Comic books are safely on their way out of the nerd ghetto. Mainstream audiences -perhaps kicked in the ass by popular movie adaptations - are finally starting to notice that sequential art doesn't just mean Archie and Jughead. Books with gripping stories, intelligent comedy, and actual human drama (see canonized comics like "Watchmen," "The Dark Knight Returns," and "Sandman," for examples) quickly identify themselves through sales, popularity, and deserved hype.
Case in point, "Y: The Last Man." Created by writer Brian K. Vaughan and artist Pia Guerra, the series focuses on the aftermath of the unexplained, sudden death of every male mammal on the planet. Of course, unemployed English B.A. Yorick Brown, the eponymous "last man," and his pet monkey Ampersand somehow are just fine - so to speak. The situation predictably fosters some conflict, and the pair soon land in the company of Agent 355, a secret agent sent to protect them, and Dr. Mann, a geneticist who may be able to solve the mystery behind the male apocalypse.
The plot might be a little cliché, but the writers portray Yorick and his traveling party empathetically, while loading the story with critiques of gender, war, and human nature. It would be interesting enough even if the traveling party wasn't being hunted by marauding neo Amazons, Israeli special ops, and a ninja, among others.
Many of the characters' nuances are communicated through flashbacks, a la the TV show "Lost." In fact, the plot unfolds a lot like a "Lost" episode, building slowly toward a final conclusion. Not coincidentally, Vaughan - also currently working on a screenplay for the comic - was recruited to write for the TV show midway through its last season.
With three issues left in the book's 60-issue run, the first of which is set to come out September 5, the end is near. Or maybe not. Delays with the last few issues have dragged the book's monthly schedule to a crawl, meaning fans might be waiting well into fall for the conclusion.
In the meantime, several "Y" trade paperbacks are conveniently dispersed throughout the Monroe County Library system (along with the previously mentioned canonical comics). Free to loan, the volumes are also collected by story arc, so the cliffhangers are limited. And unlike "Lost," these books just keep getting better.