Founder. Editor
Associated Vertigo Titles: Sandman.
Years Associated with Vertigo Comics: 1993 – 2012.
Karen Berger would join DC Comics in 1979, as an Assistant to Editor Paul Levitz but would quickly rise through the ranks. She was not a comic book fan growing up, but viewed the job as an opportunity to use her degree in English Literature.
Berger would eventually become an Editor 1980s and would gain a reputation as someone who worked really well with DC’s European Creatives leading her to serve as the de facto liaison for DC Comics in their European recruiting needs. Berger would then spend a number of years, working with Levitz and Publisher Jeanette Kahn recruiting a series of British Writers and Artists including Grant Morrison, Neil Gaimen, Garth Ennis, and Dave Gibbons. This period of DC Comics would go on to be known as the British Invasion.
As Berger’s reputation grew, working with these new found Creatives similar themes started to crop into all of her books. Though she had edited a fair share of Superhero books she always found herself driven towards books of more supernatural and fantasy. It would be around this time as well, that Levitz and Kahn were looking to launch a mature focused imprint for DC Comics. Berger would eventually be picked as the leader for this imprint and a number of her books would transfer over as well. This new imprint Vertigo Comics, would eventually launch in 1992.
Over the next two decades, Berger would go on to define Vertigo Comics and mature comic books as a whole. Berger would eventually step down from Vertigo and DC comics as a whole in 2013. She would work periodically as a freelance editor, until 2017 when she would launch Bergers Books with Dark Horse Comics.
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