"Did you know that Elvis had a twin brother???"
Brian Keller Vaughan (born July 17, 1976) is a well-regarded comic book writer, most famous for his creator-owned series Y: The Last Man and Saga, as well as for creating the Marvel Comics series Runaways. He went on to write a run on Swamp Thing, before creating Y: The Last Man, which brought him much critical acclaim. He then launched Ex Machina, which met similar acclaim; when the title ended, he concluded that he was better suited writing creator-owned books and has refrained from working on company-owned characters since then.
He had a temporary break from comic work while he worked on TV. In 2012, he returned to comic writing with the highly acclaimed Image Comics series Saga, followed in 2015 by Paper Girls.
He's become very well known for writing complex and highly memorable characters, for his Splash Panel cliffhangers, and for writing some of the most soul crushing endings in all of comics.
Selected bibliography:
- Y: The Last Man - Follows the story of Yorick Brown and his monkey Ampersand, the last males left alive after every mammal with a Y chromosome suddenly drops dead.
- Ex Machina - The story of Mitchell Hundred: superhero-turned-Mayor of New York City.
- Pride of Baghdad - Based on a True Story of a pride of four lions that escaped from Baghdad zoo and wandered the ruined city for some time.
- Runaways - Six kids discover their parents are a fearsome group of supervillains. Co-created by Vaughan and ongoing without his creative input.
- Doctor Strange: The Oath - A five-issue mini about Strange's attempt to save his friend's life while opposed by a corrupt pharmaceuticals company bent on Withholding the Cure.
- The Hood - A six-issue mini which introduced the character who would go on to become a recurring menace to the Avengers.
- Saga - A science fiction/fantasy hybrid which takes place in a far away galaxy. Involves robots with TV-shaped heads having sex.
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8 - A Comic-Book Adaptation of the television series. Vaughan wrote the "No Future For You" story arc (issues # 6-9).
- ''The Escapists'' - The story of three friends who attempt to revive a Golden Age comic book hero. A spinoff/sequel to Michael Chabon's novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay.
- Swamp Thing - Volume 3, which focused largely on the Swamp Thing's daughter Tefe Holland.
- Spider-Man/Doctor Octopus: Negative Exposure - A miniseries that follows a frustrated rival Daily Bugle photographer who helps Dr. Octopus break out of prison.
- Tom Strong: A Fire In His Belly - A single issue story that focuses on Tom's robot butler Pnuman.
- We Stand on Guard: A miniseries about an American invasion of Canada in the 22nd century.
- Paper Girls: four preteen newspaper delivery girls band together for mutual protection during an apparent alien invasion of their late The '80s Midwestern suburb.
- The Private Eye: A near future Detective Noir series about an unlicensed investigator trying to find out why his client was murdered.
- The currently untitled Gundam movie, the Sunrise/Legendary Pictures co-production.
BKV was also a writer on Lost. He was also the show runner for Under the Dome, based on the Stephen King novel.
Brian K. Vaughan's works contain examples of:
- Anti-Hero
- Anti-Villain
- Anyone Can Die
- Bittersweet Ending / Downer Ending: Happy Endings are fair and far between.
- Buffy Speak: Not surprising, as Vaughan credits Joss Whedon as one of his biggest inspirations.
- Cliffhanger: Nearly every single issue of any comic he's written ends with a Splash Panel cliffhanger.
- Creator Thumbprint: Runaways and Saga feature characters based on his Real Life younger sister.
- Deadpan Snarker
- Diabolus ex Machina: Tell him what you love, so that he can take it away.
- Grey-and-Grey Morality: Few outright heroes or villains in his comics.
- Left Hanging: Vaughan refuses to disclose who the Skeleton really was, why they hated Bruce Wayne, or what their master plan was. Readers are left with a single tantalizing glimpse of a new character that never appears again.
- Little Known Facts: Many of his comics involve characters engaged in a Seinfeldian Conversation regarding little known but fascinating information. Lampshaded in an issue of Ex Machina when Brian K. Vaughan and comic artist Tony Harris meet up to discuss a comic they are working on.
- Brian K. Vaughan Yeah, glad you found the Nathan Hale statue. America's first spy! And the youngest person memorialized in Manhattan. I mean, if you don't count Joan of Arc or-Tony Harris: If you mention one more useless factoid....I am going to punch you in the heart.
- No Antagonist: His stories lack characters that could be definitely considered the Big Bad.
- Non-Human Sidekick / Team Pet - Ampersand in Y: The Last Man, Old Lace in Runaways, The Lying Cat in Saga, Jack Phearson's pet parrot in Ex Machina
- Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: Very cynical; both Ex Machina and Y: The Last Man end with their main characters becoming Empty Shells, having lost everything and everyone that mattered to them.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Once again Gundam will be helmed by an eccentric bald guy with a penchant for morally grey narratives and killing off beloved characters.
- World of Snark
