Pia Guerra
Eisner and Shuster Award-winning artist and co-creator of Y: The Last Man, and a Pulitzer-finalist editorial cartoonist for The New Yorker and MAD.
đź“Ť Vancouver, Canada
Pia Guerra drew one of the most famous last men on Earth — and then spent the next two decades making the world funnier, sharper, and a little more hopeful. As the co-creator and lead penciller of Y: The Last Man, she helped Brian K. Vaughan build the post-apocalyptic landmark that made Vertigo the genre-defining home of the 2000s, and her work remains the definitive look of one of comics’ most beloved sagas. It’s the perfect entry point for readers of The Sandman and other literary Vertigo classics.
From Doctor Who to the Last Man
Born in the United States and raised in Canada, Guerra broke into comics drawing the Doctor Who comic for Marvel UK before finding her signature project. When Vaughan was looking for an artist for a series about the last man on Earth, Guerra’s expressive character work and knack for grounding the extraordinary in everyday detail made her the perfect partner. Y: The Last Man ran sixty issues from 2002 to 2008, and the team’s mastery of suspense and character earned them three Eisner Awards, including Best Continuing Series in 2008 — and a Shuster Award from her fellow Canadians.
Editorial Cartooning With Bite
She became one of the sharpest editorial cartoonists working today — a 2023 Pulitzer Prize finalist whose cartoons run in The Washington Post, The New York Times, The New Yorker, MAD Magazine, and The Nib, where she was among the first and most vocal critics of the ComicsGate harassment campaign in her landmark piece “#ComicsGate Speaks Truth to Power.” Her book Me The People, published by Image Comics, collects that editorial work in a volume that showcases her gift for political cartooning with bite and heart.
These days Guerra balances freelance illustration, comics work, and teaching the next generation of cartoonists. Her Instagram is a steady stream of political cartoons, Y: The Last Man nostalgia, and behind-the-scenes sketches — follow her at @pia.guerra, on Bluesky, or visit her studio site Hellkitty Studios. And if you’ve never read the book that started it all, start with Y: The Last Man Omnibus — sixty issues of the greatest apocalypse ever told, drawn by the woman who made it unforgettable.
