Vertical

by Steven T. Seagle, Laura Allred, Mike Allred

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Comic Book

Paperback, Direct Sales Comic Book

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Steven T. Seagle is an American writer who works in the comic book, television, film, live theater, video game, and animation industries.

Reviews

[Ill D · Rating 2 out of 5]

Vertigo meets Vertigo in this suitably titled work, Vertical. Just as Alan Parsons (with his project) might suggest, "What goes up/Must come down." And up and down the protagonist goes, again and again and again.

The format was fun. The references to the Factory (Warhol's 60's joint for those not in the know) were well wrapped. Also, reapplications of Warhol's reduplicatative Pop-Art Style were generally spot on and so were the characterizations of the characters that drove the story. Finally, recollections of the feisty era of Flower Power with all the hopes and failures it entailed were pleasantly intertextualized and re-contextualized for a modern audience.

Yet, a 60 some page comic can only drive a story so far. Akin to my opinions on the matter, Vertical goes more down than up.

Like a medium grade coffee at a tasting conference, follow the same format: Sip, Swish and then Spit.

[Matt · Rating 2 out of 5]

Gimmicky.
I seem to like Seagle less the more I read him.
Still anticipating rereading Sandman Mystery Theater.

[Ming · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's decent, but the format is rather annoying to read, being bound along the top edge, and limits the possible layouts. This experiment feels more gimmicky than anything else, even though the story is kind of sweet.

[Michel Siskoid Albert · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am rather disappointed in Vertical. Not that Steven T. Seagle was one of Vertigo's prime writers - Sandman Mystery Theater was mostly co-written with Matt Wagner, and even this project seems more "for hire" than most, an editor's idea to tie into the brand name - but even the art falls flat. I love Mike Allred's stuff and I love Philip Bond's stuff, but the latter inking the former looks stiff and scratchy. Never mind the obnoxious digital coloring effects. What Vertical really had going for it is the unusual format, but it's a liability more than a strength. The twinned themes of jumping off tall buildings and falling in love is noted, and there's certainly something interesting about setting this in the very "mod" world of Andy Warhol's Factory, but at 64 pages, it's too short to have much substance. Now consider that the thin strip format means these are, at most, half-pages, and you really have a 32-page "graphic novel", with lots of ideas that fall through the cracks - the nature of the ghost, the meta-textual narration characters can hear... Sad to say, but the verticality here goes mostly down.

[Francisco Cesar · Rating 3 out of 5]

Art was nice! Had some inspired panels. Gimmick was really cool. Wish the story and characterization was better structured.

[Datsun · Rating 2 out of 5]

An interesting experiment in formatting and page layout, the story is a sweet, if slightly simplistic, one-off romance set behind the scenes of Warhol's factory in the 60s.

[Matt Piechocinski · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not bad ... interesting format.