Just weeks after losing its longest-running title to the New 52, DC Entertainment’s Vertigo brand is a ship with no captain as Karen Berger, the longtime head of the imprint, announced her resignation today. The company plans a ceremony in 2013 to honor her 33 years with DC.Karen Berger, Executive Editor & Senior Vice President of DC Entertainment’s Vertigo brand, has been with the imprint for more than twenty years and will remain on with the company through March 2013 where she will be assisting in the transition to a new leadership team which reportedly made up of veteran staffers.”I’ve been incredibly proud to have provided a home where writers and artists could create progressive and provocative stories that broadened the scope of comics, attracting a new and diverse readership to graphic storytelling,” said Berger. “I’d like to thank all the many immensely talented creators who have helped make Vertigo into a daring and distinctive imprint and I’m grateful to everyone at DC Entertainment and the retail community for their support and commitment to Vertigo all these years. It’s been quite an honor.”Many fans and critics around comics have been anticipating the end of Vertigo ever since DC folded their WildStorm banner (founded by current DC Comics Co-Publisher Jim Lee) and began rolling characters like Swamp Thing and Constantine into the DC Universe proper. The imprint has been the home to some of DC’s best-selling and most critically-acclaimed publications over the years, including V for Vendetta, Transmetropolitan, Fables and Sandman. The departure of Berger, one of the comics industry’s most revered executives, may indeed be an indication that DC plans to end the brand.Said DC Entertainment President Diane Nelson, “We are extremely grateful for Karen’s commitment and dedication to Vertigo, its books and its incredibly talented team of staff and creators. In Vertigo she leaves a legacy to which we remain committed and on which we intend to build for the future. She will always be a deeply valued and respected member of the DC family.”
