Since the announcement by Karen Berger of a Vertigo sub-imprint series of hardcover, black-and-white, original graphic novels at the 2008 San Diego Comic Con and her subsequent explanation that the titles within the Vertigo Crime fold would be “smart, edgy, sexy, crime noir fiction in graphic novel form” that would appeal to both regular comic audiences and hopefully cross over into the retail, bookstore market, the results have largely been hit-or-miss. It would seem a natural fit for Vertigo to shop its company talent and own reputation within the crime genre into this new venture, but as evidenced by The Comics Journal’s own Jared Gardner a few months ago, some of the books have mostly veered towards pastiche and imitation of American crime fiction with very little substance or originality. The publication of Andy Diggle and Victor Ibanez’s Rat Catcher is a decisive break from some of these earlier experiments and potentially the strongest offering from the Vertigo Crime series thus far.
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