Tank Girl!

Another series of Graphic novels that I just bought, having heard the name for quite a while here and there, (Tank girl has been around since the 80's) I decided to look it up one day! and I found that the strips had all been converted into full length graphic novels, (3 of them) and then there are 2 follow ups, odyssey and apocalypse, and in 2008 there has also been a new wave of Tank girl series written again by Alan Martin and Ashley wood.

It's funny how in some cases the illustrator takes most (or all) of the credit for a book, as in the case of Jamie Hewlett with Tank girl, ie: his name is the most commonly associated with the book, or there's Alan moore, writer of the watchmen, V for vendetta, swamp thing etc, who always takes the full credit for his novels, even though he does not illustrate them, which is fair enough, i just find it interesting how sometimes it is the artist that is most spoken about and sometimes it is the illustrator! (my previous post discusses the graphic novel "girls" written by and illustrated by Joshua Luna- which I find rather amazing! but of course there are also films that have been done single-handedly such as the Makoto Shinkai movies) 

Anyway Here is a picture of "Tank Girl" illustrated by Hewlett, (who then went on to create the band: "Gorillaz" with some other dude) anyone who knows of it will know it's absolutely mental, she's basically a beer swilling, bad-mouthed, kangaroo-shagging, (Is set in the out-back of Australia) tank driving maniac who with her half-man-kangaroo boyfriend "booga" go on an assortment of various missions- what I don't know as I've not got around to reading them yet! so my description of Tank girl may not be wholly accurate! but basically I thought it looked like a fun read, I liked the punky-vivien westwood- british pop culture type feel it had and just the total bizarreness! plus there are the elements of violence, anarchy and metafiction that just add to it's appeal and make for a very interesting and inspiring read! (I hope!) 

Tank girl was also made into a diabolically crap movie that the authors still to this day state: "killed tank girl" and that she will never be the same again because of... well we can always bypass the film, (as I am) and read through the comics that were written when I was probably about 8! so it's strangely nostalgic reading them now even though I never heard of them when I was younger but because I know it's from the years I was growing up as a child so it has alot of familiar 80's elements in it.