American moderns
Brian K. Vaughan
Brian K. Vaughan · born 1976
- Classification
- Writer. American. The cliffhanger specialist.
- Habitat
- Marvel and Vertigo (2000s), then Image and Panel Syndicate; television in between
- Distinguishing marks
- Big high-concept premises, quick-witted dialogue, sympathetic characters in impossible situations, and last pages that make it impossible to stop
- Often seen with
- Pia Guerra, Fiona Staples, Cliff Chiang, Marcos Martín, Tony Harris
- Conservation status
- Thriving. Nearly everything is in print.
Field-guide card
Vaughan grew up in Cleveland and broke into comics through a Marvel talent search in the 1990s. Y: The Last Man and Runaways made his name in the early 2000s, and he followed them with Ex Machina, about a superhero who becomes mayor of New York, and Pride of Baghdad. He then spent several years in television, writing for Lost, before returning to comics with Saga, The Private Eye and Paper Girls.
You've seen his work in Lost, Under the Dome, Runaways and the television versions of Y: The Last Man and Paper Girls. With Marcos Martín he founded Panel Syndicate, a pay-what-you-want digital publisher that has become a model for creator-owned comics.
The gateway drug is Saga, his most popular book. The deep end is Y: The Last Man, sixty issues of cliffhangers. The curio is Pride of Baghdad, a graphic novel about lions who escape from Baghdad zoo during the 2003 invasion, based on a true story.
The Crowsnest verdict: no writer in comics is better at making you turn the page, or more ruthless about what's waiting on the other side.