If it's the end of a decade, then it's time for multiple Best Of The Decade lists. This isn't exactly one of them, though, despite what it looks like; for one thing, even if it was, you'd all disagree with it and complain that we left off something essential - although anyone arguing for the inclusion of Ultimatum, we believe that can be disproven through the use of science and charts - and for another, we've not read every single thing published in the last decade, so for all we know, there's something really obvious that we'll have somehow overlooked through accident instead of malice. Instead of The Ten Best, then, these are Ten Of The Best (Click on the titles for our explanations why and, in some cases, runners-up to the list that we couldn't help but sneak in):

100% by Paul Pope (DC/Vertigo)
All Star Superman by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely (DC Comics)
Black Hole by Charles Burns (Pantheon)
Casanova by Matt Fraction, Gabriel Ba and Fabio Moon (Image Comics)
Laika by Nick Abadzis (First Second Books)
Planetes by Makoto Yukimura (Tokyopop)
Pluto by Osamu Tazuka and Naoki Urasawa (Viz Media)
Scott Pilgrim by Bryan Lee O'Malley (Oni Press)
We3 by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely (DC/Vertigo)
Y The Last Man by Brian K. Vaughan, Pia Guerra and many more (DC/Vertigo)

(Thanks to Lauren, David Brothers, Jeff Lester and all who offered advice and good reasons why we were entirely wrong in some original choices.)

Back to start.

The event was strictly limited to 140 people, and hopeful attendees were camping out overnight to get some of the "standing room only" tickets that went on sale just before it started. The VIP ticket packages sold out on the web in 6 minutes, which is great since all proceeds were going to the CBLDF. However, we're sure the creative types in the room didn't mind avoiding fannish questions like "Um, in episode 7 of Firefly, Jayne wears a green shirt. Does that mean he's a spy for the Alliance?" Folks were very respectful, and the monkey got most of the attention in the room. It didn't even fling any poo at all, as far as we noticed. These were the high points of the evening:

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• Vertigo Editor Will Dennis remembered being given the editorial reins on Y after issue #15, and phoning up 100 Bullets writer Brian Azzarello for advice. Azzarello told him, "Great book. Yorick needs pussy. Don't fuck it up."
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• Joss Whedon got up and told a story about being at the San Diego Comic-Con several years ago, and someone came over and said "My friend wanted you to have this book that he wrote," and it was the first graphic novel of Y. Joss took it home where it sat amidst his junk piles until he finally read it and fell in love.
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• Brian responded by saying that he had always been inspired by a television writer who wrote strong women characters, "and that writer was named... J.J. Abrams." Zing!
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• During Joss Whedon's"keynote" speech where he spoke a lot about the final book, he said: "One of the things about the book, is that like the Cylons, he has a plan."
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• Someone asked Brian what Agent 355's real name was, and he decided not to tell anyone. "Some things should be left unanswered... I know that's scary coming from someone who's working on Lost, but some things should be left alone."
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• Pia Guerra's next book, which she announced exclusively, is going to be Doctor Who for IDW, which will come out in July. However, according to Brian, "The story is just all the different Doctors having sex with each other. One big circle jerk."
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• Brian couldn't have been nicer and more generous to Pia, saying "Those of you who know the book know it's mostly Pia, and a little bit me." Seriously, we almost got a cavity from how sweet he was to her. What a guy. However, according to him he's a guy who "Likes naked boobies and severed heads."
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• One fan asked Pia about the copy of Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash on Yorick's bookshelf, and Pia said she put that in because it's on her own bookshelf at home.
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• Brian doesn't care who plays Yorick in the movie, but he has to be someone who is pretty annoying. "I like Topher Grace, who you mentioned" Pia said, to which Brian who replied "SHHHHHH!"
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• Pia cried like a baby while illustrating the scene with Ampersand in the woods. You aren't human if you can read the whole series and come to that scene and not be moved.
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• The first issue of Y was meant to have scenes of Agent 355 in Afghanistan with a Taliban artifact, but then 9/11 happened and they took it out because they thought the U.S. would bomb the country back to the stone age.
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• Brian quipped that "I only have three ideas. One is monkeys, the other is lions, and the third is jetpacks. So my next project will be monkeys with jetpacks. Fighting lions."
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• Joss asked what happened to Alter, because he hated her so much. Brian said he thinks the best way to handle villains is just to ignore them. Rather than tossing them into the heart of the sun, you just let them fade away.
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• According to Brian, he originally came up with the concept for Y as a project called Boyson, "The Last Boy On Earth" for Penthouse Comics full of "women built like robot fuck machines" and one boy remaining on the planet. After they folded, he replaced the robots with a Gloria Steinem quote and sent it over to Vertigo.
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• They live auctioned-off a page of original art from the comic book, and a Y: The Last Man straightjacket (the real thing!) which raised more than $3000 for the CBLDF. All told, the 140 people who attended the party paid admission which put more than ten grand in their coffers.
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Crunchy goodness: 5

Spinoffs/Sequels/Copycats: A movie adaptation is in the works, reportedly featuring the Disburbia team of Carl Ellsworth, DJ Caruso, and (sadly) Shia LaBouf.

Elevator pitch: What if women ran the world, and turned out to be just as big assholes as the men?

Deadliest spoiler: Yorick isn't really the only man left. Oh, and the awesome Agent 355 dies after Yorick confesses his love for her.

Strange Horizons Review by Jed Hartman