Brian Vaughan
by Daniel Robert Epstein for SuicideGirls (http://suicidegirls.com/)

Brian Vaughan is one of the hottest writers in comics right now. He has multiple books coming out from DC Comics, Marvel and edgier titles under imprints such as Wildstorm and Vertigo. The book that is closest to his heart is Y: The Last Man which he co-created with artist Pia Guerra. It’s the story of the last man on earth, Yorick, and his monkey Ampersand.

Every living thing with the Y chromosome is suddenly killed except these two creatures. Yorick is now being protected by a female government agent named Agent 355 and Dr. Mann who may hold the key to restoring males on the planet. The second trade paperback subtitled: Cycles has just recently been released. By now all the major players have been introduced into the story including the Amazons, which are a group of rogue females who cut off one breast, destroy sperm banks and include a new member named Hero is also Yorick’s sister.

Vaughan is definitely one of the cooler guys working in the industry nowadays. He’s eminently approachable and was excited about the prospect of a SuicideGirls membership for him. I did pitch him the idea of the next issue being him killing everyone on earth except for me and the SuicideGirls but he didn’t take to that.

Check out DC Comics website for Y: The Last Man

Daniel Robert Epstein: Are you in California now?

Brian Vaughan: I’m in San Diego. My girlfriend is going to grad school for playwriting out here. So as the dutiful boyfriend I followed her out here because I can do my job from anywhere.

Arnold Schwarzenegger is my governor. That’s difficult for me to wrap my brain around.

DRE:Not to get too much into that but what’s the feeling like out there about Arnold?

BV: You have to understand that I never leave my house. I’m a writer and an introvert so I’m not the person to tell you. I went out to vote at 7 am when the polls first opened because I’m still awake at that hour. There was a long line of people displaying that solemn display of democracy in action. At least there was a big turnout. One guy came running out of the polling place screaming “Hasta la vista baby” giving the devil horns. That’s the attitude I see out here. It’s very strange but that’s California.

DRE:I picked up the second Y: The Last Man trade paperback and it felt like it got a lot darker.

BV: Hey three billion people died in the first issue. How much darker can it get?

DRE:Well in this book three people died.

BV: That’s what they say three people is a tragedy and three billion is a statistic.

When I set out to do the book I always wanted it to be a more lighthearted post apocalyptic book. I didn’t want it to be campy and it’s not a campy. But after 9/11 it was a surprising thing to find out that people still had their sense of humor. You need it to deal with something like that. The book will always have elements of humor but I guess Cycles [the second arc] was a bit of a downer.

DRE:Yeah do you have sister issues?

BV: Sister issues [laughs]? I have a kid sister and she’s terrific. I guess I have people issues. I’m a misanthrope not a misogynist.

DRE:I never expected Hero to become Yorick’s archenemy. I thought everyone would team up. It’s great because you really pulled the rug out.

BV: I guess it’s corny to have the villain of your book be called Hero but there was something appealing about that. We’ll see, expect the unexpected.

DRE:The book feels somewhat autobiographical.

BV: I guess so. I hope that comes out in all my work. I’m a lot like Yorick but I like to think I’m slightly more mature than he is. Yorick is really an asshole. When I started writing him he was a younger version of me so I thought he was a terrific character. Its sort of disheartening when people came up to me and said stuff like, its so cool that the last guy on earth isn’t a great guy but that you made him this total douche bag. I always feel like it’s a critique on me when people don’t like Yorick. He’s impulsive, immature, naïve and idealistic a lot of the things I was when I was a freshman in college. I hope I’ve grown up a bit.

DRE:Do you feel you have more personal books in you, like something that would have to go to a company like Drawn & Quarterly?

BV: Yeah I don’t want to pigeonhole Vertigo though. When I start talking about Y to people they say that isn’t the kind of book Vertigo would do. I have a really good relationship with Vertigo. I’m sure there will be a time I come up with something that isn’t right for them. I love Drawn & Quarterly books. I don’t think I am worthy or that they would return my phone calls, but someday sure.

DRE:I know things have changed a lot in the past year. You’ve picked up two or three titles since Y started.

BV: Yes I’m writing every other book.

DRE:That Bendis isn’t writing.

BV: Exactly. We’re dominating the market.

DRE:Besides Y its Runaways, Mystique and something else.

BV: Yeah a Spidey book I’m doing and Tony Harris [of Starman fame] is drawing a book called Ex-Machina for Wildstorm.

DRE:He’s amazing.

BV: Incredible and amazing. I’m really excited about working with him. Ex-Machina is an ongoing series that’s a political thriller. I’ve also been talking with Vertigo about doing more stuff.

DRE:I know you’re a hot writer right now but you’re still really lucky to be working with Tony Harris.

BV: You have no idea how lucky. He has his pick of whatever. I think he wanted to get back into doing more sequential stuff. He just happened to read this pitch that we sent him on a long shot and he connected with it. So I’m acutely aware of how fortunate I am.

DRE:Where does Pia Guerra [artist of Y: The Last Man] come from?

BV: She’s in Canada.

DRE:Have you guys met much?

BV: Yeah a couple of times at the San Diego conventions.

DRE:What surprised you the most about her when you met the first time?

BV: Hmm.

DRE:Did she have one boob?

BV: Yeah a crazy Amazon. I think all the surprises came beforehand. We talk a lot on the phone and email. The book is sort of about exploding gender myths and exploring gender stereotypes. I’m sure I’m guilty of that as anyone because early on I wanted to talk to her about the amount of sex or violence in an issue. I like to have people just sitting around talking and drinking tea in my comics. Pia likes to have naked guys on motorcycles smashing through windows. I think she sort of fulfills the more stereotypical male characteristics that you would expect from a comic creator. I think we balance each other well.

DRE:I know it’s not an issue for you but she does happen to be female.

BV: Yeah but it was definitely not a prerequisite. We didn’t have a quota to fill or anything. I always say that when Heidi MacDonald, who was the original editor of the series, showed me Pia’s samples I said, I don’t know who this dude is but we have to get him.

DRE:Do you feel a touch safer though because of her being female? That you could push the limit of what a male writer might do in this type of book.

BV: I don’t think so. Even though her name is Pia everyone always thinks she is a guy but I have never met a guy named Pia.

DRE:I didn’t even think about it. I just assumed she was a guy because I think every comic book creator is a middle aged white guy.

BV: Yeah it’s sort of sad. It’s not like she puts hearts above her eyes or draws in a “female” way. I don’t care. I wish I would upset people more. I was hoping there would be a lot of outrage and discourse but people seem to like it. I could only pray that we upset people in year two. To have people burning their copies of the book would be great.

DRE:Did you ever hear the Jo Duffy story? [Jo Duffy is a female comic book writer that was very prolific and popular in the 70’s and 80’s]

BV: No.

DRE:It’s somewhat famous. This comic fan was saying to someone in a comic book store “I met that Joe Duffy and he was a real prick to me.”

The covers [J.G. Jones] are a big part of Y. How much influence do you have on them?

BV: Absolutely none and that was a very conscious decision. I’m sure if you speak with JG he will tell you what an unholy nightmare the first cover was. We had a million different ideas and everyone was being a pain in the ass including me. There were way too many cooks and eventually it was more exciting to see what he comes up with. Clearly he’s one of the most talented artists working today. Now I just give him the script and ask him to interpret it. He just hits home runs. I like to think I have enough hubris to back off when someone is much better at something than I am.

DRE:In a DCcomics.com interview you said you were a “no-good peacenik”. I couldn’t tell if you were being facetious or not.

BV: I guess that’s right. But if they drafted me in WW2 I would have gone over.

DRE:What about Vietnam?

BV: I would have been right over to Canada or be a conscientious objector. Those guys fought that war so we wouldn’t have to fight anymore. It’s hard to find to a lot of conflicts after WW2 that were really necessary for us to get involved in. Under the right circumstances I’m all for it but those circumstances are few and far between.

DRE:But you write somewhat violent books. How does that work in your mind politically?

BV: Well it’s always the Rush Limbaughs who turn out to be the drug addicts. When I met Garth Ennis for the first time I found him to be the sweetest most down to earth passive guy. Talk about a no good peacenik. His books however are disgusting in the best sense of the word. I guess we work all of that stuff out in our fiction so it doesn’t have to be part of our lives.

DRE:Are you still doing a lot of scientific research for Y?

BV: Yeah I’m a big research nerd. I love doing that stuff.

DRE:What books do you look to the most?

BV: It’s a stack of different crap for every issue like if its plague stuff or stuff about Israel or cloning. It’s such a huge undertaking that I finally see the appeal of writing about elves and wizards because you don’t have to do any of this goddamn exhausting work but it is ultimately rewarding.

DRE:Do you ever talk to any scientists?

BV: No, this is where my impulse to lie comes up because I wish I did. The last time I think I spoke to someone was for my ill fated Swamp Thing series when I wanted to have a character get eaten by crabs. I wanted to find out if crabs would do that. I started calling around to oceanographers and I finally found this one guy. He was way too excited about the prospect about it and he seemed to know way too much about it. He said, absolutely crabs would devour a guy in a heartbeat. I guess it’s sort of turned me off to talking to scientists. They are way too creepy.

DRE:Creepier than comic book writers?

BV: Well I guess its different shades of creepy. We’re both maladjusted introverts so it’s not good for us to collide.

DRE:I read that you’re writing a couple of issues of Y for Paul Chadwick [creator of Concrete] to draw.

BV: Yes issues 16 and 17. They are amazing. Concrete is one of my favorite comics of all time. It’s a big influence. That’s one of the great things about comics to get to collaborate with the creator of one of your favorite books. It was really surreal and intimidating.

DRE:Pia is the co-creator of Y. How did it work out with Paul drawing?

BV: Well I was really running Pia ragged so I think she was really happy to take a two month breather. She’s been doing this forever, even before the first issue with character sketches and such. Chadwick was the first name I mentioned for the break and she said absolutely.

DRE:He doesn’t do much besides Concrete.

BV: He’s done some Dark Horse Star Wars stuff. But I met him at a convention after Y number 1 came out, I gave him a copy and I told him what I fan I was. Maybe I softened him up a bit but he genuinely seems to like the series. It seems like he had a fun time drawing those issues.

DRE:It definitely falls into his kind of thing, the environmentally type stuff.

BV: I tried to play to his strengths without pigeonholing him. I didn’t want it to be a story about loggers or female lumberjacks. I think it’s a bit of a different side of him.

DRE:Are those issues an integral part of the series or more of fill-ins?

BV: No, a long time ago I said Y was going to last sixty issues just because I didn’t want to scare [Vertigo Executive Editor] Karen Berger or Pia. I’d like for Y to be 300 issues. So I said 60 and I have so many more than that number of stories to tell. I would never waste two issues to tell something random.

The Chadwick issues don’t have much of the main cast of Yorick, Agent 355 or Dr. Mann but it is very important stuff.

DRE:What makes Karen Berger so talented?

BV: She just has a good antenna is receptive but is not a pushover. From my experience anyone who has had a hit book at Vertigo didn’t just hand her a proposal and she said lets go. She really pushes you and asks the hard questions. It can be annoying but ultimately it makes the book that much better because of how rigorous the approval process is.

DRE:How is Y doing in Hollywood? Did the option get reupped?

BV: Yeah, someone sent me a link from Ain’t it Cool that said there was a screenwriter attached. That was the first I heard of it. I’m sort of consciously removed from that process. The ink isn’t really dry on those contracts. It sort of got announced prematurely but when it comes to movies everything moves at a glacial pace.

DRE:I know you attended film school. So you’re not trying to horn in on the Y movie more?

BV: No because I don’t think I should be. I can’t imagine Y as anything but a comic book. People are nice and say it’s cinematic. I didn’t make Y as a glorified screenplay. I have projects I only want to do as a movie not as a comic book and vice versa. I’m more than happy if there are talented people who want to make it their own.

DRE:Is Mystique still under this Tsunami label at Marvel?

BV: Yeah but I never even heard the word Tsunami until my first two issues were about to ship. I think it was less than a conscious effort for Marvel. It’s a loose confederation. They’re Marvel books I don’t think anyone uses the word Tsunami about them anymore.

DRE:Do you write differently for both companies?

BV: Its full script across the board. It’s funny because I think people presume that since Y is my creator owned book, my bread and butter so you think that would get most of my attention. Mystique is my X-book so people presume that I put on my funny book hat and hack that out.

I really like Mystique and it’s harder to write than any of my other books because it’s an X-book. It’s harder for me to write characters I didn’t create. The process is the same and it’s excruciating. I hate writing, its constant misery and it’s a lot of work.

DRE:It must be nice in a way because when people ask you what you write you say “Did you see the X-Men movie?”

BV: I write the naked blue girl. But it’s not Batman so people don’t latch onto it that easily though.

Someone pointed out that no matter what incarnation of the X-Men it is whether it’s the cartoon, the movie or the comic book Mystique always seems to show up. There is something inherently appealing about her.

DRE:Where you grow up?

BV: I was born and raised in Cleveland Ohio, home of rock.

DRE:What was Cleveland like for you?

BV: It’s good. I was reading an article about Harvey Pekar who is also in Cleveland. They were commenting on Cleveland by saying there is no better city to sharpen your skills than a city on the edge of failure. I don’t know if there is something true to that. To be fair I grew up later in Cleveland when it was sort of a comeback city. It wasn’t the mistake on the lake when I was growing up. I was sort of a sheltered nerd which would have been true no matter what city I was in.

DRE:Movies are obviously a big part of your youth. What movies hit you the most?

BV: It would be dishonest to not give Spielberg a lot of credit. I’m 27 so you would be hard pressed to find someone who didn’t find his early films appealing. Pretty fast I started to get into movies like Chinatown and Citizen Kane. I can think of a lot of movies I love. I knew I always wanted to tell stories whether it be radio dramas, movies or comics.

DRE:What was your family like?

BV: A nice happy family. A mommy and daddy who are still married. I have an older brother and a kid sister.

DRE:So you’re the middle child. You must have problems.

BV: I do [laughs]. I’m the green kangaroo. I’m not as weird as only children, wait you’re not an only child are you?

DRE:Nope I’m the youngest of three.

BV: The youngest, you spoiled brat. But only children are mutant freaks.

DRE:What does your older brother do?

BV: He does stuff for the government. He lives the kind of life I write about.

DRE:What about your sister?

BV: She just graduated from college so she’s just out of school. She’s the only athlete in the family. My brother and I are both nerds. My father is an uber-athlete so he finally got his son once my sister showed up. She made up for the two of us who were disappointing failures.

DRE:Were you a troublemaker at all?

BV: I was but I wasn’t a cool troublemaker. I wasn’t doing drugs or stealing cars. I was mean to my sister and made my parents prematurely gray.

DRE:Did you steal candy or set fire to the curtains?

BV: I stole a clip-on necktie when I was a kid. I really thought it was awesome because you could wear it on your t-shirt. My brother ratted me out to my mom and that drove a wedge between us.

But other stuff I did was pedestrian suburban stuff. I blew up mailboxes, drove through people’s backyards.

Daniel Robert Epstein

SG Username: AndersWolleck

web address: http://suicidegirls.com/interviews/Brian+Vaughan/