by Mark Allard-Will
Comic books and music, two things that - while often associated - are seldom seen paired together, well that changes with the release of The Last Band on Earth issue #1 by Saskatoon comic creator, Elaine M. Will.
The Last Band on Earth focuses on fictional Punk band, The Dead Layaways, in a nameless and fictional, post-apocalyptic mid-America desert town where the town is a metaphor for depression and music a metaphor for aspiration and hope.
“It has its origins in a similar [unpublished] comic that I created in High School which was inspired by the [Canadian] movie Hardcore Logo and my own teenage angst of feeling that I was being bullied and that I had no friends,” Elaine said of her motivation to write and illustrate The Last Band on Earth, “I wanted to do a spiritual sequel to [my 2013 graphic novel] Look Straight Ahead, another story about mental illness, but one that also included other elements that I thought were cool such as music.”
Elaine found herself inspired by the music of her teenage years and early twenties, The Dead Layaways, while Punk in the comic, are directly inspired by Elaine’s love affair with a combination of post-Punk, Noise Rock and Emo. Pitchblende, Thinking Fellers Union Local 282, Turing Machine, At The Drive-in, Fugazi and Les Savy Fav are all cited as the influences Elaine called upon when creating the fictional four-piece of The Dead Layaways.
The Last Band on Earth is available now in Saskatoon at Collector’s Edge Comics and Games, Amazing Stories and 8th Street Books & Comics. The comic is also available as a digital PDF here.
