Editing Vertigo Comics (section)

===Initial year===
Vertigo was launched in January 1993 with a mixture of existing ongoing series continued under the new imprint, new ongoing and limited series, and single-volume collections or graphic novels. Their publishing plan for the first year involved two new titles – whether ongoing/limited series or one-shots – each month. The existing series (cover date March 1993) were ''Shade, the Changing Man'' (starting with #33), ''The Sandman'' (#47), ''Hellblazer'' (#63), ''Animal Man'' (#57), ''Swamp Thing'' (#129), and ''Doom Patrol'' (#64, with new writer [[Rachel Pollack]]).

The first comic book published under the "Vertigo" imprint was the first issue of ''[[Death: The High Cost of Living]]'', a three-issue series by Neil Gaiman and [[Chris Bachalo]]. The second new title was the first issue of ''Enigma'', an 8-issue limited series initially planned to launch Touchmark, written by Peter Milligan (also author of ''Shade, the Changing Man'') and drawn by [[Duncan Fegredo]], the artist from Grant Morrison's earlier ''Kid Eternity'' limited series.<ref name="Advance" /> The following month saw the debut of ''[[Sandman Mystery Theatre|Sandman: Mystery Theatre]]'' by [[Matt Wagner]] and [[Steven T. Seagle]], and illustrated primarily by [[Guy Davis (comics)|Guy Davis]], described as "playing the '30s with a '90s feel... haunting, [[film noir]]-ish...", and starring original [[Sandman (DC Comics)|Sandman]] [[Wesley Dodds]] in a title whose "sensibilities echo [[Crime fiction|crime genre fiction]]".<ref name="Advance" /> Joining it was [[J. M. DeMatteis]] and [[Paul Johnson (comics)|Paul Johnson]]'s 64-page one-shot ''Mercy''.

New series that began in the months that followed include ''Kid Eternity'' (ongoing) by [[Ann Nocenti]] and [[Sean Phillips]] (continuing from the earlier Morrison-penned limited series), Grant Morrison and [[Steve Yeowell]]'s three-issue [[steampunk]] limited series ''Sebastian O'' (another ex-Touchmark project), ''Skin Graft'' by [[Jerry Prosser]] and [[Warren Pleece]], ''The Last One'' by DeMatteis and [[Dan Sweetman]], ''[[Jonah Hex]]: Two-Gun Mojo'' by [[Tim Truman]] and [[Sam Glanzman]], ''Black Orchid'' (ongoing) by Dick Foreman and [[Jill Thompson]] (continuing from the earlier Gaiman/McKean limited series), ''[[The Extremist (comics)|The Extremist]]'' by Peter Milligan and [[Ted McKeever]], ''[[Scarab (Vertigo)|Scarab]]'' by [[John Smith (comics writer)|John Smith]] with [[Scot Eaton]] and Mike Barreiro, and ''[[The Children's Crusade (comics)|The Children's Crusade]]'', a [[Crossover (fiction)|crossover]] involving several of the imprint's ongoing series. ''The Books of Magic'' limited series was relaunched as an ongoing series written by [[John Ney Rieber]], and illustrated by [[Peter Gross (comics)|Peter Gross]] (later also writer), Gary Amaro, and [[Peter Snejbjerg]].

Although the books did not have a consistent "[[Corporate identity|house style]]" of art, the cover designs of early Vertigo series featured a uniform [[trade dress]] with a vertical bar along the left side, which included the imprint logo, pricing, date, and issue numbers.<ref name="Advance" /> The design layout continued with very little variation until issues cover-dated July 2002 (including ''[[Fables (comics)|Fables]]'' #1) which introduced an across-the-top layout ahead of 2003's "Vertigo X" 10th anniversary celebration. The "distinctive design" was intended to be used on "all Vertigo books except the hardcovers, trade paperbacks, and graphic novels".<ref name="Advance" /> Berger noted that DC was "very" committed to the line, having put a "lot of muscle behind" promoting it, including a promotional launch kit made available to "[r]etailers who order[ed] at least 25 copies of the February issue of ''Sandman'' [#47]", a "platinum edition" variant cover for ''Death: The High Cost of Living'' #1 and a 75-cent ''Vertigo Preview'' comic featuring a specially written seven-page ''[[Morpheus (DC comics)|Sandman]]'' story by Gaiman and [[Kent Williams (artist)|Kent Williams]].<ref name="Advance" /> In addition, a 16-page ''Vertigo Sampler'' was also produced and bundled with copies of [[Capital City Distribution]]'s ''Advance Comics'' solicitation index.<ref name="Advance" />

Vertigo publications generally did not take place in a shared universe, but several of the early series which had begun as part of the main [[DC Universe]] had a "crossover" in 1993-94: ''The Children's Crusade''. The event "did not yield smashing results" or garnered many positive reviews, in large part due to its "gimmicky" nature, which ran counter to Vertigo's quirky, non-mainstream appeal and customer-base.<ref name="Sequart: CC">[http://www.sequart.com/columns/index.php?col=12&column=736 Anatomy of the Crossover #5: "DC/Vertigo's The Children's Crusade: Child Culture and Reflexivity, Suggested For Mature Readers" by Robert A. Emmons, Jr., November 1, 2005]. Accessed May 29, 2008  {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090213053914/http://www.sequart.com/columns/index.php?col=12&column=736|date=February 13, 2009}}</ref> The event was defended as "no marketing ploy" by one of the event's editors, [[Lou Stathis]], who wrote of his dislike of the often "crass manipulation" of crossover events, defending ''The Children's Crusade'' as having come not from marketing, but the writers' minds, and therefore being "story-driven" rather than manipulative.<ref>Lou Stathis, writing in the Vertigo column ''On the Ledge''. Quoted in [http://www.sequart.com/columns/index.php?col=12&column=736 Anatomy of the Crossover #5: "DC/Vertigo's The Children's Crusade: Child Culture and Reflexivity, Suggested For Mature Readers" by Robert A. Emmons, Jr., November 1, 2005] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090213053914/http://www.sequart.com/columns/index.php?col=12&column=736|date=February 13, 2009}}. Accessed May 29, 2008</ref> The crossover did not become an annual event, however — indeed, "annuals" linked to Vertigo series rarely reappeared after this event.

Works previously published by DC under other imprints, but which fit the general character of Vertigo, have been reprinted under this imprint. This has included ''[[V for Vendetta]]'', earlier issues of Vertigo's ongoing launch series, and books from discontinued imprints such as ''[[Transmetropolitan]]'' (initially under DC's short-lived [[sci-fi]] [[Helix (comics)|Helix]] imprint) and ''[[A History of Violence (comics)|A History of Violence]]'' (originally part of the [[Paradox Press]] [[line (comics)|line]]).

Two of the new ongoing series did not last long: ''Kid Eternity'' was cancelled after 16 issues, and ''Black Orchid'' continued for only 22. ''Sandman Mystery Theatre'' and most of the pre-existing series continued for several years, including ''Sandman'' which reached its planned conclusion with #75. ''Hellblazer'' was the last of the original ongoing series to be canceled, ceasing publication in February 2013 with #300.<ref name="vert-hell">{{Cite book | last = Irvine | first = Alex | author-link = Alexander C. Irvine | contribution = John Constantine Hellblazer | editor-last = Dougall | editor-first = Alastair | title = The Vertigo Encyclopedia | pages = 102–111 | publisher = [[Dorling Kindersley]] | place = New York | year = 2008 | isbn = 978-0-7566-4122-1 | oclc = 213309015}}</ref>

Berger won [[Eisner Awards]] for her editing in 1992, 1994 and 1995 for her work on the proto- and early Vertigo titles ''Sandman'', ''Shade'', ''Kid Eternity'', ''Books of Magic'', ''Death: The High Cost of Living'' and ''Sandman Mystery Theatre''.