Y: The Last Man #16
Originally Presented at Comixtreme.com
Quick Rating: Good
Title: Comedy (Comedy and Tragedy Act One)
A group of roving actresses in the world without men make an interesting discovery.
Writer: Brian K. Vaughan
Pencils: Paul Chadwick
Inks: Jose Marzan Jr.
Colors: Pamela Rambo
Letters: Clem Robins
Editor: Will Dennis
Cover Art: J.G. Jones
Publisher: DC Comics/Vertigo
Review: Vaughan veers away from the main storyline in this issue, although the issue seems to have a clear tie-in to the story of Yorick, the last man on Earth. A group of women who have been traveling the country performing plays find themselves caught in a struggle between their desire to present the rest of the women on Earth with a form of escapist entertainment and their urge to use the arts to confront the reality of the new world around them.
Vaughan has spent a lot of time focusing on the social and political aspects of a world where all of the men suddenly die, but this issue is the first time he’s stopped to look at what happens to the arts in such a world. Even though our hero doesn’t make an appearance in this issue, this does not feel like a fill-in or a sidebar. Instead it feels like a look at another part of this strange world, a piece of the larger puzzle that this title really is.
Paul Chadwick does a good job as guest artist in this story arc, although some of the night scenes are a little rough and serve to recall the more “independent comics” style he usually employs in books like his own Concrete. I would be remiss not to mention what a great cover J.G. Jones provides for this issue, with Ampersand the monkey doing his best “Hamlet” for us and a clever design that mimics a theatrical playbill.
This probably isn’t the best place for a new reader to come on board this title, since you can’t understand what the actresses really find without having read earlier issues of the book, but it is a good, solid chapter in this ever-unfolding science fiction mystery.
Rating: 3.5/5
Quick Rating: Good
Title: Comedy (Comedy and Tragedy Act One)
A group of roving actresses in the world without men make an interesting discovery.
Writer: Brian K. Vaughan
Pencils: Paul Chadwick
Inks: Jose Marzan Jr.
Colors: Pamela Rambo
Letters: Clem Robins
Editor: Will Dennis
Cover Art: J.G. Jones
Publisher: DC Comics/Vertigo
Review: Vaughan veers away from the main storyline in this issue, although the issue seems to have a clear tie-in to the story of Yorick, the last man on Earth. A group of women who have been traveling the country performing plays find themselves caught in a struggle between their desire to present the rest of the women on Earth with a form of escapist entertainment and their urge to use the arts to confront the reality of the new world around them.
Vaughan has spent a lot of time focusing on the social and political aspects of a world where all of the men suddenly die, but this issue is the first time he’s stopped to look at what happens to the arts in such a world. Even though our hero doesn’t make an appearance in this issue, this does not feel like a fill-in or a sidebar. Instead it feels like a look at another part of this strange world, a piece of the larger puzzle that this title really is.
Paul Chadwick does a good job as guest artist in this story arc, although some of the night scenes are a little rough and serve to recall the more “independent comics” style he usually employs in books like his own Concrete. I would be remiss not to mention what a great cover J.G. Jones provides for this issue, with Ampersand the monkey doing his best “Hamlet” for us and a clever design that mimics a theatrical playbill.
This probably isn’t the best place for a new reader to come on board this title, since you can’t understand what the actresses really find without having read earlier issues of the book, but it is a good, solid chapter in this ever-unfolding science fiction mystery.
Rating: 3.5/5