Today in Comics History, June 15: Happy birthday, Greg Lockard!

Born on this day: comic book editor Greg Lockard (Fables, Fairest, Hellblazer, The Unwritten, Sweet Tooth, The Black Ghost, and more). He's also the author of the graphic novel Liebestrasse and he wrote a story of The Ray in this year's excellent DC Pride 2022!


from DC/Vertigo comics cover-dated October 2012
Happy birthday, Greg!

365 Days of DC House Ads, Day 266: Well, first, rent Fiddler on the Roof...

House ad for How to Understand Israel in 60 Days or Less graphic novel (November 2010); printed in iZombie #7 (January 2011)
Ad art from the cover of How to Understand Israel in 60 Days or Less, pencils and inks by Sarah Glidden

365 Days of DC House Ads, Day 110: DC Annuals House Ads Week, Day 7

Let's wrap up DC Annuals House Ads Week with something unique: the only Vertigo crossover event in their Annuals (and for that sake, some of the few few Vertigo Annuals of all). The Children's Crusade ran throughout the '93 DC Universe situated Vertigo titles. Fittingly, instead of the then-usual practice of Annuals being published in the summer, The Children's Crusade came out in the autumn—whether international or not, a nice subtlety that adds to the "slightly off-kilter" aspect of the Vertigo titles that featured character with origins in the DC superhero universe proper.


House ad for the 1993 Vertigo The Children's Crusade Annuals; printed in Sandman Mystery Theatre #20 (May 1994)
The event was bookended by a pair of Children's Crusade specials written by Neil Gaiman and starring his Dead Boy Detectives (introduced by Gaiman in Sandman #25). The DBDs—Charles Rowland and Edwin Paine—also star in the house ad above, which is redialogued art from the first Children's Crusade special.


Panels from The Children's Crusade #1 (December 1993), script by Neil Gaiman, Pencils by Chris Bachalo, inks by Mike Barreiro, colors by Daniel Vozzo, letters by John Costanza
Since Charles, Edwin, and Avril are looking at an advert for The Children's Crusade crossover, we might guess that they're looking at the exact same advertisment we are. Is your mind sufficiently all explodey yet? Yep: that's what the Vertigo Universe can do to you.

Earlier in the week I challenged you to identify a DC annual, besides Sgt. Rock's Prize Battle Tales Annual #1, that not only was not named after an existing series, but (when the series was eventually published) the series wasn't named after the annual, either. That annual is right here in this ad...spot it yet?...yes, it's Arcana: The Books of Magic Annual #1, the first appearance of Tim Hunter following The Books of Magic miniseries, and well before his regular monthly Vertigo comic The Books of Magic. I'm not certain why "Arcana" popped up between those two. Isn't that one of Zatanna's female cousins? Arcana Zatara. Arcana Zatara. Well, I'd date her.

So, that's Annuals Week.

365 Days of DC House Ads, Day 57

House ad for Y: The Last Man (2003) printed in Vertigo Pop!: London #3 (March 2003)
Painted art by J.G. Jones from the cover of Y: The Last Man #2 (October 2002)

Today in Comics History: It's business as usual in Vegas on Christmas Eve

Panel from "Nevada" in Vertigo: Winter's Edge #1 (January 1998), script by Steve Gerber, pencils by Phil Winslade, inks by Steve Leialoha, colors by Nathan Eyring, letters by John Workman

Today in Comics History: The Marriott Goat-el attracts its first guests

Panel from "The Flowers of Romance" in Vertigo: Winter's Edge #1 (January 1998); script by Neil Gaiman; pencils, inks, and colors by John Bolton; letters by Todd Klein

Today in Comics History: The Lost Christmas Reunion TV special airs on ABC

Panel from "The Flowers of Romance" in Vertigo: Winter's Edge #1 (January 1998); script by Neil Gaiman; pencils, inks, and colors by John Bolton; letters by Todd Klein