Vertigo: First Taste

by Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, Warren Ellis

You'll never forget your First Taste...
Discover the far edge of storytelling with the debut issues from these six series:

Death: The High Cost of Living
New York Times best-selling author Neil Gaiman brings Death to life. One day every century, the Sandman's sister assumes mortal form to learn more about the lives she must take.

Swamp Thing
The writer and the series that revolutionized comics - a masterpiece of modern horror.

Transmetropolitan
A look into a frenetic future where outlaw journalist Spider Jerusalem battles hypocrisy, corruption and sobriety.

Y: The Last Man
A mysterious plague has destroyed everything with a Y chromosome except Yorick Brown and his pet monkey. Welcome to the unmanned world.

100 Bullets
They did it. You know it. They deserve it. You'll get away with it. Question is: Can you pull the trigger?

Books of Magick: Life During Wartime
Young Timothy Hunter was destined to become the world's most powerful magician. NOw in his 20s, Tim would rather be partying with his raver friends than saving the universe.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Horror, Fiction, Fantasy, Graphic Novels Comics, Anthologies

164 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2005

About the author

Alan Moore is an English writer most famous for his influential work in comics, including the acclaimed graphic novels Watchmen, V for Vendetta and From Hell. He has also written a novel, Voice of the Fire, and performs "workings" (one-off performance art/spoken word pieces) with The Moon and Serpent Grand Egyptian Theatre of Marvels, some of which have been released on CD.

As a comics writer, Moore is notable for being one of the first writers to apply literary and formalist sensibilities to the mainstream of the medium. As well as including challenging subject matter and adult themes, he brings a wide range of influences to his work, from the literary–authors such as William S. Burroughs, Thomas Pynchon, Robert Anton Wilson and Iain Sinclair; New Wave science fiction writers such as Michael Moorcock; horror writers such as Clive Barker; to the cinematic–filmmakers such as Nicolas Roeg. Influences within comics include Will Eisner, Harvey Kurtzman, Jack Kirby and Bryan Talbot.

Reviews

[Quintin Zimmermann · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great introduction to the darker, mature world of graphical artistry.

This isn't about capes and cowls, but rather a deeper exploration of the human condition.

[Kris Shaw · Rating 3 out of 5]

100 Bullets, Books of Magic: Life During Wartime, and Transmetropolitan all sucked. I have decided to make my own "mature reader" comic book. The first ingredient in the formula is to have the main character smoke cigarettes, at least once every other page. Next, mix in tons of swearing, especially f-bombs, as that is a surefire sign of intelligent writing. Once you have those ingredients in place, set a boring talking head scenario to simmer for the first issue, followed by a feeble set-up and voila! You have your own indie comic book! Which one of these titles am I poking fun of? All of them, as they all seem to follow the same formula. Y: The Last Man and Swamp Thing are great, but I have already read those before. Death: The High Cost of Living was very good, and I picked up the trade of that and enjoyed it.

[Nicolo · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great collection of starting points to various stories in the Vertigo library. Some of the tales included were excellent entry points without any need for the extra baggage of continuity. However, there are two stories here that needed some backstory to make it make sense.

This could have had a better cover. It's catchy, but in the worse way like a flu. The editor should have commissioned a better one, given that it got stories by some of the best writers in comic books.

[Joe Schiro · Rating 5 out of 5]

This format should be explored today. I liked being able to read 6 first issues, I'm looking forward to reading Y & Saga of Swamp Thing after reading this!

[s-b-t · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Vertigo imprint of DC Comics has released comic books ranging a wide variety of genres, ranging from detective-noir of "Sandman Mystery Theatre," to gothic superheroes or supernatural beings such as "The Scarab" and "Death," to the classic (and now infamous) stories such as the ones included in this graphic novel compilation. Both "Transmetropolitan" and "Y: The Last Man" are featured within, and although they're not favourites of mine by any stretch of the imagination, they're worth a read, if only to see just what it is all these other folks are talking about.

They're supposed to be producing a film of "Y: The Last Man" in the next year or so.

[angrykitty · Rating 3 out of 5]

so i didn't know that vertigo had put out three of these collections...i had only seen the first cut one....anyway, i now have the other two, and after finishing first taste, i understand why vertigo would put these collections out. it helps that they had alan moore and neil gaiman comics to include in this collection though......not bad, but still not as great as the actual series themselves....

[Fugo Feedback]

Este tomo contiene 6 números 1 de distintas series de Vertigo. De ellos ya leí Y The Last man, Saga of Swamp Thing, Transmetropolitan y Muerte. Me faltan 100 balas y Books of Magic War...

[Jonathan Roberts · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not really my cup of tea! Love Y the Last Man and 100 Bullets but the rest of the stories did nothing for me.