The Trenchcoat Brigade

The Trenchcoat Brigade
The Trenchcoat Brigade #1, cover art by Glenn Fabry.
Publication information
Publisher	Vertigo
Schedule	Monthly
Format	Limited series
Publication date	March – June 1999
Number of issues	4
Creative team
Writer(s)	John Ney Rieber
Artist(s)	John Ridgway
Letterer(s)	Elle De Ville
Colorist(s)	Alex Sinclair
Editor(s)	Cliff Chiang Stuart Moore

The Trenchcoat Brigade is a four-issue comic book limited series that was published in 1999 as a part of DC Comics' Vertigo imprint.

The title references an offhand joke used by John Constantine in the earlier Books of Magic series to label a loose affiliation of mystics including himself, Phantom Stranger, Doctor Occult, and Mister E who share a preference for trenchcoats as their outdoor wear (Constantine was knowingly paraphrasing the title of Alfred Lord Tennyson's famous "The Charge of the Light Brigade", about a reckless military event).^[1]

Publication history

They first appeared together in Neil Gaiman's The Books of Magic series, in which they attempted to guide Tim Hunter through various realms of Magic in the DC Universe in order to teach him all of Magic's abilities and consequences.

The group would later re-unite in the five-issue mini-series The Names of Magic, before finally getting their own mini-series.

Members

The names listed are those used while the character was associated with the "Trenchcoat Brigade".

The first appearance column lists the place where the character first appeared as a member of the team. It is not necessarily the first appearance of the character in print, nor the story depicting how the character joined the team.

All information is listed in publication order first, then alphabetical.

Character	Real name	First joined team	First appearance
John Constantine	John Constantine	The Books of Magic #1 (December 1990)	The Saga of the Swamp Thing #37 (June 1985)
Doctor Occult	Richard Occult	The Books of Magic #1 (December 1990)	New Fun Comics #6 (October 1935)
Mister E	Erik	The Books of Magic #1 (December 1990)	Secrets of Haunted House #31 (Dec. 1980)
Phantom Stranger	Judas Iscariot	The Books of Magic #1 (December 1990)	Phantom Stranger #1 (August–September 1952)
Rose Psychic	Rose Spiritus	The Books of Magic #3 (February 1991)	New Fun Comics #6 (October 1935)

In other media

• The team was mentioned in Mayhem of the Music Meister! the Batman: The Brave and the Bold episode.

External links

• The Trenchcoat Brigade at the Grand Comics Database
• 'The Trenchcoat Brigade' at the Comic Book DB
• The Trenchcoat Brigade at the Comic Book DB

References

1. Irvine, Alex (2008). "The Books of Magic". In Dougall, Alastair. The Vertigo Encyclopedia. New York: Dorling Kindersley. pp. 38–41. ISBN 0-7566-4122-5. OCLC 213309015.