Review: The Last Resort Part One – Two Goats

Filed under: Cracked Spine, Reviews 

The first issue of The Last ResortThe Last Resort reviews, the new horror comic put out by IDW Publishing, finally hit the stands and I couldn’t wait to finally check it out. It is described as a “zombie epic that pays homage to 1970s exploitation films and disaster movies like AirportAirport reviews and Towering InfernoThe Towering Inferno reviews. In an entertaining and darkly over-the-top celebration of gore and sex, The Last Resort transforms a Caribbean paradise into a biological wasteland populated with homicidal flesh-eating vacationers!” and after reading the first issue in the limited series, I am already hooked. So let’s take a small break from some of this real horror depressing the shit out of me and take a look at some fun horror. But before going further, be warned their are some possible NSFW images in the form of drawn tits and a bit of gore.

Also let me reveal that I am not a giant fan of comics as much as I am a fan of horror. That means that I like horror in any form or flavor it comes in, whether that is film, books or comic book. So in the future, if I decide I like a comic enough to sit down and type out something about it, you can be sure the comic will be horror based and is coming from the point of view of someone who loves the horror genre rather than someone who is knowledgeable or a fan of comics or the comic industry. So with that being said, here is a little bit of info I was able to gather about the creators behind this comic and how it came to be.

The Last Resort is from Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray, the creative writers responsible for Jonah Hex, Uncle SamUncle Sam reviews & the Freedom Fighters, Power Girl and the Deadspace: Deadfall animated feature.  Jimmy Palmiotti told CBR that the inspiration for The Last Resort came from “all those Irwin Allen disaster films from the 1970s where we spend time getting to know a cast of characters, put them in an usually dangerous situation, then watch them either step up and become heroes or unwind and become another part of the disaster.” He further explained that they also wanted to tell a “contemporary horror story that HollywoodHollywood reviews forgot how to do. That is, character development, horrible language, plenty of sex and violence and make it all fun.”

And with the first issue of The Last Resort, they succeed on all of it. There is gore, there is sex, there is nudity and foul language – but most of all, the issue was indeed fun. With Darwyn Cooke and Amanda Conner providing the cover art, and newcomer Giancarlo Caracuzzo (who they found on Facebook) handling the illustrations, the story starts off with a bang as a mysterious, sickly man washes up on the beach of an island resort. Thinking that he is in need of medical attention, a lifeguard proceeds to give him CPR. The following images detail this meeting and the results from it.

So there ya’ go. For me, the bait was set in the premise of the comic alone, but the hook became firmly planted in my cheek at this point. The story then picks up a day later and focuses on a series of characters and snippets of their backgrounds, as they all make their way to the airport to board the same passenger plane. Some of these people include an elderly woman and her son, a movie star, a nymphomaniac, a lesbian couple and a contest winner. When the plane finds itself in a major storm that threatens to plummet them into the ocean, they make an emergency landing at the airport of the island we witnessed play host to an unwanted visitor. Once stopped, the issue ends with a cliffhanger as the plane’s occupants are greeted with the worst Welcome Wagon ever.

This first issue spends the majority of its time setting up the characters, which I didn’t mind one bit, but for those of you who just want to get to the tits and flesh-eating – Palmiotti promises that beginning with the second issue, shit gets crazy really quick. Personally, I didn’t care as the character setup was done extremely well and handled really quick. There is only so much they can do in the number of pages they have, and I thought they did an exceptional job. With the story, dialog and great artwork, I was on board through the entire comic. Caracuzzo’s illustration’s are crazy, btw (check out his website for more), and his style is perfect for what the writers had in mind. Even with the daylight style of horror, the gore is detailed, and the voluptuous women are painstakingly detailed right down to their nipple rings. The dialog is for adults and some of the scenes are definitely not for the kiddies – and I’m not talking just about the violence. Jokes about pubic hair in the back of throats and attempts at entry into the Mile High Club are present, so for some of you lenient adults out there like myself – be warned – this could easily be a young boy’s masturbation material…God knows I have jacked off to worse.

I am excited about this series when I first heard about it, and thankfully it lived up to my personal expectations. My only complaint being that I now have to wait for the second issue. It’s good, fun horror people, so go grab yourself a copy. With any luck, the rest of the installments will remain as strong as Two Goats, and we can possibly see a sequel after the 5 issue series concludes.

Rating:

6-Page Preview | CBR Interview | IDW Publishing

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