john higgins

Stories set in an alternate history or reality are built from a "point of divergence," a moment at which the fictional reality veers off from our own. Germany wins World War II, Kennedy survives the assassination attempt, etc. In Watchmen that point comes in 1938. Shortly after the publication of Action Comics #1, costumed heroes begin appearing in the real world, the "factual black and white of the headlines," as Hollis Mason puts it, and history changes course. In our reality, comics books experienced their own point of divergence on June 5, 1986, with the debut of the first issue of Watchmen by Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons, and John Higgins. Ever since then, the entire medium has been permanently altered by its startling vision and precise execution.

I'm not going to lie to you, folks: You might not have seen it much here at ComicsAlliance, but I've been known to employ some pretty colorful language every once in a while. I can cuss with the best of 'em at the slightest bit of frustration, and if you don't believe me, you should see me try to play a classic NES game. But that said, even I'm a little shocked by the bad word barrage that hits the page in the final issue of Eric Kripke and John Higgins' Jacked. Then again, I've never faced something quite as frustrating as accidentally getting myself hooked on a drug that gives you superpowers, nor ticked off a drug lord who is now holding my family hostage unless I can get him an endless supply of super-pills. With problems like that, it's pretty easy to see why Josh Jaffe would go for something a little harder than "Gosh darn!" --- and you can get a sample of it in a preview below! (But we've had to cover up those naughty swears.)

We all wish we had superpowers. Being the first person in the real world to get special abilities has provided the through-line for many superhero tales, and it's an idea that's scary and appealing all at once. It's easier to relate to someone in a familiar situation being endowed with inhuman abilities than it is a guy from the 1940s who was frozen in a block of ice for 70 years. As the creator of Supernatural, Eric Kripke is no stranger to ordinary men facing fantastical circumstances. With his new Vertigo series Jacked, Kripke is looking to further explore those themes, but this time in the realm of superheroes. Teamed with artist John Higgins, Kripke's tale of an unextraordinary man given extraordinary powers will explore the realities of being the first powered person in a normal world --- but with the sort of dark twist you'd expect from a Vertigo title. We talked with Kripke about his inspiration for the story, why comic books were the right venue, and how Jacked might add to Vertigo's legacy.

Vertigo is making a big push with its 12 new series this fall, with an impressive roster of creators including Gail Simone, Holly Black, Peter Milligan, Gilbert Hernandez, Darwyn Cooke, and Micheal Allred. Survivors’ Club, The Twilight Children, Clean Room and Art Ops launch next month, followed by Unfollow, Slash & Burn, Red Thorn and Jacked in November. The four books rounding out the dozen are Sheriff Of Babylon, Lucifer, New Romancer and Last Gang In Town, all launching in December and solicited in this month's Previews catalog. We have an advance look at those solicitations, and with it your first comprehensive look at the new Vertigo line-up. Check out the covers, creative teams, and synopses below, in order of release:

With most of its major hits and standout series having run their course months or years ago, Vertigo has been due for a renaissance for a while now. Judging from the announcements made at San Diego Comic Con late on Thursday, the publisher may be rallying, with 12 new series set to launch in the closing months of 2015 at a rate of one new issue #1 every week. Those 12 titles include a couple of previously announced books that have been rescheduled, but enough new announcements to suggest that Vertigo means to impress with its ambition. Sci fi and the supernatural are inevitably well represented, and the roster includes veteran talents, emerging names, and a few cross-disiplinary transfers in the form of novelists Lauren Beukes and Holly Black — the latter on a relaunch of Lucifer — and Supernatural creator Eric Kripke.

On June 24, 2000 AD is putting out the latest in their line of 48-page seasonal anthologies, and as you might expect, the Summer Special is set to feature all the usual suspects that you get in the weekly prog. There's a Judge Dredd story, of course and Rogue Trooper makes an appearance, and there are a couple of new offerings in there as well. Pretty standard stuff. And then there's the return of the Ace Trucking Company, which features an interstellar alien truck driver and his zombie pal haulin' goods across the cosmos, complete with sci-fi CB language. So, you know, this is obviously something you're going to want.

Quite a few comics projects have been snapped up for TV and movie adaptation within just a few issues of publication, but this may be the first case of a TV version of a comic being announced when the comic is announced. Variety broke the news this week that Supernatural creator Eric Kripke will team with cover artist Brian Bolland and interior artist John Higgins this fall for a new six-issue Vertigo miniseries called Amped. It puts a bit of a new spin on the "real-life" superhero story, which has become something of a genre unto itself in the past 10 years or so. Kripke will serve as executive producer and writer on the TV series, which will air on USA Network.

So, what's the deal with Darick Roberston & Garth Ennis's The Boys? Is it a gross-out superhero parody, the book that "out-Preachers Preacher?" Is it a more straightforward narrative, an examination of how power corrupts? Is it a rocking action movie where hard men fight men with hard skin? Is...

A number of press outlets have been invited to visit the DC Entertainment offices in New York and Los Angeles to inspect material pertaining to Before Watchmen, DC Comics' controversial expansion of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' hugely popular and influential superhero graphic novel...

In all the excitement surrounding Before Watchmen, we'd completely forgotten that DC Comics had already published a new Watchmen comic by creators other than Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. It was called Botchmen, and it happened all the way back in 2009, in issue #499 of a magazine called MAD...