Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews

Last Days Of American Crime #1The Last Days of American Crime
Radical Comics
Remender & Tocchini

The Last Days of American Crime is a story that takes place some time in the near future where legislation is out of control and about to abolish paper money and the aspect of committing crimes by altering people's brain activity. Criminals want their one last score before everything changes forever. Rick Remender brings a crime mini series that has a unique plot to it and that is loaded with scummy characters. This is a comic book that is worthy checking out for sure.

Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle ReviewsGraham Brick is the lead character and has the idea to charge up some "cash" cards before they get serial numbers on them and then head to Canada to live free. He needs help so he enlists Kevin Cash and his sketchy girlfriend to assist in this extremely time sensitive crime. Obviously trust is an issue with this crew.

However, the comic book really takes flight in its character design. Graham is build up quickly as a hardened criminal with a lot on his mind. He has boundaries and when they get crossed he has a way to deal with people in some unpleasant ways. On the other hand, Graham is flawed as he seems to find himself falling for a quick score with a female and he mixes his crime life with his personal life as he brings his new partners back to his trailer to discuss the score in front of his mother stricken with dementia.

Graham isn't the only seedy character here as Cash and his girlfriend, Shelby, also manage to scrape the bottom of society's well. Shelby finds herself involved with multiple men in this comic as she is using her best weapon: manipulation, to get what she wants, which is sometimes nothing more than a thrill. However, she isn't nearly as in control as she assumes she is.

Cash is a criminal that is too good for himself. He clearly has a superiority complex and is willing to shy on the naive side because he assumes he has all of the angles covered when its obvious he doesn't.

The artwork couldn't be a more perfect fit for the slime that this comic churns out. It's not just the lead characters, but the entire supporting cast seems to have fallen out of an episode of Cops and the artwork's style only enhances that notion. It's a gorgeous comic and the back contains many sketches and character designs to study further.

One other thing of note in this comic book is its design. It carries a $5 cover charge but you get nearly fifty pages of story and another ten pages of sketches and an interview with Remender. The design works as basically a short graphic novel, which is a great idea. With two more issues in the mini series this is looking like a great investment that delivers in content for the price it's asking.

Last Days of American Crime is an interesting story with a great cast of characters. So far there isn't one likable character in here and that only adds to the charm for this type of story. If you like character driven stories and like a good heist that seems to end up going wrong then this is worth checking out.

4 out of 5 geek goggles