TIPPING THE GLASS TO Y: THE LAST MAN

[MattBrady]

by Zack Smith

We hope you’ve enjoyed Newsarama’s special longer than a week-long tribute to the final issue of Y: The Last Man. To conclude our look back at the series, we decided to pay tribute to some of the people who helped make the series the success – the fans – some of whom…well, let’s just say you’ll probably recognize some names.

Here are some thoughts on the series from creators both in and outside of the comics industry…and even a few pieces of original art. Be forewarned – some of these contain SPOILERS about the book’s final issues.

Eric Stephenson (Executive Director, Image Comics): Not long after I came on as Image's marketing director, I was hanging out at Wondercon with (Noble Causes/Dynamo 5 creator) Jay Faerber. This was right before Y had actually started, and I remember Jay saying he'd read the first issue and thought it was going to turn a massive hit.

Jay and Brian were friends, so I just kind of smiled and nodded, thinking Jay was just being supportive. (I only had a passing familiarity with Brian's work at the time: He'd written a Swamp Thing relaunch for Vertigo, and as a huge fan of Alan Moore's run, I probably judged Brian's effort a tad too harshly.) Jay wouldn't let up about the book, though, and over that weekend, his enthusiasm for the concept became pretty infectious. Good thing, too, because when Y: The Last Man finally hit the stands later that year, it immediately became my favorite monthly.

I've been there every issue – couldn't wait for the trade if I tried! – and as these last few have come out, I've had to battle back the sadness that always accompanies the conclusion of a well-told story. Even though I have, at times, thought I knew where Brian was going with things, he's (almost) always managed to surprise me, both for better and for worse. (Worse in a good way: That scene with Yorick and 355 toward the end of issue 56 still provokes one of the most emotional reactions I've ever had reading mainstream comics. And then there was 57... and 58...)

Comics have been part of my life for over 30 years at this point, and there aren't many I still get excited about. Y: The Last Man was one of the few, though, and I'm truly going to miss looking forward to it once it's gone. Congratulations, Brian, and congratulations, Pia, on a job very, very well done!

Paul Chadwick (creator, Concrete, guest-artist on Y, issues #16 and 17): When I got to do my fill-in issues of Y, I found what they said about Brian Vaughan's scripts were true: smart, snappy (but I knew that), and loaded with Internet links to visual reference for the artist. A penciller's gratitude for this cannot be overstated. Good reference, like good writing, is inspiring. That he troubled to do this reminded me of my favorite Norman Rockwell quote: "genius is the capacity to take infinite pains."

Brian's writing is full of rich characterization, humor, strong plotting, humanity. It's also, somewhat rare in American comics, quite political. My one chide on Y was that for a story raw with sexual politics, he was rather leisurely getting around to matters of lust. In my issues he obligingly got to that, albeit with the distancing device of having it occur in a stage play, rather than among his principals. I guess he's a little shy.

Brian told me when we first met that he'd been influenced by Concrete. Only when I'd read his work did I understand what a compliment it was. He's really moved far up the mountain, and our art form is richer for it.

I look forward to his future contributions – in comics, in movies or TV – with eager expectation.

Brian Azzarello (100 Bullets, Loveless): What I admire most about what Brian & Pia have done with Y is they got us to try something completely new.

This is no small feat in the comic industry; most readers and major publishers tend to demand what they know, and dismiss anything new. New equals risk; and we are a risk adverse society – even in our escapism choices. We can deny this all we want, but the proof is on our comic shelves, cineplexes, and TV screens. But once in awhile, when we’re not paying attention, something new reaches out and grabs our imagination. Or should I say in this case, once in a Y’ll…

Brian & Pia created something new out of nothing. Y: The Last Man is original and compelling, a story filled with characters that will stand the test of time. I stand and applaud them for that – and I look forward to sitting down with all the trades, and rereading this vibrant series.”

Andy Diggle (The Losers, Gamekeeper, Green Arrow: Year One, Batman Confidential): With Y, for the first time since I started out as a wannabe writer, I find myself pulling apart the storytelling, deconstructing the pacing to see how Brian manages to pack so much in there while still allowing it to slip down nice and smooth. There's no hand-waving, attention-grabbing gimmickry here, just rock-solid storytelling, strong characters and snappy dialogue, the perfect marriage of talent and technique. He makes it all look so easy. God, I hate him.

Chris Ryall (Writer/Publisher/Editor-in-Chief, IDW Publishing): Brian Vaughn's comics, and notably Y: The Last Man, work for me on multiple levels, in the way that comics rarely do any more. As a comics writer, they give me something to aspire to – Vaughn's economy of words and ability to say so much with so little is admirable as well as aspirational; as a publisher, they make me wish Y was an IDW book; and mostly, as a fan of comics for over three decades now, they remind me why I love this art form in the first place.

It's hard to find time to read comics just as a fan nowadays without looking at it also as an editor or publisher or writer, but Brian's work is that pure thing, in that it gives me a charge as a fan on a level that I rarely experience any more.

However, all of that doesn't mean I don't think also think he's a little bit of a dick for killing Agent 355, no matter what she stood for...

I'm really going to miss this book, in the same way I lamented the ending of Sandman or Preacher, but it makes me look forward to whatever Brian does next. Hopefully one of the things he'll do someday will have an IDW logo on the cover... thanks for a great series Brian, Pia, Goran, et al.

Jason Aaron (Scalped, Wolverine, The Other Side): Want to know how to write cliffhangers that will make readers crawl over broken glass and bits of rusty metal just to grab the next issue? Then read Y: The Last Man. Want to see a male writer who's able to craft an endless parade of believable female characters? Then look no further than Brian K. Vaughan. He's also pretty good at writing whiny second-rate magicians with a penchant for getting into trouble. He can't write monkeys for ____ though.

Christos N. Gage (House of M: Avengers, The Authority: Prime, Wildstorm: Revelations): On the train back from San Diego last year, I talked to Joss Whedon about how much we both hate Brian K. Vaughan. The reason for the loathing is that it's simply wrong for someone to make such brilliant writing look so easy.

With Y:The Last Man, he's taken a concept -- that of the lone surviving male on an Earth populated by women -- that for most writers would inspire a story best suited to Cinemax After Dark. But instead, Brian spun a tale that's believable, visionary and endlessly fascinating, populated with fully realized characters who are both likeable and flawed, who become as real to the reader as his or her closest friends. And of course there are the twists. I know Brian hates to be stereotyped as the "shock ending guy," but come on – was there a single last page in the entire 60-ssue run that didn't make you furious the next issue wasn't in your hands RIGHT THEN?

Most remarkably, none of the twists seemed forced or unbelievable – they all fit into the story like he'd planned it that way from the very start. (Which I refuse to believe, because then I'd have to quit the business out of sheer paralyzing inadequacy.) With Y, Brian Vaughan has created a saga that will be enthralling new readers for years to come. I'm sad to see it end, but I can't wait for what comes next.

Austin Grossman (author, Soon I Will be Invincible): When I heard about Y:TLM I kind of cringed - it feels set up to be a creaky gender-morality fable - exactly the kind of thing it's always making fun of.

Who would have thought the Last Man would be an actual nice guy - one thinks of a square-jawed, doom-laden heavy. At first, Yorick comes on as a slacker-turned-unlikely-hero, but then over time he takes on all the oddity and unexpectedness of a real person - as he fills out the role, you get the feeling that the last man is a lot of different men at once. So on that score, yeah...he can have my spot.

That, and it's an ace piece of disaster fiction, gratifyingly well-worked-out. The instantaneous death of half the planet is exactly as bloody and complicated as you'd want it to be, and watching the background progress of the devastation is almost as fun as the foreground action - from the grisly first seconds, through disorder and decay, to new social groups like the Amazons and the Last Girls, the last generation of children. In a world like that, the characters slowly can traverse a landscape that's amazingly generative, where a million different stories are happening at once, and the story's core myth keeps finding new ways to matter.

Barry Lyga (author, The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl, Boy Toy) Very few properties ever live up to their initial high concept. Y: The Last Man did, in spades.

"One man in a world full of women...but it's not what you think." That's how I first heard it described, years ago, and I distinctly remember thinking that with such a pitch, there would be so many expectations that the creators couldn't possibly live up to them all. I was wrong. Vaughn, Guerra, and their various co-conspirators managed to keep the twists and turns coming, forging a remarkable piece of sexual politics and character study that lived up to the hype.

Jay Faerber (Noble Causes, Dynamo 5): My monthly stack of comics is going to be noticeably lighter once Y: The Last Man finishes. The biggest compliment I can pay Brian and Pia is to say that they make it look easy. I know a ton of work must go into a book this complicated and challenging, but the finished product always looks so effortless. The characters sound and look so natural, the situations seem completely organic, and even those signature cliffhangers seem utterly inevitable.

Joe Hill (author, Heart-Shaped Box, 20th Century Ghosts, writer, Locke & Key from IDW): The new century has seen the departure of three remarkable, indelible fictional characters: a scarred boy wizard, a ruthless but charismatic New Jersey gangster, and Yorick Brown, last man alive in a world where everyone else with the Y chromosome had the bad luck to get wiped out in the space of about 24 blood-drenched comic panels. I don’t think it’s hyperbole at all to compare Y: The Last Man to Harry Potter and The Sopranos; Y has the former’s epic scope and sense of humor about itself, and like the latter, it takes a scouring look at\ our own culture.

From Massimo Carnevale’s iconic covers, to Pia Guerra’s ruthlessly effective sequences, to Brian K. Vaughan’s unnerving sense of timing and pace, Y has, from the beginning, embodied and built upon all that is best in modern comics to create an irresistible adventure. Last Man is also a sly and witty look at attraction, friendship, and loyalty, as clever about men and women as any Howard Hawks comedy. Finally, while Yorick’s wanderings take him in and out of mortal peril, across the country, and around the world, his most interesting exploration is into the nature of female experience itself. In that sense, his pilgrimage is a variation on the journey made by most young men searching for a partner to love and trust, and represents one of the few adventures I know of that’s actually worth the trouble.

Brad Meltzer (author, The Book of Fate and many others; writer, Identity Crisis, Justice League of America): What's truly beautiful about Y is that it could've so easily been terrible, descending into some bad sci-fi redux, or even worse, literary pretentiousness. Instead, Brian gave us a breathtaking character piece that never slowed, and somehow always reached for the bigger thematic picture. For the first year, I was stupidly caught up in the WHY? Why'd the plague happen? I needed to know why. (Insert pun here.)

In a lesser hand, that would've been all that mattered. In Brian's, he proved it was beside the point. And I was most jealous each issue when he'd pull out some detail about the men-less world that just seemed so...damn perfect. What happened to music. Or the Washington Monument. Plus, he was blessed with artists (especially Pia Guerra) who just knew how to bring it to life. I really will miss this book.

Jock: (artist, The Losers, Green Arrow: Year One, Faker):

Have no idea where my mind was, but here's a little something....



cheers guys -
jock

Antony Johnston (Wasteland at Oni; Texas Strangers and Dead Space at Image) : Y: The Last Man has been one of the few ongoing series that kept me hooked the past few years, and I can't stress enough how much of influence it was in the planning stages of Wasteland. I practically learnt how to write an ongoing by analyzing it.

Brian and Pia are a formidable team, and the consistent quality of Y is a testament to their talent and craftsmanship. The world's a better place for having had Yorick in it and - while I'm glad it has an end, something more comics could do with - I'll be mourning its passing along with everyone else.

Cheers, Brian and Pia - and thanks for bringing us all along for the ride.

Cory Doctorow (author, Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom and many others; co-editor, BoingBoing.net; Cory Doctorow’s Futuristic Tales of the Here and Now at IDW): Y rocks! It walks the fine line between thinky, smart gender stuff and vivid, page-turning action. There's plenty of mean, bad-ass stuff, plenty of humor, and dialog that's some of the best in the business. I devour every ish the day it comes into the shop.

Mike San Giacomo (reporter, the Cleveland Plain Dealer; regular Newsarama contributor, writer, Phantom Jack from Atomic Pop Art Entertainment and Tales from the Starlight Drive-In from Image Comics): I'd love to have heard Brian K. Vaughan's pitch to DC for Y The Last Man. "It's a story about a plague that kills every male animal on Earth except one guy and his pet monkey. Yes, pet monkey. And even though he's the last man on Earth and could have sex with the most beautiful women in the world, he's trying to stay celibate and fine his fiancé' last seen in Australlia. Yes, he's celibate. And there are lots of lesbians, naturally. In the end it turns out that the monkey's feces save the day. Yes, monkey feces. Hello? Hello?"

The book is wonderful, and it screams MAKE ME INTO A MOVIE. It's one of those rare stories that comic lovers can shove in front of wives and friends who hate comics and say, "Read this."

It's been a great ride, I'm sorry to see it end.

Robert Kirkman (The Walking Dead and Invincible at Image; Ultimate X-Men, Marvel Zombies and many more): Sandman, Preacher, Y: The Last Man... I don't really think anything more than that needs to be said.

From Mike Hawthorne (artist, The Un-Men):



Jeffery Brown (cartoonist, Clumsy and much more): I have to admit I've only read Volume One of Y: The Last Man. I'd been meaning to check it out for a while, so I finally did a couple months ago. It was kind of nice to start reading a series with a decent amount of trades out, so I could get a whole lot of story all at once.

Then I realized the series was going to be ending soon, so I thought I'd read the last few issues. I read issue #58 and I felt like I missed something. If the last issue isn't a double-sized issue with half of it devoted to "PREVIOUSLY, IN Y:THE LAST MAN..." then I suppose I'm going to have to just sit down and read the rest of the series first.

I've also only read the first volume of Fables. That one's not ending soon, too, is it?

[Vysions]

Nice to read what those in the business had to say. It shall be missed.

[Tanjint]

people don't consider the Invisibles to be on the level of Sandman and Preacher? What a bunch of squares.

-T

[nickmaynard]

Originally Posted by Tanjint

people don't consider the Invisibles to be on the level of Sandman and Preacher? What a bunch of squares.

-T

no one said that.

[artjunkie]

Originally Posted by Tanjint

people don't consider the Invisibles to be on the level of Sandman and Preacher?

Not only The Invisibles but 100 Bullets, Shade the Changing Man, and Transmetropolitan.

[Punchy]

Vast man, hahahahaha!

[rwe1138]

Originally Posted by MattBrady

Jock: (artist, The Losers, Green Arrow: Year One, Faker):

Have no idea where my mind was, but here's a little something....



cheers guys -
jock

Sheer genius.

[Reagunn]

Originally Posted by Tanjint

people don't consider the Invisibles to be on the level of Sandman and Preacher? What a bunch of squares.-T

Invisibles is a bit impenetrable whereas Y, Preacher and Sandman can be read purely as entertainment.
Invisibles is the last comic that I'd give to someone who doesn't read comics and the first to someone who loves them.

[Omega Flyer]

So i guess i should get this series in trade?

[Punchy]

Originally Posted by Omega Flyer

So i guess i should get this series in trade?

God yes.

I just bought all 9 available volumes in the space of less than a month.

[Xero]

I will seriously miss this damned book, there better be an Absolute Y on the way from DC.

[beetle1million]

I re-read issues 1-59 before hitting 60.

Seriously, what an emotionally draining experience. It maybe possibly became my favorite comic book of all time this week. Those of us who have read it already are all incredibly lucky. You guys who get to read it now, even more fortunate.

[ClaudioPozas]

BKV, in his interview here at Newsarama, said he didn't accomplish much, he just created a comic book that sold well. And there's where he's wrong.

Y:tLM isn't a phenomenon because it sold well, Brian. It is getting all this praise and fireworks because it was a very well-written, well-illustrated book. It ran its entire course true to itself. Y is on par with some of the best comics in history, including Watchmen, Killing Joke and others.

So thanks to Brian, Pia and the others for Y. And congratulations to them all for making a piece of comic book history.

[Tanjint]

i find sandman to be as impenetrable as invisibles, but i definitely see your point

-T

[monsterZERO]

Originally Posted by Punchy

God yes.

I just bought all 9 available volumes in the space of less than a month.

I did the same thing... it's gonna be a long wait for Vol. 10

[Scarlet Mage]

Originally Posted by MattBrady

by Zack Smith

Jay Faerber (Noble Causes, Dynamo 5): My monthly stack of comics is going to be noticeably lighter once Y: The Last Man finishes. The biggest compliment I can pay Brian and Pia is to say that they make it look easy. I know a ton of work must go into a book this complicated and challenging, but the finished product always looks so effortless. The characters sound and look so natural, the situations seem completely organic, and even those signature cliffhangers seem utterly inevitable.

So Jay Faerber only reads one comic a month? 'Cause that's the only way one monthly title coming to an end could in any way impact his monthly stack. (okay, I'll go as high as four but once you hit five books on your pull list one missing won't makie things appreciably lighter).

[Zaldy]

Originally Posted by Scarlet Mage

So Jay Faerber only reads one comic a month? 'Cause that's the only way one monthly title coming to an end could in any way impact his monthly stack. (okay, I'll go as high as four but once you hit five books on your pull list one missing won't makie things appreciably lighter).

I'm thinking he's probably talking about how intellectually light his monthly stack is going to be. You could hardly go a page without something thoughtprovoking striking you.

[-Armando523-]

great interview

[SunnyvaleTra]

Love that Jock piece. I will miss this series.

[rpriske]

None of those books mentioned (Invisibles, Preacher, Transmetropolitan) are as good as Sandman, but Y got close at points.


The scene with Ampersand in issue #60 is what of the most well done scenes I have seen in ANY comic.

[grphxkindaguy]

Originally Posted by beetle1million

Those of us who have read it already are all incredibly lucky. You guys who get to read it now, even more fortunate.

Excellent post, couldn't have said it better myself!!!

YTLM is one of my favorite series of all time. It will be sorely missed...

[FireLight]

Originally Posted by rpriske

None of those books mentioned (Invisibles, Preacher, Transmetropolitan) are as good as Sandman, but Y got close at points.


The scene with Ampersand in issue #60 is what of the most well done scenes I have seen in ANY comic.

Like 355 getting kilt - no matter what I 'should' have expected - I was not 'ready' to witness that scene of goodbye. So I denied my consciousness the opportunity to remember it - until you just reminded me - dammit.

When so few words - and such pretty but uncluttered pictures can elicit such STRONG emotion - then you know - you just KNOW - you are participating in something special. Because getting to me emotionally - means I am a participant and BKV has done his job - and then some.

[grendel824]

Originally Posted by Tanjint

people don't consider the Invisibles to be on the level of Sandman and Preacher? What a bunch of squares.

-T

I'd agree, if only in terms of being some of the most successful "gateway drugs" for comics readers. I'm starting to lose count of how many non-comics readers I've gotten excited for Wednesdays with books like Y, Fables, Preacher, and Walking Dead.

[grendel824]

Originally Posted by rpriske

The scene with Ampersand in issue #60 is what of the most well done scenes I have seen in ANY comic.

I get misty-eyed still with that one. I had a parrot who had "bonded" to me for the entire decade we had him, and he died in my arms last year, and I keep thinking of that when I read that scene.

[Tanjint]

Originally Posted by rpriske

None of those books mentioned (Invisibles, Preacher, Transmetropolitan) are as good as Sandman, but Y got close at points.


The scene with Ampersand in issue #60 is what of the most well done scenes I have seen in ANY comic.

can you elaborate a little more of your thoughts on ampersand's death in 60 and why you think it's tight?

I didn't NOT like the scene, I just don't think i fully got it.

The scene and what was happening in it didn't seem entirely clear and what was clear didn't seem very different from other stories version of the same scene that I've come across in the past.

-T