Wed Jan 30, 2008 — by Rick Marshall

Y: The Last Man Roundup

Think Cap and Bucky were big? This story's even bigger!

Sure, I heard something about Captain America and some guy named Bucky this week, but the story I really can't avoid no matter where I turn is the conclusion of Brian K. Vaughan's five-year series Y: The Last Man.

From MTV to CNN, the mainstream media is all over this story, and rightly so. It's one of the best to hit comic shops' shelves in recent years. (If you don't agree, we'll just have to step outside. Seriously.) Over the last week, we've been directing you to some of the coverage the series and its writer have received as the release date for the final issue appraoched, but the buzz around Y has noticeably spiked in the last 24 hours.

So, without further ado, let's take a (somewhat spoiler-free) look at what's being said about the conclusion of Y: the Last Man.

(Oh, and don't worry about spoilers in this post, folks. I haven't had a chance to pick up my copy of Y #60 yet, so I'm providing links to spoiler-free stories except where I've noted otherwise.)

• First, Kurt Loder of MTV provides a wrap-up of the series and a look ahead to its potential big-screen future. Vaughan explains his perspective on the film adaptation of Y late in the article, but it's certainly the most interesting part of the story.

It might be fun to see a live-action version of our characters. But I never saw our series as glorified storyboards. Comics are obviously a unique medium with lots of strengths that film and television will never have, and I only ever envisioned 'Y' as a comic. So it's always a little disheartening when people tell me that they'll be crushed if 'Y' never becomes a movie or an HBO series or whatever, like the comic was just the means to an end. The only destination that ever mattered to me was Issue Number 60.

• The Beat's Heidi MacDonald, who once served as editor for Y: The Last Man, takes a look back at her own involvement with the series and provides a unique, behind-the-scenes look at some of the early conceptual periods of the series.

(Note to readers: This is possibly my favorite piece of Y-related coverage thus far. Check it out.)

She also reveals the original plan for the first issue's cover, as well as how they brought artist J.G. Jones into the mix and arrived at the final cover design.

(Note to Heidi: While I think you made the correct choice for the cover to issue #1, let's see some of those other restroom concept sketches! Please?)

• CNN has a comprehensive roundup of Y's finale, including this great article in which Vaughan equates the process of ending the series to experiencing the death of someone close to you:

It's been weird because it's a gradual [form of] saying good-bye. First, you finish the script, but then it still has to be penciled and inked, and there's so many stages in comics that it's sort of been like the stages of death.

They also provide a neat little photo gallery and video in which Vaughan discusses his favorite comics and, of course, the conclusion of Y.

• EW.com has a long interview with Vaughan that includes a few spoilers about issues in the middle of the series, but is definitely worth reading for anyone caught up with recent events in Y.

Among the many intriguing elements of the interview (including some hints about how readers can learn 355's real name) is this bit about Vaughan's decision to make Yorick's sidekick, Ampersand, a monkey:

There's a famous comics legend that whenever DC Comics would put a monkey or an ape on the cover of a comic, the circulation numbers would suddenly shoot up. So if you go back and look at the covers of old Silver Age Superman stories, Superman is always fighting all kinds of gorillas. Just a bizarre number of gorillas. So it was just a cheap marketing ploy on our part to be able to put a monkey on the cover of a book.

• Finally, over at Newsarama, Zack Smith conducts a massive, two-part interview with Vaughan (Part 1, Part 2) containing all sorts of fascinating bits and pieces about Y, its origins and just about every stage of the series' development. WARNING: This one has spoilers!

It's a long one, but worth spending a lunch break to read.

As if that wasn't enough, Smith also conducts an interview with series artist Pia Guerra, whose exceptional talents (and dedication ot the series) often get lost in all of the attention to BKV. WARNING: More spoilers!

Oh, and for anyone wondering what all of the fuss is about, here's a link to the the complete, first issue of Y: The Last Man, courtesy of DC Comics. You know you want to read it.

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