The Last Session Vol. 1: Roll for Initiative - Softcover

Walls, Jasmine

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1952303192 ISBN 13: 9781952303197

Publisher: Mad Cave Studios, 2022

Synopsis

Roll for initiative!

Jay, Lana, Drew, Walter, and Shen have played Dice & Deathtraps together since high school. Now, on the verge of graduating college and scattering, they've decided to finally complete their unfinished first campaign. But when Jay's partner Cassandra joins as a new player, Lana's afraid the party won't ever finish their quest...

About this title

About the Author

Jasmine Walls is a California based writer, artist, and hot chocolate connoisseur with a passion for stories that are fun, engaging, and critical. Her works are unapologetically queer, inclusive, and span across several genres.

Dozer is a nonbinary illustrator, comic artist and bird parent from Germany. They've done work on BOOM! Studios' Lumberjanes, several German TV and movie illustration and animation gigs, and their own wrestling fan-comic. They are always looking for new exciting stories and diverse characters to illustrate!

Micah Myers has lettered stories and books for DC Comics, Image, Dark Horse, IDW, Mad Cave, Webtoon, Devil’s Due, Heavy Metal, Aspen, Starburns, Scout, Darby Pop, and many others. He has worked on comics with Steve Orlando, Matthew Erman, Magdalene Visaggio, Michael Avon Oeming, Mark Bertolini, Joe Corallo, Shane Berryhill, Cullen Bunn, Josh Blaylock, JT Krul, Chris Sebela, Curt Pires, and many more.

Reviews

Gr 8 Up—The first meeting of a Gender Sexuality Alliance turns into a long-running RPG campaign when the high school club's president is a no-show and five members fight boredom by playing Dice & Deathtraps. Four years later, the college students reunite to finish the quest and share post-college plans, but an interloper throws off the dynamics, and tensions rise in the game and in life. Lana is jealous of the camaraderie between others and causes drama over newcomer Cassandra, but equal time is allotted to the full cast and their issues—pressures of parents and grades, gender identity and relationships, and college and career choices. These conflicts are mirrored in the D&D game, which makes up half the story, although the RPG scenes seem extraneous. The game is a device used to connect the students, but it would have been plausible for one of the GSA members to take the helm and the intended meeting to proceed. Characters representing diversity of gender, sexuality, body type, and ethnicity are introduced with pronouns and have nuanced discussions about self-discovery. Race is not discussed directly, but all are BIPOC. A second volume is planned, but given the adult characters and resolved conflict, retaining young readers may prove challenging. VERDICT Although the characters are older than is typical for YA, this graphic novel has middle school appeal; there is one use of a curse word in this otherwise clean but formulaic tale. Recommended where supplements on gender identity are needed and where RPGs are popular.—Rebecca Jung

Edition details

• Publisher: Mad Cave Studios
• Publication date: 2022
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1952303192
• ISBN 13: 9781952303197
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 136
• Editor: Moccio Michael