Back in January, DC Comics announced that they will be joining ComiXology Unlimited. Initially everyone was shocked because DC has there own comics service. Within a week, 1500 more comics joined the service. By the end of the month DC had doubled their capacity of comics. Our initial guess is that Comixology got DC Comics in return for DCU Storage Space for Comics. (Still something I think is true).
Yesterday we got a BIG announcement that DCU would basically become DC Unlimited with other benefits.
Every comic is coming to DCU except as far as we can tell Vertigo. So my first question was WHY? What is Vertigo contracted to that DC can’t use.
I went to Comixology Unlimited and figured it out. Vertigo is part of the deal with comiXology Unlimited. Sandman, Hellblazer, and Deadman are only available on Comixology. Basically if you want to read a Vertigo comic its part of ComiXology Unlimited.
But the DCU fans aren’t losing out. Its quite possible that DC Unlimited (That’s my name for the comics side) is only available because of ComiXology or at least the great Comic editions for the last couple months are only available as a result of this.
@shawnway, We should still be getting some incredibly violent comics like Killing Joke though. Just like DC has Punisher Rebirth. I think its a contract thing.
So fat DC has shown a willingness to include more mature titles like Morrison’s Animal Man and Doom Patrol as well as Moore’s Swamp Thing. All of these were included under the Vertigo banner even if Vertigo didn’t exist when they were created.
Ultimately there are two kinds of Vertigo books. On the one hand you have stuff like the books mentioned above plus Hellblazer and Sandman which have connections to the DC universe proper however tenuous. These books are owned by DC (though Gaiman does have some stake in Swamp Thing).
The second kind of Vertigo book (stuff like Preacher, Fables and Y: The Last Man) are split between the creators and DC with all rights reverting to the creator if DC allows the book to go out of print. This is how Incognegro were able to start out at Vertigo and transition to Dark Horse.
I think chances are good we may see titles from the DC Universe side transition to DC Universe but its doubtful to me that the more eclectic side of the imprint will ever show up here.
That and probably most of the books are created owned, at least the more modern ones. They would probably have to go through some legal entanglements to get the books on the platform.
