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Now you can read the full first issues of the many Vertigo series that revolutionized comics! To download a free PDF version of the first issue of these classic Vertigo series, click the cover or title links below, then click the Download Issue #1 link!

When you visit the Graphic Novels section of VertigoComics.com, any graphic novel titles with a #1 icon will have a download of the ground-breaking first issue!

UN-MEN: GET YOUR FREAK ON - Breakout writer John Whalen and Eisner-nominated artist Mike Hawthorne (THE EXTERMINATORS, Queen and Country) bring chilling new life to THE UN-MEN - the former SWAMP THING adversaries created by Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson in this new series that explores what it means to be a freak in a society filled with gawkers. After a sideshow attraction called "The Gill-Boy" is murdered, an albino agent known as Kilcrop is dispatched by the government to solve the case. To uncover the truth, he must infiltrate Aberrance, where society's most misshapen outcasts find their own kind of freedom.
John Whalen: Bio | Other works
Mike Hawthorne: Bio | Other works

"Uniquely entertaining...wholly original...a fantastically dark world. I was sucked into it from the moment I opened the first issue." - Ain'tItCoolNews.com

CROSSING MIDNIGHT VOL. 1: CUT HERE - Miyazaki's Spirited Away meets Asian horror in this inital volume of CROSSING MIDNIGHT, collecting the acclaimed first five issues of the series by writer Mike Carey (LUCIFER) and artist Jim Fern (FABLES). A compelling fantasy/horror series set in the heart of present-day Nagasaki, Japan, CROSSING MIDNIGHT begins when extraordinary twins are born - one just before midnight and the other just after. They discover the huge impact this small difference has on their destinies when one of them is inducted into a world of supernatural beings and events that intersects with our own world. Together, the twins will try to stay one step ahead of their terrifying fates while they learn how far their new world of terror intersects with their own.
Mike Carey: Bio | Other works
Jim Fern: Bio | Other works

"Gripping, detail-rich, culturally-precise storytelling shows Carey at the top of his comicsÕ game..." - The Onion

LUCIFER VOL. 1: DEVIL IN THE GATEWAY - From the pages of THE SANDMAN, Lucifer Morningstar, the former Lord of Hell, is unexpectedly called back into action when he receives a mission from Heaven. Given free reign to use any means necessary, Lucifer is promised a prize of his own choosing if he fulfills this holy request. But once he completes his mission, the Prince of Darkness' demand shakes the foundation of Heaven and Hell. Now as his enemies unite to stop his reemergence, Lucifer gathers his forces as he prepares to launch his new revolution.
Mike Carey: Bio | Other works
Scott Hampton: Bio | Other works
Chris Weston: Bio | Other works

"Carey is easily one of the half dozen best writers of mainstream comics and climbing." - NEIL GAIMAN, New York Times best-selling author

ARMY@LOVE VOL. 1: THE HOT ZONE CLUB - Comics iconoclast Rick Veitch, the creator of CAN'T GET NO, writes and illustrates this volume collecting the critically acclaimed first six issues of the new series that is equal parts blistering battle action, sensuous soap opera and pitch-black satire that fans of PREACHER and TRANSMETROPOLITAN will love. Comedy collides head on with tragedy when a New Jersey National Guard unit is deployed indefinitely to a never-ending series of wars in the Middle East. These citizen soldiers range from kids fresh out of high school to middle-aged corporate managers - and the modernized military has gone into take-no-prisoners marketing mode in order to motivate them. And you won't believe what it takes to become a member of the Hot Zone Club!
Rick Veitch: Bio | Other works
Gary Erskine: Bio | Other works

"An amazingly racy and ruthless satire/critique of a never-ending war in Afghanistan." - Entertainment Weekly

SCALPED VOL. 1: INDIAN COUNTRY - Jason Aaron, the hot new writer of the critically acclaimed limited series, THE OTHER SIDE, teams with gritty artist R.M. Guˇra for an intense crime drama that mixes organized crime with current Native American culture. Fifteen years ago, Dashiell "Dash" Bad Horse ran away from a life of abject poverty and utter hopelessness on the Prairie Rose Indian Reservation searching for something better. Now he's come back home armed with nothing but a set of nunchucs, a hell-bent-for-leather attitude and one dark secret, to find nothing much has changed on "The Rez" - short of a glimmering new casino, and a once-proud people overcome by drugs and organized crime. Is he here to set things right or just get a piece of the action?
Jason Aaron: Bio | Other works
R.M. Guera: Bio | Other works

"Aaron's narrative is dirtier than an Iron Eyes Cody vista, and promisingly matched with Guera's prairie-dusty art." - Entertainment Weekly

DEADMAN VOL. 1: DEADMAN WALKING - This unique series explores the mysteries of life and love after death. When Brandon Cayce is killed in a horrifying airplane wreck caused by his brother, he must confront the riddles of life and death head-on. Brandon realizes the person with the answers to save him from his demise may be his late brother's own wife - a woman he once loved himself.
Bruce Jones: Bio | Other works
John Watkiss: Bio | Other works

JACK OF FABLES VOL. 1: THE (NEARLY) GREAT ESCAPE - The charming and insufferable Jack of Tales steps out of the pages of Bill Willingham's acclaimed Eisner Award-winning series FABLES to star in his own series. Jack has left the comfort of Fabletown to make his way across the heartland of America and has extreme adventures with other notorious, renegade Fables along the way.
Bill Willingham: Bio | Other works
Matthew Sturges: Bio | Other works
Tony Akins: Bio | Other works

SANDMAN MYSTERY THEATRE VOL. 1: THE TARANTULA - In this noir detective tale of intrigue, bigotry and incest, millionaire Wesley Dodds takes on the costumed persona of the Sandman to catch a sadistic killer in 1930s New York. Donning a gas mask, fedora, business suit and cape, Dodds goes after the Tarantula, a brutal kidnapper who is mercilessly preying upon the women of high society. But as the Sandman walks through a world of corruption and deceit, he uncovers the true secret of the murders and their implausible connection to the city's most prominent family.
Matt Wagner: Bio | Other works
Guy Davis: Bio | Other works

"A remarkable examination and evisceration of American Pulp Tradition." - Neil Gaiman

THE INVISIBLES: SAY YOU WANT A REVOLUTION - Only a subversive group of clandestine anarchists called THE INVISIBLES can oppose a sinister secret organization that has been creating a hypnotic state of conformity and control through their manipulation of the government, business, and entertainment by creating self-awareness and freedom through disobedience.
Grant Morrison: Bio | Other works
Steve Yeowell: Bio | Other works
Jill Thompson: Bio | Other works

"THE INVISIBLES...is that rare thing, a smart, spooky, exciting comic. Grant Morrison is a master of smart comics." - Time Out

DEATH: THE HIGH COST OF LIVING - The is the story of the one day in every hundred years when Death, the older sister of the Sandman, walks among humans to gain a better understanding of those to whom she will be their final visitor.
Neil Gaiman: Bio | Other works
Chris Bachalo: Bio| Other works

HUMAN TARGET - Christopher Chance, a master of disguise, makes a living by cunningly taking on the appearance and persona of men and women with contracts out against them.
Peter Milligan: Bio | Other works
Javier Pulido: Bio | Other works

THE BOOKS OF MAGIC - DC's occult characters guide young Tim Hunter, potentially the world's most powerful sorcerer, through the realms of magic in this supernatural tour de force.
Neil Gaiman: Bio | Other works
John Bolton: Bio | Other works
Charles Vess: Bio | Other works
Scott Hampton: Bio | Other works

THE LOSERS: ANTE UP - This hard-hitting crime/espionage series mixes real-world scenarios with widescreen action. Once an elite U.S. Special Forces unit, the Losers served as the covert bloody hand of America until they stumbled across a C.I.A. secret they couldn't ignore. The government tried to kill them but failed. Now it's payback time.
Andy Diggle: Bio | Other works
Jock: Bio | Other works

"Hot and heavy...(with) vibrantly intense art. A-" - Entertainment Weekly

THE EXTERMINATORS: BUG BROTHERS VOL. 1 - Vertigo's twisted series follows the dysfunctional adventures of exterminator Henry James and his freakish supporting cast as they take on the cruel chaos of nature in the dirty corners of Los Angeles - only to stumble upon a secret that could well reverse the positions of exterminator and pest!
Simon Oliver: Bio | Other works
Tony Moore: Bio | Other works

"...about as fun as you get when it comes to "mature reading" in comics. Highlyrecommended." - Ain't It Cool News

SWAMP THING VOL. 1: SAGA OF THE SWAMP THING - The SWAMP THING is an elemental creature created out of the Swamp by a freak accident that uses the forces of nature and wisdom of the plant kingdom to fight the polluted world's self-destruction.
Alan Moore: Bio | Other works
Stephen Bissette: Bio | Other works
John Totleben: Bio | Other works

HELLBLAZER: ORIGINAL SINS - The adventures of John Constantine, an unconcerned, somewhat amoral occultist with a British working-class background is a hero, of sorts, who manages to come out on top through a combination of luck, trickery, and genuine magical skill.
Jamie Delano: Bio | Other works
John Ridgway: Bio | Other works

DOOM PATROL VOL. 1: CRAWLING FROM THE WRECKAGE - Shunned as freaks and outcasts, and tempered by loss and insanity, the Doom Patrol faces threats mystifying in nature, corrupted beyond any sensible motives - threats that must, at all costs, be defeated.
Grant Morrison: Bio | Other works
Richard Case: Bio | Other works

TESTAMENT VOL. 1: AKEDAH - From the imagination of best-selling author Douglas Rushkoff comes a graphic novel series that exposes the "real" Bible as it was actually written, and reveals how its mythic tales are repeated today.
Grad student Jake Stern leads an underground band of renegades that uses any means necessary to combat the frightening threats to freedom that permeate the world. They employ technology, alchemy, media hacking and mysticism to fight a modern threat that has its roots in ancient stories destined to recur in the modern age.
Douglas Rushkoff: Bio | Other works
Liam Sharp: Bio | Other works

"Impossible to put down. Chock full of cool, forward-lookingideas." - Variety.com

AMERICAN VIRGIN VOL. 1: HEAD - Adam Chamberlain is a 20-year-old youth minister, a best-selling author, and most important, the head of a rabid national virginity movement. But practicing virgin or not, Adam is about to lose it when his girlfriend is killed.
Steven T. Seagle: Bio | Other works
Becky Cloonan: Bio | Other works

"Spiritual and grungy, a wholly original piece of work. (Grade) A" - Entertainment Weekly

LOVELESS VOL.1: A KIN OF HOMECOMING - West Cutter is a wanted man running from a violent past, the horrors of the Civil War, but now he's come home in search of his wife Ruth - a tormented woman who hides dark secrets of her own. This frontier Bonnie & Clyde will cut a bloody swath of redemption on a quest for the one thing that has always eluded them - peace.
Brian Azzarello: Bio | Other works
Marcelo Frusin: Bio | Other works

"...for those who love a great western and an onerous outlaw,the badder "Loveless" gets, the better."-The Washington Examiner

TRANSMETROPOLITAN VOL. 1: BACK ON THE STREET - Outlaw journalist Spider Jerusalem attacks the injustices of his surreal 21^st Century through black humor as an investigative reporter for the newspaper The Word.
Warren Ellis: Bio | Other works
Darick Robertson: Bio | Other works

"Transmet is brilliant future-shock commentary." - SPIN

DMZ VOL. 1: ON THE GROUND - The story of the ultimate embedded war journalist trapped in a most unlikely war zone: the street of New York City, or as the world nowknowsit,the DMZ.
Brian Wood: Bio | Other works
Riccardo Burchelli: Bio | Other works

"DMZ is incredible. It is addictive and brutal, and a perfect antidote to the flag-waving Fox News broadcasts of the War on Terror." - Chicago Sun Times

THE SANDMAN VOL. 1: PRELUDES AND NOCTURNES - The first story of Morpheus, Lord of Dreams, tells of his plight and the quest he must undertake to retain his lost kingdom.
Neil Gaiman: Bio | Other works
Sam Kieth: Bio | Other works
Mike Dringenberg: Bio | Other works
Malcolm Jones III: Bio | Other works
Dave McKean: Bio | Other works

"A clever, literate comic book series that rewrote the conventions of horror and superhero comics for a new generation of adult readers." - The Boston Phoenix

PREACHER VOL 1: GONE TO TEXAS - Reverend Jesse Custer gains the ability to make people do whatever he says and goes on a violent and riotous quest with his girlfriend Tulip and the hard drinking Irish vampire Cassidy to literallyfind Godand take Him to task for the world's injustices.
Garth Ennis: Bio | Other works
Steve Dillon: Bio | Otherworks

"Just about the best thing to come along since comics started finding their way into books." - The Washington Post

100 BULLETS VOL. 1: FIRST SHOT, LAST CALL - The series in which the mysterious Agent Graves offers immunity to everyday people to carry out their innermost desires of vengeance with the 100 bullets that he supplies. Can they pull the trigger?
Brian Azzarello: Bio | Other works
Eduardo Risso: Bio | Other works

"A revenge fantasy turned into a hard-boiled comic book. Grade A-" - Entertainment Weekly

Y: THE LAST MAN VOL 1: UNMANNED - The saga of Yorick Brown, an unemployed slacker that discovers he is the only male left in a world inhabited solely by women after a plague of unknown origin instantly kills every mammal with a Y chromosome.
Brian K. Vaughan: Bio | Other works
Pia Guerra: Bio | Other works

"A seriously funny, nuanced fable...Grade A" - Entertainment Weekly

FABLES VOL 1: LEGENDS IN EXILE - The infamous inhabitants of folklore were forced into exile when a savage creature known as the Adversary conquered the fabled lands of legendsand fairy tales. These magical characters now disguise themselves as normal citizens in modern-day New York and around the world.
Bill Willingham: Bio | Other works
Lan Medina: Bio | Other works
Steve Leialoha: Bio | Other works

"[A] wonderfully twisted concept...features fairy tale characters banished to the nourish world of present-day New York." - Washington Post