Start with Y The Last Man, Vol. 1 and read the ten collected volumes in publication order. There is no order controversy here and no optional side material: this is one continuous sixty-issue story with a beginning, a middle and a genuine ending, which is rarer in long-form comics than newcomers expect. The only real decision is format — the ten standard trades, five deluxe hardcovers, or a single compendium — and the ten-volume run is the easiest to find and the easiest to pace.
One thing to know before you start, stated factually rather than as a warning. The premise is that every mammal with a Y chromosome dies simultaneously, and the series then treats the dead as men and the survivors as women. That equation of chromosome with gender has aged in complicated ways. Under the rule as stated, trans men would have survived and trans women would not, and the comic engages with that only glancingly across sixty issues; the sociology it builds — governments, armies and movements reorganising along a single clean binary — assumes a division the premise does not actually produce. This does not make it unreadable, and it remains one of the best-plotted long comics of its era, but it is a book written in 2002 whose central idea is discussed differently now. Read it with that in view rather than being surprised by it.
Two volumes a week is a comfortable pace for the whole run. Comics read faster than the page count suggests, though not as fast as people assume, and these are dialogue-dense.
The setup
Y The Last Man, Vol. 1 and Y The Last Man, Vol. 2, at 128 pages each, are a week's reading together. They establish Yorick Brown, the escape artist who survives, along with his monkey, and the two people who end up escorting him: a government agent and a geneticist. The first volume is largely premise and the second is where the road story starts working.
Across America
Y The Last Man, Vol. 3, Y The Last Man, Vol. 4 and Y The Last Man, Vol. 5, around 148, 136 and 188 pages. Read them consecutively. Volume five is the longest and by far the most consequential — it is the midpoint of the entire series, and everything after it reads as consequence. Give it its own sitting.
Beyond the United States
Y The Last Man, Vol. 6, Y The Last Man, Vol. 7 and Y The Last Man, Vol. 8, around 127, 143 and 143 pages. The story leaves America and the political scope widens considerably. Volumes seven and eight form a single movement and should be read back to back with no gap.
The ending
Y The Last Man, Vol. 9 and Y The Last Man, Vol. 10, around 144 and 167 pages. Read them consecutively, and read volume ten in one sitting including the final chapter. This is the payoff for roughly 1,400 pages, it is a real and deliberate ending rather than a cancellation, and it should not be interrupted. Readers argue about whether the last chapter earns itself; almost nobody argues that the series failed to finish what it started.
What to read next
Saga Volume 1 collects the opening arc of Vaughan's later series and is a single evening. Be clear about what you are stepping into, though: Saga is still ongoing with many volumes published and no announced end, which is the opposite kind of reading experience from the one you have just had. Y The Last Man, Vol. 1 through ten is a completed story; Saga is a book you catch up to and then wait for. If the wait would frustrate you, that is worth knowing before you start.
More comics and series reading orders are on Discover.
Follow the full ordered path here: Y: The Last Man Reading Order and Guide.
