Yesterday’s New York Times featured an article on the “thinly veiled social commentary” in the books Brian K. Vaughan writes, focusing on his upcoming Vertigo graphic novel Pride of Baghdad:
On Sept. 13 Mr. Vaughan’s personal brand of therapy arrives in the shape of “Pride of Baghdad,” a graphic novel (his first) about lions that escape a zoo in Iraq during an American bombing raid. The tale, lushly illustrated by Niko Henrichon, was inspired by actual events and stands out as one of Mr. Vaughan’s most emotionally charged stories in a career filled with tales of science fiction, superheroes and the supernatural.
“‘Pride of Baghdad’ was born out of the fact that I had a lot of conflicted feelings about the war,” he said in a recent telephone interview from his home in West Hollywood. The book, he added, “is about me exploring those questions.”
The article also talks about his other projects, from his regular monthlies to his gig writing the Y the Last Man screenplay. But don’t worry about Hollywood “stealing” Vaughan from the comics industry. “Comics brought me to the dance,” he said. “It’ll always be my first loyalty.”
September 5th, 2006 at 8:43 am
I’m really looking forward to this book, and think that Vaughan is well deserving of the amount of coverage he got.
September 5th, 2006 at 11:21 am
“I’m really looking forward to this book, and think that Vaughan is well deserving of the amount of coverage he got. ”
Agreed.
September 5th, 2006 at 11:23 am
“The article also talks about his other projects, from his regular monthlies to his gig writing the Y the Last Man screenplay. ”
A pretty important BTW.
September 5th, 2006 at 11:45 pm
I’ve been waiting for this since it’s announcement what … 2 years ago? Can’t wait to read this, and kinda surprised it’s finally releasing!
Although, doesn’t quite kill the sting of BKV and Alphona leaving Runaways yet …
September 8th, 2006 at 2:31 pm
I have really high hopes for this book. Given what I have heard, I have a feeling that this could be some of BKV’s best work to date.
September 14th, 2006 at 7:40 pm
Bought the book yesterday and read it today. Loved the story, the write up review was right, it does stay with you upon completion. The artwork is wonderfully done and seeing the conflict from non-human eyes only humanizes the issue even more.