Last Song #2: And The Media Is Only Filming One Story

If the first issue of Last Song read like rock n roll sounds, the second issue really created everything around the band, the people, this concrete fictional phenomenon. It still has the main focus on our two protagonists, Nicky and Drey, but this time it also focuses on Charlie, Alex, and even on a couple of guest characters’ storylines, like that of two siblings re-connecting after years for some seconds in Ectasy’s music. The fake article in the middle of the issue, the atmosphere of the drawings in the concert panels, even the anxiety of the reality of someone as socially anxious as Nicky dealing with fame, feels like this is just a comic-documentary, and Interlandi, after selling us the style of this comic, really gets us deep into her new crafter reality. And it’s impossible not to buy it.

It’s not only these four characters feel more real and characterized even by placing them in a bunch of situations, it also that themes like addiction and its romanticization, the detrimental effect of fandom opinions, morally questionable relationships with fans, even the repressed queer sexuality of our main characters – that with some scenes that lack consent nuance, quiet in line with that repression to be fair -, get fully explored. This is certainly sex, drugs and rock n roll, but it’s not beautiful, it’s not some glorifying glasses, it’s still the story of a traumatized non-conforming boy trying to survive and his best friend/whatever-they-are-at-this-point watching him lose himself in their music, in that thing they created together.

For a tragedy, the art gets way dramatic sometimes, without fear of being still as punk-ish and direct to the gut. It’s also certainly more rough than #1, or at least without as many flourishes – and sometimes to the detriment of textures and experimentation. Even with that, we do get the jawbreaking panels Cantirino made us adore in #1, this time with examples like that spectacular mirror shot. Plus, I wasn’t really sold on the cover of #1, but this one is such an addition to that one, and gets into the deconstruction of the myth of rock n roll with its suspiciously cheerful tone, that, after reading the two issues, I appreciate more what that one had to tell me.

I can’t leave this review without saying that, while not being the main reason for reading this comic, the ending is shocking and also arrives just where you need it to regarding Nicky and Drey. Just the perfect ending for the second issue of this nuanced and complicated story, one that wins me and makes me eager to see where Interlandi and Cantirino carry the book next.