The Vertigo Gallery: Dreams and Nightmares #1

History

The issue went on sale August 24, 1995, with an October 1995 cover date, and was edited under Karen Berger as executive editor and DC editor-in-chief Jenette Kahn, with a team that included Stuart Moore, Shelly Bond, Axel Alonso, Lou Stathis, Julie Rottenberg, and Bob Kahan — essentially the full Vertigo editorial bench of the period. It was formatted in the 'Miraweb' prestige format and carried a Mature Readers designation consistent with the imprint's standard practice. The issue continued a gallery-special tradition Vertigo had established earlier in the decade with single-character or single-series art books, but expanded the format to encompass the entire line, including a prospective 'future visions' section intended to build retailer and reader awareness of upcoming projects.

Trivia · 8 facts

• Published as a one-shot by DC/Vertigo with a cover date of October 1995; on-sale date confirmed as August 24, 1995 per the Grand Comics Database.
• Contains approximately 32 full-page, full-color pin-ups representing Vertigo titles past, present, and upcoming — including Sandman, Books of Magic, Preacher, The Invisibles, Hellblazer, Animal Man, Death, Jonah Hex, and Swamp Thing, among others.
• Cover art is by Dave McKean, the principal cover artist for The Sandman throughout its run.
• Contributing interior artists include Bill Sienkiewicz, Alex Toth, Geof Darrow, Jon J Muth, Charles Vess, Matt Wagner, Duncan Fegredo, Chris Bachalo, Michael W. Kaluta, David Lloyd, Steve Dillon, Dean Motter, Chris Weston, Ted McKeever, Peter Kuper, Timothy Truman, Phil Winslade, and others.
• Characters depicted include Jesse Custer (Preacher), King Mob (The Invisibles), Tim Hunter (Books of Magic), Dream/Morpheus, Death, John Constantine, Swamp Thing, Jonah Hex, and Animal Man, reflecting the breadth of the Vertigo line at that moment.
• The issue is the fourth in an informal Vertigo gallery-special tradition, following A Death Gallery, The Sandman: A Gallery of Dreams, and The Endless Gallery — but is notably broader and less thematically unified than its predecessors due to its imprint-wide scope and 'future visions' previews section.
• Multiple pages of artwork from this issue were subsequently reprinted in the Watson-Guptill art book Vertigo Visions: Artwork from the Cutting Edge of Comics (2000) and again in Vertigo Visions: Ten Years of Artwork on the Edge (2003).
• Edited by a full-team credit including Karen Berger (executive editor), Jenette Kahn (editor-in-chief), Stuart Moore, Shelly Bond, Axel Alonso, Lou Stathis, Julie Rottenberg, and Bob Kahan — a rare instance of the entire Vertigo editorial staff receiving collective credit on a single publication.

Full credits