Y!

Vaughan, Brian K.Y: The Last Man. Pia Guerra, illus. Vertigo Comics. Vol. 1-6.

I've been completely addicted to Y: The Last Man all summer. I picked up the first graphic novel on a whim (partially from a recommendation from my ex-girlfriend and partially due to general good buzz) and I've become pretty compulsive with them, especially for a time when I cannot really afford to be buying graphic novels. This is really exemplary, extremely literate graphic storytelling and I would recommend it to anyone, even those who might not generally be graphic novel fans. Its premise is very simple: Yorick Brown is the last man on earth. All the other males of every species have been killed off by a mysterious plague and no one knows why Yorick survived. He must survive while doing his best to help discover what killed the men, why he survived, and how to perpetuate the human race while avoiding various factions attempting to kill him, capture him, or mate with him.

While it's kind of ironic that even in a world where all (at least all but one) of the men have been killed off, the man is still the hero of the story, this story is so well-told and well-drawn and intelligent and complex that I am completely in love with it and don't mind a male lead at all. This world has such rich possiblities for telling the stories of women and what they do and how they survive, and every single one of the supporting characters creates a glimpse of that. Guerra draws rich diversity in the female characters, making them strong without reducing them to comic book super hero body types. One of the images from Vol. 6: Girl on Girl is so striking that I paused to wish I had it as a poster. Of course, I personally wouldn't complain if there were even more girl-on-girl action thoughout the series, but it does exist and it treated nicely as an obvious fact (if there are no men, some girls will start sleeping together, some will transition in order to fill a need or make money). The representations of queerness and feminism are interesting and complex, ane while there are some fairly evil anti-men feminsts, there are many good representations of fascinating and many-layered female characters.

So, I have some Y-related links. Bookslut posted a link to Pop Candy (a pop-culture blog from USA Today) which contains a podcast of Brian K. Vaughan being interviewed by some fans of Y: The Last Man. It's quick and fun and quite interesting. In it, I learned that Vaughan has written a screenplay for Y: The Last Man that's in early stages of development. Yay! I also learned that Vaughan has a new graphic novel, Pride of Baghdad, that is being released today. It's apparently about a family of lions that escape from the Baghdad zoo in the middle of the bombing and occupation. It could be good. Here's a 10-page preview of it. In this format, the muted desert earth tones are strangely soothing in conjunction with the exteme violence of the bombing, which creates a powerful effect. I would be a little nervous that the story ends up being kind of Lion King-esque or juvenile, but I suspect Vaughan is much more intelligent than that, and thus it has the potential to be an interesting and challenging political commentary. But, I'll personally wait until it comes out in paperback. In the mean time, apparently Vaughan has also been writing a series of comics and graphic novels called Runaways about a group of kids whose parents are supervillians. Apparently, he's leaving that title but Joss Whedon is replacing him! Eek! So now I totally have to read that. (Plus, it's part of Amazon's 4 for the price of 3 special, so I'm totally ordering them).