After 26 years and several reshuffles and reboots DC Entertainment has announced that its adult-focused imprint Vertigo has been shuttered as part of a rebranding and restructuring of its imprint divisions.
DC Entertainment has confirmed that as of January 2020, Vertigo will wrap up operations, as will the DC Zoom and DC Ink YA brands. Replacing Vertigo, Zoom, and Ink will be three new age-banded labels for all of DC Comics’ content: DC Kids, for readers aged 8-12; DC, for readers 13 and above; and finally DC Black Label, for readers 17 and above.
In a statement acknowledging the closure, DC Editor in Chief Dan DiDio stated that while Vertigo as an institute would be no more, the spirit the imprint had championed in its books since the very beginning would remain in books launched elsewhere at DC:
We’re returning to a singular presentation of the DC brand that was present throughout most of our history until 1993 when we launched Vertigo to provide an outlet for edgier material. That kind of material is now mainstream across all genres, so we thought it was the right time to bring greater clarity to the DC brand and reinforce our commitment to storytelling for all of our fans in every age group. This new system will replace the age ratings we currently use on our material.
Vertigo was launched in 1993 by Karen Berger, who helmed it as Executive Editor and Senior Vice President for the next two decades, before stepping down in March of 2013 to be replaced by longtime editor Shelly Bond, who herself was restructured out of DC in 2016. It was established as a way for DC Comics creatives to tell stories unrestrained by the Comics Code Authority.