THE DAILY CHUM

Agent 355 (pronounced “Three-Fifty-Five”) is in my estimation the most bad ass knitter in all of fiction, and by any estimation she makes the top three.  She is only fictional knitter I know of to have actually used her needles as a weapon, and she’s just seriously awesome.

355 hails from the soon to be late lamented comic Y: The Last Man, written by Brian K Vaughan (currently writing for Lost) with pencils by Pia Guerra, and inks by Jose Marzan, Jr.  The last issue of Y ships on January 30th, and not only will I be at the comic shop, but I will be incredibly sad to see such an original and really great comic end its run.  Normally, I would write this part more like the knitter was a real person for a kind of knitting encyclopedia of fictional knitters, if it doesn’t make sense now, it will later, but for this first one, with Y ending, I wanted to break the fourth wall a bit and tell you all how amazing this comic is, and how it’s unlike what you might think comics is about.  To be warned, I would put the content at least at a PG-13, if not R level, there’s language, sex, violence, and the death of over half of the mammals on earth.  The story of Y: the Last Man, begins in 2002 with the death of almost every male mammal on the planet.  22 year-old Yorick Brown and his male Capuchin Monkey, Ampersand seem to be the only males left untouched by the plague, and the story revolves around their lives after the plague hits.

Agent 355, known by another name at that time, was taught to knit by her grandmother.  That lady who also instilled a love of fiber into her son, who became a successful tailor before a car accident killed him, his wife and their younger daughter.  The girl who would become 355 was left an orphan and was shunted through foster care and finally ended up in an orphanage where she developed a tough side that caught the attention of a recruiter for the Culper Ring (a real spy organization run by George Washington during the American Revolution) called Agent 355.  After being trained by the elder 355 and then a male agent called 1033 she became a full agent and was given the designation Agent 86.  Serving with distinction she rose to the designation Agent 355 (the original agent 355 was a female spy during the Revolution; the only Culper Ring agent to be caught and hung) where she was given a number of difficult assignments by the presidents she served.  By far her most difficult assignment was protecting and escorting Yorick Brown, the only male human alive after a disaster killed every male mammal on the planet.  It is unknown whether Agent 355 kept up her knitting between being taught by her grandmother and taking charge of Yorick, but at that point she started a scarf, “to keep her hands busy” in issue #5 of Y: The Last Man.  Over the course of the five years spent traveling with Yorick Agent 355 worked intermittently on her scarf, showing her to be a knitter like any of us she “f%&%ed up a lot and had to start over a bunch of times” before finally finishing the scarf in issue #56.  And along the way, she really did use her needles as a weapon.

If you want to know more about Agent 355 check out the trade paperbacks of Y: The Last Man available at most bookstores and on Amazon.  Issue # 1 of Y: The Last Man is also available for download from the DC comics website.
Erin is…probably in Minnesota somewhere. She adorns the land of 10,000 lakes yarn stores with her glorious presence and profound geekiness. Erin knits, when she is not studying, singing herself hoarse, and reading whatever comes into her notice. Erin also enjoys speaking in the third person

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