Y: The Last Man

I've already finished reading all volumes of the Sandman graphic novels last December. Afterwards, I immediately planned on reading other titles from the Vertigo line of DC comics--- the so called "comic books for adult audiences", when schedule permits. Upon looking at the titles available at the Vertigo web site, 2 titles piqued my interest. Preacher and Y: The Last Man. Both titles also had very favorable reviews from both critics and comic book fans, so I figure I might as well check them out. Since I can't seem to find copies of preacher locally, I guess Y: The Last Man won by default. hehe. I bought the first two volumes last week to try it out.

The series is still currently ongoing. I think there's one more issue left before the series finishes its run. Each volume contains roughly 5 chapters, so I may have twelve volumes to go through. The premise is familiar enough. We've heard it all before in some form or another... What if some sort of virus or plague swept through the entire world, effectively destroying every living thing with a Y chromosome? Everything, except for one human male--- Yorick Brown, and his pet monkey Ampersand. This scenario may be what every teenage boy's wet dreams are made of, but the series never forays into the obvious sexual trappings that it can easily lead to :) The concept may not be entirely novel, but the way the story is told is highly original. This is science fiction at its best. There are enough twist and turns to keep readers glued to the pages. There's enough action and drama, we can't help but emphatize with these characters.

The compilations are cheaper compared to others (like Sandman for instance), so we shouldn't really expect much in terms of packaging and extra features. The paper quality looks cheap, slightly rough and obviously recycled. In terms of compilations, this is as "bare bones" as it gets. There's no introduction, no afterword, no artwork (except for a few sketches at the end of volume 2). It's as if they simply put several issues together and bound them into a softcover. The artwork isn't very good either. I wouldn't say that it's amateurish... it's just that it's very ordinary. The cover artwork for each issue is actually pretty good, they should've gotten the same artist to draw the contents as well. But I'm not buying it for the artwork. I'm not buying it to show off to my friends. The series has remained on the best seller list because of the story, and that's the same reason why I'll continue reading it.

I heard a movie is in production--- the rights have been bought by New Line Cinema. And there's a chance that it's not going to suck because Brian Vaughan, the creator of the series, is also writing the screenplay! Shia LaBeouf is also rumored to star. If true, then I agree with that casting choice. After seeing him in Transformers, I'd say he'd make the perfect Yorick Brown. :) That's another movie to look forward to in te near future.

I'm off to buy volume 3 now. :)