The Last American #4 - Epic Comics

THE LAST AMERICAN No. 4, March 1991

Featuring a pulse-pounding firefight against an underground bunker riddled with automatic defences and a genuinely disconcerting exploration of a secret experimental test centre for autistic pregnant women, Alan Grant’s fascinating script for Issue Four of “The Last American” must surely have instantly captivated his readers just as soon as this twenty-eight page periodical begins. For whilst the Scottish writer’s plot does contain the odd sedentary moment as a thoroughly demoralised Ulysses S. Pilgrim’s ponders “the whole damn schmoozle” of life, death and the universe, the vast majority of this book focuses upon the solitary soldier’s faint hope that Melinda, or rather test subject Alpha Delta 99/017, might somehow have survived her horrific ordeal beneath the planet’s surface and still be alive scraping out an existence in the post-apocalyptic world.

Indeed, even when it becomes clear that the young mother’s child has finally succumbed to the girl’s claustrophobic confinement, along with many of the grisly establishment’s other unwitting inhabitants, this publication’s enthralling penmanship still provides the vaguest of hopes that the wonderfully innocent parent might have managed to claw her way through a “natural break in the sandstone, carved by the same water that kept Melinda and her friends alive just that little longer”, and resultantly found herself safe in the expansive Luray Caves.

Similarly as successful as the desperate need this comic generates to discover just what occurred to the bunker's occupants, is Grant’s all-pervading atmosphere that at any moment Pilgrim might be lethally set upon by a horde of cannibal scientists. Alpha Delta 99/017’s diary entries make it crystal clear just how desperate the centre’s administrators quickly became to find food, and resultantly the threat of some half-starved hairy fiend leaping out at the US Army Captain and his robotic guardians with their insatiable fangs palpably lurks inside every one of the derelict installation’s ominously shadowy corridors.

Artist Michael McMahon also deserves a major congratulatory slap on the back for his fantastic pacing of this concluding storyline. Whether it be Ulysses suddenly finding himself surrounded by a hail of bullets from the complex’s faulty computer-controlled weapon system, or later desperately searching for Melinda’s next clue as to where she fled to with her dwindling friends, the former “Judge Dredd” penciler’s panels are absolutely packed with dynamic action and an urgency to discover what happened next…

Writers: Alan Grant & John Wagner, Artist: Michael McMahon, and Letterer: Phil Felix

The Last American #3 - Epic Comics

THE LAST AMERICAN No. 3, February 1991

Such is the gripping sense of suspense which Alan Grant creates with his penmanship for Issue Three of “The Last American” that it is hard not to imagine at least some of this book’s readers back in February 1991 sneaking a quick peek at the comic’s conclusion to see just who was contacting Ulysses S. Pilgrim over the radio from Virginia. In fact, as the excited titular character encounters setback after setback during his increasingly desperate dash to reach the source of the wireless transmission, the urge to race ahead and find out what awaits the lonely soldier at the end of this twenty-eight page periodical, arguably becomes almost unbearable; “Even if they turn out to be Russian cannibals armed with I.C.B.M.s, I’m still going to be glad to see them!”

Fortunately, at least for the most part, there’s still plenty of pulse-pounding panels to enjoy within “An American Dream” before the US Army Captain discovers at the highest point in the Shenandoah National Park whether he truly is the sole survivor of the planet’s past global nuclear conflict. True, this action predominantly focuses upon Michael McMahon delightfully pencilling Pilgrim’s armoured wagon traversing all manner of ‘natural’ disasters, such as an underground coal seam which had caught fire during the war, and a heaving storm whose rain water was “low-to-medium radioactive with a pH similar to dilute sulphuric acid.” But Ulysses’ reckless determination to push on regardless of the dangers surrounding his mission easily carries the narrative along at a fiendishly brisk pace.

Perhaps this comic’s only disappointment therefore is the somewhat sedentary nature of Grant’s dream sequence where the severely unstable survivor finds himself encircled by all the Presidents of the United States in Heaven. There’s undoubtedly some interesting connections being made with this colourful interlude set inside the White House, which debatably shows the “Apocalypse Commander” now mentally seeing himself as a peer to the other commanders-in-chief like Reagan and Washington, thanks to him being previously “vested with the authority of the United States Government.” However, compared to the sense of palpable urgency found elsewhere within this publication, the somewhat dry dialogue and political in-jokes soon become a frustrating side-show, and it’s all too easy to overlook Pilgrim’s intriguing relationship with Jackie Kennedy Onassis at the party…

Writers: Alan Grant & John Wagner, Artist: Michael McMahon, and Letterer: Phil Felix

The Last American #2 - Epic Comics

THE LAST AMERICAN No. 2, January 1991

Providing its readers with a fascinating insight into the rapid mental decline of this mini-series’ titular character, John Wagner’s storyline for Issue Two of “The Last American” most probably disturbed many within this book’s audience in January 1991, with its disconcertingly dark depiction of life (or rather lack of life) following an atomic-fuelled World War Three. Indeed, considering that the vast majority of this twenty-eight page periodical simply depicts Ulysses S. Pilgrim endlessly trudging through the post-Armageddon wastes of the Big Apple on his seemingly pointless mission to locate any “operation station” receiving his wagon’s weak radio signals, the fact “Apocalypse: The Musical” still actually manages to provide plenty of thrills is undoubtedly a testament to the excellent penmanship of Judge Dredd’s co-creator.

Fortunately however, despite the somewhat sedentary nature of the US Army Captain’s depressing assignment, the “American-born British comics writer” still manages to ensnare the reader’s unequivocal attention, courtesy of the long-dead remnants of the metropolis’ inhabitants rising up as phantoms in order to perform a truly macabre vaudeville act amidst their city’s ruins. Of course, whether the ghoul-faced baseball players are real or not is a matter for debate. Yet their very presence, and the suggestion that Pilgrim might be imagining them singing, adds a few laughs to a rather unsettling plot which otherwise would simply depict Ulysses sat inside his robot-assisted tank looking out at an endless supply of skeletons.

Besides, the disgraced soldier’s descent into a suicidal funk is made all the more impactive by him hysterically laughing at the opening line of a song, and then essentially handing over the rest of any given scene to a cacophony of dancing, green-skinned ghouls who seem intent on gleefully bashing out a major musical number at the top of their voices. These various unhinged variety show performances, dynamically pencilled by Michael McMahon and packed full of humorous lyrics, are incredibly catchy, and brilliantly then go on to make the silence encountered by the titular character when he decides to spend the night alone in a Jersey-based cemetery all the more tragically haunting; “Are you there, God? Come on out! I got a bone to pick with you! A Bone -- Hah! That’s a good one! I got a million bones to pick with you, Pal! All the bones in the world!”

Writers: Alan Grant & John Wagner, Artist: Michael McMahon, and Letterer: Phil Felix

The Last American #1 - Epic Comics

THE LAST AMERICAN No. 1, December 1990

Focusing upon the first uneasy steps of Ulysses S. Pilgrim following his restoration from suspended animation, John Wagner’s script for Issue One of “The Last American” must have provided its audience with a nerve-wrecking experience, as the soldier starts exploring what remains of the United States some “twenty years after a global nuclear conflict.” True, the disgraced Army Captain doesn’t actually encounter anything living in the surrounding countryside, except “evidence of at least a basic food chain” in the form of several mutated ants. But that doesn’t stop the titular character, as well as this comic’s readers, from still seeing threatening shadows behind every ruined building or bundle of bleached-white skeletons.

Indeed, despite this twenty-eight page periodical completely lacking any antagonists for Pilgrim to overcome, the plot to “Goodnight, Ploughkeepsie” moves along at an enjoyably brisk pace, with Ulysses only stopping to don some clothes and swill down a cup of hot coffee before embarking upon his mission to ascertain whether anyone survived the atomic holocaust; “Able and Baker have checked over the wagon. Fully loaded and operation. .45 Colt Automatic? Precision weighted thigh knife? M393 Regulator Submachine gun? Frag Grenades? Like the Boy Scouts used to say, Captain -- Be prepared.”

Fortunately however, any disappointment at this comic not containing an action-packed apocalyptic fight-sequence or two is quickly dispelled, courtesy of the four-time UK Comic Art Award-winner penning an incredibly enthralling exploration of High Falls and its surrounding corpse-laden area. The dialogue between the lone soldier and his three robotic companions, especially the Television junkie droid Charlie, is truly excellent, and such is the emotional attachment generated by the automatons that the book definitely exudes a sense of foreboding danger in the air when Baker is left behind to repair a road wheel on the wagon.

Bringing this fascinating futuristic journey to animated life are the layouts of Michael McMahon, which do a fantastic job of depicting the utter wanton destruction of the world Pilgrim wakes up into. The British penciller’s ability to illustrate the eerie stillness of the US Army officer’s environment is especially impressive, with one of the publication’s highlights being the sudden shock Ulysses experiences when he’s caught off-guard by Charlie playing with a talking child’s doll.

Writers: Alan Grant & John Wagner, Artist: Michael McMahon, and Letterer: Phil Felix