Board Thread:News and Announcements/@comment-3361105-20121204160029

Many of you may not know who Karen Berger is, but she was very important to the evolution of the comics you know today.

Back as an editor for DC, she was the driving force behind recruiting such great creators as Alan Moore, Grant Morrison, Neil Gaiman, Mark Buckingham, Peter Milligan, and Jamie Delano (among numerous others). She was an editor on for a time, and she soon became DC's liaison with UK talent. At the time, DC had a stable of Mature Readers titles that included Swamp Thing,, and a few others. As that group of books grew in number and popularity, she was approached by Paul Levitz, Dick Giordano, and Jenette Kahn to head her own imprint at DC Comics, which was to become Vertigo.

In 1993, Vertigo was launched, and it took with it Hellblazer, Animal Man, Swamp Thing, Shade the Changing Man, Black Orchid, and Doom Patrol. It also became a haven for creator-owned series like Brian Azzarello's and Bill Willingham's.

With the cancellation of Vertigo's longest running series Hellblazer at issue #300, and the paring back of Vertigo's graphic novel production, and not to mention with more than two decades of working for DC and Vertigo, Karen Berger has decided to step down as Executive Editor at Vertigo.

Some, like those at Bleeding Cool News, suspect that this is because of the recent changes at DC Entertainment. Maybe so. Regardless, DC and Vertigo are both losing a real talent in her. We can only hope that Vertigo will continue under a worthy successor, otherwise, the imprint may not be long for this world. 