Vertigo Resurrected #1

Written by Warren Ellis, Brian Bolland, Brian Azzarello, Grant Morrison, Garth Ennis, Steven T. Seagle, Peter Milligan, Bill Willingham, and Bruce Jones
Art by Phil Jimenez, Andy Lanning, Brian Bolland, Esad Ribic, Frank Quitely, Jim Lee, Tim Sale, Eduardo Risso, Bill Willingham, Bernie Wrightson, and Timothy Bradstreet

I don't normally list all the creators in an anthology, but this book has such a strong list of names attached to it (and Bruce Jones), that I felt it was appropriate.

This comic, which collects a number of little-seen short stories from such places as Strange Adventures, Heartthrobs, Weird War Tales, and Flinch, received most of its press for including a previously unpublished, 'controversial' issue of Hellblazer by Ellis and Jimenez that deals with the issue of school shootings.  Strangely, it's just about the weakest story in the bunch, as Ellis doesn't really do anything with the story, and doesn't seem to have a good handle on Constantine.  Also, I don't really see what is controversial about it, other than its timing.

The other stories are more of a treat.  Morrison and Quitely have a cool piece about toys getting replaced, and Seagle and Sale give us a bizarre story about love and surgery.  Brian Bolland's tale about European explorers trekking through Chinese Turkistan is probably my favourite, but I also enjoyed Jones's and Wrightson's story more than I expected to.  Milligan and Risso have a very cool little tale about a woman who falls in love with a dead poet.

I didn't really like Ennis and Lee's story about some SAS guys - it was way too talkative, and Lee's work looks like Scott Kolins.  I would be interested in checking out more anthologies like this (the $8 pricepoint isn't really a barrier, not that I paid that much for it).