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Interview conducted via email in May 2004.
Originally printed in the Italian comics magazine Vertigo Presenta N.40 (Magic Press)
Click on images to enlarge.
 Mike Carey is the appreciated professional comics writer currently behind DC Comics Vertigo popular titles such Hellblazer and Lucifer. He also wrote an Ultimate Elektra miniseries for Marvel and has been attached to an upcoming comics adaptation of Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere novel.
smoky man: Considering you are an "insider", I am really curious to know what's your opinion about the fact that
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the majority of Vertigo writers are British. I mean, is it something related to the basic nature and themes of Vertigo books which resonate with the British sensibilities... I think to the your tradition of ghost and horror stories, black humour and so on... or is it a mere consequence of Swamp Thing Moore's legacy and the following successful first wave of British comics writers (Delano, Morrison, Gaiman)... ?
Mike Carey: I think both explanations are valid. Vertigo were the first US imprint to actively seek out British talent - Karen Berger used to come over to the old London-based UKCAC convention every year to network with UK writers and artists and to set up links with them. And since those early trawls were so very fruitful, Vertigo editors have been alert
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ever since to the possibilities raised by cherry-picking British talent as it comes of age - often after having proved itself in the punishing arena of 2000AD (the UK sci-fi weekly).
There was certainly a time when British writers brought something to the table that a lot of US writers didn't - an irreverence and inventiveness with regard to genre traditions, certainly, and maybe a broader cultural awareness. That's no longer the case: current writers on both sides of the Atlantic are now working in much more similar modes. But the established links with Vertigo still hold strong, not least because of the cohesiveness of the UK scene. The comic market over here is so small, everybody knows everybody else, so new writers and artists sometimes get
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versione italiana
