Yet another comic book thread. Erm, that is...graphical literature, as it were.
From Wikipedia:
Plot summary
In the series, on July 17, 2002, something (speculated to be a plague) simultaneously kills every mammal possessing a Y chromosome - including embryos, fertilized eggs, and even sperm. The only exceptions are Yorick Brown, a young amateur escape artist, and his Capuchin monkey Ampersand.
Society is plunged into chaos as infrastructures collapse and the surviving women everywhere try to cope with the loss of the men, their survivors' guilt, and the knowledge that humanity is doomed to extinction. Vaughan meticulously crafts the new society that emerges out of this chaos, from the conversion of the phallic Washington Monument into a monument to the dead men, to the genesis of the fanatical ultra-feminist Daughters of the Amazon, who believe that Mother Earth cleansed itself of the "aberration" of the Y chromosome, to male impersonators becoming valued romantically and professionally.
Over the course of their journey, Yorick and his friends discover how society has coped in the aftermath of the plague. However, many of the women they encounter have ulterior motives in regard to Yorick. Though the subject matter of the series is entirely serious, Y: The Last Man is also noted for its humor. Yorick in particular is a source of one-liners, although the other characters have their moments as well.
Y: The Last Man is out in 10 volumes, and Pedro and I just checked the first two out of our local library. Gents, if you're looking for a meaty, action-packed, suspenseful and riveting series to finally get your girlfriend into comic books, look no further. Y is philosophical, yet funny and fast-paced; the art is rich and expressive, and the dialog, which occasionally a bit chatty, creates complete, believable characters.
Further, Y remains decidedly pro-girl-power, but neither demonizes men nor canonizes all women. As with any story, there are good guys and bad guys, and as with any good story, it's sometimes difficult to determine which is which. Unlike most graphic literature, however, in this story, all the guys -- good and bad -- are girls, save one. The women are nuanced and dimensional, even if Yorick himself sometimes feels a bit flat. But if the current trend continues, I believe that his dimensionality will emerge as I progress in the series. Plus, the ten books currently in print contain the complete story arc, so no waiting a month between each all-too-meager installment -- get the whole set and read them in a couple of weekends. You won't regret it.
Plus, it's got a girl named Hero. How cool is that?
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