Vertigo publishes comics with adult content, such as nudity, drug use, profanity, and graphic violence, that do not fit the restrictions of DC's main line.

Its comics include company-owned series set in the DC Universe, such as The Sandman, Swamp Thing, and Hellblazer, and creator-owned works, such as Preacher, Y: The Last Man, and Fables.

Following the success of two adult-oriented 1986 limited series, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen, DC's output of adult comics, edited by Karen Berger, grew.

These six ongoing titles, all of which carried a "Suggested for Mature Readers" label on their covers,[8] shared a sophistication-driven sensibility the comics fan media dubbed "the Bergerverse".

[9] Several DC titles bearing the age advisory, such as Green Arrow, Blackhawk, and The Question (the last two cancelled before the launch of Vertigo), did not make the transition to the new imprint.

Young and those works were brought into the Vertigo fold, allowing Berger to expand the imprint's publishing plans with the limited series Enigma, Sebastian O, Mercy, and Shadows Fall.

The first comic book published under the "Vertigo" imprint was the first issue of Death: The High Cost of Living, a three-issue series by Neil Gaiman and Chris Bachalo.

Although the books did not have a consistent "house style" of art, the cover designs of early Vertigo series featured a uniform trade dress with a vertical bar along the left side, which included the imprint logo, pricing, date, and issue numbers.

[11] Berger noted that DC was "very" committed to the line, having put a "lot of muscle behind" promoting it, including a promotional launch kit made available to "[r]etailers who order[ed] at least 25 copies of the February issue of Sandman [#47]", a "platinum edition" variant cover for Death: The High Cost of Living #1 and a 75-cent Vertigo Preview comic featuring a specially written seven-page Sandman story by Gaiman and Kent Williams.

The event "did not yield smashing results" or garnered many positive reviews, in large part due to its "gimmicky" nature, which ran counter to Vertigo's quirky, non-mainstream appeal and customer-base.

Vertigo's success in popularizing this approach, beginning with Sandman, led to a wider take-up in the American comics industry of routinely reprinting monthly series in this format.

[27] At the 2008 Comic-Con International Karen Berger outlined plans for a new "sub-imprint"[28] called Vertigo Crime, a line of graphic novels, in black and white, hardcover.

[39] Meanwhile, Second Coming by Mark Russell and Richard Pace came under criticism from Christians and conservatives who considered its announced premise – in which Jesus Christ returns and lives as a roommate with a modern-day superhero – blasphemous and offensive.

He then left DC in 1991 to work for Disney in setting up Touchmark, before returning with those projects to Vertigo in early 1993, when he edited debut title Enigma,[12] and later miniseries and one-shots such as Sebastian O, The Extremist,[46] Mercy, Rogan Gosh, The Mystery Play, and Tank Girl: The Moovy.

[54] Tom was editor in 1990 with Karen Berger what would become the pillars of Vertigo: Hellblazer, Sandman (taking over from Art Young), Swamp Thing and Shade, the Changing Man.

[citation needed] Stuart Moore edited a wide range of Vertigo titles between 1991 and 2000, including Swamp Thing, Books of Magic, Hellblazer, The Invisibles, Preacher and Transmetropolitan.

[55] Axel Alonso began his editorial career at Vertigo editing titles like Hellblazer, Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso's 100 Bullets, and Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon's Preacher.

In addition, they had produced a number of one-shots and miniseries including Sebastian O (1993), The Mystery Play (1994), Kill Your Boyfriend (1995), the Doom Patrol spin-off Flex Mentallo (1996), The Filth (2002–2003), Seaguy (2004), Vimanarama (2005), We3 (2004–2005) and Joe The Barbarian (2010).

Ennis has also written several miniseries for Vertigo, including Goddess (1995–96), Pride & Joy (1997), Unknown Soldier (1997), and Adventures in the Rifle Brigade (2001–2002), as well as eight one-shot War Stories between 2001 and 2003.

Dean Ormston has similarly produced a disproportionate amount of his artwork for Vertigo titles, including the lion's share of the alternate reality Books of Magick: Life During Wartime series (2004–5).

She has produced fill-in issues of Books of Magic, The Dreaming and Swamp Thing and contributed artwork to the anthology comics Fables #59 (in addition to a story in the hardcover OGN 1001 Nights of Snowfall) and Transmetropolitan: Filth of the City.

Jon J Muth, a painter, has produced several lavish volumes for Vertigo, including writing, penciling, inking and coloring the 1998 one-shot Swamp Thing: Roots.

The artwork of Charles Vess has infrequently but notably accompanied the words of Neil Gaiman on Vertigo projects, including the 4-issue Stardust (1997–8) miniseries, later reprinted as an illustrated hardcover book.

Vess' work can also be seen in the two Shakespeare adaptations in the pages of The Sandman, the first of which (pre-Vertigo) won the comic and duo the World Fantasy Award for Best Short Story, and the last of which was also the final (75th) issue of the series.

He drew three issues of Shade, the Changing Man (1994), the one-shot Hell Eternal (1995) and the miniseries The Minx as well as inking most of Michael Lark's work on Scene of the Crime.

John Bolton, another frequent Gaiman collaborator has rarely worked with that author directly for Vertigo, but has utilised his characters, including in the OGN Sandman Presents: The Furies and the Books of Magic lead-in Arcana Annual.

With Sean Phillips, he produced the artwork for Devin Grayson's 2001 miniseries User, and individually fully illustrated the OGN's Menz Insana (1997) and God Save the Queen (2007).

Bolland, one of the very earliest British creators whose work was brought to America, drew the first 63 covers for Animal Man, mostly for DC, but also the first six Vertigo issues before handing over to a succession of other artists.

Between 2005 and 2006, Fabry fully illustrated Mike Carey's adaptation of Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere, having previously collaborated with the man himself on a story in the 2003 OGN Sandman: Endless Nights.

Other notable cover artists include Dan Brereton, Tim Bradstreet, Duncan Fegredo, James Jean, Dave Johnson and J. G. Jones.