Badass Comic Club: Y THE LAST MAN

Over the last year there's been a lot of talk about doing a Badass Book Club of some sort. I've been interested, but I've wondered how to implement it, and how to keep it running. I'm afraid of starting it up and finding I don't have time to run the thing, or that I'll pick a book I already read... and it'll turn out I don't remember it that well at all.

Then I had an idea: what if we did a comic book? I know a lot of you reading this are interested in comics but perhaps fell out of the culture. Or maybe you're a comic person who is in a rut and would like something new. Or maybe you've already read the book in question and this seems like a good time to revisit. Whatever the case, reading a comic is much less time-intensive than reading a novel, but it can be just as rewarding.

And so here we are! The series I've picked is Y The Last Man, a 10 volume story by Brian K Vaughn and Pia Guerra. The premise: one day every single male on Earth dies. Every single male except for a guy named Yorick Brown and his monkey Ampersand. Yorick doesn't understand why he was spared, but he knows that what he most wants to do is get to Australia and be reunited with his girlfriend. Unfortunately, the world is falling to pieces and being the last male in the world makes him more valuable - and more endangered - than he ever imagined. 

Y The Last Man is an exciting post-apocalyptic adventure story, but it's also much more. Vaughn, who wrote for Lost for a while, writes amazing dialogue. He also uses the setting to examine plenty of modern issues and to explore concepts of feminism and patriarchy that almost never come up in comic books. Best of all, Y The Last Man sticks the ending, which means it's a series worth reading all the way to the end. 

Here's my proposal: we start doing one volume a month. If that seems slow, we speed it up (and I suspect we might speed it up as we go along). If it seems too pricey for some folks, we'll figure it out from there. And if nobody gives a shit, we'll drop it altogether and pretend it never happened. Finally, I'd like to propose we begin the discussion this Sunday with the first volume, Unmanned; that should give people time to get the first book and read it. There's a handy link below.

Be aware: Y The Last Man is an adult-oriented title. There is violence, nudity and swearing. 

Obviously people who have read before are welcome to play along. I do have one request: please reread the books as we go. The reason for this is simple: you might forget that a certain event you want to talk about occurs later in the series, and you'll spoil it for everybody. By reading along - or at least checking back with the books - you'll guarantee you're on the same page as everybody else.

Are you into it? Does this set-up work for you guys? Gimme some feedback in the comments.