Judas: The Last Days Preview

Ah, the holidays! The feel of winter, the sound of bells, the shopping, and a big part if you’re a Christian is the true reason behind Christmas. Well, come the New Year in January, the infamous Judas Iscariot is back in the present day. In Judas: The Last Days by: W. Maxwell Prince and artist John Amor. That’s right, you heard it: nearly 2,000 years after betraying Jesus, Judas is still alive and immortal, and I got the pleasure of a sneak peek at the new book from IDW Publishing dropping next month.

(Just as a forewarning, this is mostly spoiler-free but does cover part of the story.)

So as mentioned, Judas Iscariot is still alive in our world, and is trying to understand every little thing, analyzing it one by one. He is a typical carefree guy until he meets a girl named Susana who changes his outlook on everything. It seems to the reader as if she was his first real relationship, as she makes him feel every emotion with the love they start to share. Susana has one person besides Judas that she cares for as well: her uncle, who is dying in the hospital and says what probably are some of the darkest things I’ve ever read in my comic-reading life, making you feel a bit uneasy and depressed. Needless to say, he wants Judas to pull the plug for him and put him out of his misery. Judas doesn’t feel right about it, but the uncle talks him into it, which leads Susana to get angry at Judas at her uncle’s funeral. Subsequently, she goes home and decides to end her life. Judas finds her body and decides he doesn’t want to live on this Earth either, wanting to find a way to end his life.

Based on what I got to read of the book, it was definitely an interesting read like no other before. This will be one of the darkest graphic novels around, as we follow a character throughout his quest to kill himself. That may make some people a bit skeptical on whether or not they want to review or talk about the book, and I can say the that if you have very strict religious views this may not be the book for you. One thing is for sure: it is NOT and I repeat, NOT suitable for children. IDW is very good at giving fans a gritty stories that blow our minds time after time, and this could just be another. If you love the feeling of a dark, twisted journey to look for in a graphic novel then this book is for you.

Let’s talk writing and artwork. I’m not very familiar with W. Maxwell Prince’s work, but his style of writing really shows the five years he put into the dialogue and getting us into the life of this immortal character. He does an excellent job demonstrating how Judas picks up every small thing and describes what it’s like with different emotions and light jokes he throws toward the reader — especially when other characters make references to his name like, “Oh, like the man who killed Jesus,” to which his response is, “Well, he didn’t drive the nails …” This lightens the mood just a tad, helping the reader feel a little bit of a humane soul inside. The dialogue to me achieved what the story was trying to get at and made the book extremely readable.

The artwork is from John Amor, who can probably make even a picture of a Teletubbie look dark and give you a bit of an unsettling feeling, which was perfect for this type of story. Looking at Amor’s other drawings, I notice a bit of a change in it for this story, just to set a different mood by adding more colors but still with a dull tint overall. Altogether, you can see all of the work the duo put into this.

On a personal basis, Judas: The Last Days is good for the right reader, or for someone who wants to try something new and isn’t offended easily by such things as having Judas as the main character, Jesus showing up at some point (though where I do not know yet), and something that might really stir some people up, a cross-dressing Saint Matthew. The book didn’t grab my personal reading interest in the same way as, say, Preacher, but I thought the writing and artwork really did the job, and I can see this book really going good for someone who wants a real dark, twisted story to read and try out as the final product may be great.

Judas: The Last Days is a 180-page graphic novel that will be released by the end of January from IDW Publishing in a specially designed TPB package for $24.99, featuring the story of the immortal and biblical characters in a twisted way never imagined before.

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