Dylan Dog 406, The last laugh, the review

After knowing the new existence of Dylan Dog in the 666 cycle, we thought we had seen everything and everyone ... but something, or rather someone was missing from the appeal. In this finale, we will have the opportunity to understand where Groucho is in this new reality put in place by Roberto Recchioni, if it is really the crazy killer who left his trail of blood in previous issues, but above all to know fully what dear "old" Dylan who never left us.

The Dylan we have seen in previous issues takes on the task of re-establishing that genesis that often had several gaps in the canon imagined by Tiziano Sclavi. Thanks to the remodeling of some characters, but above all of some events, from the Black Dawn up to this last issue, we have witnessed some revelations on the account of the tenant of Craven Road, which complete a rather interesting picture on the past of the character.

Dylan Dog, The last laugh

Dylan Dog 406 - The last laugh is practically the only issue of this cycle that has no reference to the first published issues between 1986 and 1987, since, in a much more incisive way than seen in The blade, the Moon and the ogre, it projects the reader towards the main storytelling imagined by the author, namely the investigation into the serial killer that is sowing dead in London with a macabre comic vein, which culminates and surprises by telling the protagonist once again. And Dylan is now on his trail ...

The curtain opens.

Dense fog, Dylan and Gnaghi are aboard the extremely battered Beetle, while they are headed to the asylum of Harlech. According to the clues collected by Dylan, the killer with a comic signature should be in good company, right in the midst of the madmen of the London asylum, but numerous other dangers await ours, right from the entrance of the structure.



The last laugh sees our Dylan to face a series of challenges scattered throughout the asylum, all the proposals as a sort of race of obstacles, or enemies to beat before to get to the end boss level, to see it with the eye of a player. All of these enemies, however, offer a series of insights that show, a little at a time, the character of the investigator, some of his immutable characteristics (the animal, the rejection of the use of force, the defence for the weaker ones).



Read also: Dylan Dog Old Boy and the new nightmare, interview with Roberto Recchioni

After an authentic spiral of madness and intersections between this reality and the one most inspired by the great classics of the fantasy and the nightmare, ranging from Herman Melville, H. P. Lovecraft , characters truly wonderful, giant, violent, murderers, armed band saw, forgotten mothers, abused women... to Harlech there is the safety of find different stages of madness, but in need of listening, and a guide. And all the guests of Harlech, before finding Dylan, have found the guidance of a new director.

he Is the serial killer whom our unlikely duo are hunting.



Appreciable return in the scenes of some historical characters (without spoilers too, we are to Harlech, then to find a certain Lord was plausible enough), but also the continuation in the plot concerning Anna Never/Mater Morbi .

Gnà.

of Course, we could not forget the contribution of the most precious assistant of Dylan, a character who, despite still having many unusual features, in this album can really say much of themselves. Gnà. No, you can't solve everything with strokes of the shovel, and our two heroes will come to understand it even better on these pages.

The day of reckoning is truly one of the greatest coups have been orchestrated by the author after much experimentation, a culmination of this narrative duration of six months, where you can merge all the points, and to give the right balance to the genesis of Dylan.

Dylan Dog, the balance generated from the chaos

Who thought that all the changes made to the canon dylandoghiano were out of place, reading the cycle of 666, and in particular, the latter issue, he was wrong, and will find the right balance in everything.

The zero point is provided by Recchioni, able to overcome the years of inaccuracies, gaps in the narrative, unexplained events, and even sometimes corrected in reprints, with a certain mastery made more visible in this final season – drop by the expression from tv series -, giving a perfect feeling of balance to the whole of the old and new fee dylandoghiano.

The evolution brought by Recchioni, then, is useful only to make it even more digestible the ambiguous past of Dylan, “a character was born and developed in the race” as explained by the same author in the course of our interview , certainly not for stravolgerlo or change it.



The story has a fast pace combined with the moments of alternate tension and strong dynamism, with a Corrado Roi even at the highest levels , capable of leading with strong images and evocative that, with all probability, is the album the most successful of the entire cycle of 666. Speaking of images, this number is definitely the route that tradition that sees the “Groucho” to be the subject of the cover only in the numbers celebrations or special albums (if we also exclude the 399, but in the margin of everything, we can call it also a number of celebration), with a Gigi Cavenago, on the cover, who puts in the work ink and color once again unbeatable.

in Spite of everything, we are convinced that if before, we felt the lack of someone, this feeling of melancholy will continue to be there in the next few numbers...



In addition to the suggestion of the author that proposes the listening of the classic psychedelic In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida Iron Butterfly , we recommend All Within My Hands Metallica . If you come out alive from Harlech, we will see you again on these pages the next month. Gnà.

you Can read Dylan Dog “And now the apocalypse” in a special edition hardcover and black-and-white, in special discount on Amazon.