Aren’t DCBL, Vertigo, and Young animal the same since they’re all aimed to young adults? And what’s the point of Wildstorm and Milestone media?
In fact what’s the point of all of these imprints? Why isn’t it simple “DC Comics”?
What’s the Difference Between DC Black Label, Vertigo, Young Animal, Wildstorm, and Milestone Media?
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Black Label is directed for mature audiences and tells stories that may not be tied to the main continuity of the DC Universe. Just like The Joker movie was rated R and had nothing to do with the other DC films.
Vertigo no longer exists, however it was an imprint that has nothing to do with the other books published by DC. Most titles were in the horror genre, and a lot were creator owned.
Young Animal is an imprint specifically managed by Gerard Way, and all of the titles have a unique sensibility different than the main DC titles.
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Outside of what @ralphsix said, Wildstorm was an imprint of Image that was owned by Jim Lee. It moved to DC with him when he became part of the corporate part of the company.
Milestone was originally an independent company that DC helped publish, consisting of creators like Dwayne McDuffie and more, with the idea of creating a more diverse line of characters.
As for the point, it allows the creators to be able to do different things and go for different audiences.
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What exactly is unique about Young animal?
I had no idea that wildstorm was owned by image, that’s interesting.
So milestone was it’s own company till dc bought them. I got it.
It’s like asking what’s the difference between My Chemical Romance and Fallout Boy…same genre, but different music.
Hard to explain, really, however the storytelling styles are just a bit strange compared to mainstream titles. Personally, it’s not my thing.
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The general idea is that they’re separated by tone and content. Vertigo is mature readers supernatural/sci-fi stuff, Young Animal is a psychedelic, punk rock-flavored look at established DC characters and settings, and Black Label was essentially an R-rated Elseworlds line.
Obviously, now DC’s gotten rid of their imprints, and “Black Label” is just what they stamp on the covers of their 17+ books, but that was the original idea.
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Good example because that’s why I’ve been wondering since to me they seem the same.
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Yep – in fact, if you read some of those early Wildstorm books here on the service, you’ll see Image properties from that time like Youngblood and Cyber Force.
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I’d say that Young Animal is heavily influenced by the weirdness of Grant Morrison’s Doom Patrol. That the flagship series of the line by Gerard Way exists as both tribute and continuation to it is everything you need to know. They’re comics about how strange and versatile comics can be.
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This might be the best explanation I’ve seen.
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I really miss Vertigo
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Welcome to the community @DarkKnight39! 
Please don’t hesitate to let the moderator team know if you need anything. 
To be more precise, Image is more like a collective. Kirkman still owns the stuff he creates, like Walking Dead/Invincible, etc. and he’s now an officer of Image’s corporate company but he (and the artists he work with) ‘own’ the intellectual property they create and simply pay to Image for the stuff they do, like printing, distribution, etc.
Likewise with Mark Millar, except that he sold most of his IP rights to Netflix and became a part of that, I’m not sure if Image still handles the printing and distribution for his current books. This was a complicated deal because Millar had already sold some of his IP rights, like Kick Ass, to others.
@TheDarkKnight1983 I also miss Vertigo and I wish we had more than DC Horror and the Hill House imprints, since frankly I don’t see Vertigo as all horror, but more as Mature titles. And, sadly, Black Label has seem to just be an excuse for DC to let a bunch of their writers draw “mature” Batman with the very occasional, random (like Vic Sage) option.
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