Chad Burdette
This week DC revealed four new variant covers for its upcoming DC Vertigo titles launching this February, each illustrated by artists from the publisher’s acclaimed Absolute line.
As DC prepares to reintroduce Vertigo with a slate of genre-driven series, these covers serve as a bridge between two of the publisher’s most celebrated imprints, bringing the creative firepower behind Absolute Batman, Absolute Wonder Woman, Absolute Superman, and Absolute Martian Manhunter to the first wave of Vertigo launches.
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Welcome to a brand?new era of Vertigo!
- The most celebrated horror series in modern comics returns with a new arc of James Tynion IV and Álvaro Martínez Bueno’s award?winning series, The Nice House by the Sea!
- Deniz Camp (Absolute Martian Manhunter) and Stipan Morian unite for a vivid and brutal zombie story with heart (lots of them) in Bleeding Hearts #1.
- Kyle Starks and Steve Pugh bring their over?the?top sensibility to End of Life #1, the story of a man?child assassin with very grown?up problems!
- What chance does a 1940s private investigator have against the power of a god? Meet Ezra Cain, created by rising stars Chris Condon and Jacob Phillips, in The Peril of the Brutal Dark #1!
The Nice House by the Sea
On Sale February 4, 2026
James Tynion IV and Álvaro Martínez Bueno return to the apocalypse!
The Nice House saga has collected multiple Eisner Awards and the prestigious Best New Series prize at the Angoulême International Comics Festival, and now is the time to get on board as the action kicks into high gear and the horrors in its pages grow even more grotesque!
Javier Rodríguez Variant Cover:
THE NICE HOUSE BY THE SEA #7
The residents of the House on the Lake and the House by the Sea were both told the same thing: that they were the only humans who survived a global apocalypse. But while Walter, the mysterious and seemingly all?powerful alien master of the Lake House, chose to save the people he’d grown fond of, the Sea House was assembled by another of his species, Max—and she chose the most brilliant and competitive humans. They’ve just learned their only path to survival is to kill every one of the loveable losers in the Lake House…and they know exactly how do it. And what’s worse? Someone in the Lake House has agreed to help them…
- Written by James Tynion IV
- Art and cover by Álvaro Martínez Bueno
- Variant covers by Max Fiumara, Javier Rodriguez, Cliff Chiang
- Connecting variant cover by Álvaro Martínez Bueno
- $3.99 US | 40 pages | Variants $4.99 US (card stock)
— — —
BLEEDING HEARTS #1
On Sale February 11, 2026
The red?hot writer of Absolute Martian Manhunter, Deniz Camp, re?teams with breakout artist Stipan Morian to unleash Vertigo’s first new #1!
The team behind 20th Century Men, the bold mission statement that launched writer Deniz Camp and artist Stipan Morian to the next level of the comics industry, has reunited to bring you a world ruled by ruthless kill?or?be?killed logic, pit
Nick Dragotta brings bold, expressive energy to his variant cover for Bleeding Hearts #1
BLEEDING HEARTS #1
The zombies won—and ten years after the fall of humanity, they’re the dominant form of life (or not?life) on Earth. They’ve developed their own cultural practices, their own language, their own society.
Mouse?Pokes?Golf?Ball?Through?Hole?In?Head (“Poke” for short) is a beloved member of his community, and with his brother?in?arm Mush, he’s happy to shamble along through the only world he can remember…until the day his heart mysteriously starts beating again. And in a blink, the first humans he sees have stopped looking like food and have started looking like…friends…?
- Written by Deniz Camp
- Art and cover by Stipan Morian
- Variant covers by Jae Lee, Nick Dragotta, Chris Bachalo
- Connecting variant cover by Álvaro Martínez Bueno
- Foil variant cover by Stipan Morian
- $3.99 US | 40 pages | Variants $4.99 US (card stock)
— — —
On Sale February 18, 2026
END OF LIFE #1
Kyle Starks and Steve Pugh take on a hitman in trouble!
Kyle Starks and Steve Pugh, the team behind Peacemaker Tries Hard!, present the story of a man?child assassin with some very grown?up problems. As Eddie grows more attached to the people of Pluto, he’ll have to step in to solve those problems the only way a hitman knows how!
Rafa Sandoval Variant Cover:
END OF LIFE #1
Professional hitman Eddie Stallion has messed up. He’s accidentally robbed the Raven, a high?ranking boss of the international cabal of assassins the Menagerie, of which Eddie is a member…or he was.
Now with a price on his head, Eddie chooses to hide in the one place everyone knows he’d never go…the small midwestern town of Pluto, home of his estranged father and known hard?ass George Stallion. Looking for safe harbor, Eddie instead finds his resentful father dying of cancer, old friends looking to collect that bounty, Menagerie assassins who have wandered into town, a cancelled newspaper comic?strip creator turned local crime lord, and oh yeah, his childhood first love, too.
- Written by Kyle Starks
- Art by Steve Pugh
- Cover by Gerald Parel
- Variant covers by Seba Fiumara, Rafa Sandoval, Dave Johnson
- Connecting variant cover by Álvaro Martínez Bueno
- Foil variant cover by Gerard Parel
- $3.99 US | 40 pages | Variants $4.99 US (card stock)
— — —
On Sale February 25, 2026
THE PERIL OF THE BRUTAL DARK: AN EZRA CAIN MYSTERY #1
Chris Condon and Jacob Phillips introduce a new noir icon!
Writer Chris Condon and artist Jacob Phillips, creators of the hit series That Texas Blood and The Enfield Gang Massacre, introduce us to a private eye whose business is exposing our deepest secrets…but on this job, he’ll learn that some mysteries are better off buried!
Hayden Sherman Variant Cover:
THE PERIL OF THE BRUTAL DARK: AN EZRA CAIN MYSTERY #1
New York City, 1941. Ezra Cain is a private investigator with a reputation for taking it on the chin if it means solving a case. But it’s his former life as an archaeology student that makes him the only man to track down an artifact that’s gone missing from the Museum of Natural History…an ancient anvil said to hold the power of the Greek god Hephaestus. If someone could harness that power, they could bend nations to their will.
Science fiction quickly becomes Cain’s reality when a shadowy sect calling themselves the Brutal Dark appears in the city wielding resources that defy human logic. Now Ezra is the only thing that stands between them and their plot to overthrow America!
- Written by Chris Condon
- Art and cover by Jacob Phillips
- Variant covers by Tula Lotay, Hayden Sherman, Sean Phillips
- Connecting variant cover by Álvaro Martínez Bueno
- Foil variant cover by Jacob Phillips
- $3.99 US | 40 pages | Variants $4.99 US (card stock)
COMING LATER IN 2026 FROM DC VERTIGO…
- 100 BULLETS: THE U.S. OF ANGER, created by Brian Azzarello & Eduardo Risso (Eight issues) — Happy 250th, America. Lono’s back. You won’t survive the year.
- A WALKING SHADOW, created by Simon Spurrier & Aaron Campbell (Six issues) — Eight strangers. Four wheels. One light. One ravenous shadow.
- FANATIC, created by Grace Ellis & Hannah Templer (Ongoing) — She’s the ultimate fan. And she’ll kill to prove it.
- NECRETACEOUS, created by Tom Taylor & Darick Robertson (Ongoing) — There are many theories about the extinction of the dinosaurs. They’re all wrong.
- BLACK TOWER: THE RAVEN CONSPIRACY, created by Ram V & Mike Perkins (Recurring series) — Occult warfare was only a fantasy, dead and debunked…at least that’s what they’d like you to think.
- THE CRYING DOLL, created by Mariko Tamaki & Rosemary Valero?O’Connell (Eight issues) — Anna might just be a murderer…can Polly save her from herself?
The new DC Vertigo slate begins rolling out in February 2026, with The Nice House by the Sea #7 leading the charge on February 4. Bleeding Hearts #1 will publish on February 11, End of Life #1 on February 18 and The Peril of the Brutal Dark #1 will launch on February 25, with the rest of the new DC Vertigo imprint releasing throughout 2026.
