There are two basic organizing principles at play here. The first is size and the second is writer. The former are organized biggest to smallest (with some exceptions at the very end there), and the latter are organized by what I considered their relative importance to the Vertigo line.
So, on the far left we have the biggest book, the original graphic novel Mr. Punch by writer Neil Gaiman and artist Dave McKean. And I guess I should just say right here that there's rather a lot of Neil Gaiman comics on this shelf. But the fact that I bought a lot of his work in the late '90s and early '00s should not be misconstrued as an endorsement of him as a human being or that I am at all okay with the very terrible, gut-churning actions he is accused of taking against several different women. To my knowledge, he hasn't yet been convicted of anything in a court of law, and the American justice system has a tradition of individuals being innocent until proven guilty, but the allegations made against Gaiman are serious, credible, damning and nauseating.
Yes, Gaiman has had an enormous impact on the publishing industry's embrace of the graphic novel/trade paperback format and on mainstream comics in general, and yes, his work has proven something of a cornerstone of the post-Crisis DC Universe, and no, I don't think one can argue that Gaiman isn't a skilled, imaginative and influential writer. It doesn't matter. One should not buy his work, and DC (and Marvel, and any other publishers who have works by him in their catalogues) should stop selling it.
I've struggled with whether or not to keep the work of his that I've bought or not. For other, similar comics writers, it has been easy enough to rid their work from my bookshelves. Like, for example, I didn't have much Warren Ellis on my shelf to begin with (I read Transmetropolitan, Planetary and The Authority via library-borrowed trades, and thus never had them on my shelves), and what little I did have didn't seem "important" in anyway...that is, not stuff I might ever conceivably need to look to as reference in anything I planned writing on in the future (Although I still end up discovering books with his name on them here and there; you can't see it in this photo, for example, but one of those DC 100-Page Spectacular mini-trades is of Jack Cross, which he wrote. I forgot it even existed until I was taking this picture).
Gaiman's a little different, though. I found myself referring back to "Season of Mists" earlier this year when discussing the post-Crisis fate of the Justice Society of America, for example, and, even more recently, the Green Lantern/Superman: Legend of the Green Flame prestige format book he wrote when mentioning Superman's previous visits to Hell in regards to Justice League Unlimited: DC KO (in this column).
I do expect to have to refer back to Sandman and probably Books of Magic in the future, in a book I hope to start writing in the next few years.
Anyway, back to the bookshelf.
Mr. Punch is followed by the great Kyle Baker's album-sized Cowboy Wally Show and King David and thean a pair of hardcovers: Hans Rodioff, Enrique Brecca and Keith Giffen's Lovecraft and Brian K. Vaughn and Niko Henrichon's Pride of Baghdad.
That ends the bigger-than-usual books, and leads into the books collected by writer.
These are:
•Alan Moore (V for Vendetta, Saga of the/Swamp Thing, both of which DC published before Vertigo actually existed, but were later collected under the Vertigo banner; which makes sense, as Hellblazer was a spin-off of Moore's Swamp Thing, and Sandman had a bit of connective tissue via Matt Cable)
•Neil Gaiman (The Sandman, Sandman: Endless Nights, Black Orchid, Books of Magic)
•Grant Morrison (Doom Patrol, Animal Man, The Invisibles: Bloody Hell in America, We3, Vimanarama)
•Peter Milligan (Shade, The Changing Man: The American Scream...DC actually just collected this whole series in a pair of omnibuses, which I really wanted to buy but, well, comics are expensive, and I wasn't as interested in reading the series in full as I was in so many other comics competing for my dollars...)
•Garth Ennis (John Constantine: Hellblazer: Fear and Loathing and Dangerous Habits, Preacher, Unknown Soldier and War Stories Vol. 1)
These are all pretty great comics, and, I think one could argue, among the better superhero comics ever published...even if some of these characters seem to push the boundaries of what might be considered a superhero, although many of them started with a character from previous superhero comics, or, in the case of Preacher, stars a character with super-powers.
I quite fondly remember reading all of these, particularly Preacher. These I read in my first house in Columbus. I would pick a volume up on a Wednesday and, when I got to the end, want to return immediately to The Laughing Ogre to get the next volume. On more than one occasion, I would end up going back to the shop that very afternoon for the next installment.
The rest of the shelf of Vertigo comics includes some pretty well-known works from well-known creators, but more one series apiece rather than a series of series.
These are Bill Willingham, Marck Buckingham and company's Fables Vols. 1-7 (I don't recall how many volumes the series ran, but I lost interest once the disappointing identity of The Adversary was finally revealed), Vaughan, Pia Guerra and company's Y: The Last Man Vols. 1-8, Andy Diggle and Jock's The Losers: Ante Up (Speaking of Diggle, his Swamp Thing: Bad Seed with artist Breccia is stuck at the end of Moore's Swamp Things), Paul Pope's 100%, Peter Milligan and Javier Pulido's Human Target: Strike Zones, an advanced reader copy of Steven T. Seagle and Teddy Kristiansen's It's a Bird... (Which was then, and perhaps still is, the only Superman Vertigo book), Dave Gibbons' The Originals, Harvey Pekar and Dean Haspiel's The Quitter and, finally, Scott Snyder and Rafael Albuquerque's American Vampire Vol. 1.
The stacks set atop these books? Well, on the left is what I believe is a complete collection of Gotham Central, but, because they were collected variously at different times, my collection includes Vol. 1, Vol. 2, another Vol. 2, Vol. 3 and Vol. 4.
On the right are a couple of random trades—Geoff Johns and Francis Manapul's Superboy: The Boy of Steel, Keith Giffen and company's Booster Gold: Past Imperfect, John Ostrander, Luke McDonnel and company's Suicide Squad Vol. 1: Trial by Fire, Batman: Joker's Asylum Vol. 2—and then a whole bunch of DC's 100-Page Spectaculars.
These are a series of weird, slim books that seem to be a hybrid between a traditional comic book and a trade paperback. They had spines, but they also had ads and they sold for $7.99. They tended to collect or republish specials or story arcs that just weren't long enough to fill a traditional trade collection, but might otherwise seem worthy of one.
It looks like I've got 11 of them here, and they are all cover-dated 2010 or 2011. They are, in alphabetical order Batman: Dark Knight, Dark City (by Peter Milligan, Kieron Dwyer, Tom Mandrake and Dennis Janke), Batman: Gotham Noir (by Ed Brubaker* and Sean Phillips), Catwoman: Guardian of Gotham (by Doug Moench and Jim Balent), Green Lantern: Fear Itself (by Ron Marz and Brad Parker), Green Lantern: Willworld (by J.M. DeMatteis and Seth Fisher), JLA: The Age of Wonder (by Adisaki Tantimede, Galen Showman and P. Craig Russel), Metal Men (by Keith Giffen, J.M. DeMatteis and Kevin Maguire), Night Force (by Marv Wolfrman, Gene Colan and Bob Smith), Shazam (By Jerry Orrdway, Peter Krause and Dick Giordano) and Son of Superman (by Howard Chaykin, David Tischman, J.H. WIlliams III and Mick Grray). Plus the aforementioned Jack Cross by Ellis and Gary Erskine.
As you can see, it's pretty much a who's who of creators who have worked for DC before, and a lot of comics that might have fallen through the cracks for one reason or another. Of these, Dark Knight, Dark City is probably the most consequential, a story in which The Riddler dabbles with the occult, although he is actually a pawn of sorts to a literal demon that dwells beneath Gotham City, and has been influencing its development over the centuries (I believe both Morrison and Snyder's runs either alluded directly to it...or at least played with similar ideas).
Oh, and if you've never seen the art of the great Seth Fisher, and extremely promsing artist with a very distinct style who tragically passed away way too soon, well, you'll want to read Willworld...or any other work of his you might be able to find. (He also drew Vertigo Pop! Tokyo, Fantastic Four/Iron Man: Big in Japan and a Legends of the Dark Knight arc collected as Batman: Snow.)
The ones I'm most tempted to reread though are probably the Catwoman one, an Elseworlds positing a heroic Catwoman protecting Gotham from an evil Batman, and Green Lantern: Fear Itself, which features Kyle Rayner and Alan Scott. Revisiting that Metal Men looks well worthwhile, too.
*Another comics writer who has been accused of being a horrible person.
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