NEW YORK COMIC CON: BRIAN K. VAUGHAN PANEL

NEW YORK -- "It's not in development hell. It's in development heck."

Brian K. Vaughan, spotlighted in his own panel at New York Comic Con on Sunday, was talking about the Y: The Last Man movie that is set up at New Line Cinema.

"I finished the screenplay a few months ago," Vaughan said. "Everybody at New Line seemed to like it. For Hollywood, it's either really fast or it's really slow, and it's really slow right now.

"I've done my job and it's out to directors now and it could be totally out of my control after this."

Vaughan also is writing a movie version of his WildStorm series ExMachina for New Line. "I just started writing it," he said. "It's much hard than Y."

In other highlights from the panel, which was hosted by Vaughan's editor at Vertigo, Wil Dennis:

* Although he said he loves Marvel Comics and super-heroes, Vaughan said that after Doctor Strange: The Oath, he will be working on creator-owned titles.

* Y: The Last Man will end with #60 in January. Because the final issue will be double-sized, Vaughan said that the remaining issues will be spaced out, instead of having a gap between #59 and #60.

* Vaughan said it takes him about seven days to write a comics script, and most of the writing gets done on the weekend. He says he reads his dialogue out loud and that he also reads segments from the end of the script forward to test the dialogue.

* Pride of Baghdad was Vaughan's first original graphic novel, and he said he enjoyed the ability to spend time -- three years -- on it. "When you pitch something to Marvel, you're already late by the time you've pitched it," he joked.

Vaughan said he definitely wants to do more graphic novels.

* Asked if he was aware of the fan-fiction with Runaways, Vaughan said, "It's really dirty and that's awesome."

He said he was glad to be able to give back characters to the Marvel Universe and always intended for Runaways to continue after the left the book.

"And with Joss Whedon coming aboard the book, there's a possibility it will be around for a long, long time," he said. "I always to be a Runaways reader as well as a Runaways writer."

* Vaughan said he's read Whedon's first three issues of Runaways and called them "annoyingly good."

* Vaughan said the last six issues of Y: The Last Man are "exactly" as he planned them.

Vaughan said the first issues of Y, Ex Machina and Runaways were the toughest he's had to write because of the pressure to start out strongly on new properties.

"Cliffhangers are kind of cliched, but you have to have people need that next issue and not just want that next issue," he said.