Inspiration for the Last Man on Earth

Earlier in the week I posted a couple of panels from Y: The Last Man, an adventure (but not superhero) comic series from Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra.

The premise of Y: The Last Man is that a global plague has killed all the men on Earth save one: a slacker escape artist named Yorick. When I described this to my mother, she said that only men would come up with this scenario. And indeed, when Bill Haley and the Comets sang of the same premise in the song "Thirteen Women," it was clearly male fantasy.

But in the comic, Yorick doesn't enjoy the new world much. Not only does he want to remain true to his girlfriend, who was on the other side of the world when the plague struck, but the female survivors are divided on what to do with him. Not a small number want to turn him into a sex slave, kill him, or dissect him for his Y chromosome.

But Yorick, with the help of a female government agent, a female scientist, his pet monkey, and other helpful folks, keeps chugging along. What in his childhood prepared him for such perseverance? What could inspire him to keep going? One clue might appear in this flashback panel of little Yorick with his big sister, Hero.
And a close-up.
I'm just saying.