Znepokojivý komiksový příběh, který se noří do velmi komplexních a těžkých témat. U některých pasáží jsem měla pocit, jako by mi někdo zmrazil orgány tekutým dusíkem. Hrozně zvláštní působení obrazů.

Celkový dojem je ale hodně nevyvážený a vlastně nevím, jestli jsem knížku dokázala plně pojmout. Surreálné obrazy se střídaly se syrovým popisem běžného života a vzájemně vytvořili symbolickou výpoveď, ve které jsem se možná v průběhu prostě ztratila.

Témata jako sobeckost, smrt a narození nebo to, jaká břemena si vytváříme v síti vzájemných vztahů, jsou silná i nosná. Přesto mi občas přišlo, že je všechny ty obrazy, sny a pokřivené reality halí do nepropustného závoje. To, co v narativu syrovosti každodenního života působí jako sůl do rozšklebené rány je v surreálném světě obrazů ve výsledku spíš jen bezzubá alegorie. Nevím.

Doporučuju zkusit. Já to rozhodně hodlám číst znovu, třeba se k jádru příběhu dostanu blíž.

Read at the recommendation of someone that I cannot separate from this character or read. My rating may not be reliable.

It’s been almost twenty years since I read Black Hole so I thought I’d see what else Charles Burns had done since. This series was a major let down though. It’s barely anything at all, really. Sad guy, underwritten women as plot devices, a reoccurring reference to Tin Tin comics. For all its talk of “emotional terror” and “traumatic horror” this barely hit a nerve. I felt nothing.

A screw up named Doug deals with his feelings toward Sarah, the girl who got away, and periodically slips into a TinTin-esque fantasy world.

So I loved Big Baby and Black Hole and can't get enough of Charles Burns' art so I eventually snapped this up.

First of all, Charles Burns' art is spectacular, both his usual pop art style and the Herge-esque style of Doug's fantasies. There are lots of panels suitable for framing, in fact.

Doug's story unfolds in a circuitous way, punctuated by the TinTin interludes. Just what the hell happened between Doug and Sarah all those years ago and can Doug escape the rut his father trod through his own life?

I'm not precisely sure how to rate this. The art was gorgeous but the story wasn't anything spectacular. Three and a half maybe? I liked it but I didn't LIKE IT like it.

Last Look is another fantastic showing for Charles Burns art-wise. I wasn't enamored with the story, though. 3.5 out of 5 sugar skulls.

I read the whole thing in one sitting. It was captivating and haunting and strange. Burns takes readers on a stomach churning ride through one man's justification for past behavior. There is a plot twist dangled in front of you face throughout parts 1 & 2 that isn't as well resolved in part 3 as it could be but the journey to that ending is still so beautiful and disorienting that passing on this book is doing yourself a disservice.

The plot is a temporal and otherworldly fever dream as our reality and the book's surreal, alien world match and predict each other's outcome with sickly foreshadowing throughout. Burns leaves a lot for the reader to infer and doesn't spell out every single story beat and that makes Last Look a joy to return to. After finishing the book in one fevered rush I returned to it the next night and reread certain scenes picking up on hints and things that seemed obvious now knowing what happens in the end.

Charles Burns Last Look trilogy is a truly mind-bending and challenging work of fiction and a masterpiece of the graphic novel form on par with the work of Chris Ware and Daniel Clowes. Do yourself a favor and check it out.