Vertigo: First Offenses

by Grant Morrison, Bill Willingham, Garth Ennis

Written by Grant Morrison, Garth Ennis, Bill Willingham, Mike Carey and Matt Wagner Art by Steve Dillon, Scott Hampton, Steve Leialoha, Guy Davis, Lan Medina and Steve Yeowell Cover by John J. Hill VERTIGO: FIRST OFFENSES is a special volume created to introduce new readers to comics' most provocative imprint. Collecting the premiere issues of five of Vertigo's signature series, this 168-page trade paperback is priced at a mere $4.99 US, allowing thrill-seeking ordinary civilians the chance to do hard time with some of comics' heaviest hitters. Included are THE INVISIBLES #1 (written by Grant Morrison and illustrated by Steve Yeowell), FABLES #1 (written by Bill Willingham and illustrated by Lan Medina & Steve Leialoha), PREACHER #1 (written by Garth Ennis and illustrated by Steve Dillon), SANDMAN MYSTERY THEATRE #1 (written by Matt Wagner and illustrated by Guy Davis) and THE SANDMAN PRESENTS: LUCIFER #1 (written by Mike Carey and illustrated by Scott Hampton).

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Anthologies, Graphic Novels Comics, Fantasy

168 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2005

About the author

Grant Morrison has been working with DC Comics for twenty five years, after beginning their American comics career with acclaimed runs on ANIMAL MAN and DOOM PATROL. Since then they have written such best-selling series as JLA, BATMAN and New X-Men, as well as such creator-owned works as THE INVISIBLES, SEAGUY, THE FILTH, WE3 and JOE THE BARBARIAN. In addition to expanding the DC Universe through titles ranging from the Eisner Award-winning SEVEN SOLDIERS and ALL-STAR SUPERMAN to the reality-shattering epic of FINAL CRISIS, they have also reinvented the worlds of the Dark Knight Detective in BATMAN AND ROBIN and BATMAN, INCORPORATED and the Man of Steel in The New 52 ACTION COMICS.

In their secret identity, Morrison is a "counterculture" spokesperson, a musician, an award-winning playwright and a chaos magician. They are also the author of the New York Times bestseller Supergods, a groundbreaking psycho-historic mapping of the superhero as a cultural organism. They divide their time between their homes in Los Angeles and Scotland.

Reviews

[Charles · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great for what it is.

[Kris Shaw · Rating 2 out of 5]

These are $4.99 sampler trades that the off-brands will offer to entice new readers. Honestly, Vertigo is hardly some small indie company, though; they are merely an imprint of DC, who is owned by Warner Bros., so much like much other so-called "indie" stuff, this is merely marketed that way so that people who wouldn't buy something mainstream, i.e. DC, would buy this.

Fables was enjoyable enough, but maybe not enough to make me want to buy the series. I love the cover artist, whoever he/she may be. Invisibles seemed adolescent at best. I suppose if I were 15-21 it would "speak" to me. At 35, it's been there done that, grown out of it.

Lucifer was so-so. Again, I will keep my cash in fist for other things.

Preacher was good, although I am not rushing out to buy it.

Sandman Mystery Theatre was very enjoyable, and I did pick up the first trade of it and enjoyed it.

[Azrael FGC · Rating 4 out of 5]

Actually a cool concept. It is essentially a collection of 5 #1's in comics that are little peaks into the style of writing and art. There is quite a few big hitters in this like lucifer, Sandman: Mystery Theatre, Preacher, Fables. I haven't heard of The invisbles but it was cool as well. If you like the darker story telling, this would be good start for you.

[angrykitty · Rating 4 out of 5]

this is already my fav of the series as it has included both fables and preacher.....fables i've read fanatically, and preacher i'm going to start reading....

definitely my fave of this series......i'm totally going to go out and look for the preacher series, and i'm probably also going to look for the lucifer series.....

[Fugo Feedback]

Me parece que de los números 1 que incluye este tomo ya tengo leídos The Invisibles (***), Preacher (***/), Fables (***/), Lucifer (*** si es el #1 de la miniserie, si es de la regular, creo que todavía no la leí), así que me faltarían The Loosers y Sandman Mystery Theather (creo) para readear el libro.

[Jonathan Roberts · Rating 3 out of 5]

Of these five books the only one remotely interesting was Fables. Skipped Lucifer it did not sound appealing to me. And I still have no idea why Grant Morrison is thought to be so amazing his book Invisibles was just hard to follow and not very good. But that's just my opinion.

[Padraic Rafter · Rating 4 out of 5]

the

[Madison · Rating 3 out of 5]

A solid sampler of some interesting fantasy graphic novels. My favourite by far was Fables, which I will definitely be picking up in the future.