroldo de Campos), the studies by Lotte Eisner and Gilles Deleuze about the German expressionist cinema, and the theories of adaptation and intertextuality, as well as the researches by renowned authors in the field of Comic Books and Cinema.Keywords: movie, Comic Books, adaptation, faustian myth.O artigo aborda o processo de tradução/adaptapção das narrativas sequenciais de Hellblazer, publicadas desde 1988 até hoje, para o filme Constantine (2005), dirigido por Francis Lawrence. É discutido o tema da sedução das visões infernais e dos pactos diabólicos, um fenômeno que por muitos séculos tem impregnado o imaginário cristão e cujas imagens têm sido exploradas pela indústria cinematográfica. A motivação filosófica deste texto vem do livro de Vilém Flusser A História do Diabo. O aporte teórico inclui o conceito de tradução como “transluciferação” (Haroldo de Campos), os estudos de Lotte Eisner e Gilles Deleuze sobre o cinema expressionista alemão, as teorias da adaptação e da intertextualidade, bem como as pesquisas de autores reconhecidos sobre Histórias em Quadrinhos e sobre Cinema.Palavras-chave: cinema, Histórias em Quadrinhos, adaptação, mito fáustico