The Last Book You'll Ever Read #3

The Last Book You’ll Ever Read #3

Vault Comics 2021

Written by Cullen Bunn

Illustrated by Leila Leiz

Coloured by Vladimir Popov

Lettered by Jim Campbell

The tour for Olivia’s controversial SATYR travels into strange territories, as the highway cuts through a countryside that becomes more primal, more violent, and more dangerous with every turn. There are those who don’t want Olivia’s message to get out, those who are less than human, and some who are willing to murder to ensure silence.

Wow there is a lot going on this issue and it runs the gamut of experiences and emotions and it’s creepy as all get out. Olivia’s book has been causing controversy wherever she goes and she and Connor are really going to town with their sexual escapades. Though I’m disappointed with no frontal shots here or even from behind where we should see him I mean c’mon now it’s 2021. All this is shown in such a way that is very relevant to the story and changes how we see the characters, not to mention the direction this story seems to be taking. This is what I love about Cullen, his ability to keep the reader guessing and create something that appears to be one thing and turns out to be something else entirely.

I am very much enjoying the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented exquisitely. The character development that we see through the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how we see them act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter does wonders in bringing their personalities to the forefront. The pacing is excellent and as it takes us through the pages revealing more and more of the story the more we want to see.

I appreciate how we see this being structured and how the layers within the story continue to emerge, grow, evolve and strengthen. It is impressive to see how the avenues that the layers open up begin to be explored and how they add such great depth, dimension and complexity to the story. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is impeccably achieved.

The interiors here are fantastic! How we see the linework and its varying weights and techniques being utilised to create the level of detail within the work that we see is phenomenally well rendered. The creativity and imagination that we see is utterly marvellous, including these zombie folks, the sex scenes and seeing Olivia the way we do towards the end of the issue are all key moments that seem to change the direction of the story even further. How we see backgrounds utilised to enhance and expand the moments as well as work within the composition of the panels to bring out the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a remarkably talented eye for storytelling. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work show a great understanding in how colour works.

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While we knew that those who read Olivia’s book were going to turn into savage creatures we had no idea to what extent this would happen. That we’re starting to see this extenet grow, with no signs of stopping, and to see what kind of reactions those who've changed have, who knew we’d see what we’re seeing within these pages, is startling to say the least. The writing is spectacular and the characterisation is almost scary good and with all this wrapped up in these interiors really allows the readers’ imagination to run rampant.