Brian K Vaughan

Last weekend at Baltimore Comic-Con, the 27th annual Harvey Awards were held, and in one of the least surprising developments in the history of the Harveys, Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples' Saga took home a few more awards to add to a shelf that I'm sure is already collapsing under the weight of its many honors. Named for MAD Magazine editor and cartoonist Harvey Kurtzman (who, interestingly enough, did not win the award he was nominated for this year), the Harveys are voted on by industry professionals, and this year's winners represent a pretty interesting crop of current comics, including CA favorites like Lumberjanes, Hellboy In Hell, and even Dick Tracy. Check out a full roster of winners and nominees below!

Brian K. Vaughan’s newest series, We Stand On Guard with artist Steve Skroce, returns the writer to the realm of political allegory in the blunt tradition of George Orwell’s greatest novels. Here Vaughan and Skroce are addressing the 2003 Invasion of Iraq through a science fiction narrative. We Stand On Guard takes place about 100 years in the future when the United States invades Canada after the White House is bombed in a drone strike from an unknown source. The story jumps from the initial invasion to 12 years in the future when the United States occupies Canada and only small bands of freedom fighters struggle against the American troops.

First published on this day in 2002, Y: The Last Man remains an ambitious, fulfilling, entertaining and problematic work that is, above all else, hugely compelling. Created by Brian K. Vaughan, Pia Guerra and Jose Marzan Jr, and edited by Heidi MacDonald, the Vertigo-published series told the story of a world where every single male on Earth suddenly died with no warning. Simple enough, and yet fertile ground to create, well, an infertile society. It’s a grand high concept to say, "all the men are dead,” but humanity is such a messed up, bastard thing that every single branch of society is brutally screwed over by the absence of men.

The 27th Annual Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards took place at the Indigo Ballroom at the Hilton Bayfront San Diego on Friday night, and it was a great night for diversity, for women in comics, for comics aimed at a younger audience, and for the future of the industry.

Image Comics held its now traditional pre-San Diego one-day show on Thursday at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, and unveiled an impressive roster of new titles for the coming year that includes new work by familiar names such as Warren Ellis, Jason Aaron and Gail Simone; plus an encouraging number of relative newcomers and unknowns. Check out our rundown of all the news and announcements.

On this date in 2004, Brian K. Vaughan and Tony Harris's Ex Machina #1 debuted, beginning a fifty-issue run that is widely considered one of the best comics of the 2000s. More specifically than that, though, it's the most real-world relevant superhero comic... ever?

Image has confirmed today that it will be returning for another Image Expo this July, which will take place one week before San Diego Comic-Con. Typically the home for a deluge of announcements from a wealth of both billed and surprise guests from the world of comics, the Expos have become a widely anticipated part of the comics calendar --- not least because publisher Eric Stephenson usually offers a keynote speech in which he criticizes everybody else in comics. It's ace.

Today the 2015 Eisner nominations were announced for the awards ceremony that will take place on July 10th during San Diego Comic-Con International. There aren't a ton of surprises in this year's list --- books like Ms. Marvel, Saga, Multiversity, and Bandette led in terms of total nominations --- but as always it's good to see quality books get their due, and it was a year of positive movement in terms of gender diversity, with multiple women nominated in most major categories. We still have a ways to go, but seeing progress is a good sign.

The American Library Association (ALA) announced their list of Most Challenged Books in 2014, and three comics were on the list: Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis, Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples' Saga, and Raina Telgemeier's Drama. These comics were challenged for a number of reasons, but many of the complaints had a basis in trying to limit what books children have access to. It's important to note that the ALA is made up of more than just school libraries; public and academic libraries are also part of the ALA.

Kamala Khan is a superstar now. Introduced only a year ago by Marvel, she’s become a bona fide figurehead for the publisher. A young Muslim girl in America who develops powers and uses them to try and help people, her story has caught on with a mainstream audience and turned the Ms Marvel series into a real, actual hit, especially among the growing digital readership. What’s fascinating about the character, though, is how clearly she’s embedded into the tradition of superhero comics, and how you can draw a direct line from her back through Marvel’s history, to some of the company's most popular female superheroes. Kamala broke through at just the right moment in time, in just the right way, for the readership to embrace her, but she owes a debt to several characters that came before her.