If you happened to be watching BBC America last night, chances are pretty good that you caught the debut of our first-ever TV commercial for VERTIGO CRIME, spotlighting DARK ENTRIES by Ian Rankin and Werther Dell’Edera and FILTHY RICH by Brian Azzarello and Victor Santos. In case you missed it, the spot will be running on the cable channel throughout the next month – or you can watch it right here:dc-comics-vertigo-crime

Vertigo Crime’s FILTHY RICH by Brian Azzarello and artist Victor Santos debuts on THE NEW YORK TIMES Graphic Book Best Seller List today! It’s #7 in hardcovers. For the complete list click here.

“It’s pitch-perfect retro noir with a delightfully pulpy and sexy aftertaste,” says USA TODAY’S/Pop Candy.

Vertigo Crime has officially launched!

In honor of the publication of FILTHY RICH by Brian Azzarello and artist Victor Santos and its femme fatale Vicki, I’d like to pose a question to all Vertigo GRAPHIC CONTENT readers.

Who’s your favorite femme fatale and why? Brigid O’Shaughnessy in Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon? Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct? Phyllis Nirdlinger in James M. Cain’s Double Indemnity? Vivian Rutledge in Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep?

Let the conversation begin!

And don’t forget:

Join Brian Azzarello at BERGEN STREET COMICS
470 Bergen Street (between Flatbush and 5th Avenues) Brooklyn
on Wednesday, August 19th at 6:00 pm
to celebrate the launch of VERTIGO CRIME
and his new graphic novel FILTHY RICH with art by Victor Santos

Today’s AM NEW YORK features a story on VERTIGO CRIME on page 14 called “Crime book genre gets ‘Filthy.’”

FILTHY RICH is reviewed in the September issue of MAXIM magazine.

And BIG SHINY ROBOT reviews DARK ENTRIES.

Blame The Killer Inside Me.

It’s spring of 1991 — well, really winter since I was living in Ithaca, NY where it’s warm likes two weeks out of the year — there was a big recession on, a war in Iraq, I was only working part-time (some things never change, right? jk) and I’m standing in an independent bookstore and this scary-ass face is staring back at me. It’s the cover to The Killer Inside Me by Jim Thompson. Never heard of him. But loved the jacket design (Day-Glo orange stripes with black type and a creepy black lizard on it) and so I picked it up.

Now, I’d read my share of Chandler, Hammett, Conan Doyle and even James M. Cain, and considered myself a mystery fan…but this book was CRIME. This was a twisted book about a deputy sheriff who had some serious problems. I read half the book standing in the store and the rest that afternoon. I read it again the next day and knew I needed more…

And holy hell, there was more…Willeford, Goodis, Williams, MacDonald, Himes and on and on. It was grimy, sexy, visceral, mind-blowing work and I felt like a poseur cuz I’d never heard of any of them. But I trusted whoever these Vintage Black Lizard geniuses were and I was never the same. The one time in my life when you really could judge a book by its cover.

Which brings us to VERTIGO CRIME…where we’re trying to capture that same flavor. A line of books by some of today’s best crime writers – IAN RANKIN, BRIAN AZZARELLO, JASON STARR, PETER MILLIGAN, CHRISTOS GAGE, DENISE MINA, MAX ALLAN COLLINS and many more – that we believe can proudly sit alongside the best “regular” crime fiction out there.

The first two – DARK ENTRIES by Rankin & Dell’Edera and FILTHY RICH by Azzarello & Santos – drop today in comic shops and next Tuesday in bookstores. They’ve got eye-popping covers (from Lee Bermejo of JOKER fame) and I really hope you’ll take a taste.

Cuz who knows…maybe in twenty years, you’ll be blogging about how VERTIGO CRIME changed your life forever.

God help you.

will dennis

Join Brian Azzarello at BERGEN STREET COMICS
470 Bergen Street (between Flatbush and 5th Avenues) Brooklyn
on Wednesday, August 19th at 6:00 pm
to celebrate the launch of VERTIGO CRIME
and his new graphic novel FILTHY RICH with art by Victor Santos

About FILTHY RICH:
FILTHY RICH is a glitz and grunge love story about an unsuspecting, washed up ex football player from New Jersey and a cunning, rich, party girl, chock full of sex, violence and back stabbing ego maniacs with criminal intentions.

About VERTIGO CRIME:
Vertigo Crime will have everything that crime and mystery fans crave: the police procedural, the murder mystery, the sci-fi thriller, and straight up hardboiled, classic noir. Each hardcover release will be packaged with a striking cover by Lee Bermejo (Joker) and will feature dramatic black, white and gray interior art.

I hope to see you there!

The author of such popular books as MYSTIC RIVER and GONE BABY GONE calls FILTHY RICH “Lurid. Propulsive. Magnificent.”

Thank you Dennis Lehane.

The highly anticipated and much talked about Vertigo Crime Line is launching next month with DARK ENTRIES by bestselling International crime writer Ian Rankin with artist Werther Dell’Edera and FILTHY RICH by Brian Azzarello, author of the bestselling Joker, with artist Victor Santos.

Stop by the DC COMICS booth and pick up a sampler (100 BULLETS #1 on one side and 11 pages each of DARK ENTRIES and FILTHY RICH on the other)!

Today’s Vertigo New Ongoing Series/Crime Line panel is at 6:00 pm. I hope to see many of you there. If you can’t make it, check back at 7:00 pm to find out what happened.

Lot’s happened this week. Here’s a roundup of those not to be missed.

LARGEHEARTED BOY posts Jeff Lemire’s fantastic music playlist for THE NOBODY. In his introduction Jeff writes, “I’ve always preferred sad songs. They don’t make me sad, they just make me “feel more.” Now, that’s something I can totally relate to. Check it out!

CBR and NEWSARAMA review THE NOBODY.

BLOG@NEWSARAMA and AINT IT COOL NEWS review GREEK STREET #1.

IGN reviews THE UNWRITTEN #3 giving it a rating of 9/10.

MTV/Splashpage talks with Brian Azzarello about the end of 100 BULLETS.

And as a special treat, here are a few of Jeff Lemire’s early cover sketches for THE NOBODY.

Have a great weekend!

100 BULLETS…I KNOW IT”S OVER

I mean I know we had our rough patches in the past – and you’ve disappeared on me before, sometimes months at a time – but this feels different. Like it’s really over. Ten long years – all the love, tears, laughs, fights, sex, revenge – and you’re just gonna vanish on me? Nice.

How am I supposed to fill my time now? No more daily calls to Azz to talk about you. No more Risso jpegs of beautiful pictures of you. No more links to Trish’s server to see how pretty she colored you. No more words from Clem to speak to me with. No more tortured calls talking Dave off the ledge to get your covers…no more.

Was it because of the changes Brian & I made to you on the last issue? Come on! They were MINOR. Just a snip here, a cut there. We’ve done way worse before. I even included a bunch of them to this posting so you can see what I’m talking about. God, you’re soooo sensitive.

Fine. Whatever. Be that way. Go off and sulk. I’m over it. I don’t need you anymore.

Wait…what’s that? You’re finally all collected? You mean all 100 issues of you? And the last trade comes out in like a week? So I can have all of you whenever I want to? Like forever?!

Oh thank God…I’m so sorry about all the mean stuff I just said about you. I take it all back. I’m just a selfish jerk.

I love you, baby. I always have and I always will.