Lee Bermejo talks Vertigo Crime Covers:

I’m going to spin a yarn here. People always say that every story has a beginning, middle, and end so let’s start at the beginning.

Act 1: A couple years back, Will Dennis approached me about doing covers for a new, somewhat experimental line for Vertigo. The line itself sounded fucking awesome, but there was something he said about the gig that both frightened and intrigued me. It was pretty simple, ‘We don’t want anything that looks like a comic book cover’. For a guy who does comic books for a living, and specifically COVERS of comic books, that statement is the proverbial laying down of the gauntlet. He also wanted to keep the images simple. Anyone who knows me or my work may now release the snorting laughter you’re trying to suppress. SIMPLICITY?!?!?! Yeah, not really my bag as much as I wish it was. This wasn’t going to be about just breaking out of my box, I was going to have to find a whole new box. Could I have been more wrong for the job?!?!?! That in itself was every reason to accept.

Act 2: They also say that in every good story, the main character goes through some kind of significant change brought on by conflict. In this business, you almost NEVER get offered something you’re clearly not right for but desperately want to do anyway. When it does happen, the difficult thing is pushing through some of your own limitations to prove that the powers that be didn’t fuck up by giving you this chance. Let’s face it, you also want to prove it to yourself. In the case of these covers, my challenge was more in the idea phase than in the final execution. What is the idea phase, you may ask? Sketches, sketches, and more sketches. Let me tell you something, if the recycle bin outside my house was a hungry animal, the process of doing the Vertigo Crime covers has kept it well fed. I seem to toss out as many sketches as I finish, and try to be pretty hard on myself in terms of what I eventually show to my editor. Here is a smattering of some of the failed ideas. Hey, any storyteller will say that the main character can’t succeed all the time. Where’s the drama in that?!?

FILTHY RICH

THE BRONX KILL Coming in 2010

FOGTOWN Coming in 2010

A SICKNESS IN THE FAMILY Coming in 2010

A major part of Campbell’s ‘A Hero’s journey’ involves the main character of the story aquiring some kind of boone that helps he/she on their quest/journey. In the case of this story, that boone would have to be Mr. Josh Beatman, graphic designer extraordinaire. He’s the Doc Brown to my Marty McFly. I can drive the time machine, but if he doesn’t fix it, I don’t go where I need to go. You can check out his magic on the cover finals, and see how the picture finally starts coming together.

Act 3: You gotta buy the Vertigo Crime books for that. Trust me you’ll like the way the story ends….

I’d recommend the latest issue of SCALPED cuz nothing says “Happy Holidays” quite like a gritty crime comic about a meth-addicted, under-cover FBI agent with a heroin junkie for a girlfriend, a murdered mother, and a pretend job as an enforcer for the local Mob boss who would not hesitate to kill him if he found out the truth. God bless us all…everyone!” –Will Dennis

PREACHER: Book One. Put the Christ back into Christmas with this kick-ass comic. One of the greatest series of all time. Period. –Mark Doyle

Miserable during the holidays? Feeling like you’re trapped with your family members who won’t leave you alone? Imagine being stuck with a bunch of strangers in a sinister house. Share your pain with the five lost souls who make THE HOUSE OF MYSTERY their home with Volume 1: Room and Boredom. –Angela Rufino

I’d like to recommend FILTHY RICH for your favorite incarcerated relative. –David Hyde

On a budget? I’d like to recommend CINDERELLA: From Fabletown with Love issues 1 & 2 to give to all those fun, fearless females in your life who think Cindy is just a feeble girl who can’t keep her shoes on. –Pamela Mullin

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!

PLAYBOY Magazine has had a long history of supporting literature and writers with a particular emphasis on crime and noir. They have published stories by such notable names as James Ellroy, Lawrence Block, Jess Walter, Mario Puzo, Donald Westlake, TC Boyle and Denis Johnson’s “Nobody Move” was first serialized in PLAYBOY.

Following in that storied tradition, PLAYBOY.com is posting exclusive previews of two of the Vertigo Crime lead titles. Starting today, new pages of FILTHY RICH by Brian Azzarello and artist Victor Santos and DARK ENTRIES by Ian Rankin and artist Werther Dell’Edera will be posted each day through Friday, so check back daily.

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 packed with a striking cover by Lee Bermejo (Joker) and will feature dramatic black, white and gray interior art.

PLAYBOY has also long supported comic books and graphic novels. In fact, they published an exclusive “making of” the Vertigo original graphic novel THE QUITTER by Harvey Pekar and Dean Haspiel.

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

Thank you Dennis Lehane.