MattBrady
11-28-2002, 09:29 AM
Quick biology: boys are boys because they have an X chromosome and a Y chromosome, while girls are girls because they have two X chromosomes. If, say, a mysterious plague were to sweep across the globe and kill everything with a Y chromosome, you’d have a planet populated entirely be females. Add one man who somehow survived to the mix, and you’ve have the upcoming “serialized novel,” Y – The Last Man from Vertigo, created by Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra.
Of course, you’d also have one guy who’s about to become very…popular.
“Our protagonist is Yorick Brown, an amateur escape artist whose primary concern before the plague was finding a way to pay off his student loans,” Vaughan told Newsarama. “Yorick is smart, funny, and extremely loyal to his missing girlfriend - at least initially - but he has no idea why fate spared him and instead took his friends, his father and the Rolling Stones. This series is about one young man's quest to help save the human race... and to hopefully find out what it means to be a ‘real man’ along the way.”
According to Vaughan, the idea for the series came from a desire to explore a topic in a manner other than the typical one in comics. “I always wanted to write a comic book that explored issues of gender beyond, ‘Should Catwoman's boobs be smaller?’ Vaughan said. “Vertigo editor Heidi MacDonald was looking for a new series that had a simple, striking premise, but a complex, sophisticated approach. I thought it might be fun to do a new version of the old ‘last man on earth’ story. And while the idea of a single male surviving a plague that kills everyone but women has been considered before - a 1924 film called The Last Man on Earth followed the only man to live through a ‘masculitis’ epidemic, for example, I knew I could find a unique way to say something about our contemporary society with the premise.”
And MacDonald agreed. What sold me on Y: The Last Man from the first time I read the proposal was the fact that even though it was taking a situation that has been done before - the last survivor of one of the sexes - it had taken an entirely new slant on it - <breality[/b]. Who would become president? Who would run the trains? Will we need police? What would happen to religion and crime and every other social construct when gender isn't an issue any more? What would happen to sex? Who will watch the kids?
“So I always call Y ‘social science fiction.’ While there's a lot of drama and adventure in the book, there's also a surprise in every issue. Brian has done a ton of homework and created a whole world which is both familiar and yet hideously shocking.”
That said, MacDonald acknowledged that the series has been a long time coming, but the unintended wait only served to increase its relevance. "Brian actually proposed this book back in the beginning of 2001, and the first draft of the first script was written in August, 2001,” MacDonald said. “Since then, sadly, both Brian and I have had a chance to see first hand what happens when our society is thrown into chaos, even if it's only for a few days, and not indefinitely, as in Y. A lot of what I've experienced for myself after 9/11 was already in Y, but now it's even more relevant. Some people are going to be able to keep it together, but some people aren't, and they are going to become a danger to everyone. Pair bonding is the basic unit of society -- what's going to happen when that no longer exists? Some women are going to find religion, some women are going to kill themselves, some are just going to try to be strong and try to rebuild the human race.
"Also, it's a testament to how plugged in Brian really is. In the first draft of the script, we mentioned human cloning, the Palestinian situation, the lot of women in Afghanistan, and heroic firemen. The only thing we had to change after 9/11 was the Afghanistan plot, but it's really scary how relevant this story is."
Getting back to the storyline of Y, the first issue of the series sets the pace, establishing Yorick and his pet helper monkey, Ampersand. The world Yorick and Ampersand live in is extremely close to our own – scientists are on the verge of producing the first human clone, an ongoing war on terrorism has the United State’s military attention, and the Middle East is close to full-out anarchy.
Then - boom – the plague hits. Planes fall from the sky, power plants stop operating, 495 of the CEOs making up the Fortune 500 die, 99% of the world’s landowners are gone, and the 15% of the Congress that isn’t male wonders what can be done.
But closer to home for Yorick, his girlfriend has gone missing in Australia, and suddenly, every country is looking to this lone male less in terms of an individual, but more of in terms of a repopulation resource.
But Vaughan’s approach to the concept of one man left on the planet isn’t so much just that, as MacDonald explained, it’s also the exploration of an earth virtually exclusively populated by women. “Though our stories will primarily be seen through a male's perspective - Yorick's, I'm confident that I'll also be able to write a wide variety of strong, complex female characters,” Vaughan said. “Yes, I'm a guy, but more importantly, I'm a human being, a writer with an imagination. If I could write about goddamn talking plants every month in Swamp Thing, I'm pretty sure I can tackle the opposite sex.
“Still, there's no doubt that this book benefits greatly from the input of my co-creator, Pia Guerra, an unbelievably talented artist who happens to be a woman. Heidi and Karen Berger are also there to yell at me if I ever start sounding like Dave Sim... but so far, they've been nothing but supportive.”
MacDonald chuckled at the idea of having to yell at Vaughan, claiming that it was all his idea to have as many women on the creative team as possible. “We're lucky to have someone as talented as Pia Guerra on the art, no matter what gender she is,” MacDonald said. “Jose Marzan Jr. is the inker, and for a man, he's great! Of course, I'm always around to bounce ideas off, but to be honest Brian already has a zillion things to cover. I just throw in a little idea now and then about something that might be an interesting story point, but it's his book all the way.”
Setting Y squarely in the arena of social commentary, Vaughan said he’s not planning on tiptoeing around any of the standard science fiction conventions about an all-female earth, nor is he planning on pulling punches when it comes to a realistic (in Vaughan’s mind) version of what the world would be like without men. In other words, don’t expect Paradise Island.
“In fiction, all-female societies are usually portrayed as either flawless kingdoms where war and bigotry have been completely eliminated, or fascist empires ruled by man-hating lesbians,” Vaughan said. “These ‘unmanned’ worlds almost never reflect the complexity and diversity of real women. I hope Y will be different.
“Women make up 52% of the global population, but only 15% of the world's governments. If all of the men died tomorrow, how would politics change? In the United States, according to the Constitutional chain of succession, Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton would be the new President. Would American women accept that?
“What about the Middle East? In Israel, all women between the ages of 18 and 26 have performed compulsory military service in the Israeli Defense Forces. Recently, at least four Palestinian suicide bombers have been women. Would the death of all males really mean the end of violence?
“And what would happen to religion, since all Catholic priests, Muslim imams and Orthodox Jewish rabbis are men? What about sex, sports, art, and commerce? How would these aspects of daily life change?
“During Y's globe-spanning adventure, our hero and his companions will discover answers to all of these questions... and loads of others.”
Following in the footsteps of other Vertigo series, Vaughan explained just what “Serialized novel” means in the description of the series. “I guess Y is what you would call a ‘serialized novel,’ a long-form monthly story with a pre-planned beginning, middle and end,” Vaughan said. “I know exactly what the final panel of the series will be, but I'm not yet sure how long it will take us to get there. I've mapped out our first four years in detail, so we'll see what happens.”
But MacDonald doesn’t want potential readers to get bogged down in the details of the series’ form as much as be primed for the story itself. “Let's not forget - this is also a ripping yarn about a man and a monkey surrounded by women,” MacDonald said. “Our hero, Yorick, is literally the most valuable thing on earth, and a lot of people want to get a piece of him. So there's a lot of adventure and action. The basic situation is that Yorick's girlfriend, Beth, is off in Australia, and suddenly travel is not as easy as it was, so just getting to see her is going to be an epic journey. And he's trying to stay faithful to her. Accent on the ‘trying.’ But I told Brian that no beautiful Amazon princess could tie Yorick down and have her way with him. Until at least issue #10. Also, we'll find out that maybe Yorick isn't the last man in the solar system. Some guys were up in the space station -- did they survive? Can they get down? That's all in the first year.”
And yes – although it’s been barely mentioned so far, sex will play a fairly large role in Y - but that doesn’t mean Vaughan’s on a strict one-per-issue sex scene, though. “Sexuality is the impetus for at least 50% of all human activities - not to mention 100% of that of the cast members of The Real World- so a lot of women are going to be at a loss for something to do Saturday night,” MacDonald said. “They will have to find a way to amuse themselves.
“There is a reason why Yorick - and Ampersand, are still alive, but we won't find that out until the very last issue. But it isn't really the point. Let's face it, the last man on earth is one of those great pulpy ideas from the golden age of science fiction. Mars needs women, but earth needs men! Although female-to-male transsexuals are still running around in the world of Y - and have a very high status, as opposed to their low status in the ‘real’ world - I think a male character is needed to add a counterpoint - he's the exception that proves the rule, in a way. To state the most obvious thing ever said: a world without men would be a lot duller. In fact, in issue #4, Yorick pays homage to the men who are lost, and it's a really sad, touching issue.”
All in all, Vaughan is virtually beaming with pride when he discusses both the series and his high hopes for it in the market. “I'm really, really proud of this book, my first creator-owned work,” Vaughan said. “I think it's a fun, intelligent, different kind of Vertigo series, and it's definitely the best thing I've ever written. In the current market, there's never a guarantee that a series will eventually be collected, so I hope interested ‘mature readers’ will consider pre-ordering our extra-sized - 40 pages! - specially priced - only $2.95! - first issue with their retailers.
“After all, it's an epic quest with a likable protagonist, a present-day sci-fi thriller that combines action, horror, romance, and humor. And it's got a monkey, too!”
Of course, you’d also have one guy who’s about to become very…popular.
“Our protagonist is Yorick Brown, an amateur escape artist whose primary concern before the plague was finding a way to pay off his student loans,” Vaughan told Newsarama. “Yorick is smart, funny, and extremely loyal to his missing girlfriend - at least initially - but he has no idea why fate spared him and instead took his friends, his father and the Rolling Stones. This series is about one young man's quest to help save the human race... and to hopefully find out what it means to be a ‘real man’ along the way.”
According to Vaughan, the idea for the series came from a desire to explore a topic in a manner other than the typical one in comics. “I always wanted to write a comic book that explored issues of gender beyond, ‘Should Catwoman's boobs be smaller?’ Vaughan said. “Vertigo editor Heidi MacDonald was looking for a new series that had a simple, striking premise, but a complex, sophisticated approach. I thought it might be fun to do a new version of the old ‘last man on earth’ story. And while the idea of a single male surviving a plague that kills everyone but women has been considered before - a 1924 film called The Last Man on Earth followed the only man to live through a ‘masculitis’ epidemic, for example, I knew I could find a unique way to say something about our contemporary society with the premise.”
And MacDonald agreed. What sold me on Y: The Last Man from the first time I read the proposal was the fact that even though it was taking a situation that has been done before - the last survivor of one of the sexes - it had taken an entirely new slant on it - <breality[/b]. Who would become president? Who would run the trains? Will we need police? What would happen to religion and crime and every other social construct when gender isn't an issue any more? What would happen to sex? Who will watch the kids?
“So I always call Y ‘social science fiction.’ While there's a lot of drama and adventure in the book, there's also a surprise in every issue. Brian has done a ton of homework and created a whole world which is both familiar and yet hideously shocking.”
That said, MacDonald acknowledged that the series has been a long time coming, but the unintended wait only served to increase its relevance. "Brian actually proposed this book back in the beginning of 2001, and the first draft of the first script was written in August, 2001,” MacDonald said. “Since then, sadly, both Brian and I have had a chance to see first hand what happens when our society is thrown into chaos, even if it's only for a few days, and not indefinitely, as in Y. A lot of what I've experienced for myself after 9/11 was already in Y, but now it's even more relevant. Some people are going to be able to keep it together, but some people aren't, and they are going to become a danger to everyone. Pair bonding is the basic unit of society -- what's going to happen when that no longer exists? Some women are going to find religion, some women are going to kill themselves, some are just going to try to be strong and try to rebuild the human race.
"Also, it's a testament to how plugged in Brian really is. In the first draft of the script, we mentioned human cloning, the Palestinian situation, the lot of women in Afghanistan, and heroic firemen. The only thing we had to change after 9/11 was the Afghanistan plot, but it's really scary how relevant this story is."
Getting back to the storyline of Y, the first issue of the series sets the pace, establishing Yorick and his pet helper monkey, Ampersand. The world Yorick and Ampersand live in is extremely close to our own – scientists are on the verge of producing the first human clone, an ongoing war on terrorism has the United State’s military attention, and the Middle East is close to full-out anarchy.
Then - boom – the plague hits. Planes fall from the sky, power plants stop operating, 495 of the CEOs making up the Fortune 500 die, 99% of the world’s landowners are gone, and the 15% of the Congress that isn’t male wonders what can be done.
But closer to home for Yorick, his girlfriend has gone missing in Australia, and suddenly, every country is looking to this lone male less in terms of an individual, but more of in terms of a repopulation resource.
But Vaughan’s approach to the concept of one man left on the planet isn’t so much just that, as MacDonald explained, it’s also the exploration of an earth virtually exclusively populated by women. “Though our stories will primarily be seen through a male's perspective - Yorick's, I'm confident that I'll also be able to write a wide variety of strong, complex female characters,” Vaughan said. “Yes, I'm a guy, but more importantly, I'm a human being, a writer with an imagination. If I could write about goddamn talking plants every month in Swamp Thing, I'm pretty sure I can tackle the opposite sex.
“Still, there's no doubt that this book benefits greatly from the input of my co-creator, Pia Guerra, an unbelievably talented artist who happens to be a woman. Heidi and Karen Berger are also there to yell at me if I ever start sounding like Dave Sim... but so far, they've been nothing but supportive.”
MacDonald chuckled at the idea of having to yell at Vaughan, claiming that it was all his idea to have as many women on the creative team as possible. “We're lucky to have someone as talented as Pia Guerra on the art, no matter what gender she is,” MacDonald said. “Jose Marzan Jr. is the inker, and for a man, he's great! Of course, I'm always around to bounce ideas off, but to be honest Brian already has a zillion things to cover. I just throw in a little idea now and then about something that might be an interesting story point, but it's his book all the way.”
Setting Y squarely in the arena of social commentary, Vaughan said he’s not planning on tiptoeing around any of the standard science fiction conventions about an all-female earth, nor is he planning on pulling punches when it comes to a realistic (in Vaughan’s mind) version of what the world would be like without men. In other words, don’t expect Paradise Island.
“In fiction, all-female societies are usually portrayed as either flawless kingdoms where war and bigotry have been completely eliminated, or fascist empires ruled by man-hating lesbians,” Vaughan said. “These ‘unmanned’ worlds almost never reflect the complexity and diversity of real women. I hope Y will be different.
“Women make up 52% of the global population, but only 15% of the world's governments. If all of the men died tomorrow, how would politics change? In the United States, according to the Constitutional chain of succession, Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton would be the new President. Would American women accept that?
“What about the Middle East? In Israel, all women between the ages of 18 and 26 have performed compulsory military service in the Israeli Defense Forces. Recently, at least four Palestinian suicide bombers have been women. Would the death of all males really mean the end of violence?
“And what would happen to religion, since all Catholic priests, Muslim imams and Orthodox Jewish rabbis are men? What about sex, sports, art, and commerce? How would these aspects of daily life change?
“During Y's globe-spanning adventure, our hero and his companions will discover answers to all of these questions... and loads of others.”
Following in the footsteps of other Vertigo series, Vaughan explained just what “Serialized novel” means in the description of the series. “I guess Y is what you would call a ‘serialized novel,’ a long-form monthly story with a pre-planned beginning, middle and end,” Vaughan said. “I know exactly what the final panel of the series will be, but I'm not yet sure how long it will take us to get there. I've mapped out our first four years in detail, so we'll see what happens.”
But MacDonald doesn’t want potential readers to get bogged down in the details of the series’ form as much as be primed for the story itself. “Let's not forget - this is also a ripping yarn about a man and a monkey surrounded by women,” MacDonald said. “Our hero, Yorick, is literally the most valuable thing on earth, and a lot of people want to get a piece of him. So there's a lot of adventure and action. The basic situation is that Yorick's girlfriend, Beth, is off in Australia, and suddenly travel is not as easy as it was, so just getting to see her is going to be an epic journey. And he's trying to stay faithful to her. Accent on the ‘trying.’ But I told Brian that no beautiful Amazon princess could tie Yorick down and have her way with him. Until at least issue #10. Also, we'll find out that maybe Yorick isn't the last man in the solar system. Some guys were up in the space station -- did they survive? Can they get down? That's all in the first year.”
And yes – although it’s been barely mentioned so far, sex will play a fairly large role in Y - but that doesn’t mean Vaughan’s on a strict one-per-issue sex scene, though. “Sexuality is the impetus for at least 50% of all human activities - not to mention 100% of that of the cast members of The Real World- so a lot of women are going to be at a loss for something to do Saturday night,” MacDonald said. “They will have to find a way to amuse themselves.
“There is a reason why Yorick - and Ampersand, are still alive, but we won't find that out until the very last issue. But it isn't really the point. Let's face it, the last man on earth is one of those great pulpy ideas from the golden age of science fiction. Mars needs women, but earth needs men! Although female-to-male transsexuals are still running around in the world of Y - and have a very high status, as opposed to their low status in the ‘real’ world - I think a male character is needed to add a counterpoint - he's the exception that proves the rule, in a way. To state the most obvious thing ever said: a world without men would be a lot duller. In fact, in issue #4, Yorick pays homage to the men who are lost, and it's a really sad, touching issue.”
All in all, Vaughan is virtually beaming with pride when he discusses both the series and his high hopes for it in the market. “I'm really, really proud of this book, my first creator-owned work,” Vaughan said. “I think it's a fun, intelligent, different kind of Vertigo series, and it's definitely the best thing I've ever written. In the current market, there's never a guarantee that a series will eventually be collected, so I hope interested ‘mature readers’ will consider pre-ordering our extra-sized - 40 pages! - specially priced - only $2.95! - first issue with their retailers.
“After all, it's an epic quest with a likable protagonist, a present-day sci-fi thriller that combines action, horror, romance, and humor. And it's got a monkey, too!”