WINNER OF THREE EISNER AWARDSFeatured in THE NEW YORK TIMES and on NPR, Y: THE LAST MAN is the gripping saga of Yorick Brown, an unemployed and unmotivated slacker who discovers he is the only male left in the world after a plague of unknown origin instantly kills every mammal with a Y chromosome. Accompanied by his mischievous monkey, Ampersand, and the mysterious Agent 355, Yorick embarks on a transcontinental journey to find his long-lost girlfriend and discover why he is the last man on earth.
Yorick Brown's long journey through an Earth populated only by women comes to a dramatic, unexpected conclusion in this final volume. Collects issues #55-60 of Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra's award-winning Vertigo series.
Even the best things come to an end, it’s said; for example, with this book, the outstanding serial graphic novel Y: The Last Man. Five years after the sudden death of all male animals except callow but not stupid 21-year-old Yorick Brown and his pet monkey, Ampersand, Yorick is finally reunited with Beth, the fiancée with whom he was talking when the dying started. And with the other Beth, who has borne his daughter in the interim (this is news to him). The reunifications don’t really work out, and Yorick decides he loves another—as it happens, too late. Then the story vaults forward 60 years and, in a long denouement strewn with flashbacks, affords glimpses of how all-but-completely-female society has progressed. A few other males have been cloned from Yorick (and Ampersand), and different DNA strands seem to be in the offing. Maybe one day one resulting male won’t be sterile. Meanwhile, Yorick is still alive. Maintaining its plain good looks, the epic ends with a satisfyingly capricious whimper. Or is it a laugh? --Ray Olson