The shadow of Neil Gaiman still looms large over Vertigo.  Sandman brought in a whole new audience of goths and Tori Amos fans, and while the imprint continues to produce a range of other material as well, Vertigo haven't been shy about continuing to mine the seam.

The latest effort is The Witching, an ongoing series by Jonathan Vankin and Leigh Gallagher, which features - you guessed it - three witches.  Yes, it's the triple-goddess archetype yet again.  An idea that Vertigo haven't just beaten to death, but continued to bludgeon for a good few years after it stopped breathing.  Be honest, if you were trying to come up with a stereotypical Vertigo book, it would features three witches, at least one goth, and a guest appearance by a character from the Sandman mythos.  And lo, The Witching offers all these things.

So does the book have anything new to add to this (let's face it) well-worn theme?  Well, up to a point.  Vankin tries to present magic as something which isn't all that mystical, and fits practically into the everyday world.  The robes and ceremony are more about inspiring belief from others than anything else.  This isn't exactly a novel idea either, but it does at least mark some difference of approach for the assorted Sandman spin-offs, which have generally tended to approach the subject from a more fantasy-oriented approach.

It's not, however, an enormous difference from what's been done before in this theme.  It'll doubtless appeal to Vertigo's core fantasy audience, but if you're not into this kind of thing already, this isn't going to be the book to persuade you.  There's a lot of exposition without much in the way of narrative thrust, and as I say, it's got a definite whiff of Vertigo-by-numbers.

Rating: B-

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