Brian K. Vaughn’s fascination with comic books began early in life — the day his parents gave him one a day when he was home from school.
The stories, driven by pure imagination, captivated Vaughn and later enticed him to devote his life to writing. He eventually became one of the most sought-after authors.
Vaughn has written for titles like Superman, Batman and Spider-Man, but he has earned a cult-like following through his creator-owned works like “Pride of Baghdad,” “Ex Machina” and “Y: The Last Man.”
And when the final issue of “Y” hits stands on Jan. 2, fans likely will rush to grab their last copy of the tales of Yorick, the last man on Earth.
The comic focuses on the life of the last man left on the planet after the rest of the males, human and animal, die. Women take control, but the conflict and chaos don’t settle quickly.
“‘Y’ was really wanting to do a book about gender,” Vaughn said by phone while driving in Los Angeles. “It felt like comics had never really talked about gender in a sophisticated way. Whenever they talked gender it was always like … ‘Should Catwoman’s boobs be smaller?’ ‘should she be called the Invisible Woman instead of the Invisible Girl?’ I really wanted to talk about gender and it felt like this was sort of a sci-fi hook that would let me talk about gender.” With that in mind, Vaughn and artist Pia Guerra set out to create “Y.”
The 31-year-old author said that working with “Y” reinforced the premise that roles in society are not bound by gender. He said that history has proven that female leaders can be just as aggressive as their male counterpart.
“It didn’t feel like violence was something that was masculine. … Humans are really complicated and eliminating the men wouldn’t mean the end of things that were associated with men,” he said.
During the past five years, “Y” has depicted women in roles that range from docile to hostile and downright demonic — because they are human.
So why end the ride?
“From the first issue, I knew it was going to be a five-year run,” Vaughn said. “It was about the last boy on earth becoming the last man on earth and I sort of knew what that story was going to be and what becoming a man was going to be for Yorick.”
And so, his story told, Vaughn will guide Yorick into the sunset. Leaving the footprints in the stories he and Guerra left in the comics. We can look back over them and enjoy the stories again and again, and ponder what difference a little Ychromosome made on who we are now.
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AUTHOR’S NOTE: To read the full interview with Brian K. Vaughn, visit http://toontalk.freedomblogging.com. If you’re interested in reading more of the writer’s work, Darkhorse comics is set to release a stunning hardcover treatment of “The Excapist,” one of Vaughn’s best works based on the novel “The Amazing Adventures of Chevalier and Clay“ by Michael Shaebon. And the graphic novel "Pride of Baghdad" will soon be available in paperback. The tale is based on the true story of four lions that escaped the Baghdad Zoo in the early days of the war in Iraq.
