VERTIGO CRIME now in paperback!

“Wonderfully dark little stories that impressed the heck out of me,” says MTV/Splashpage about FILTHY RICH by Brian Azzarello (100 BULLETS / JOKER) and artist Victor Santos and DARK ENTRIES by Ian Rankin and artist Werther Dell’Edera. Both are now available in paperback!

Praise for FILTHY RICH

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“Sleazy, steamy, and full of familiar noir touchstones. . . . Gripping. . . . Azzarello’s script is clever and nasty, and Victor Santos’ art captures every lingering stare and wicked smile. A-“ –THE ONION

“It’s pitch-perfect retro noir with a delightfully pulpy and sexy aftertaste.” -USA TODAY/Pop Candy

“Set in the days when men were men and women were menaces, it’s filled with booze, brads and brutal black and white art. . . . With FILTHY RICH, crime fans will get their money’s worth.” –MAXIM Magazine

“There's sex, drugs and videotape. Also booze, violence, betrayals, double-crosses and just about everything else one associates with hard-boiled, brass-knuckles crime fiction. . . . [Santos] depicts the mean streets of Jersey -- and its meaner inhabitants -- just the way we expect them: dark, edgy and brutal.” -SCRIPPS HOWARD NEWS SERVICE

“FILTHY RICH is a fantastic way to kick the new line off. . . . All the elements you’d want to see are here. . . . Azzarello has brought his A-game and the narration and dialogue are rock solid. . . . Santos does a great job working in black and white. The use of light and shadow here is masterful, and he’s definitely someone to keep an eye out for. . . . A taut crime thriller that barrels right through to its ending. FILTHY RICH is definitely worth picking up.” –AINT IT COOL NEWS

“Chock-full of tough guys, femme fatales, sex, blood and money, "Filthy Rich" is squarely in hard noir, Mickey Spillane territory.” --RALEIGH NEWS & OBSERVER

“With moody art by Victor Santos, FILTHY RICH pours delight from every page. It’s dark as the shadows and as dirty as the alleys.” –OKLAHOMA GAZETTE

“All fans of noir will enjoy Brian Azzarello's Filthy Rich, and those who also love graphic novels even more so. Victor Santos makes the seedy streets and clubs of New York come alive with his illustrations.” – MYSTERY SCENE

Praise for DARK ENTRIES

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“If you love the many great genre titles that DC/Vertigo has put out over the years -- everything from Sandman to Preacher to the just-concluded 100 Bullets to the latest hit mindfuck Air -- then you're probably eagerly awaiting the company's new line of dark thriller graphic novels . . . they look terrific. . . . Enter the strange world of Dark Entries, in which occult detective John Constantine battles a reality TV show house gone very, very bad.” –FEARNET

"Rankin and Dell'Edera dial up a very clever, very modern new take on the old haunted house story. Recommended for anyone who hates reality television as much as John Constantine does!" - Brian K. Vaughan

“Dell'edera's work is expressive and crisp, done almost entirely in sharp pure black inks with barely a hint of shading in sight, with an elegance to horror sequences that's far more Dante than slasher film. Possibly the best Hellblazer work in years and a strong ghost story in its own right.” –PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

“A brisk, enjoyable read. Dell'Edera amps up the horror aspects of this book with his spare yet evocative illustrations. Rankin provides shivers, masterful sleuthing, and some truly touching moments that could only play out in the life of damned savior John Constantine.” –BOOKSLUT

“Rankin is one of the world's best crime writers. . . . An intriguing locked-room mystery with a supernatural twist.” –THE SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE

“Rankin, a crime novelist, has a few tricks up his sleeve. . . . A decent, gory yarn.”
–THE ONION

“Complicated mayhem in the guilty-fun "Hellblazer" manner.”
-SCRIPPS HOWARD NEWS SERVICE

Vertigo Crime Makes Its Television Debut

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

Tonight: Brian Azzarello at Bergen Street Comics

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.

From the Editor’s Desk: Will Dennis

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

PLAYBOY.com previews Vertigo Crime

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 San Diego Comic Con is in full swing.

The highly anticipated and much talked about Vertigo Crime Line is launching next month with DARK ENTRIES by bestselling International crime writer Ian Rankin with artist Werther Dell’Edera and FILTHY RICH by Brian Azzarello, author of the bestselling Joker, with artist Victor Santos.

Stop by the DC COMICS booth and pick up a sampler (100 BULLETS #1 on one side and 11 pages each of DARK ENTRIES and FILTHY RICH on the other)!

Today’s Vertigo New Ongoing Series/Crime Line panel is at 6:00 pm. I hope to see many of you there. If you can’t make it, check back at 7:00 pm to find out what happened.

Crime Line

The Vertigo Crime Line is launching this August with FILTHY RICH by Brian Azzarello and artist Victor Santos and DARK ENTRIES by Ian Rankin and artist Werther Dell'Edera.

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY raves about DARK ENTRIES, saying “Dell'Edera's work is expressive and crisp, done almost entirely in sharp pure black inks with barely a hint of shading in sight, with an elegance to horror sequences that's far more Dante than slasher film. Possibly the best Hellblazer work in years and a strong ghost story in its own right.”

The GRAPHIC NOVEL REPORTER chose DARK ENTRIES and THE NOBODY as two of the Hottest Graphic Novels of Summer 2009. Click here for the complete list.

This line of compact, black and white hardcover graphic novels with covers by superstar Lee Bermejo is sure to consist of everything crime and mystery fans crave: the police procedural, the murder mystery, the sci-fi thriller, and straight up hardboiled noir—and next Spring’s releases are no exception.

Here’s a sneak peek at the cover to the next book in the Crime Line. THE CHILL by Jason Starr and artist Mick Bertilorenzi:

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Check back starting at noon as I reveal another.

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