Y The Last Man

Y The Last Man is a phenomenal epic. From the art to the pacing to the character development, this is one comic that I had trouble putting down.

First of all, I love J.G. Jones' cover art. His lifelike character interpretations, although a divergence from Pia Guerra's softer, more cartoonish style, offer a nice complement to the stories -- often setting the tone for the rest of issue. As a side note, Jones' recent covers for DC's Final Crisis were spectacular, rivaling those of fellow realist Alex Ross.

Pia Guerra's art, although not as lifelike as Jones', certainly holds it own. I found that his subtle attention to detail combined with his cooler color palette did Brian K. Vaughn's writing justice.

An interesting facet of this comic was the pacing / character development. The perpetual cuts in the time, combined with the obscured and often omitted scenes in the story seemed to create the sense that the story was going on even when the reader is not reading.

Additionally, the story seems to be perpetually moving forward. Although that may seem like a trite observation, Vaughn really doesn't skip a beat. Every line of dialogue, even if it is introspective, reveals a new element of the plot and moves the story forward. This onward-ness seems to be a typical element of the serial epic and was reminiscent of "Preacher" and "Walking Dead".