SDCC 2024: Dynamite Sets Fall Release For ‘Last Of The Gladiators’

The graphic novel adaptation of the mafia memoir is nearly ready for publication.

Dynamite announced Thursday, as Comic-Con International: San Diego 2024 begins, that Last of the Gladiators will be ready for release this Fall. Initially revealed during SDCC 2022, the tale centers on Jimmy LaRossa, a prosecutor turned defense attorney who soon took on the US government to represent mob bosses, assassins, cheating stockbrokers, money launderers, corrupt bankers and more. It is also the story of his son, James M. LaRossa Jr. — the author of the memoir upon which the graphic novel is based — who comes to understand his upbringing and his father thanks to spending the latter’s final five years learning all they could about one another.

As LaRossa explained in a statement, “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 … 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.”

Aiding LaRossa in bringing the story to comics are writer Jonathan Vankin and artist Giorgio Pontrelli. Additionally, Butch Guice provides the cover.

Last of the Gladiators is due out this Fall.