This February, Dibbs, the real time fractional marketplace for collectibles and NFT sports cards, is showcasing iconic comic book issues that you should be collecting, all in part to celebrate comic books making their way onto the platform! While not every book we feature will end up on the Dibbs app, our list is jam-packed with the greatest stories from old and new!
Be sure to join us, February 8th @ 10am PST / 1pm EST, when we drop our first graded comic book, The Incredible Hulk #181 (The first appearance of Wolverine)!
Even If You Were The Last Man
The concept to Y: The Last Man is simple; almost too simple. Every living mammal with a Y chromosome suffers a painful, yet sudden death. The only two Y chromosome carrying characters are a snarky 20-something with no purpose or direction, and his rescued pet monkey. The series follows them as they are hunted down by female led organizations that want them dead. Brian K. Vaughan turns a goofy “What if” scenario into a complex and read worthy critique on how society values gender and the power structures in which they create.
The Story
We open up to a woman covered in blood, screaming for help. She exclaims her sons are throwing up blood and asks a nearby, female cop for help. As the cop explains to the woman that there is nothing she can do, she places a gun to her own temple and exclaims, “All of the Men Are Dead”. A pretty grim start to the series, but one that gets straight to the point.
Most of the first book is a phone conversation between our protagonist, Yorrick Brown, and his girlfriend, Beth Deville. She’s in Australia doing anthropological research, while Yorrick is back in New York City trying to make a living as a magician. It’s clear that Yorrick has no direction in life, and that his loved ones are constantly concerned about his future. And don’t forget Ampersand, the Capuchin monkey that Yorrick had recently rescued. He spends his time helping Yorrick out of one of his “famous” tricks.
The rest of the book has us weaving back and forth between a group of reporters stuck in a middle-eastern warzone, Yorrick’s mother, a government secret agent, and Yorrick’s sister. Each of their stories ends up as tragically as the issue begins. All of the men in these stores suddenly die; every single mammal with a Y chromosome dies, except Yorrick and Ampersand.
The rest of the series sets out to answer why and so much more.
Legacy
In 2003, Y: The Last Man won the National Comics Award for Best New Comic. And in 2008, it won an Eisner Award for Best Continuing Series. It’s story has been praised for it’s social commentary on sexism, xenophobia, religion, and partisan politics. The story was so well liked that FX recently created a television series based on the original text. The series, however, wouldn’t find the same success as the book and was canceled after only one season. Rumor has it that other studios are looking to pick the series up where it left off, but for the time being the comics remain the best way to take in the story.
Read More Brian K. Vaughan
The Runaways by Brian K. Vaughan and Adrian Alphona
Saga by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples
Dr. Strange: The Oath by Brian K. Vaughan and Marcos Martin
