title: Steve Waugh

text: The West Indies had been the "bête noire" of Australian cricket since winning the Frank Worrell Trophy in 1978. At the beginning of Australia's 1995 tour of the Caribbean, the West Indies had not lost a Test series since 1980, and had not lost a Test series to Australia at home since 1973. The Tests were preceded by an ODI series that was lost 1–4. Waugh scored 164 runs at 32.80 and took three wickets at 41.00. In a low-scoring, four-Test series, Waugh compiled 429 runs at an average of 107.25 and claimed five wickets (for 62 runs) to win the player of the series award; his twin Mark was the next best batsman with 240 runs at 40 average.


title: Steve Waugh

text: Waugh was at the centre of a controversy during the First Test at Barbados when he claimed a low catch from Brian Lara in the first innings. Television replays were inconclusive, but suggested that the ball may have hit the ground. Lara, noted for accepting the word of the fielder without question, left the field. Following his dismissal, the West Indies' batting collapsed, and Australia went on to win by ten wickets. Waugh later faced accusations of dishonesty and cheating over the incident.


title: Steve Waugh

text: After scoring 65 not out in the drawn Second Test at Antigua, Waugh defied the Caribbean pacemen on a green pitch at Trinidad suited to their hostile bowling during the Third Test. In the first innings, he scored an unbeaten 63 of Australia's 128 and had a mid-pitch confrontation with Curtly Ambrose. After Waugh had evaded a bouncer from Ambrose, the pair exchanged glares. Waugh swore and told Ambrose to return to his bowling mark. An angry Ambrose had to be physically dragged away by his captain: a photograph of this moment has become one of the iconic images of cricket in the 1990s. It symbolised the point when Australia was no longer intimidated by the West Indies. Waugh "showed he was prepared to put it all on the line", said Justin Langer, "in the toughest conditions [...] against probably the best fast bowler of our time. To stand up to him [Ambrose] and go toe to toe [...] gave us a huge boost."


title: Steve Waugh

text: Nevertheless, the West Indies won the match and levelled the series. In the decider in Jamaica, Waugh took 2/14 in the West Indies' first innings of 265 and then arrived at the crease with Australia at 73 for three in reply. He compiled a long partnership of 231 runs with his brother Mark, who was eventually out for 126. Waugh was the last man to go, out for 200 after nine hours of batting. "Steve had made up his mind to bat and bat", wrote Paul Reiffel, "to stay out there and anchor the proceedings. [... H]e copped a lot of blows on his arms, chest and ribs. When he came back to the dressing room at the end of day two, we could see the spots and bruises on his body [...]. I remember when I walked in [...] he didn't say anything to me, but then he didn't need to. We all pretty much knew that we just had to support him."


title: Steve Waugh

text: "He was in a trance-like state. [... I]n the wee hours of the second morning, a security guard was found rifling through Steve's kit bag. That incident [...] didn't affect his concentration. It all [...] just went to show how strong a character he was."


title: Steve Waugh

text: Waugh played patiently and reached his double century with an all-run four to fine-leg off a quicker ball from Carl Hooper. He was the last man out. With a large lead on first innings, Australia dismissed the opposition for a low score to win a crushing victory.


title: Steve Waugh

text: After some post-win wassailing, Waugh retired to bed in his cricket whites, socks and baggy green. "[Y]ou could say that Steve's legacy gained a lot of momentum from his efforts at Jamaica", wrote Reiffel.


title: Steve Waugh

text: Waugh started the 1995–96 Australian season ranked as the world's leading Test batsman. He made an unbeaten 112 as Australia defeated Pakistan in the First Test at Brisbane and scored 200 runs at 50.00 for the series. Suffering an injury in December, he missed the First Test against Sri Lanka and part of the triangular ODI tournament, then returned for the Boxing Day Test at Melbourne to score 131 not out. Waugh returned during the latter stages of the triangular tournament, playing in the last four matches after missing the first six. He scored his maiden ODI century, ten years after his ODI debut, with an unbeaten 102 against Sri Lanka in Melbourne. Despite this, Australia lost by three wickets. Waugh ended with 128 runs at 42.66 and did not take a wicket, bowling only four overs on his comeback from injury. He helped Australia to a 3–0 result in the Test series by scoring 170 and 61 not out at Adelaide to end the series with 362 runs for once out. He also took 4/34 in the Third Test.


title: Steve Waugh

text: During the 1996 Cricket World Cup on the subcontinent, Waugh scored 82 and featured in a 207-run partnership with his brother during Australia's first match against Kenya: an Australian record partnership at the World Cup. He made an unbeaten half-century in the quarter-final against New Zealand at Madras, sealing a successful run chase. However, he was less effective in the semi-final and final, failing to pass 20 on either occasion. Australia lost the final to Sri Lanka at Lahore.


title: Steve Waugh

text: After the World Cup, Geoff Marsh replaced Bob Simpson as coach. The Australians started the new era with two ODI tournaments in Sri Lanka and India. Waugh scored 366 runs at 40.66 with three half-centuries and took five wickets at 37.40 across nine matches. The tour ended with a solitary Test against India in Delhi, where Waugh was the only Australian to make a half-century in a defeat.


title: Steve Waugh

text: Waugh failed to make a century in the five Tests of the 1996–97 Australian season against the West Indies, scoring 255 runs at 36.42 with three half centuries. He also missed the Second Test against the West Indies after injuring his groin while bowling in the First.


title: Steve Waugh

text: The injury meant that Waugh was only available for six of Australia's eight ODI matches in the annual triangular tournament. Waugh managed only 159 runs at 26.50 and only bowled three overs without taking a wicket as he came back from injury as Australia missed the finals.


title: Steve Waugh

text: Waugh returned to form on the 1997 tour of South Africa, averaging 78.25. He scored 160 in the First Test at Johannesburg, compiling a 385-run partnership with Greg Blewett. They batted for the entire third day's play to set up an innings victory. Waugh then top scored with half-centuries in both innings of the Third Test, which Australia lost. After the team's vice-captain Ian Healy was suspended for throwing his bat after his dismissal, Waugh replaced him as Mark Taylor's deputy. Waugh continued his strong run in the seven ODIs, scoring 301 runs at 50.16 with four half-centuries. After scoring 50 and 50* in the first two matches, he scored 89 in a run chase in the sixth match as Australia sealed the series 4–2 with one over in hand. He then scored 91 in the last match in a vain run chase.


title: Steve Waugh

text: On the 1997 Ashes tour, Australia started poorly with a 0–3 loss in the ODI series, with Waugh managing only 60 runs at 20.00.


title: Steve Waugh

text: This continued as Australia lost the First Test by nine wickets, drew the Second Test, then won the toss in the Third Test at Manchester. Gambling on batting first on green pitch, Australia slumped to 3/42 in the first hour when Waugh came out to bat. He made 108. Similarly, he began his second innings with Australia on 3/39 and scored 116. These two centuries in a low-scoring match won the game. Australia levelled the series and regained the initiative, retaining the Ashes with a 3–2 result. Waugh's only other notable score was 75, scored in the Fifth Test win at Nottingham, and he finished with 390 runs at 39 average for the series.


title: Steve Waugh

text: Waugh took over the captaincy of the one-day side in 1997–98, after captain Mark Taylor and vice-captain Ian Healy, the two oldest players in the team were dropped following Australia's failure to qualify for the Australian tri-nations tournament in the 1996–97 season. Planning began for a more modern team for the 1999 Cricket World Cup, with the batting prowess of new wicket-keeper Adam Gilchrist to prove critical. The new team made a difficult start, losing all four of its preliminary matches against South Africa as Michael di Venuto, Tom Moody and Stuart Law were all tried as Mark Waugh's new opening partner. Waugh himself struggled, scoring only 12 runs, including three ducks in his first six innings before scoring 45* in the last round-robin match to ensure Australia qualified for the finals ahead of New Zealand.


title: Steve Waugh

text: However, with Gilchrist's elevation to opener in the finals series, Australia defeated the South Africans 2–1. Waugh scored 53 and 71 in his two innings, and ended the series with 181 runs at 22.63. He bowled only four overs and took a solitary wicket in the series, which was his first ODI wicket in over a year.


title: Steve Waugh

text: Waugh scored steadily in the 1997–98 Test season against New Zealand and South Africa, getting to 80 three times in six Tests without going on to a century and averaging 40.89; Australia won both series. He bowled more often than in the preceding few years and took six wickets at 17.33.


title: Steve Waugh

text: The southern hemisphere season ended with Waugh leading his first overseas tour, a four-match ODI tour of New Zealand. He scored 112 runs at 37.33 and took three wickets at 42.00 as the series was drawn 2–2.


title: Steve Waugh

text: On the 1998 tour of India, he hit 80 in the Second Test at Calcutta, but missed the following Test due to injury. He ended with 152 runs at 38.


title: Steve Waugh

text: He recovered to lead in the triangular tournament in India. Australia won both games to Zimbabwe but lost both to India. However, Waugh's men turned the tables in the final to beat the Indians by four wickets. Waugh contributed with bat and ball, taking 2/42 and scoring 57. This was followed by a triangular tournament in Sharjah, where Australia won all four group matches against India and New Zealand. This time, the Indians turned the table to win the final by six wickets despite Waugh's 70. Waugh totalled 254 runs at 28.22 and eight wickets at 33.50 for the two tournaments.


title: Steve Waugh

text: Later in the year, he top scored with 157 in the First Test against Pakistan at Karachi, enabling Australia to force an innings victory and gain their first victory in the country for 39 years. It formed the basis of Australia's 1–0 series win, in which Waugh scored 235 runs at 58.75.


title: Steve Waugh

text: Waugh led the ODI team in a 3–0 sweep of Pakistan after the Tests, but he managed only 40 runs at 13.33.


title: Steve Waugh

text: The following season, Waugh suffered hamstring injuries and missed the majority of the ODI tournament. In the two matches in which he played, Waugh made only a duck and 20 and Australia lost both matches. Shane Warne led Australia to victory in his absence, winning eight of the remaining 10 matches.


title: Steve Waugh

text: Waugh began the Ashes series with centuries in the First Test at Brisbane (112) and the Third Test at Melbourne but was criticised for taking singles off the first ball of the over, and exposing the tail-end batsmen to the strike. Stuart MacGill and Glenn McGrath fell to Darren Gough after one such instance as Australia collapsed in the second innings whilst chasing a small target. This criticism could be considered more than a little unfair, however, given his strong record overall of batting well with lower order batsman such as Merv Hughes, Jason Gillespie, Ian Healy, Shane Warne and even Glenn McGrath precisely by putting his faith in them. In the Fifth Test of the season, Waugh was involved in a century partnership with brother Mark for the second consecutive year. Again however, he fell within sight of triple figures for 96, while his brother reached his century. Australia won the Test and the series 3–1.


title: Steve Waugh

text: Mark Taylor retired at the end of the 1998–99 season and Waugh replaced him as Test captain, beginning with a tour of the Caribbean. Australia was expected to win as the West Indies had just been whitewashed 5–0 by South Africa. After easily winning the First Test, Australia was stymied by West Indies skipper Brian Lara, who batted with Jimmy Adams for the entire second day of the Second Test. This led to a victory for the home side, and in the Third Test, Lara batted for the entire final day to secure an unlikely win by one wicket. This result placed Waugh under immense pressure and he made a controversial decision to drop Shane Warne from the team for the final Fourth Test. Australia won the final Test despite a third consecutive century from Lara, and retained the Frank Worrell Trophy 2–2.


title: Steve Waugh

text: The subsequent ODI series between the two teams was drawn 3–3. The series was notable for two incidents. In the fifth match at Georgetown, Guyana, Waugh was facing the bowling of Keith Arthurton with his team needing four runs from the final over to win. He struck the last ball of the match into the outfield, and attempted three runs to tie the match. A crowd invasion resulted in all the stumps being removed, with Waugh out of his ground when the ball was returned by the fielder. The match was declared a tie. During the West Indies run-chase in the final match in Barbados, local batsman Sherwin Campbell was run out after he fell over because of a collision with the bowler (Brendon Julian) who was attempting to field the ball. This resulted in a crowd riot and Waugh was nearly struck in the head with a glass bottle. The match continued after Campbell was reinstated, but Waugh criticised the security and questioned the integrity of the match.


title: Steve Waugh

text: Waugh struggled in the lead-up to the World Cup, scoring 135 runs at 22.50 and taking two wickets at 33.00.


title: Steve Waugh

text: Australia then had a slow start to the 1999 World Cup in England. After a scratchy win against Scotland, Australia suffered defeats to New Zealand and Pakistan, so they had to win their two remaining group matches (against Bangladesh and the West Indies), then all three "Super Six" matches to progress to the semi-finals: this meant seven consecutive matches without defeat to win the World Cup. After defeating Bangladesh, Waugh and Michael Bevan were criticised for deliberately batting slowly in order to minimise damage to the net run rate of the West Indies. This would enhance Australia's chances: if the West Indies' run rate remained high, they would qualify ahead of New Zealand. Since the Australians had lost to New Zealand, it would be the Kiwis that carried two points through to the next phase if the West Indies was eliminated. If the West Indies proceeded, then Australia would carry over two points from the win.


title: Steve Waugh

text: When questioned about the ethics of this manipulation at a press conference, Waugh retorted, "We're not here to win friends mate". Having beaten India and Zimbabwe in their first two Super Six matches, Waugh saved his best for two must-win games against South Africa: he scored an unbeaten 120 against South Africa in the "Super Six" phase and 56 in the semi-final. The latter match was tied and Australia progressed to the final, where they crushed Pakistan by eight wickets to win the trophy.


title: Steve Waugh

text: The World Cup victory did not immediately turn around Waugh's fortunes in the Test arena. The following tour to Sri Lanka continued the difficulties, when Australia lost the First Test in Kandy, a result exacerbated by a horrific fielding collision between Waugh and Jason Gillespie. Waugh's nose made contact with Gillespie's shin as both attempted a catch. Gillespie suffered a broken leg that sidelined him for 15 months, and Waugh had his nose broken. Although Waugh returned for the following match, the last two Tests were drawn due to interruptions from monsoonal weather. Waugh had a lean series with 52 runs at 17.33. Waugh's team then travelled an inaugural Test against Zimbabwe at Harare. Australia won by ten wickets and Waugh's 151 not out was the first century in Tests between the nations. After the team's return home, John Buchanan replaced Geoff Marsh as team coach.


title: Steve Waugh

text: The 1999–2000 Test season, his first as captain in a home series, saw further change as Gilchrist ousted Healy from the wicket-keeper's position. With Gilchrist averaging over 50, the team went on to claim a clean-sweep of both Test series, 3–0 against Pakistan and India respectively. Waugh had a lean stretch during the Pakistan series, scoring 58 runs at 14.50, but his team won by margins of ten wickets, four wickets and an innings respectively. Waugh returned to form in the First Test against India at the Adelaide Oval, scoring 150 in the first innings. Waugh only passed fifty once more in the series to end with 276 runs at 55.20. Australia won all three Tests by comfortable margins of 285 runs, 180 runs and an innings respectively.


title: Steve Waugh

text: After losing their first match, his team proceeded to win the season's triangular ODI tournament without further defeat. They then toured New Zealand and won the ODI series 5–1, losing their final match, which ended a world record of 14 consecutive ODI victories. They then swept the Tests against New Zealand 3–0 in early 2000, taking the Tests by 62 runs, six wickets and six wickets respectively. Waugh led the way in the Second Test at the Basin Reserve in Wellington with an unbeaten 151 but otherwise did not pass 20, totalling 214 runs at 53.50. His men had won all nine of their Tests during the southern hemisphere summer.


title: Steve Waugh

text: His team continued their winning streak with an undefeated home season in 2000–01 when the West Indies were white-washed 5–0. The first two Tests were won by an innings, and the Second Test at the WACA brought a twelfth consecutive Test victory, surpassing the record held by the 1980s West Indies team led by Clive Lloyd. Waugh missed the Third Test with injury and Gilchrist led the team in his absence and kept the winning streak alive. Waugh returned for the last two Tests and scored centuries in the first innings of both Tests with 121* and 103 respectively, which Australia won by 352 runs and six wickets respectively. Waugh compiled 349 runs at 69.80.


title: Steve Waugh

text: Waugh then led the Australians undefeated in the triangular ODI tournament against the West Indies and Zimbabwe, despite employing a rotation system which saw the team often understrength with players rested.


title: Steve Waugh

text: The only significant result that Australia had failed to achieve during Waugh's international career was victory in a Test series in India. Waugh began calling this the "Final Frontier" as Australia had not won there since 1969–70. Australia easily won the First Test at Mumbai by ten wickets to extend the winning sequence to 16. India, looked set for defeat in the Second Test at Eden Gardens in Kolkata after conceding a first innings lead of 274. Waugh top-scored in the first innings with 110. Waugh chose to enforce the follow-on, the only time that Australia had chosen to do so for more than five years. However, VVS Laxman (281) and Rahul Dravid (180) batted for the entire fourth day's play and set Australia a target of 384 on a dusty, spinning wicket. The Australians were unable to cope with the spin of Harbhajan Singh on the final day, and became only the third team to lose a Test after enforcing the follow-on. Starting the final Test well, Australia's batting collapsed on the second morning, losing 6/26 after Waugh became the sixth batsman to be given out handled the ball—he pushed a ball from Harbhajan away from the stumps after being hit on the pads. Waugh's pair of 47s was not enough as Harbhajan finished with 15 wickets in the match to lead India to a two-wicket win in another thrilling finish.


title: Steve Waugh

text: Waugh's team regrouped and won a 4–1 series victory over England during the 2001 Ashes tour. He scored 105 in the First Test at Edgbaston as the Australians started the series with an innings victory. Waugh did not pass 50 in the next two Tests, but Australia won both by eight and seven wickets respectively to retain the Ashes. However, Waugh pulled a calf muscle and missed the Fourth Test at Headingley which Australia lost. In his final Test innings on English soil at The Oval, he combined with brother Mark (120) in a partnership of 197, and scored 157 not out. Australia won by an innings to seal the series 4–1, with Waugh scoring 321 runs at 107.00.


title: Steve Waugh

text: He was unable to maintain this form during the 2001–02 Australian season, failing to score a century in the six Tests against New Zealand and South Africa; The first two Tests against New Zealand were drawn due to rain, and the Third also ended in a draw. Waugh failed to pass double figures until scoring 67 in the second innings of the final Test, finishing the series with 78 runs at 19.50.


title: Steve Waugh

text: Australia then went on to face South Africa, who were the second-ranked Test team in the world and were seen as the leading challengers to Australian supremacy.


title: Steve Waugh

text: Waugh managed only eight and 13 in the First Test, but Australia managed to win by 246 runs in any case. His best score of the series was 90 in the Second Test at the MCG. His innings was ended by a run out decision, which the umpire did not refer to the video umpire. Waugh attracted criticism for not leaving the ground until he had watched a replay of the incident on the stadium's video screen. Australia powered to a nine-wicket win and then polished off a 3–0 sweep with a ten-wicket triumph in the Third Test at the SCG, with Waugh scoring 30.


title: Steve Waugh

text: Australia made an uncertain start to the 2001–02 VB Series, losing the first three of its preliminary matches. A rotation policy designed to ease the workload on older players while giving younger players experience appeared to unsettle the team, and was scrapped. Following this decision, Australia won four of the last five matches, but failed to qualify for the finals for only the third time in 23 years. In their final match, Australia needed a win and a bonus point against South Africa as New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming, in retaliation to Waugh's tactics in the World Cup, had conceded a bonus point to South Africa in the previous match. The team's performance caused a reaction similar that of 1997. With an eye toward the next World Cup, the selectors dropped the Waugh brothers and handed the captaincy to Ricky Ponting. Waugh made his displeasure at the decision public and stated a desire to regain his place in the side.


title: Steve Waugh

text: Continuing as Test captain, Waugh led the team to a 2–1 victory in South Africa to retain Australia's ranking as the number one team. Australia crushed the hosts in the First Test by an innings and 360 runs, won the Second Test by four wickets, before losing the last. His own form was poor, with 95 runs at 19.00. He left the tour once the ODI series began. Arriving in Australia alone, he faced media questioning over his playing future. Waugh's reply was, "We've just beaten the next best team in the world 5–1, and all you want to talk about is getting me out of the team."


title: Steve Waugh

text: The speculation continued about the future of both Waugh brothers in the lead up to the Test series against Pakistan played in mid-2002. The matches were hosted in the United Arab Emirates and Sri Lanka, due to security concerns following a bomb blast inside Pakistan. Australia had a crushing 3–0 win, winning the two latter matches by an innings, but the Waughs had little influence on the result. However, Steve hit 103 not out in his last innings of the series, after scoring consecutive ducks. This may have saved his career; his brother was dropped for the 2002–03 Ashes series and promptly announced his retirement from international cricket.


title: Steve Waugh

text: Despite his team being well on top, Waugh struggled in the early part of the Ashes series and he scored only 106 runs in four innings in the first three Tests. It mattered little to the match results; Australia crushed England in the First Test by 384 runs and proceeded to record consecutive innings victories. In the Fourth Test at the MCG, he scored 77 in the first innings and took his first Test wicket in four years; he did not bowl himself often as captain. However, his score of 14 in the second innings was characterised by many inside edges and false strokes led to increased speculation that he would be dropped. Australia managed to reach their target with five wickets down, despite a stumble on the final morning.


title: Steve Waugh

text: The Fifth Test in his hometown Sydney started with speculation that it would be Waugh's last Test unless he reversed his ongoing form slump. Asked before the final Test to nominate the defining moment of a career likely to soon be over, Waugh made a prediction rather than reflecting, stating: "It might be yet to come". On the second day of the match he then fulfilled this prophecy, scoring a chanceless century – bringing up three figures with a cover driven boundary from the last ball of the day (bowled by off-spinner Richard Dawson). Waugh left the ground to a standing ovation, having equalled Sir Donald Bradman's then Australian record of 29 Test centuries, as well as saving his own Test career. In the second innings, Australia faced a large target and slumped to a heavy defeat by 225 on a deteriorating pitch, its only loss of the series. When he was dismissed cheaply in the second innings, Waugh ran off the field, as the crowd gave him a standing ovation amidst speculation he may choose to retire after what was regarded as a fairytale century.


title: Steve Waugh

text: The 2003 World Cup came and Waugh's desire to return for a fifth World Cup was denied. A chance for a last minute reprieve came when all rounder Shane Watson was injured before the tournament. Waugh had been using his newspaper column to promote his bowling abilities and had been increasingly using himself as a bowler in an attempt to strengthen his case for a recall. However, his successor Ricky Ponting publicly called for the inclusion of then out of form Andrew Symonds. Ponting got his wish, and although the selection was regarded as being highly controversial at the time, Symonds established himself at international level with a series of match winnings innings.


title: Steve Waugh

text: During the April 2003 tour to the West Indies, Waugh made 25 in the First Test and did not bat in the Second, before scoring 115 in the Third Test victory. Australia won all three Tests by nine wickets, 118 runs and nine wickets respectively. He scored 41 and 45* in the Fourth Test to end the series with 226 runs at 75.33. It was in this match, that Australia lost as the home team broke the record for the highest successful Test run chase. Waugh received some criticism over claims he refused to control his players. This came after a heated confrontation between Glenn McGrath and West Indian batsman Ramnaresh Sarwan as the hosts headed towards their target.


title: Steve Waugh

text: The Australian winter of 2003 saw Waugh score consecutive unbeaten centuries of 100 and 156 as Australia took a 2–0 sweep over Bangladesh with innings victories. The Australian summer started in late-2003 and after scoring 78 and 61 in the two Tests against Zimbabwe, which Australia won by an innings and nine wickets respectively, Waugh announced that the 2003–04 series against India would be his last.


title: Steve Waugh

text: In the First Test, Waugh was involved in a controversial run out when he had a mix up with Damien Martyn and both players ended up at the same end. Martyn, who had established himself at the crease, sacrificed himself by walking out of his ground for Waugh, who had yet to score. This generated criticism that Waugh's farewell series was being put ahead of team victory. With long bowling spearheads Shane Warne and McGrath unavailable due to drugs suspension and injury respectively, Australia struggled to bowl out the Indian batsmen. After a rain affected draw in the First Test, the next two Tests were shared and Australia needed a win to reclaim the Border Gavaskar Trophy in the final Fourth Test at Waugh's home ground at the Sydney Cricket Ground. Promoters paid tribute to Waugh by handing out giant red handkerchiefs to incoming spectators; Waugh had always used a red handkerchief to wipe perspiration while he was batting. Any hope of a win for Waugh's Australians disappeared when India batted into the third morning and amass 7/705 (with Sachin Tendulkar smashing 241*), obliging Australia to chase 449 with just over one day's play. Waugh's highest Test score of the season was his last: 80 in the Fourth Test at Sydney, which secured a draw for Australia. After an obdurate start to his innings, he took a more aggressive style once Australia had moved into a position of safety, striking several fours. It was the highest fourth innings score of his Test career. When he passed 50, several ferries on Sydney Harbour sounded their horns in acknowledgement. A record fifth-day SCG crowd turned out to watch Waugh's final day as an Australian player.


title: Steve Waugh

text: Steve Waugh's approach led to a succession of victories and a record run of 16 consecutive Test match wins, beating the previous record of 11 by the West Indies. His 168 Test matches was the record for Test matches played until 2010; of these he captained Australia on 57 occasions, the fourth highest of all time, and Australia's 41 victories under his leadership, was the most of any Test captain, until Ricky Ponting surpassed him in December 2009. He holds the record of having scored over 150 runs in one innings against each Test playing nation at the time.


title: Steve Waugh

text: A shot that Waugh gradually developed (during the 1998 Commonwealth Games specifically) against spin bowling, the "slog sweep" is theoretically technically unsound, but has proven highly effective against the spinners and even against faster bowlers at times. What was also noticeable about Waugh (particularly in the Test arena) on his return to the side was his reluctance (and eventual refusal) to play, what he viewed as, the 'risky' hook shot, rather simply to either play defensively on the back foot, sway or duck out of the way. With this shot removed from Waugh's repertoire his batting developed a safer more reliable look and his Test match batting average steadily rose to around 50 for the remainder of his Test career.


title: Steve Waugh

text: Waugh's ability to continue to play despite a back injury that largely prevented him bowling further enhanced his reputation. He contributed to many one day victories but, often batting in the middle order, his first one-day hundred did not come until his 187th match, for Australia against Sri Lanka at Melbourne in 1995–96.


title: Steve Waugh

text: As a bowler and all-rounder early in his career, he had a great leg cutter that is full length and aims at off stump that tempts batsmen to hit over mid-wicket or right down the ground against middle order batsmen, or aiming outside off to tempt lower-order batsmen to drive into the infielders.


title: Steve Waugh

text: Waugh helps to raise funds for a leper children's colony, Udayan, in Kolkata. He reportedly also encouraged his players to learn about and enjoy the countries they visited and played in.


title: Steve Waugh

text: Waugh is a keen photographer and has produced several "tour diaries" which feature his images. In his latter years as a cricketer, he wrote for a number of newspapers. He insists on writing them himself rather than with the assistance of professional journalists. He is a prolific author and has written numerous tour diaries, leadership and self-help books such as "Never Say Die" and "The Meaning of Luck". as well as an autobiography, "Out of my Comfort Zone".


title: Steve Waugh

text: Waugh was named Australian of the Year in 2004, in recognition of both his sporting achievements and charity work. Waugh is married to Lynette with three children and was named Australian Father of the Year in 2005. Following retirement, Waugh established the Steve Waugh Foundation. The foundation is aimed at children who have a disease, an illness or an affliction that does not meet the set criteria of other charitable organisations.


title: Steve Waugh

text: Waugh has stated that he has declined "a number of" approaches by the Australian Labor Party to run for political office, expressing the view that he is not suited to politics.


title: Akbar II

text: Akbar II (; 22 April 1760 – 28 September 1837), also known as Akbar Shah II, was the Nineteeth Mughal emperor of India. He reigned from 1806 to 1837. He was the second son of Shah Alam II and the father of Bahadur Shah II


title: Akbar II

text: Akbar had little de facto power due to the increasing British influence in India through the East India Company. He sent Ram Mohan Roy as an ambassador to Britain and gave him the title of Raja. During his regime, in 1835, the East India Company discontinued calling itself subject of the Mughal Emperor and issuing coins in his name. The Persian lines in the company's coins to this effect were deleted.


title: Akbar II

text: Akbar II is credited with starting the Hindu–Muslim unity festival Phool Walon Ki Sair. His grave lies next to the dargah of 13th-century Sufi saint Qutbuddin Bakhtiar Kaki at Mehrauli.


title: Akbar II

text: Prince Mirza Akbar was born on 22 April 1760 to Emperor Shah Alam II at Mukundpur, Satna, while his father was in exile. On 2 May 1781, at the Red Fort, the prince was made Crown prince with the title of "Wali Ahd Bahadur", after the death of his elder brother. In 1782, he was appointed the viceroy of Delhi until 1799. When the Rohilla leader Ghulam Qadir captured Delhi in 1788, the young Prince Mirza Akbar was forced to nautch dance along with other Mughal princes and princesses. He witnessed how the members of the imperial Mughal family were humiliated, as well as starved. When Shah Jahan IV fled, Mirza Akbar was titular Emperor with the title of "Akbar Shah II", and was to remain acting emperor even after the reinstatement of his father Shah Alam II, till January 1789.


title: Akbar II

text: Emperor Akbar II presided over an empire titularly large but in effect limited to the Red Fort in Delhi alone. The cultural life of Delhi as a whole flourished during his reign. However, his attitude towards East India Company officials, especially Lord Hastings, to whom he refused to grant an audience on terms other than those of subject and sovereign, although honourable to him, increasingly frustrated the British, who regarded him as merely their pensioner. The British therefore reduced his titular authority to 'King of Delhi' in 1835 and the East India Company ceased to act as the mere lieutenants of the Mughal Empire as they did from 1803 to 1835. Simultaneously they replaced Persian text with English text on the company's coins, which no longer carried the emperor's name.


title: Akbar II

text: The British encouraged the Nawab of Oudh and the Nizam of Hyderabad to take royal titles in order to further diminish the Emperor's status and influence. Out of deference, the Nizam did not, but the Nawab of Awadh did so.


title: Akbar II

text: Akbar II appointed the Bengali reformer Ram Mohan Roy, to appeal against his treatment by the East India Company, conferring on him the title of Raja. Ram Mohan Roy then visited England, as the Mughal envoy to the Court of St. James. Ram Mohan Roy submitted a well-argued memorial on behalf of the Mughal ruler, but to no avail.


title: Akbar II

text: The grave of Akbar II lies within a marble enclosure adjoined to the Moti Masjid near the dargah of the 13th century Sufi saint, Qutbuddin Bakhtiar Kaki at Mehrauli, Delhi. The Mughal emperors Bahadur Shah I, (Shah Alam I) and Shah Alam II are also buried here.


title: Akbar II

text: After the mutiny, cousins of Mirza Mughal, son of Bahadur Shah Zafar, son of Akbar II, escaped to neighbouring areas in fear of capture by the British. Prince Mirza Mughal, the heir apparent was himself killed in battle. Many surviving princes settled in various provinces of India, but some settled in Burma and Bengal since a large number of imperial family members, along with Emperor Bahadur Shah II were exiled to Rangoon in Burma.


title: The City of Lost Children

text: The City of Lost Children () is a 1995 science fantasy film directed by Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet, written by Jeunet and Gilles Adrien, and starring Ron Perlman. An international co-production of companies from France, Germany, and Spain, the film is stylistically related to the previous and subsequent Jeunet films, "Delicatessen" and "Amélie".


title: The City of Lost Children

text: The musical score was composed by Angelo Badalamenti, with costumes designed by Jean-Paul Gaultier. It was entered into the 1995 Cannes Film Festival.


title: The City of Lost Children

text: Krank (Daniel Emilfork), a highly intelligent but malicious being created by a vanished scientist, is unable to dream, which causes him to age prematurely. At his lair on an abandoned oil rig (which he shares with the scientist's other creations: six childish clones, a dwarf named Martha, and a brain in a vat named Irvin) he uses a dream-extracting machine to steal dreams from children. The children are kidnapped for him from a nearby port city by a cyborg cult called the Cyclops, who in exchange he supplies with mechanical eyes and ears. Among the kidnapped is Denree (Joseph Lucien), the adopted little brother of carnival strongman One (Ron Perlman).


title: The City of Lost Children

text: After the carnival manager is stabbed by a mugger, One is hired by a criminal gang of orphans (run by a pair of conjoined twins called "the Octopus") to help them steal a safe. The theft is successful, but the safe is lost in the harbor when One is distracted by seeing Denree's kidnappers. He, together with one of the orphans, a little girl called Miette (Judith Vittet), follows the Cyclops and infiltrates their headquarters, but they are captured and sentenced to execution. Meanwhile, the Octopus orders circus performer Marcello (Jean-Claude Dreyfus) to return One to them. He uses his trained fleas, which inject a poison capsule that causes mindless aggression, to turn the Cyclops guards against each other. While Marcello is rescuing One, Miette falls into the harbor and sinks, seemingly drowned, but an amnesiac diver living beneath the harbor rescues her.


title: The City of Lost Children

text: Miette leaves the diver's lair to find One and Marcello both drowning their sorrows in a bar. Upon seeing Miette alive the remorseful Marcello lets One leave with her. However the Octopus confronts them on the pier, and uses Marcello's stolen fleas to turn One against Miette. A spectacular chain of events triggered by one of Miette's tears leads to a ship crashing into the pier before One can throttle her. Marcello arrives and sets the fleas on the Octopus, allowing One and Miette to escape to continue searching for Denree.


title: The City of Lost Children

text: Back at Krank's oil rig, Irvin tricks one of the clones into releasing a plea for help in the form of a bottled dream telling the story of what is going on on the oil rig. It reaches One, Miette, and the diver, and the latter remembers that he was the scientist who made them, and that the oil rig was his laboratory before Krank and Martha attacked him and pushed him off it to take it for themselves, leaving him for dead in the water. They all converge on the rig; the diver to destroy it and the duo to rescue Denree.


title: The City of Lost Children

text: Miette is almost killed by Martha, but the diver harpoons her. She then finds Denree asleep in Krank's dream-extracting machine, and Irvin tells her that to release him she must use the machine to enter the dream herself. In the dream world, she meets Krank and makes a deal with him to replace the boy as the source of the dream; Krank fears a trap but plays along, believing himself to be in control. Miette then uses her imagination to control the dream and turn it into an infinite loop, destroying Krank's mind. One and Miette rescue all the children, while the now-deranged diver loads the rig with dynamite and straps himself to one of its legs. The diver regains his senses as everyone is rowing away and pleads with his remaining creations to come back to rescue him, but a seabird lands on the handle of the blasting machine, blowing up him and the rig.


title: The City of Lost Children

text: The film holds an 80% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 59 reviews, with an average rating of 7.4/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Not all of its many intriguing ideas are developed, but "The City of Lost Children" is an engrossing, disturbing, profoundly memorable experience." It also holds a weighted average score of 73 on Metacritic, based on 16 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Roger Ebert gave the film 3 stars out of a possible 4, writing that the film's design and visual effects deserved the highest possible praise but the story was sometimes confusing: "I would be lying if I said I understood the plot."


title: The City of Lost Children

text: The film grossed $7 million in France, $1 million in Spain and $600,000 in Germany. In the United States and Canada it grossed $1.7 million. Including receipts from the UK (£401,523) and Australia, it has grossed over $11 million worldwide. Because its revenue was less than its $18 million budget, the film was a box-office bomb.


title: The City of Lost Children

text: According to authors Jen Webb and Tony Schirato, the dual nature of capitalism constitutes a main source of tension in the film:


title: The City of Lost Children

text: According to author Donna Wilkerson-Barker, these elusive aspects of humanity are presented within the film for various characters to identify with. For example, the relationship between One and Denrée represents, for Miette, a family of authenticity. Prepared to sacrifice her life in order to become a part of their family, Miette helps One to save Denrée from Krank's manipulative environment. In another example, Irvin the brain plays his part in overturning the same environment in order to liberate his "family" of clones. In the end, two boats filled with these two different families row towards their futures: In one boat, a technologically produced family of Irvin and the clones; In the other, a rationally envisioned family containing Miette, One, and the abducted children. This leaves the audience to question precisely what the future will hold for these two differing visions of humanity.


title: The City of Lost Children

text: As "The City of Lost Children" "proceeds in full awareness that the past to which it is committed never really existed", the film has been classified as an example of the steampunk genre.


title: Vertigo Comics

text: Vertigo Comics, also known as DC Vertigo or simply Vertigo, was an imprint of American comic book publisher DC Comics started by editor Karen Berger in 1993. Vertigo's purpose was to publish comics with adult content, such as nudity, drug use, profanity, and graphic violence, that did not fit the restrictions of DC's main line, thus allowing more creative freedom. Its titles consisted of company-owned comics set in the DC Universe, such as "The Sandman" and "Hellblazer", and creator-owned works, such as "Preacher", "" and "Fables". The Vertigo branding was retired in 2020, and most of its library transitioned to DC Black Label.


title: Vertigo Comics

text: Vertigo grew out of DC's mature readers' line of the 1980s, which began after DC stopped submitting "The Saga of the Swamp Thing" for approval by the Comics Code Authority. Following the success of two adult-oriented 1986 limited series, "" and "Watchmen", DC's output of mature readers titles, edited by Karen Berger, grew. By 1992, DC's mature readers' line was editorially separate from its main line and Berger was given permission to start her own imprint. Vertigo was launched in January 1993, with a mix of existing DC ongoing series and new series. The first original Vertigo series was "", a "Sandman" spin-off featuring the character Death.


title: Vertigo Comics

text: Although its initial publications were primarily in the horror and fantasy genres, over time Vertigo published works dealing with crime, social commentary, speculative fiction, biography, and other genres. Vertigo also adopted works previously published by DC under other imprints, such as "V for Vendetta" and "Transmetropolitan". The imprint pioneered in North America the publishing model in which monthly series sold through comic book shops are periodically collected into editions which are kept in print for bookstore sale. As DC's most popular and enduring imprint, several Vertigo series won the comics industry's Eisner Award, including for "best continuing series", and were adapted to film and television.


title: Vertigo Comics

text: The imprint began to decline in the 2010s, as certain properties like "Hellblazer" and "Swamp Thing" were re-integrated into DC's main comic books, while Berger departed in 2013. Berger's departure was followed by a series of editorial restructures, culminating in the imprint's relaunch as DC Vertigo in 2018. However, the relaunch suffered a multitude of setbacks, including numerous cancellations. After months of speculation, in June 2019 DC announced that Vertigo would be discontinued as part of a plan to publish all the company's comics under a single banner, with DC Black Label taking its place as DC's mature readers' imprint.


title: Vertigo Comics

text: Vertigo originated in 1993 under the stewardship of Karen Berger, a former literature and art-history student, who had joined DC Comics in 1979 as an assistant editor. In the mid-1980s, Berger was editor of such DC titles as "Wonder Woman" and "Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld", and began recruiting writers from the UK, including Neil Gaiman, Jamie Delano, Peter Milligan, and Grant Morrison. She "found their sensibility and point of view to be refreshingly different, edgier and smarter" than those of most American comics writers.


title: Vertigo Comics

text: Berger edited several new or revived series with these writers and Alan Moore (a British writer hired by editor Len Wein), including superhero/science fiction series such as "Animal Man", "Doom Patrol" vol. 2, and "Shade, the Changing Man" vol. 2, fantasy series "The Sandman" vol. 2, and horror titles "Hellblazer" and "The Saga of the Swamp Thing." She also edited limited series such as "Kid Eternity", "Black Orchid" (Gaiman's first work for DC) and "The Books of Magic" limited series.


title: Vertigo Comics

text: These six ongoing titles, all of which carried a "Suggested for Mature Readers" label on their covers, shared a sophistication-driven sensibility the comics fan media dubbed "the Bergerverse". In a 1992 editorial meeting with Levitz, publisher Jenette Kahn, and managing editor Dick Giordano, Berger was given the mandate to place these titles under an imprint that, as Berger described, would "do something different in comics and help the medium 'grow up'". Several DC titles bearing the age advisory, such as "Green Arrow", "Blackhawk", and "The Question" (the last two cancelled before the launch of Vertigo), did not make the transition to the new imprint.


title: Vertigo Comics

text: Meanwhile, Disney Comics and former DC editor Art Young had been developing an imprint to be called Touchmark Comics, analogous to Disney's mature-audiences Touchstone Pictures studio. This project was abandoned following the so-called "Disney Implosion" of 1991. Young and those works were brought into the Vertigo fold, allowing Berger to expand the imprint's publishing plans with the limited series "Enigma", "Sebastian O", "Mercy", and "Shadows Fall".


title: Vertigo Comics

text: Vertigo was launched in January 1993 with a mixture of existing ongoing series continued under the new imprint, new ongoing series, new limited series, and single-volume collections or graphic novels. Their publishing plan for the first year involved two new titles – whether ongoing/limited series or one-shots – each month. The existing series (cover date March 1993) were "Shade, the Changing Man" (starting with #33), "The Sandman" (#47), "Hellblazer" (#63), "Animal Man" (#57), "Swamp Thing" (#129), and "Doom Patrol" (#64, with new writer Rachel Pollack).


title: Vertigo Comics

text: The first comic book published under the "Vertigo" imprint was the first issue of "", a three-issue series by Neil Gaiman and Chris Bachalo. The second new title was the first issue of "Enigma", an 8-issue limited series initially planned to launch Touchmark, written by Peter Milligan (also author of "Shade, the Changing Man") and drawn by Duncan Fegredo, the artist from Grant Morrison's earlier "Kid Eternity" limited series. The following month saw the debut of "Sandman: Mystery Theatre" by Matt Wagner and Steven T. Seagle, and illustrated primarily by Guy Davis, described as "playing the '30s with a '90s feel... haunting, film noir-ish...," and starring original Sandman Wesley Dodds in a title whose "sensibilities echo crime genre fiction." Joining it was J. M. DeMatteis and Paul Johnson's 64-page one-shot "Mercy."


title: Vertigo Comics

text: New series that began in the months that followed include "Kid Eternity" (ongoing) by Ann Nocenti and Sean Phillips (continuing from the earlier Morrison-penned limited series), Grant Morrison and Steve Yeowell's three-issue steampunk limited series "Sebastian O" (another ex-Touchmark project), "Skin Graft" by Jerry Prosser and Warren Pleece, "The Last One" by DeMatteis and Dan Sweetman, "Jonah Hex: Two-Gun Mojo" by Tim Truman and Sam Glanzman, "Black Orchid" (ongoing) by Dick Foreman and Jill Thompson (continuing from the earlier Gaiman/McKean limited series), "The Extremist" by Peter Milligan and Ted McKeever, "Scarab" by John Smith with Scot Eaton and Mike Barreiro, and "The Children's Crusade", a crossover involving several of the imprint's ongoing series. "The Books of Magic" limited series was relaunched as an ongoing series written by John Ney Rieber, and illustrated by Peter Gross (later also writer), Gary Amaro, and Peter Snejbjerg.


title: Vertigo Comics

text: Although the books did not have a consistent "house style" of art, the cover designs of early Vertigo series featured a uniform trade dress with a vertical bar along the left side, which included the imprint logo, pricing, date, and issue numbers. The design layout continued with very little variation until issues cover-dated July 2002 (including "Fables" #1) which introduced an across-the-top layout ahead of 2003's "Vertigo X" 10th anniversary celebration. The "distinctive design" was intended to be used on "all Vertigo books except the hardcovers, trade paperbacks, and graphic novels." Berger noted that DC was "very" committed to the line, having put a "lot of muscle behind" promoting it, including a promotional launch kit made available to "[r]etailers who order[ed] at least 25 copies of the February issue of "Sandman" [#47]," a "platinum edition" variant cover for "Death: The High Cost of Living" #1 and a 75-cent "Vertigo Preview" comic featuring a specially written seven-page "Sandman" story by Gaiman and Kent Williams. In addition, a 16-page "Vertigo Sampler" was also produced and bundled with copies of Capital City Distribution's "Advance Comics" solicitation index.


title: Vertigo Comics

text: Vertigo publications generally did not take place in a shared universe. However, several of the early series which had begun as part of the main DC Universe had a "crossover" in 1993-1994: "The Children's Crusade". The event—"did not yield smashing results" or garner many positive reviews, in large part due to its "gimmicky" nature, which ran counter to Vertigo's quirky, non-mainstream appeal and customer-base. The event was defended as "no marketing ploy" by one of the event's editors, Lou Stathis, who wrote of his dislike of the often "crass manipulation" of crossover events, defending "The Children's Crusade" as having come not from marketing, but the writers' minds, and therefore being "story-driven" rather than manipulative. The crossover did not become an annual event, however—indeed, "annuals" linked to Vertigo series rarely reappeared after this event.


title: Vertigo Comics

text: Works previously published by DC under other imprints, but which fit the general character of Vertigo, have been reprinted under this imprint. This has included "V for Vendetta", earlier issues of Vertigo's ongoing launch series, and books from discontinued imprints such as "Transmetropolitan" (initially under DC's short-lived sci-fi Helix imprint) and "A History of Violence" (originally part of the Paradox Press line).


title: Vertigo Comics

text: Two of the new ongoing series did not last long; "Kid Eternity" was cancelled after 16 issues, and "Black Orchid" continued for only 22. "Sandman Mystery Theatre" and most of the pre-existing series continued for several years, including "Sandman" which reached its planned conclusion with #75. "Hellblazer" was the last of the original ongoing series to be canceled, ceasing publication in February 2013 with #300.


title: Vertigo Comics

text: As the imprint's initial ongoing series came to their ends, new series were launched to replace them, with varying degrees of success. "The Sandman" was replaced following its completion by "The Dreaming" (1996–2001) and "The Sandman Presents", which featured stories about the characters from Neil Gaiman's series, written by other creators. Other long-running series have been "The Invisibles" by Grant Morrison and various artists (1994–2000); "Preacher" by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon (1995–2000); "Transmetropolitan" by Warren Ellis and Darick Robertson (1997–2002); "100 Bullets" by Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso (1999–2009); "Lucifer" by Mike Carey, Peter Gross, and Ryan Kelly (2000–2006); "" by Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra (2002–2008); "DMZ" by Brian Wood and Riccardo Burchielli (2005–2012); and "Fables" by Bill Willingham, Mark Buckingham, and various other artists (2002–2015), which launched spin-offs including "Jack of Fables" by Willingham, Lilah Sturges (credited as "Matthew Sturges"), and various artists (2006–2011), and "Fairest" by Willingham and various artists (2012–2015).


title: Vertigo Comics

text: The financial success of many Vertigo titles relied not on monthly issue sales, but on the subsequent "trade paperback" editions that reprinted the monthly comics in volumes, which were also sold in general-interest bookshops. Vertigo's success in popularizing this approach led to a wider take-up in the American comics industry of routinely reprinting monthly series in this format. Limited series (ideal for later collection) and original graphic novels made up the majority of the imprint's output, with trade paperback sales accounting for a substantial segment of the imprint's sales.


title: Vertigo Comics

text: An irregular series of self-contained short stories featuring characters from the DC Universe, reinterpreted or recontextualized.


title: Vertigo Comics

text: "Vertigo Visions: Artwork from the Cutting Edge of Comics" was a 2000 collection of artwork from various Vertigo titles, with commentary by Alisa Kwitney.


title: Vertigo Comics

text: The short-lived "Vérité" line, evoking the realism of Cinéma vérité, "was a 1996–98 attempt to promote new Vertigo projects devoid of the supernatural qualities that had gotten to define the publisher."


title: Vertigo Comics

text: The "fifth-week event" brand V2K (Vertigo 2000), was a "much hyped concept" whose titles were designed to "usher...in the new millennium," and, as such, several of them were limited series rather than one-shots.


title: Vertigo Comics

text: The Vertigo Pop limited series were designed "to be about pop culture around the globe in some vaguely defined way."


title: Vertigo Comics

text: In 2003, the Vertigo imprint celebrated "Ten years on the edge" by branding their books cover-dated April 2003 to February 2004 (i.e. released between February and December 2003)—Vertigo's 10th anniversary—with the legend Vertigo X. This special subtitle was debuted on the "Vertigo X Anniversary Preview" (April 2003), a 48-page special previewing Vertigo's upcoming projects and featuring a short "Shade, the Changing Man" story by the "Ecstatic" team of Peter Milligan and Mike Allred (a pun on their then-current Marvel project together: "X-Statix"). Projects highlighted included "", Jill Thompson's first manga-ized version of the "" storyline, retold from the point of view of the Sandman's elder sister Death and Gaiman's own return to the mythos with the hardcover "" all-star collection of short stories spotlighting the seven members of the Endless (an eight-page "Endless Nights Preview" issue was also released before the hardcover).


title: Vertigo Comics

text: Also highlighted and previewed were two original graphic novels: "Lovecraft" (based on a screenplay by Hans Rodionoff and adapted by Keith Giffen with art by Enrique Breccia) took the conceit that H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos creatures were real, to paint a highly fictionalized biographic portrait of the titular author, while Howard Chaykin and David Tischman's "Barnum!" (with art by Niko Henrichon) similarly drifted in the realms of fictionalized biography, but did not stray into the horror/supernatural world. The tale of "Barnum: In Secret Service to the USA" saw the celebrated showman saving the life of President Grover Cleveland and (with his circus charges, including original Siamese twins Chang and Eng) matching wits against the "evil" Nikola Tesla. Also previewed as a 2003 release from Vertigo was Brett Lewis and John Paul Leon's "The Winter Men", which ultimately saw its first issue released in September 2005 through WildStorm's "Signature Series" imprint.


title: Vertigo Comics

text: The final Vertigo Pop! limited series, and the eighth-and-final issue of Garth Ennis' "War Story" series of one-shots were released in their entirety during the year and featured the logo:


title: Vertigo Comics

text: Similarly, two other graphic novels were released during the year, but not specifically highlighted in the preview as anniversary titles:


title: Vertigo Comics

text: The following ongoing series had issues released during Vertigo's anniversary year and those issues carried the "Vertigo X" branding:


title: Vertigo Comics

text: The following series and limited series finished during the year, with the final issues featuring the "Vertigo X" logo:


title: Vertigo Comics

text: At the 2008 Comic-Con International Karen Berger outlined plans for a new "sub-imprint" called Vertigo Crime: "it's a line of graphic novels, in black and white, hardcover". It was launched in 2009 with two titles: Brian Azzarello's "Filthy Rich" and Ian Rankin's "Dark Entries", the latter featuring John Constantine. Each volume features a cover illustration by Lee Bermejo. Vertigo Crime was ended as a sub-imprint in 2011.


title: Vertigo Comics

text: The following original graphic novels have been published under the Vertigo Crime imprint (in order of publication):


title: Vertigo Comics

text: In December 2012, Karen Berger announced that she would be leaving the company the following March. Berger's position at the head of Vertigo was filled by Shelly Bond, who had begun editing for the imprint in 1993. However, in 2016, DC "restructured" Vertigo, eliminating Bond's position, and oversight of Vertigo was placed under Jamie S. Rich, until May 2017 when Mark Doyle became the new editor.


title: Vertigo Comics

text: In 2018, DC Comics announced a "line-wide relaunch and rebranding" as "DC Vertigo", including 11 new ongoing titles planned for the coming year, under Doyle's editorship. These included a new sub-imprint based on Neil Gaiman's "Sandman" with four new ongoing series, announced in March, and seven new series announced in June.


title: Vertigo Comics

text: The relaunch experienced a number of complications, however. "Border Town" by Eric M. Esquivel and Ramon Villalobos dealt with immigration and Latino identity, for which Esquivel received death threats in advance of its publication. The series was well received by critics, but after four issues were published, Esquivel was accused of sexually and emotionally abusing a former partner. Villalobos and colorist Tamra Bonvillain withdrew from the project, and DC cancelled the series, including issues that were ready for publication. Meanwhile, "Second Coming" by Mark Russell and Richard Pace came under criticism from Christians and conservatives who considered its announced premise – in which Jesus Christ returns and lives as a roommate with a modern-day superhero – blasphemous and offensive. The series was cancelled before the first issue was published; Russell and Pace later published the series to critical acclaim through Ahoy Comics. "Safe Sex" by Tina Horn and Mike Dowling was also cancelled before its debut, and later published as "SFSX" by Image Comics.


title: Vertigo Comics

text: In June 2019, DC announced that, as part of a consolidation into a unified branding, the Vertigo imprint would be discontinued in January 2020. The DC Zoom and DC Ink imprints for children and young adolescents were also eliminated. Under the new plan, all of the company's comics would be published under the "DC" brand, and categorized by intended reader age: DC Kids (8–12 years), DC (13+), and DC Black Label (17+). The "Sandman"-related titles retained their new branding as "The Sandman Universe".


title: Vertigo Comics

text: In addition to Berger, several other editors have become linked to the imprint. Berger was editing proto-Vertigo titles from the start of her time with DC, beginning in 1981 with "House of Mystery". She took over editorship of Alan Moore's "Swamp Thing" run from Swamp Thing co-creator Len Wein in 1984, and in 1986 "became DC's British liaison," bringing to DC's pre-Vertigo titles the individuals who would be instrumental in the creation and evolution of Vertigo seven years later. From 1988, her "Swamp Thing" and other DC titles were joined by Gaiman and McKean's "Black Orchid" miniseries and "Hellblazer" as well as the odd miniseries "The Weird". Editing Doug Moench's "The Wanderers", Berger was joined on issue #5 (Oct 1988) by co-editor Art Young, who would also later be instrumental in the formation of Vertigo. Grant Morrison's "Animal Man" and the ultra-dark "Arkham Asylum" OGN were swiftly joined on Berger's slate by "The Sandman", "Skreemer", "The Books of Magic", "The Nazz" and "Shade, the Changing Man". Berger continued with "The Sandman" and "Shade" during 1992, and saw the pre-Vertigo titles as "all [having] some basis in reality."


title: Vertigo Comics

text: By the early 1990s, "[t]he core Vertigo titles had already become their own little enclave," so when Berger returned from maternity leave, she spoke with DC President Jenette Kahn and Executive Editor Dick Giordano, the outcome being a separate imprint to "actively expand [the] sensibility" of the titles she had been editing. Berger included in the initial Vertigo line-up the five titles she had had some hand in creating or editing ("Swamp Thing", "Hellblazer", "Animal Man", "Sandman" and "Shade") as well as "Doom Patrol" which she "decided to include... because Grant Morrison was working on it and the sensibility was very much like the other series." Berger oversaw the entire Vertigo line, and was promoted to the position of "Senior Vice President—Executive Editor, Vertigo" in July 2006. Her promotion came as Vertigo was said to be equivalent to "the fourth largest American comic book publisher" in 2005, with Paul Levitz praising her personally as having "built Vertigo into an imprint which is simultaneously one of comics' leading creative and commercial successes." In addition, Berger won Eisner Awards for her editing in 1992, 1994 and 1995 for her work on the proto- and early Vertigo titles "Sandman", "Shade", "Kid Eternity", "Books of Magic", "Death: The High Cost of Living" and "Sandman Mystery Theatre".


title: Vertigo Comics

text: Art Young joined Karen Berger to edit pre-Vertigo issues of "Animal Man" (from issue #3), "Hellblazer" and "Swamp Thing" on issues cover-dated November 1988. Two months later, Young also took on the initial issues of "The Sandman", before in mid-1990 moving to "Doom Patrol", which with "Animal Man" he edited until early 1991 (also over-seeing the original "Books of Magic" miniseries along the way). He then left DC to work for Disney in setting up Touchmark, before returning with those projects to Vertigo in early 1993, when he edited debut title "Enigma", and later miniseries and one-shots such as "Sebastian O", "The Extremist", "Mercy", "Rogan Gosh", "The Mystery Play", and "Tank Girl: The Moovy". He edited all four of the "Vertigo Voices" titles in 1995, as well as "Shadows Fall", "Ghostdancing", "Egypt", "Millennium Fever" and both "Tank Girl" miniseries. Young's last editorial credit for Vertigo was "Flex Mentallo" #1 (June 1996).


title: Vertigo Comics

text: Shelly Bond was a Vertigo Group Editor. Like Young, she has overseen a large number of notable projects during her (almost-)exclusive time working with Vertigo since April 1993. Roeberg took over editorial duties on the second Vertigo issues of both "The Sandman" and "Shade, the Changing Man" from Lisa Guastella—then Lisa Aufenanger—editing those two titles until their respective final issues; she also edited the first 36 issues of the "ahead of its time" crime/noir series "Sandman Mystery Theatre". Between 1993 and 2000, she edited titles exclusively for Vertigo (with one exception—the nine issues of Peter Bagge and Gilbert Hernandez's "Yeah!" (1999–2000) for DC's imprint Homage), including relatively little known titles and one-shots such as "Skin Graft", "The Last One", "The Heart of the Beast" (1994), "Mobfire", "Terminal City", "Menz Insana", "The Girl Who Would Be Death", "Heavy Liquid", "Pulp Fantastic" and "Accelerate". She also edited the first Vertigo works of Bill Willingham and Ed Brubaker in "Proposition Player" and "Scene of the Crime", and the higher-profile series "Moonshadow", "Girl", "Seekers into the Mystery", "The Minx" and all issues of "House of Secrets" (with Jennifer Lee from issue #11). <br>She (co-)edited the final 25 issues of "The Dreaming" between 1999 and 2001, initially as Shelly Roeberg, and latterly as Shelly Bond (after marrying artist Philip Bond), and most of the "Sandman Presents..." miniseries and one-shots. From 2000, she has continued to edit most of the highest-profile Vertigo titles, including almost all of Mike Carey's "Lucifer" (with Mariah Huehner) and the entirety of Ed Brubaker's "Deadenders", Howard Chaykin & David Tischman's "American Century", Jonathan Vankin's "The Witching", Si Spencer's "Books of Magick: Life During Wartime", Steven T. Seagle and Kelley Jones' "The Crusades" and Bill Willingham's "Fables" (to date). She oversaw the first fourteen issues of "American Virgin", the first eleven of "Jack of Fables", the first two "Vertigo Pop!" miniseries, Paul Dini's "Zatanna: Everyday Magic" and the innovative "Vertical" one-shot. She helped shepherd the OGNs "Barnum!", "Confessions of a Blabbermouth", "1001 Nights of Snowfall", "God Save the Queen", "The Little Endless Storybook", "Re-Gifters", "Sandman: Endless Nights" and "Silverfish" as well as both "Bite Club" miniseries, "Faker", "Grip: The Strange World of Men", "My Faith in Frankie" and "House of Secrets: Facade". From 2007, she had also been heavily involved in the new DC imprint "Minx", but continued to edit titles for Vertigo, including the new 2007/8 series "House of Mystery", "Vinyl Underground" and "Young Liars".


title: Vertigo Comics

text: Tom Peyer was, by 1990 editing (with Karen Berger) what would become the pillars of Vertigo: "Hellblazer", "Sandman" (taking over from Art Young), "Swamp Thing" and "Shade, the Changing Man". He soon left "Swamp Thing" to Stuart Moore, however with issue #100, and Moore would edit and co-edit the remaining 71 issues of that title, including the switch from DC to Vertigo. Peyer moved to "Doom Patrol" and "Animal Man", which he edited during the transition from DC to Vertigo, before moving to edit the initial issues of "Kid Eternity" and "Black Orchid" as well as two "Vertigo Visions" one-shots. Peyer left editing behind in 1994, returning to DC as a writer. Moore edited a wide range of Vertigo titles between 1993 and 2000, including the transitional issues of "Hellblazer" as well as "Swamp Thing", the first fifteen issues of "The Invisibles", the first seventeen issues of "Preacher" and the first thirty issues of "Transmetropolitan". In 1996, Moore won the Eisner Award for best editor, for his work on "Swamp Thing", "Invisibles" and "Preacher". He edited the first issues of "Books of Magic", and both "Books of Faerie" miniseries (with Cliff Chiang), and returned to the main "Books of Magic" title for a further 20+ issues with Chiang in 1998. He also edited several miniseries for both Vertigo and Vertigo's sister imprint Helix.


title: Vertigo Comics

text: Axel Alonso (who would later move to Marvel Comics) began his editorial career at Vertigo on "Animal Man", "Black Orchid", "Doom Patrol" and "Hellblazer", and also edited the opening issues of Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso's "100 Bullets" and the final issues of Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon's "Preacher".


title: Vertigo Comics

text: Will Dennis was promoted from assistant editor to editor upon Alonso's departure. He took over the editing of "100 Bullets" and later assumed the reins of Vertigo's biggest hit series since "Preacher", Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra's "". Dennis has been responsible for bringing writers Brian Wood ("DMZ") and Jason Aaron ("Scalped") to Vertigo. He teamed writer Andy Diggle and artist Jock on their breakout series "The Losers". Dennis edited Vaughan's commercially successful graphic novel "Pride of Baghdad". He was the editor who presided over the Vertigo Crime line of graphic novels.


title: Vertigo Comics

text: Jonathan Vankin was hired as an editor at Vertigo in 2004 after previously writing two of the line's Vertigo Pop miniseries and several entries in the Paradox Press "Big Book" series as well as several other non-comics works . His contributions to the line as an editor have included the series, "The Exterminators" and "Testament". For the latter, he brought media theorist Douglas Rushkoff to Vertigo. Taking over editing of "Hellblazer" from Will Dennis, he hired acclaimed Scottish crime novelist Denise Mina to write the title for 13 issues. He brought Harvey Pekar to Vertigo, where Pekar published the graphic novel "The Quitter" as well as eight issues of Pekar's long-running "American Splendor" autobiographical series. Vankin also edited the graphic novels "Incognegro" by Mat Johnson and "The Alcoholic" by novelist and essayist Jonathan Ames.


title: Vertigo Comics

text: Although the "mature reader" works of Alan Moore, Grant Morrison (with Jamie Delano and Neil Gaiman) under the DC imprint paved the way for Vertigo's launch, neither author was part of the initial line-up. Indeed, Moore never produced work for the Vertigo imprint—having refused to work for parent company DC in the late 1980s—although his DC-published "Swamp Thing" work and "V for Vendetta" reprint-maxiseries were subsequently collected as Vertigo-issued TPBs, while the "Hellblazer" solo title dealt with the character co-created by Moore, but never written by him.


title: Vertigo Comics

text: Grant Morrison, whose pre-Vertigo work on "Animal Man" and "Doom Patrol" was similarly retroactively branded as "Vertigo" when collected, also wrote two issues of "Hellblazer" pre-Vertigo, which are collected in a 2005 trade paperback. Wrote three volumes of "The Invisibles" between 1994 and 2000. In addition, they had produced a number of miniseries including "Sebastian O" (1993), the Doom Patrol spin-off "Flex Mentallo" (1996), "Seaguy" (2004), "Vimanarama" (2005), "We3" (2004–2005) and "Joe The Barbarian" (2010) as well as the longer miniseries "The Filth" (2002–2003). They collaborated with writer Mark Millar on five issues of "Swamp Thing" in 1994, produced two one-shots—"The Mystery Play" (1994) and "Kill Your Boyfriend" (1995)—and contributed to several anthologies.


title: Vertigo Comics

text: Of the eight debut Vertigo titles, half of them were the work of two authors. Neil Gaiman, who went on to become a "New York Times" best-selling novelist, came to prominence four years pre-Vertigo with the launch of "The Sandman" for DC Comics, a title that became the backbone of the initial Vertigo line-up. Gaiman's work on the first "The Books of Magic" miniseries (also released as a DC title, 1990–91) lay the groundwork for the long-running Vertigo Universe series of the same name, which featured young wizard Timothy Hunter.


title: Vertigo Comics

text: Peter Milligan, who began his career at 2000 AD, before working briefly for both Pacific Comics and Eclipse Comics, contributed two titles (one quarter of the initial line-up; the same as Gaiman) to the Vertigo launch. His "Shade, the Changing Man" was launched by DC and ran 70 issues (July 1990) – #70 (April 1996), by which time it was under the Vertigo imprint. He also wrote the creator-owned eight-issue miniseries "Enigma" (1993). Milligan and Brett Ewins's "Skreemer", written for DC pre-Vertigo (1989) was subsequently collected by Vertigo, while his work on the DC character Human Target was released entirely by Vertigo as a four-issue miniseries (1999), an original graphic novel (2002), and an ongoing series (2003–2005). Milligan also produced the one-shots "The Eaters" and "Face" in 1995 for the "Vertigo Voices" sub-imprint, and a number of other miniseries, including "The Extremist" (1993), "Tank Girl: The Odyssey" (1995), "Egypt" (1995–1996), "Girl" (1996), "The Minx" (1998–1999), and "Vertigo Pop!: London" (2003).


title: Vertigo Comics

text: Garth Ennis ("Hellblazer") and Jamie Delano ("Animal Man") were two other launch authors who went on to great success with Vertigo and elsewhere. Ennis' best-known Vertigo work was his and artist Steve Dillon's creator-owned "Preacher", which ran for 66 issues and six spin-off specials between 1995 and 2000, while Ennis' prolific work on "Hellblazer" rivals initial-series author Delano. Ennis has also written several miniseries for Vertigo, including "Goddess" (1995–1996), "Pride & Joy" (1997), "Unknown Soldier" (1997), and "Adventures in the Rifle Brigade" (2001–2002), as well as eight one-shot "War Stories" between 2001 and 2003. Two of his pre-Vertigo works—"True Faith" (serialized in Crisis) and the four-issue DC/Helix miniseries "Bloody Mary" (1996–1197)—have had collections released under the Vertigo label. Alan Moore, co-creator of the jaded, chain-smoking, modern-day British wizard John Constantine in "Swamp Thing", hand-picked Jamie Delano to continue Constantine's adventures as star of the DC title "Hellblazer" (1988–2013), but Delano left that series in 1991 before the launch of Vertigo. Delano did write Vertigo's "Animal Man"#51–79 (1992–1995), and produced 19 issues of "Outlaw Nation" (2000–02) and the 12-issue miniseries "2020 Visions" (1997–1998), plus two Hellblazer miniseries—"The Horrorist" (1995–1996) and "" (2000). He also wrote the one-shot titles "Tainted" (1995) and "Hell Eternal" (1998), the miniseries "Ghostdancing" (1995) and "Cruel and Unusual" (1999), contributed to anthology titles, and with Gaiman and Kwitney wrote "The Children's Crusade" #2.


title: Vertigo Comics

text: Rachel Pollack, who was writing "Doom Patrol" when Vertigo launched, continued on that title until #87 (Feb. 1995), the final issues. She also penned two "Vertigo Visions" specials—1993's "The Geek" and 1998's "Tomahawk".


title: Vertigo Comics

text: Nancy A. Collins, who wrote "Swamp Thing" #110–138 (Aug. 1991 – Dec. 1993), also wrote the 1996 one-shot "Dhampire: Stillborn".


title: Vertigo Comics

text: John Ney Rieber has produced most of his output for Vertigo, working exclusively for the company between 1994 and 2000. Reiber wrote the first fifty issues of the first ongoing "The Books of Magic" series (May 1994 – July 1998), as well as a number of miniseries, mostly set in the wider Vertigo universe (and particularly the Sandman/Books of Magic sections) – "Mythos: The Final Tour" (1996–7), "Hellblazer/The Books of Magic" (1997–8), "The Trenchcoat Brigade" (1999), "The Books of Faerie: Molly's Story" (1999). Reiber's "Shadows Fall" (with artist John Van Fleet) was a self-created horror story grounded in a reality which made the tale "all the more creepy than if the story was played out in the realm and scope of superheroes." Reiber's "Tell Me Dark", produced for DC, was collected in softcover by Vertigo, and he also contributed to various anthologies.


title: Vertigo Comics

text: J. M. DeMatteis began his comics career on DC's "House of Mystery" title over a decade before the formation of Vertigo, and later became one of the earliest Vertigo creators thanks in large part to his proposed Touchmark projects. DeMatteis' "Mercy" (1993) one-shot and miniseries "The Last One" both debuted in 1993, with reprints of two creator-owned Epic Comics projects following in subsequent years: his 198587 creator-owned maxiseries "Moonshadow" was reprinted between 1994 and 1995, with the miniseries "Blood: A Tale" seeing print again in 1996–7. DeMatteis also wrote fifteen issues of "Seekers into the Mystery" (1996–7) for Vertigo.


title: Vertigo Comics

text: Mike Carey, having started his American comics career with Caliber Comics in the mid-1990s catapulted to prominence in March 1999 with the first issue of his "Sandman" spin-off miniseries "Sandman Presents: Lucifer", which would lead to an ongoing series a year later and considerable praise and projects for Carey. A second Sandman miniseries, "" (2000), soon followed, before the June 2000 debut of "Lucifer". Neil Gaiman's preferred Sandman spin-off had not had an easy time being published, due to its title and main character, but Carey was able to helm it for a Sandman-equalling 75 issues (and a 2002 one-shot: "Nirvana") for 6 years. During this time, Carey also wrote the hardcover OGN "Sandman Presents: The Furies" (2002), over 40 issues of "Hellblazer" between 2002 and 2006 and a 2005 Hellblazer original graphic novel, "All His Engines". He also wrote a non-Sandman miniseries, "My Faith in Frankie" (2004), the comicbook adaptation of "Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere" (2005–6) and the OGN "God Save the Queen" (2007). In 2007 he launched the ongoing series "Crossing Midnight" (2007–8) and the miniseries "Faker" (2007–8).


title: Vertigo Comics

text: Brian K. Vaughan's first Vertigo work was a short story in 2000's "Winter's Edge" #3 anthology, which led to him relaunching "Swamp Thing" (vol. 3) (2000–01), which lasted for 20 issues. In September 2002, his (and Pia Guerra's) "" launched. It would ultimately run for 60 issues until March 2008. Vaughan also wrote the 2006 OGN "Pride of Baghdad" for Vertigo.


title: Vertigo Comics

text: Ed Brubaker's first Vertigo work was on the "Vertigo Visions" "Prez" one-shot (1995), and intermittent contributions to a couple of anthology titles preceded his "Scene of the Crime" (1999), effectively laying the groundwork for his later crime comics. His next Vertigo project, the post-apocalyptic series "Deadenders" (2000–01), ran for 16 issues while Brubaker wrote for both "Batman" and "Detective Comics" for parent-company DC. His 2001 miniseries "Sandman Presents: The Dead Boy Detectives" told the story of some incidental Sandman characters, and was later retold by Jill Thompson in manga form (2005). Brubaker subsequently took his Vertigo/crime sensibility to work from WildStorm, Icon and the mainstream DC and Marvel universes.


title: Vertigo Comics

text: Bill Willingham came to Vertigo after a plethora of small press work in 1999 to launch his poker miniseries "Proposition Player" (1999–2000), and contribute to the "Sandman" universe with a one-shot spy-spoof, "Sandman Presents: Merv Pumpkinhead, Agent of D.R.E.A.M." (2000), and a single issue contribution to "The Dreaming" on-going series. A second "Sandman" one-shot, "The Sandman Presents: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Dreams..." (2001), also led to a 4-issue miniseries, "Sandman Presents: The Thessaliad" (2002). Willingham's best-known work soon followed, with the July 2001 debut of "Fables" (with artist Lan Medina). In 2004, he returned to the world of the Sandman with "Sandman Presents: Thessaly: Witch for Hire", and 2006 saw the debut of the Vertigo-esque magical—but mainstream DCU title—"Shadowpact" and "Fables" companion series "Jack of Fables". In July 2008, with "Fables" nearing a major turning point in its run, Willingham relaunched "House of Mystery" as a Vertigo title with Lilah Sturges (then known as Matthew Sturges).


title: Vertigo Comics

text: Other notable people who have written for Vertigo include Kyle Baker, Warren Ellis, David Lapham, Mark Millar, Brian Azzarello, Paul Pope, James Robinson, and Brian Wood.


title: Vertigo Comics

text: Several artists have also produced a large amount of notable work for Vertigo, several (Steve Dillon, Pia Guerra, Eduardo Risso and Darick Robertson) mainly producing lengthy runs on individual creator-owned titles (in Guerra's case, "Y: The Last Man" makes up around 80% of her output to date), but others on a number of titles. Vertigo's main Universe titles, "The Sandman", "Hellblazer" and "Swamp Thing", have been particularly artistically diverse, and home to many talents, while the large number of creator-owned miniseries has seen large numbers of individuals producing work for Vertigo.


title: Vertigo Comics

text: Peter Gross worked on a pre-Vertigo issue of "Swamp Thing" and an early Vertigo issue of "Shade the Changing Man" (#36, June 1993) before penciling & inking a story featuring Timothy Hunter in the "Children's Crusade" crossover "Arcana Annual" (Jan. 1994). This led to a regular inking role on the newly launched "Books of Magic" series, taking over as regular penciler and inker with #6; he would stay with the title for most of its run, writing as well as drawing its final 25 issues (1998–2000). Gross also inked Reiber's "Mythos" one-shot, and provided full artwork on the first "Books of Faerie" miniseries (1997) and pencils on the following year's "The Books of Faerie: Auberon's Tale" (1998). After "Books of Magic", Gross moved to "Lucifer" (beginning with #5, Oct. 2000) and penciled 56 of the remaining issues, as well as inking a handful. He also co-penciled 2005's "Constantine: The Official Movie Adaptation" and several issues of Douglas Rushkoff's "Testament" from 2006 to 2007.


title: Vertigo Comics

text: Dean Ormston has similarly produced a disproportionate amount of his artwork for Vertigo titles, including the lion's share of the alternate reality "" series (2004–5). His first Vertigo work was as one of several pencilers in the pages of "Sandman" #62 (Aug 1994), and in 1995 he penciled and inked Peter Milligan's "The Eaters" one-shot. His artwork appears in most (14) of the non-Peter Gross issues of Mike Carey's "Lucifer", and he also handled art duties for Caitlin R. Kiernan's 4-issue "The Girl who would be Death" (1998–9). In addition, he has worked on a number of single (and jam) issues of other Vertigo titles, including "The Crusades", "House of Mystery", "The Invisibles", "Mythos", "Sandman Mystery Theatre", "Swamp Thing" and "Testament" between 1994 and 2007.


title: Vertigo Comics

text: Duncan Fegredos first major American work was on the 1991 "Kid Eternity" miniseries with Grant Morrison. A 1992 cover for "Doom Patrol" similarly fell in Vertigo territory "pre"-Vertigo, while Fegredo's first "true" Vertigo work was also on the joint-first new series released by the imprint: Peter Milligan's "Enigma". Immediately after the end of the eight-issue series, Fegredo took over as cover artist on Milligan's long-running "Shade, the Changing Man" (issues #42–50), collaborated with Milligan on 1995's one-shot "Face" (Jan) and then returned to cover duties on "Shade", producing all but one of the remaining pieces of art. He produced pencils and inks for the miniseries "Millennium Fever" (1995) and (with Milligan) for "Girl" (1996). Between 1997 and 2002, he contributed artwork on fill-in issues (or to jam issues) of "Crusades", "The Dreaming", "Flinch", "House of Secrets", "The Sandman Presents: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Dreams...", "Totems", "Weird War Tales" and "Weird Western Tales". In addition, his cover work graced the 1999 miniseries "Sandman Presents: Love Street", six issues of "The Books of Magick: Life During Wartime" and the first fifteen issues of Mike Carey's "Lucifer".


title: Vertigo Comics

text: Jill Thompson, although primarily known as an artist, has also produced scripts for Vertigo, producing as writer-artist three Sandman tie-ins: "The Little Endless Storybook" (2001) and two manga retellings of storylines: "Death: At Death's Door" (2003) and "The Dead Boy Detectives" (2005). Between 1993 and 1994, she penciled the first six issues of the ongoing "Black Orchid" series and the 4-issue miniseries "Finals" (1999). She has contributed ten issues each to the high-profile Vertigo series "Sandman" (penciling the complete "" storyline, part 7 of which was the first Vertigo issue) and "The Invisibles", and penciled four of the last five issues of "Seekers into the Mystery". She has produced fill-in issues of "Books of Magic", "The Dreaming" and "Swamp Thing" and contributed artwork to the anthology comics "Fables" #59 (in addition to a story in the hardcover OGN "1001 Nights of Snowfall") and "Transmetropolitan: Filth of the City".


title: Vertigo Comics

text: Jon J Muth, a painter, has produced several lavish volumes for Vertigo, including writing, penciling, inking and coloring the 1998 one-shot "Swamp Thing: Roots". Primarily, his Vertigo output has been in collaboration with JM DeMatteis, an issue of "Blood: A Tale", the maxiseries "Moonshadow" (and its coda, "Farewell, Moonshadow" (1997)) and three issues of "Seekers into the Mystery". Muth painted Grant Morrison's "The Mystery Play" (1994) and the 2002 "Lucifer: Nirvana" special for Mike Carey. His work also effectively ended Neil Gaiman's "Sandman" series, Muth painting issue #74, the final issue of "" storyline, and second-to-last main issue.


title: Vertigo Comics

text: The artwork of Charles Vess has infrequently but notably accompanied the words of Neil Gaiman on Vertigo projects, including the 4-issue "Stardust" (1997–8) miniseries, later reprinted as an illustrated hardcover book. Vess' work can also be seen in the two Shakespeare adaptations in the pages of "The Sandman", the first of which (pre-Vertigo) won the comic and duo the World Fantasy Award for Best Short Story, and the last of which was also the final (75th) issue of the series. Vess also contributed a story to the "Fables" OGN "1001 Nights of Snowfall", illustrated a "Books of Magic" cover and produced an issue of "The Dreaming" (2000).


title: Vertigo Comics

text: Sean Phillips earliest American comics work was in the pages of pre-Vertigo "Hellblazer", and in May 1993 he became one of the early Vertigo artists by illustrating (with assists from Paul Peart and Sean Harrison Scoffield) the entire 16-issue run of "Kid Eternity" (1993–4). He drew the covers for twenty-three of the twenty-five issues of the first "The Invisibles" series and also returned to "Hellblazer" (switching from artwork and covers to just covers after around 20 issues) between 1995 and 1998. He drew three issues of "Shade, the Changing Man" (1994), the one-shot "Hell Eternal" (1995) and the miniseries "The Minx" as well as inking most of Michael Lark's work on "Scene of the Crime". He penciled four issues of the final "Invisibles" series between 1999 and 2000, produced covers for the "Hellblazer Special: Bad Blood" miniseries, and shared art chores with John Bolton on the 2001 miniseries "User".


title: Vertigo Comics

text: John Bolton, another frequent Gaiman collaborator has rarely worked with that author directly for Vertigo, but has utilised his characters, including in the OGN "Sandman Presents: The Furies" and the "Books of Magic" lead-in "Arcana" Annual. He also contributed to the "Sandman Mystery Theatre" annual, and the "Fables" OGN "1001 Nights of Snowfall". With Sean Phillips, he produced the artwork for Devin Grayson's 2001 miniseries "User", and individually fully illustrated the OGN's "Menz Insana" (1997) and "God Save the Queen" (2007).


title: Vertigo Comics

text: Other artists include Chris Bachalo, Mark Buckingham, Guy Davis, Phil Jimenez, Jock, Warren Pleece and Liam Sharp.


title: Vertigo Comics

text: Inarguably the name most associated with Vertigo's cover output is the artist who provided "all" of the covers to the Vertigo's highest profile series ("The Sandman" series (1989–96)): Dave McKean. The first 46 of these covers were created for the DC imprint, but McKean's work also includes a number of Sandman-spin-off issues, miniseries and galleries. These include the two "Death" miniseries and all 60 issues of "The Dreaming" (1996–2001). He provided the first 24 DC published covers to "Hellblazer", and all 22 covers to the 1993-5 "Black Orchid" Vertigo series (which spun off from his (and Gaiman's) 1988 DC miniseries). He produced the first cover for "Sandman Mystery Theatre" and his work was featured in a 1997 artbook incorporating his "Sandman" covers, "Dust Covers: The Collected Sandman Covers, 1989–1997."


title: Vertigo Comics

text: In addition, McKean's artwork also graced the inside pages of the public service comic "Death Talks about Life" (1994), an issue of "The Dreaming" (#8), two issues of the DC-published "Hellblazer" (#27 with Gaiman and #40 with Delano) and his and Neil Gaiman's OGN "Mr Punch" (1994). The duo's "Black Orchid" was similarly produced for DC, but was retroactively deemed a Vertigo title.


title: Vertigo Comics

text: Brian Bolland and Glenn Fabry have also produced a large number of iconic covers for the Vertigo line, Fabry probably being best known for his work on one title: Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon's "Preacher" (and the spin-off miniseries). Bolland, one of the very earliest British creators whose work was brought to America, drew the first 63 covers for "Animal Man", mostly for DC, but also the first six Vertigo issues before handing over to a succession of other artists. Bolland also drew the cover for Vertigo's first "Doom Patrol" issue and for the entire second and third volumes of Morrison's "Invisibles" (1997–2000) (and in addition provided artwork for the TPB collections of Morrison's "Doom Patrol" run, and all volumes of "The Invisibles"). Bolland provided covers for three issues of Mark Millar's "Swamp Thing" run (1995), and miniseries including "Vamps" (1994–5), both Vertigo "Tank Girl" (1995–1996) miniseries and "Blood + Water" (2003) as well as the one-shot "Zatanna: Everyday Magic" (2003). Bolland also wrote and illustrated stories for the anthology titles "Heartthrobs" and "Strange Adventures" (1999) and OGN "1001 Nights of Snowfall", as well as providing a cover each for the "Gangland" and "Winter's Edge" anthologies. With issue #12, Bolland took over cover duties (from "Fables" cover artist James Jean) on "Fables" spin-off "Jack of Fables", which he continues to produce . <br>Fabry, in addition to his "Preacher" covers, provided covers for Ennis' miniseries "Adventures in the Rifle Brigade: Operation Bollock" (2001–2002) and most of that authors first run on "Hellblazer" (1992–1994)—which included the first Vertigo issue—as well as his return to the title in 1998–9. In addition, Fabry has also penciled a couple of short "Hellblazer" stories for various specials, and drew the covers for the "Hellblazer: The Trenchcoat Brigade" miniseries. He contributed to the multi-artist "Transmetropolitan" special "I Hate It Here" and provided three covers each to the ongoing "Transmetropolitan" (2002) and "Swamp Thing" (2001); covered the complete "Scarab" (1993–4) miniseries, all 19 issues of "Outlaw Nation" and one issue each of the anthology titles "Gangland", "Heartthrobs" and "Weird War Tales". Between 2005 and 2006, Fabry fully illustrated Mike Carey's adaptation of "Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere", having previously collaborated with the man himself on a story in the 2003 OGN "Sandman: Endless Nights". At the start of 2008, he provided a cover for an issue of "Exterminators", before taking over from Lee Bermejo as on-going cover artist on, again, "Hellblazer".


title: Vertigo Comics

text: Other notable cover artists include Dan Brereton, Tim Bradstreet, Duncan Fegredo, James Jean, Dave Johnson and J. G. Jones.


title: Jonathan Aitken

text: Jonathan William Patrick Aitken (born 30 August 1942) is a British author, Church of England priest, former prisoner and former Conservative Party politician. Beginning his career in journalism, he was elected to Parliament in 1974 (serving until 1997), and was a member of the cabinet during John Major's premiership from 1992 to 1995. That same year, he was accused by "The Guardian" of misdeeds conducted under his official government capacity. He sued the newspaper for libel in response, but the case collapsed, and he was subsequently found to have committed perjury during his trial. In 1999, he was sentenced to 18 months in prison, of which he served seven months.


title: Jonathan Aitken

text: Following his imprisonment, Aitken became a Christian and later became the honorary president of Christian Solidarity Worldwide. He was ordained as an Anglican priest in 2019.


title: Jonathan Aitken

text: Aitken's parents were Sir William Traven Aitken, KBE, a former Conservative MP, and The Honourable Penelope, Lady Aitken, MBE, JP, daughter of The 1st Baron Rugby. Aitken is a great-nephew of the newspaper magnate and war-time minister, The 1st Baron Beaverbrook. His sister is the actress Maria Aitken and his nephew is the actor Jack Davenport. He is godfather to James Abbott, the son of Labour left-winger Diane Abbott.


title: Jonathan Aitken

text: In 1979, Aitken married Lolicia Olivera Azucki, a daughter of O. Azucki of Zurich, Switzerland; they divorced in 1998. With his first wife, he had twin daughters and one son, Alexandra and Victoria Aitken, and William Aitken respectively.


title: Jonathan Aitken

text: Aitken married his second wife, The Hon. Elizabeth Harris, daughter of The 1st Baron Ogmore, TD, PC, and former wife of actors Richard Harris and Sir Rex Harrison, in June 2003.


title: Jonathan Aitken

text: In 1999, DNA testing confirmed that Petrina Khashoggi, putative daughter of billionaire arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi, was Aitken's biological child, the result of an affair with Khashoggi's wife Soraya ("née" Sandra Daly).


title: Jonathan Aitken

text: The paternity of Aitken himself has similarly been under question. In December 2008, Dutch historian Cees Fasseur claimed that Aitken was the result of a wartime affair between Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands and Penelope Aitken.


title: Jonathan Aitken

text: Aitken was born in Dublin, Ireland. His grandfather, Sir John Maffey (who was created The 1st Baron Rugby in February 1947), was the first official British representative to the newly independent Irish state, being appointed in October 1939, at a time when Anglo-Irish relations were strained but improving. Maffey's official title was 'United Kingdom Representative to Éire'. Aitken's baptism took place on 16 October 1942 at St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, an Anglican church, at which he was named "Jonathan William Patrick Aitken". The third name, "Patrick", was included at a late stage owing to the unexpected international importance of the occasion –- one of the Irish papers reported "British envoy's grandson is a real Paddy". The Taoiseach, Éamon de Valera, who knew his grandparents, asked to attend the christening and his presence at the baptism was symbolic of improving Anglo-Irish relations. Also attending was Princess Juliana (later to become Queen Juliana of the Netherlands) as his godmother.


title: Jonathan Aitken

text: Aitken contracted tuberculosis, and at four years of age was admitted to Cappagh Hospital, Dublin, where he was an inpatient on a TB ward for more than three years, being cared for and educated by Catholic nuns. His father was severely injured as an RAF pilot when his Spitfire was shot down during the Second World War.


title: Jonathan Aitken

text: Aitken recovered and was discharged from the hospital aged seven. He lived with his parents at Halesworth, Suffolk, and learnt to walk properly again within a few months.


title: Jonathan Aitken

text: Aitken attended Eton College and read law at Christ Church, Oxford. His career initially followed a similar path to the post-war career of his father, who became a journalist and then the Conservative Member of Parliament for Bury St Edmunds.


title: Jonathan Aitken

text: He served as a war correspondent during the 1960s in Vietnam and Biafra, and gained a reputation for risk-taking when he took LSD in 1966 as an experiment for an article in the London "Evening Standard" and had a bad trip: "this drug needs police, the Home Office and a dictator to stamp it out".


title: Jonathan Aitken

text: He was also a journalist at Yorkshire Television from 1968 to 1970, presenting the regional news show "Calendar". Aitken was the first person to be seen on screen from Yorkshire Television when it began broadcasting.


title: Jonathan Aitken

text: In 1970, Aitken was acquitted at the Old Bailey for breaching section 2 of the Official Secrets Act 1911, when he photocopied a report about the British government's supply of arms to Nigeria, and sent a copy to "The Sunday Telegraph" and to Hugh Fraser, a pro-Biafran (Nigerian Civil War) Tory MP. As a result of the case he was dropped as the Conservative candidate for the Thirsk and Malton parliamentary constituency.


title: Jonathan Aitken

text: Aitken was managing director of the Middle Eastern division of Slater Walker in 1973-75 and chairman of R. Sanbaar Consultants Ltd from 1976 to at least 1982, and a director of arms exporting firm BMARC from 1988 to 1990.


title: Jonathan Aitken

text: Aitken initially worked in parliament as private secretary to Conservative MP Selwyn Lloyd in 1964-66.