NEW YORK COMIC CON: VERTIGO

NEW YORK -- DC Comics announced several new projects at its Vertigo panel on Saturday at New York Comic-Con.

The panel, moderated by executive editor Karen Berger, included creators Grant Morrison, Amy Hadley, G. Willow Wilson, Josh Dysart, Jason Aaron, Brian Wood, Brian Azzarello, David Tischman, Russ Braun and Mark Buckingham, and editors Shelley Bond, Will Dennis and Jonathan Vankin.

* The first slide was from the new House of Mystery title. Berger noted her first comics editing job was on the original House of Mystery.

The monthly series by Bill Willingham, Matt Sturges and Luka Rossi and will "have an entirely different take," Berger said, and it won't be an anthology.

"It's a story about a waitress (Fig) who winds up in this house," Berger said. "She doesn't really know how she gets there. All the people living there are stuck there. It's kind of a version of hell. And anyone is there has to tell a story."

Willingham tells inset stories, drawn by different artists, including Jill Thompson and Bernie Wrightson. Sam Weber is providing the covers.

* Madame Xanadu, written by Matt Wagner with art by Hadley, launches in June.

Hadley said it's an origin story that spans several different periods of a time. "We're trying to give her more of an identity and make her more human," Hadley said, adding there will be "some love interest."

Readers will discover the reason behind Madame Xanadu's name, Berger noted.

* Air is a new series by the Cairo creative team of G. Willow Wilson and MK Perkar. "What attracted me to this was that it was refreshingly different," Berger said.

Wilson said the concept began with a layover in Amsterdam with a conversation with a stewardess. "I thinking what if she was a lot cooler and I was a lot cooler and this was a comic book," Wilson said. "Out of that came the genesis of Air, which is a really weird, surreal look at how sort of the way flight has remained magical to us.

"It takes the world that we know and the airports that we've been through and it kind of unhinges them. It sends an acrophobic stewardess through a zany plot and a hijacking and a guy who may or may not be a terrorist."

* Berger said the new titles will have eight-page previews in other Vertigo titles.

* Woods said the second story arc of Northlanders, a two-parter, will be painted by Dean Ormston. "It's a little more of a historical story. It's about the very first recorded Viking raid," he said.

The third arc will be drawn by his frequent collaborator Ryan Kelley.

* Greatest Hits will be Tischman and Glenn Fabry. Berger described it as "sort of a Vertigo super-hero book."

Tischman said the series is about The Mates, who are to superheroes what the Beatles are to rock stars. The story is about a documentary director who follows The Mates, and his emotional journey with his father, who traveled with the team through their career.

"You'll see if we really had superheroes in our reality, they would be like rock stars," Tischman said. "They would do drugs, they would have girls sneaking into their rooms at night and they would kind of go on tour."

Berger said the covers are take-offs on rock album covers.

* Hellblazer Presents Chas: The Knowledge is by Simon Oliver and Goran Sudzuka. It taps into the world of cab drivers in England, who have to go to school. mentor with other professional cabbies and study a book. Oliver is a former London cabbie.

*Hellblazer: Pandemonium is an original graphic novel by Jamie Delano and Jock. The story involves Constantine being sent by the Scotland Yard to Iraq because there is an ancient force bubbling up. Constantine ends up falling in love with a woman who might be a spy.

"You see Constantine in Baghdad, dealing with the political situations of today and echoes of the past," Berger said.

* The Fables Cover Book will be a coffee table book of James Jean's work. Willingham provides a question-and-answer with the artist. It is scheduled for October.

* Bond said she couldn't say anything about Fables #75, other than it is double-sized.

Buckingham said the issue involves "lots of dramatic things" and "nobody's safe." Bond then added, "Someone will die!"

* A new Unknown Soldier monthly be written by Joshua Dysart, with art by Alberto Ponticelli.

With a revamp, Dysart decided to place the story in Uganda, which he visited. "There's the Uganda in the south, which is flourshing, and there's the Ugada in the north, which is war-torn," Dysart said, noting he wants to make a good comic but "responsible to the situation."

* Berger said the second season of Army@Love will be "more outrageous and policital" than the first. The covers will be take-offs on a famous piece of art.

* Seaguy returns, from Morrison and Cameron Stewart.

Morrison said the plan for Seaguy is three series of three issues "and you finally get to make sense of this guy." The second series is subtitled Mickey Blue Eyes and includes a seedy new companion, an evil parrot, being relocated to Spain as a matador, Mad Cow Disease and Pablo, a 100-year-old beekeeper.

The third series will be called Seaguy: Eternal.

* Other new Morrison projects will be War Cop, a science-fiction series set five year in the future about the confluence of the solider and the evil kid, and, further down the line, Me and Atomika Bohm, a satire about a 15-year-old girl, who falls in love with her teacher, who turns out be like a villain. "What happens if you're 15 and James Bond wants to kill you?"

Sean Murphy will be drawin War Cop.

* The fourth and final Absolute: Sandman will be in stores in November.

* P. Craig Russell is adapting and illustrating The Dream Hunters, based on the work by Neil Gaiman and Yoshitaka Amano.

* Asked about Asian Fables, Buckingham said the current story that closes in #75 will open up realms. "I hope we journey to lots of other lands," he said.

* Morrison said he has a TV show concept in the works.

* Berger confirmed the cancellation of Loveless and The Un-Men. "I failed you guys on that book," Loveless' Azarello said. "I apologize."

* Berger said Azzarello and Eduardo Risso have another Vertigo project in the works.