Across his career, comic book and television writer Brian K. Vaughan has won multiple Eisner and Harvey Awards for his work in Runaways, Saga, Paper Girls, and more.
Brian Keller Vaughan was born July 17, 1976 in Cleveland, Ohio. Growing up, Vaughan was a huge fan of writer Peter David and credits his 12-year run on The Incredible Hulk as defining his adolescent comic reading. Joss Whedon also played a part in Vaughan’s decision to become a writer, a career he pursued at New York University. While studying film, Vaughan also participated in Marvel Comics’s Stan-hattan Project, a class for fledgling comic book writers. Following his first credit on Marvel’s Tales From the Age of Apocalypse #2, Vaughan eventually wrote for such high profile characters as the X-Men, Spider-Man, and Captain America. He also worked on Batman and Green Lantern for DC Comics and Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight for Dark Horse Comics.
As he became an in-demand writer, Vaughan started venturing into writing his own characters and created the series Y: The Last Man. Taking place on a post-apocalyptic world, the series follows the main character’s struggle as the only man to have survived. Published by Vertigo, the series received Eisner Awards in 2005 and 2008, among numerous other nominations. Around this time, Vaughan also published his graphic novel Pride of Baghdad. This novel centers around a pride of lions who escape from an Iraqi zoo as the Iraq War rages on. Pride of Baghdad was named the Best Original Graphic Novel of 2006 by IGN, and was praised for being a powerful analogy of war and tale of survival. His later creation, Ex Machina, was a popular political thriller series that followed former superhero Great Machine turned Mayor of New York.
Vaughan’s work on Y: The Last Man attracted the attention of Lost co-creator and executive producer Damon Lindelof who was a huge fan. Lindelof reached out to Vaughan and he served as a writer, executive story editor and producer for seasons 3-5 of the ABC series. He was also worked as a co-producer on the spinoff internet film, Lost: Missing Pieces, which aired during the hiatus between the show’s third and fourth seasons. Subsequent television work for Vaughan included adapting Stephen King’s Under the Dome into a television series for Showtime. In 2012, Vaughan returned to comics with Fiona Staples for the Image Comics’ space opera fantasy epic Saga. The series centers around two aliens from warring races who are trying to survive with their newborn daughter. Saga appeared on the New York Times Graphic Books Best Seller List, won three Eisner Awards, a Hugo Award and was nominated for seven Harvey Awards.
In 2015, he and Cliff Chiang created Paper Girls, a sci-fi mystery about four 12-year-old newspaper delivery girls who get caught in a war between two factions of time travelers. The series ran for 30 issues through 2019. His recent credits also include The Private Eye with artist Marcos Martín on Panel Syndicate and We Stand On Guard with Steve Skroce for Image Comics.
