The Rise of the American Comics Artist: Creators and Contexts

2. “Is this a book?” DC Vertigo and the Redefinition of Comics in the 1990s

14 CHAPTER TWO Is this a book?” DC Vertigo and the Redefinition of Comics in the 1990s —JULIA ROUND 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. In Chapter Three, Chris Murray considers the emergence of literary themes and allusions in DC Comics during the 1980s as a consequence of British writers crossing the Atlantic and entering the U.S. comics industry. This chapter offers a complementary examination of the technological changes and marketing innovations that contributed to the redefinition of comics at the end of the twentieth century, specifically with regard to the role of DC Vertigo and the rise of the graphic novel and trade paperback in the 1990s. It will draw on the expertise of Karen Berger, DC Senior Vice President and Executive Editor of the Vertigo imprint, and Steve White, Senior Editor at Titan Comics (who handle DC’s reprints for the UK market).1 As the introduction outlined, Will Eisner’s A Contract with God (1978) is oftenincorrectlycitedasthefirstgraphicnovel:anadult-orientednovel-length comic marketed to a wider audience. Marvel claims its first graphic novel is The Death of Captain Marvel (1982), and the end of the twentieth century saw the rise of this form as mainstream comics began to “grow up.” Although adult comics and longer formats had in fact been around for many years, this cultural perception of the emergence of the graphic novel has affected the ways in which today’s comics are both marketed and received. For the purposes of this article the graphic novel (also known as a “prestige format” single issue) “ DC VERTIGO AND THE REDEFINITION OF COMICS 15 is defined as a “permanent” comic: it is often longer than the usual singleissue comic (with 20 to 24 story pages) and consists of new material printed on higher-quality paper. Trade paperbacks use the graphic novel form to collect and reprint single stories (either reprinting entire mini-series, or typically runs between four and twelve issues from longer, ongoing series). This chapter will explore the graphic novel’s evolution and specifically its use by the DC Vertigo imprint. It will examine the processes and effects of factors such as digital production and computerized printing, expensive and permanent binding, distribution via bookshops, pricing, franchising, and the repackaging and reissuing of previously published work. These elements have shaped the medium by bringing the graphic novel closer to the aesthetic of the literary text, while also maintaining the status quo of the comics market in some respects—by allowing for the production of collectors’ editions, for instance. They sit alongside aspects external to the industry such as the redefinition of the audience and emergent intellectual property and copyright laws, which have also affected the ways in which comics are created, produced, and received. A DIGITAL AESTHETIC Traditionally, comics have been perceived as disposable, low-quality pulp fiction aimed at a child market. However, as the product of a publishing business the medium is shaped by its production values, and these have significantly evolved since the early days of comics publishing. Early comic strips in newspapers and magazines were limited by thickset black line-work, due both to the letterpress method of printing (in which inked plates “stamped” an image onto paper) and the poor quality of the paper used. In the 1950s this process gave way to offset printing, whereby comics were first laid out in pencil, then inked, colored, shot to film, and finally printed, allowing for more delicate lines. By the 1990s publishers such as DC had their own “in-house computer coloring department” (Gold 1990, 3), and, as Steve White confirms, “computerization [has] more or less brought everything in-house.” Today the offset process still dominates, now via computer-to-plate production rather than the shot-to-film process (although entirely digital printing is now a possibility , at present it can produce only limited quantities). DC launched its Vertigo imprint in 1993 using six popular series from the 1980s, all of which were reworkings of older DC supernatural or horror characters (The Sandman, The Saga of the Swamp Thing,2 Hellblazer, Animal Man, 16 JULIA ROUND Shade: The Changing Man, and Doom Patrol). It was a conscious move away from superheroics—even...