So I am rushing home after a development meeting/ margarita social with my girlfriend from work when I realize I am driving down Melrose, about to pass Golden Apple Comics. Something inexplicable compels me to pull over and go in. (Sure I normally want to stop by when I am in the area but this evening there is no resisting the impulse.) And what do I hear soon after I walk through the door?

You here for the Brain K. Vaughan signing?

Heck, I am now.

I felt like I had created this scene with my brain because it had been keenly on my mind to check this guy out all day. I had found out that morning how much one of my favorite storytellers, JOSS WHEDON, loves Brain’s RUNAWAYS and was set to take over the comic series next April. Plus a friend of mine has been going on and on how he is currently one of the best comic book writers. Now here he was greeting me all by his lonesome with piles of the next book on my hit list. We chat. I admit to him I had yet to start any of his books. He relays that start of RUNAWAYS is what hooked Joss and that Whedon’s ideas for what comes next pale in comparison to his stuff. I pick up the first volume and Brian asks if I can relate to what it would be like to have evil parents. “Well, my father is a politician…”

To make a long story short, RUNAWAYS I can say after reading the first three volumes is totally cool. Starts off charming yet a tad weak but gets mutant strong. It is an action/comedy/teen romance based on the premise that at some point in their lives, all young people believe their parents are evil... but what if they really are? Also on my hit list from Brain Vaughan, “Y – THE LAST MAN”. From what I understand it is a very suspensive tale about a man and his monkey (literally) who are the last two males after a mysterious virus has swept the planet. (**Update: the first volume has me coming back for more - good story!) Both titles were of interested to me long before but some of the art had put me off; please don’t let that be the case for you.

As I was leaving Brain told me to say ‘hi’ to my Dad for him. I told Brain that if it was all the same to him I wouldn't. But what I really was thinking was “that he gets out of white collar jail next month and for you Brain - I would.”