I don’t know about the other attendees, but for my money, the most interesting revelation at the Vertigo panel was that the DC Imprint’s Editor-in-Chief, Will Dennis refers to artist Sean Gordon Murphy (Joe the Barbarian) as the “honeybadger of comics.” Oh, yeah, and Murphy will be providing covers and art for this summer’s WWII-set mini, American Vampire: Survival of the Fittest, where all hell breaks loose when a group of Romanian scientists attempt to find a “cure” for vampirism.

Also on hand at the panel were writers Chris Roberson (iZombie, Cinderella), Matt Sturges (Jack of Fables, House of Mystery), Jeff Lemire (Sweet Tooth), and artist Chrissie Zullo (Cinderella: Fables are Forever, Madame Xanadu) to talk about the slate of upcoming titles from Vertigo. There weren’t a lot of new titles announced but there were some interesting developments coming for existing titles.

First, if you read the recent Creator’s Commentary with Lemire on Sweet Tooth #19, you’d know that the next arc in the series will be called “Endangered Species.” According to Lemire, it involves the group finding sanctuary—a refuge from the dangers of the plague-ridden world. As a result some of the characters will be unwilling to continue the search for a cure of lead character Gus’s origins, leading to a split in the group. If that’s not enough, Lemire will also be joining Peter Milligan and Scott Snyder on this May’s sci-fi anthology, Strange Adventures.

Chris Roberson and DC Talent Search find Chrissie Zullo talked a bit about Cinderella: Fables are Forever, the current mini following the rivalry between Fabletown’s greatest spy, and her equal and opposite nemesis. The story has already kicked off with issue 2 hitting shelves on March 9th. Roberson was also touting the release of iZombie #12, which will be a break for regular artist Mike Allred with fill-in art by indie legend Gilbert Hernandez ( Love and Rockets) in an issue called “Ghost Stories” which shows readers what ghosts get up to when there’s no one to haunt.

Sturges described April’s House of Mystery #36 as a great jumping-on point for new readers in spite of the cliffhanger that ends issue 35. It’s actually a “story so far” with art by Darwyn Cooke. Fables spin-off Jack of Fables reaches the 50 issue mark next month in what Sturges describes as a “knock-down, drag out fight.” He promised readers that he wouldn’t kill all of the characters in the story—but a lot of folks were going to die. Also, I don’t know what it says about me, but I was most excited about the chatter about the possibility of a Babe the Mini Blue Ox miniseries later this year.

Finally, two other cool announcements: Scalped #50 is going to be a jam issue with art by Denis Cowan, Igor Korday, Brendan McCarthy and others, and July will see the release of a new Vertigo Crime title, Cowboys by writer Gary Philips about a police shooting gone wrong.

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