Since there are a few old school 2000AD fans here, I will give a mention to
The Last American, which was written by John Wagner and Alan Grant, and illustrated by Mike McMahon.
The story and writing are simple, which befits the quiet grimness of the story. A notable background detail to the story is that it marks the break-up of Wagner and Grant's writing partnership. I always thought of them as pedestrian, but looking back, their basic, unpretentious and straightforward action/black humour mix was perfect for the stories that they wanted to tell. Since I read a ridiculous amount of their work (Judge Dredd, Strontium Dog, Bogie Man et al) whilst maintaining my high-minded teenage snobbery against them, it shows that I was a hypocrite in my opinion. They were a great pulp partnership, very entertaining, imaginative and solidly subversive.
But the best aspect of
The Last American is the awesome work of
Mike McMahon. I used to dislike his dark, odd and apparently deliberately unattractive drawing. Everyone looked ugly, the shapes looked all wrong, this did not look like real life In! The! Future!
But, something changed in my brain, and McMahon became my favourite comic book artist; his work is so weird and distinctive, full of searing imagery whilst always focusing on telling the story. I am going to stop digging myself into this pit of abstract adjectives which is undoubtedly putting some off the poor guy already. Just check his work out: his art evokes stories and contains all kinds of perfect wrongness.
