Taking it’s title from a Clash song and it’s scope from a David Mitchell novel, “The Last Gang in Town” is a raw, funny, brutal, dirty, and energetic blast of comic booking. Spanning the 70s, 80s, and some time beyond, the story focuses on this group of punk criminals about to commit this deal that will last generations. Writer Simon Oliver and artist Rufus Dayglo commit to the passion and anarchy of the punk movement and the book sort of oozes rudeness.
Written by Simon Oliver
Illustrated by Rufus Dayglo and Giulia BruscoForget what you know of England, of the “Land of Hope and Glory.” Instead, try damp and depressing, and embrace this miserable island for what it is. Our story kicks off in 1976: the country coming apart at its flared corduroy seams, a decade after the Great Train Robbery, when British crime has gone decidedly soft in the middle.
Time for a new generation of criminals to rise: a band of snotty-nosed heroes driven by destiny and cheap cider, who will strike fear back into the establishment, put art back into crime and crime back into art, and pull off what will become known as the heist of the century.
This new series from Simon Oliver (FBP: FEDERAL BUREAU OF PHYSICS) and Rufus Dayglo (Tank Girl), spans three decades, from the punk rock ’70s to the decadent ’80s and beyond, charting the rise, fall and redemption of a group of bandits that changed the face of the criminal underworld and closed the door on a legacy.
There’s a scene toward the middle of “The Last Gang in Town” by Simon Oliver and Rufus Dayglo, where our central character tells a story about the time she was a passenger on a cargo ship. She’s been put in charge of some horses, save for this prized stallion. Suddenly, one of the horses contracts this disease and rather than endangering the stallion, the crew throws the rest of the horses overboard. “That one stallion’s life was deemed more worthy and valuable than all the other horses put together,” the character reflects. “It was a lesson I’ve never forgotten.”
That idea, of the rich sacrificing the rest of the world, is the nervous system from this new Vertigo Comic, which I suspect has a chance to exist thanks to Jamie S. Rich’s editorial position. What follows is the start of the life and afterlife of a punk crime spree.
The book opens with this punk girl, Joey, stealing a guitar and a leather jacket from this biker rock gang, before jumping forward to her as an old lady in Switzerland reflecting on what she accomplished. There’s some “Invisibles” recruitment stuff going on, and running gags involving the original owner of the guitar, but mostly there’s a lot of mayhem. Oliver drops only hints at this crime spree that Joey’s starting, but isn’t concerned with giving us anything more to latch onto with that. He’s more after mood here, more after setting, after establishing why these characters are fed up with the establishment.
He hits the ground running and doesn’t really stop to let you catch up. It might take a read or two before what’s going on, who’s who, and what’s what becomes clear, but that definitely feels like the intention of the narrative. Oliver not only jumps between the three timelines, but also throws in stories-within-stories, anecdotes, and random gags. The book is tightly controlled but it feels loose and like it can’t even keep up with itself.
All this is thrust forward by Rufus Dayglo’s art. It feels very British, delivered like it was drawn in a fury of cheap alcohol, loud music, and gross humor. He packs each panel in with tons of background detail, though I was never at a loss about where the focus was. His figures are ugly but his caricature fascinating and demonstrative. The dude did some time on “Tank Girl” so I guess this makes sense.
Oliver and Dayglo are so committed to this world and this aesthetic that the book feels honest and passionate, even when the storyline gets at its most badgering moments. A good number of slice-of-life comics don’t feel as committed or as inhabiting their world as the characters do in “The Last Gang in Town” #1.
Continued belowOf course, there’s only feigned interest in really digging into the plot. We get to see a lot of the rawness and energy of the comic and we get introduced to a handful of the characters, though I don’t think I could tell you much about them, but it’s the setting and mood that’s the most developed for the book. According to the solicits, this is only a seven-issue series, and there’s a danger that Oliver and Dayglo will spend so much time playing around in their world and timelines that the ending will be quickly cobbled together. I don’t think that’s something we’ll know for sure until the end of the second issue, but I don’t know this introductory taste of the series will reveal everything this series wants to be.
Committed, brutal, angry, but still fun, and immensely ambitious, “The Last Gang in Town” #1 kicks off a bizarre and thrilling crime story. This first issue does well to set up the world and to introduce us to some of the characters. Let’s just see where it’s taking us next. It’s ambition might be off-putting to some impatient readers and it’s too early to tell if it’ll pay off, but it’s clear Simon Oliver and Rufus Dayglo are striving toward something.
Final Verdict: 7.7 – an interesting introduction, with maybe more ambition than story.
