Max Brallier (text) and Jay Cooper & Douglas Holgate (illustrators), The last comics on earth, HarperCollins Publishers, June 2023, 240 pp., RRP $17.99 (pbk), ISBN 9780008588137
This book is likely to appeal to kids who would rather be gaming. A spin off from The Last Kids on Earth it’s a meta-take on those kids writing their own graphic novel.
The kids are prompted to act when they discover that their favourite comic, Z Man, has published its final issue. The illustrations differentiate between the ‘real’ world and the ‘comic’ world by depicting the later in technicolour over-the-top scenes.
The conflicts in the group’s real-life friendships are explored in the pages of their graphic novel through the fictionalised versions of themselves. The result is a comic within a comic. The kids’ comic book alter-egos are superheroes. And in the great tradition of superheroes, they room with their friends, each of whom has no idea about their peers’ superhero status. This creates lots of in-jokes and breaking of the fourth wall for readers to enjoy.
The appeal of the Netflix show, The Last Kids on Earth, is bound to give this offering extra appeal.
Reviewed by Heather Gallagher