THE LAST SESSION #1 – Review

THE LAST SESSION #1, available from Mad Cave Studios on December 1st, 2021, steps into a world of role-playing games when a cadre of High School friends reunite after going their separate ways to finish their first and longest running campaign.

The Details

• Written By: Jasmine Walls
• Art By: DOZERDRAWS
• Colors By: DOZERDRAWS
• Letters By: Micah Myers
• Cover Art By: DOZERDRAWS
• Cover Price: $3.99
• Release Date: December 1, 2021

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Was It Good?

It was fine. The challenge with reviewing comics, regardless of genre, is figuring out if you’re put off by a comic because it’s flawed or because it’s just not written to appeal to you. In this case, I can comfortable say this is a well-written comic with exceptionally good art, and this material is steadfastly not meant for me.

Why is it not meant for me? It’s not meant for me because every character in this comic… every single one… is written and drawn to personify a stereotype of current-day millennials that spend way too much time on Twitter. You get everyone from the wanna-be novelist with a man bun who barely makes ends meet working in a coffee shop to the college post-grad working through a liberal arts thesis on a subject that’s guaranteed not to lead to any meaningful employment. Excuse me while I go outside to yell at kids to get off my lawn.

In the literary sense, the entire cast is a collection of losers updated for the Twitter generation. That’s not to say a gang of losers can’t headline an engaging story. Look at seminal classics like Stand By Me and The Goonies to see how a gang of losers can personify the best of us. The key difference, however, between this comic and those titles is in how those “losers” came to be “losers.” A “loser” who’s a product of the harshness of life and circumstance is an underdog you can get behind. The “losers” in this comic are more a product of their own life choices, making it tough to get behind them.

Again, this comic is clearly not meant for me, so your ability to root for these characters might fit snugly and squarely in your wheelhouse. Assuming the characters are written as designed, the characters are uniquely distinct and they have a sweet friendship through gaming that certainly is relatable to anyone who’s felt a thrill from a roll of the dice with more than six sides.

If it’s not clear up to this point, the big draw for this comic is it’s surprisingly amusing art style via DOZERDRAWS. The line work is super clean, the colors are warm and inviting, and the character expressions positively mimic manga influences without getting too exaggerated or cartoonish. Visually, this is absolutely an appealing comic and I’m looking forward to seeing more from this creative team.

What’s It About?

[SPOILERS AHEAD – Click here if you just want the score without spoilers]

Five high school students stay after school for a meeting of the Gender Sexuality Alliance (GSA) club. The club president fails to show up and the group decides to play a game called Dice & Deathtraps to kill time while they wait. That time waster turns out to be the mechanism that bonds them as friends, and they carry their burgeoning love of the game all through High School.

Years later we catch up with each student after graduation as they’ve moved on to their respective college or career paths. Despite not being in school together, they’ve kept up on the game. One of the gang, Jay, has developed a relationship with Cassandra, and she’s occasionally joined the group for socializing remotely.

We catch up with the gang as they gather for an opportunity to end their very first campaign, and Cassandra has been invited to join in. We conclude the issue with an introduction to all the characters’ avatars and their first battle with Cassandra. It doesn’t go smoothly.

Final Thoughts

THE LAST SESSION #1 is an interesting mix of slice-of-life millennials finding a bond through RPG that lasts them through High School and beyond. The art is refreshingly appealing, but the characters may be an acquired taste.

Score: 8.5/10

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