COMIC-CON: VERTIGO PANEL

SAN DIEGO -- Grant Morrison has signed a two-year exclusive deal with DC Comics, it was revealed at the Vertigo panel at Comic-Con International on Friday.

Morrison, whose recent work includes The Filth at DC and New X-Men at Marvel, will end his New X-Men run with #154.

Morrison's new book, Vinanarama, is described as "an Islamic, sci-fi love story." It will launch next spring. “

In other news from the Vertigo panel:

* Bite Club is a new monthly series written by Howard Chaykin and David Tischman, with art by Private Beach's David Hahn and covers by Frank Quitely. Here's DC's description: Get ready for a blood-soaked odyssey into the screwed-up lives of a crime family of vampires."

* Writer Andy Diggle and Enrique Breccia are teaming on Swamp Thing: Bad Seed, a six-issue mini-series. When the long-forgotten Sargon the Sorceror dupes Tefe into battling her own father, it's up to John Constantine to intervene before all of humanity is caught in the crossfire.

* Neil Gaiman will co-write a new The Books of Magic monthly series with television writer Si Spencer. With Lucifer artist Dean Ormston illustrating, The Books of Magic will relaunch early in 2004.

* Vertical is a 64-page special by written by Steven T. Seagle and illustrated by Michael Allred and Phillip Bond that's just 4 inches wide and 22 inches tall. It's the story of Brando Bale - a young man covered with cuts, stitches and bruises from his many leaps from high places in an attempt to find God - and Zilly Kane - a teenager who dreams of fame and finds Brando instead.

* Midnight, Mass: Here There Be Monsters is a new six-issue mini-series by John Rozum and Paul Lee. Adam and Julia Kadmone discover a plan to wipe out the entire population of a small, upstate-New York town to create a home for an army of creatures.

* 100 Bullets will go bi-monthly while Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso work on their Batman arc.