Feature
Flashback February: Shelly Bond
♦2016 is an anniversary for Tripwire. It marks the 24th anniversary of the magazine, which began back in February 1992. So for the rest of February, we shall be representing some of our classic moments over the past 23 years. Many people who have been visiting the site will probably be unaware of our print history so we thought this would be a good opportunity to get them acquainted with it. So here is our interview with Shelly Bond, current executive editor of DC’s Vertigo imprint, which was intended to run in Tripwire Volume 5#4, our lost issue from 2003 as it was never published
10 Years of Vertigo
TRIPWIRE: So basically you’ve been at Vertigo for ten years, so your personal anniversary coincides with Vertigo’s tenth?
SHELLY BOND: Essentially, the line has revolved and evolved around me (laughs). I started working for Karen [Berger] on December 15th 1992 and the line launched in January 1993. I was pre-Vertigo by two weeks and I’ve stuck with it ever since.
TRIPWIRE: How do you think it’s evolved over the past ten years?
SB: The most obvious answer: When the line started out, it relied heavily on DC-owned occult or horror characters such as The Sandman, Hellblazer, Shade and Swamp Thing with a few creator-owned books in the mix. Throughout the nineties, as the creator-owned books like Preacher and 100 Bullets became popular, the balance shifted. As we make a dent into the 21st century, we’re coming full circle. We’ve started to go back and rethink some DC titles, in addition to our many creator-owned projects, like Zatanna, a one-shot that I edited by Paul Dini and Rick Mays and Beware The Creeper by Jason Hall and Cliff Chiang which is getting great press. In the months to come, don’t be too surprised if you see some familiar characters in trenchcoat (among other things) making a grand reappearance as well as a few old DC favourites that you’d never imagine getting the Vertigo shock treatment.
TW: What do you think its greatest impact has been on the industry over the last ten years?
SB: Getting recognised as a significant part of pop culture – especially evident in the rise in sales of our trade paperbacks in the bookstore market.
TW: Over the last few years, there’s been Fables and Y-The Last Man. What do you think has spurred the last two or three years of increased evolution at Vertigo? Do you think there is a particular factor?
SB: I think both books are truly inspired and have really broad high concepts. You can explain to someone in a sentence about Y: The Last Man or Fables. It’s also very easy to jump into both series because we were able to collect them as soon as the single issues started to sell out. As the editor of Fables, I can tell you that I’d been working with Bill Willingham for a few years and I really wanted him to pitch me something huge. I wanted his career to be resurrected in a big way, as he did with Elementals in the eighties. He started to tell me about Fables on the phone and the more he talked about it, the more I wanted to hear. It quickly developed into a really strong monthly pitch. I think this marks the third revolution in ten years at Vertigo and I’m excited to be a part of it.
TW: It’s interesting. With something like Y-The Last Man, if it was a film or a TV series, it would be considered as mainstream but because of the nature of the comic industry and the same goes for something like 100 Bullets.
SB: I think that with Y: The Last Man, it could have gone either way. When people hear the high concept, they might think they’ve heard it before. But of the thirty five ways this type of sci-fi plot has been done to death, this is the one way it hasn’t really been realised – and the fact that it’s in the form of a comic book makes it that much more unique.
TW: There’s a lot of stuff planned for this year like the Sandman hardcover and a lot of new series launching, like The Losers and Swamp Thing miniseries
SB: The Sandman: Endless Nights is the definitive event of Vertigo’s 10th anniversary. It’s 160 pages of rock hard storytelling. Not only does it unite Neil Gaiman with hot international superstar artists like Milo Manara, Miguelanxo Prado, and Frank Quitely, it boasts the very first appearance of the Endless family and reveals strange secrets and terrible truths about the Sandman and his siblings. And Dave McKean’s book design is by far the most fantastic work of his career. It’s an oversized hardcover out in September and it’s unlike anything you’ve ever imagined. I’m also working on some amazing new projects with Steven T. Seagle, Mike Allred, Chaykin and Tischman and David Hahn to name a few. Karen [Berger] is editing a new Human Target monthly written by Peter Milligan with art Javier Pulido and Cliff Chiang, too. It will be nice to have Peter Milligan back in the regular monthly arena at Vertigo as he’s one of the godfathers of the imprint…I guess that would make him – how old? – never mind…I think I just dug myself in deep enough…
TW: In a sentence, how has Vertigo changed since it was publishing back in 1993?
SB: Diversity, as in: There’s something for every reader. From psychological horror and dark fantasy to pop art and pulp fiction, Vertigo is the pinnacle of pop culture. Warhol would be proud.
JOEL MEADOWS
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