And so, summer arrives. Not the best of times to be an inhabitant of this city. It (the City) carries on with its noisy existence. I see traffic buzzing up and down the road; pneumatic jackhammers chewing up the macadam; the ice-cream vendor half-heartedly pushing his cart down the lane; the snot-nosed rugrats in the servants’ quarter behind my office, crying out for their mother, or just crying out in sheer frustration at the inferno building up beneath their chubby toes.

But I hear none of this. Not a whimper or squeak. The sun and the heat kill all sound, turning the outside world into a shimmery, gooey, Dali-esque vista.

And here we are, sitting in the air-conditioned comfort of our office (yes, I know it’s Sunday. I’m a workaholic. I break out into hives if I don’t get to sit at my office desk for at least 4 hours a day), trying to ignore the little furry army of dogs that we have scurrying about here.

I didn’t really want to be here today (for a change). Was thinking penne with bacon at The Big Chill, and a banana daiquiri or two at a friend’s place. Now thinking, “Emerging Trends in Indian Law”. Bah.

But since we’re not particularly interested in emerging trends et al, primarily because it’s too damn hot to work properly, we’re sitting pretty in an empty office and reading a most interesting graphic novel series.

It’s called ‘Y-The Last Man’, and I agree with a blurb on one of the cover pages – this one’s a movie just waiting to be made. In short, it’s about a plague which wipes out all creatures with the Y-chromosome. Well, not all. The main protagonist, a Houdini-wannabe named Yorick, and his monkey, Ampersand, survive the slaughter. The story begins immediately post the plague, and runs for 60 issues, during which Yorick (who wants to scoot to Oz to find his girlfriend) and Ampersand (generally horny chimp), hide and escape from many estrogen fueled, chainsaw/assault rifle-wielding, er, women, half of whom want to do him, while the other half want to do him in.

Your basic, cheesy, post-Apocalyptic storyline. But executed and drawn extremely tastefully, so run out and grab your copy NOW, before it goes out of print. Or download it, like I have.

(Thanks a ton to Joe Hill for pointing the way to this one. Oh, and while we’re on the topic of graphic novels, try out Joe’s ‘Locke & Key’. This one’s pretty neat too.)

13 Scallywags have walked the Plank |:

Mukta Raut said...

Hey! Just the other day a friend was telling me about a film I think you may like..I think it's called 'The man who walked the earth' or something. The movie begins with a farewell party for a professor, a Mr. Oldman. His colleagues are a little surprised about his sudden decision and generally ask him about why he's leaving. He says that he doesn't age and has been living since the last 14,000 years. He has a momento on his desk that looks like a tool cavemen would use, and at first, a lot of people think he's ribbing them, but slowly, things get surreal. Whatever he says seems to add up, but its as easy to disprove or accept the veracity of what he's saying. So it's quite frustrating for the people who are actually trying to gauge the truth. Some lady in the group gets emotional when he takes on Christ's crucification and things like that.

Thought maybe you'd enjoy something like that. I'll try to get the name of the film for you.

Mister Crowley said...

@ mukta: Cor, this has to be the longest comment ever on this blog :)
As for the movie. I've been trying to get my heands on the dvd for a while...it's called "The Man From Earth" :)
I could, of course, get it off a torrent engine...but yet..

Mukta Raut said...

Ah! So I was preaching to the converted...sigh! :-)

Mister Crowley said...

@ mukta: Yus :)

I scribble here said...

is it that hot already?? noo! and also dreading the water balloons which crop up arnd this time :(

and pls tell me u are DJing at the blues over the weekend :)

Mister Crowley said...

@ scribbles: Yes, it IS quite warm now...cludy today, so maybe there's hope :) I'm escaping Holi, thankfully. Going on a roadtrip, so I won't be at Blues on Friday/Saturday nights....but I will be there on Sunday...so come on over if you'd like your free drink ;)

I scribble here said...

oh yes, u did mention the road trip.. have fun!
drink due! :D

Anonymous said...

You have all the 60 issues of Y-The Last Man?! OMG! *dies*
If you put them up for sale, you know who's gonna buy 'em out.

Been here before, but my project for the day is going through your archives.

Mister Crowley said...

Narcotic: To be honest, I have the whole Y-Man series on my hard-drive, as an ecomic, so selling the lot is pointless :)

Have fun reading the blog, though.

Anonymous said...

Darn. Hopes shattered and all that.

Oh yes! Mucho fun googling for the MSN blog and reading through that as well (No, I'm not stalker type chick)
:)

Mister Crowley said...

Narcotic: That was hardly a blog. Actually, good thing you've not seen my LJ blog. That's the pits :P

Anonymous said...

*nahin! aise nahin ho saktha* /drama

It would be a quite a task to fish that out. Has it been purged? :D

Mister Crowley said...

Narco: I don't think it's been purged (I hope not)....