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Mely has just informed me that the latest volume of Y: The Last Man is coming out on Wednesday. Woo-hoo! Brian K. Vaughn is the main reason why I haven't entirely abandoned non-manga comic books.
In Y, every living being with a Y chromosome instantly drops dead... except for a slacker named Yorick Brown (his Dad was into Shakespeare and his sister is named Hero) who is on the phone with his girlfriend Beth in Australia, and his pet monkey, Ampersand. Power structures are instantly turned upside down, and countries now live or die depending on just how much power women had in them before: Israel immediately becomes the world's top military power, Australia is the only country that can use its submarines, and everyone is after Yorick for one reason or another.
There are great characters, almost all female; crisp dialogue; and really terrific plotting, much of it leading to evil cliffhangers. Pia Guerra, its main artist, draws women who look like real women with real bodies, not inflatable sex dolls. A completely addictive series.
I also adore Vaughn's Ex Machina, in which a man gets super powers, finds that being a powerful vigilante isn't all the comics would make you believe, and gives up his powers-- mostly-- to become mayor of New York.
His third major series, Runaways, is the one which got me hooked on his writing, but it's less mature and complex than the other two (though still great fun.) A bunch of teenagers find that their parents are supervillains. It's a rich and funny metaphor, but recent issues have lost touch with it in favor of comic geeking with other Marvel universe characters: amusing, but not what I'm reading the series for.
In Y, every living being with a Y chromosome instantly drops dead... except for a slacker named Yorick Brown (his Dad was into Shakespeare and his sister is named Hero) who is on the phone with his girlfriend Beth in Australia, and his pet monkey, Ampersand. Power structures are instantly turned upside down, and countries now live or die depending on just how much power women had in them before: Israel immediately becomes the world's top military power, Australia is the only country that can use its submarines, and everyone is after Yorick for one reason or another.
There are great characters, almost all female; crisp dialogue; and really terrific plotting, much of it leading to evil cliffhangers. Pia Guerra, its main artist, draws women who look like real women with real bodies, not inflatable sex dolls. A completely addictive series.
I also adore Vaughn's Ex Machina, in which a man gets super powers, finds that being a powerful vigilante isn't all the comics would make you believe, and gives up his powers-- mostly-- to become mayor of New York.
His third major series, Runaways, is the one which got me hooked on his writing, but it's less mature and complex than the other two (though still great fun.) A bunch of teenagers find that their parents are supervillains. It's a rich and funny metaphor, but recent issues have lost touch with it in favor of comic geeking with other Marvel universe characters: amusing, but not what I'm reading the series for.
