Originally announced at last year’s San Diego Comic-Con, Dynamite‘s original graphic novel Last of the Gladiators will finally hit stores this October.
The true life story is written by James M. LaRossa Jr., the son of Jimmy LaRossa, a “prosecutor turned defense attorney, who was the lawyer of last resort when fighting prosecution before the all-mighty U.S. Government,” per a press release provided to Comic Book Club.
The book follows how LaRossa defended some of the worst of the worst in New York City from the 1960s to the 2000s, including “mob bosses, assassins, cheating stockbrokers, money launderers and corrupt bankers and more.”
In addition, the book weaves that story with the younger LaRossa’s own experiences with his father. So it’s sort of like Maus but no animals, and gangsters.
“After I ‘snuck’ my father out of a New York hospital to prevent his certain death, I never imagined that the five years we spent together in Southern California would be so momentous,” said writer James M. LaRossa Jr. “While I cooked him his favorite Italian meals, we shared the intimate stories of our lives, including the secrets to a generation of the most colorful criminals imaginable. After he died, I walked the beach aimlessly until the themes of Last of the Gladiators began to form. This is where the graphic novel begins.”
Along with LaRossa Jr., the book is co-written with former Vertigo editor Jonathan Vankin, drawn by artist Giorgio Pontrelli, and has a cover by Butch Guice. It will be released in October on a TBA date, but you can check out the Guice cover below to see if it’s got the juice, as well as some unlettered interior pages.
Comic Book Club Live Info:
Discover more from Comic Book Club
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.