Picking up the pieces
Picking up the pieces |
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Page 18 of 38  Detail is from 'Devlin Waugh', a lively tale about a debonair homosexual exorcist. Art: Sean Phillips. Script: John Smith. The comic always had an experimental feel. In its early days, the strips were eclectic, and based around a clutch of strong characters. There was 'Beryl the Bitch' by Julie Hollings, a spiky gag strip about a stone-hearted man-eater; 'Hugo Tate', by Nick Abadzis, which developed into an alternately amusing and disturbing meditation on identity; 'Wired World' by Philip Bond, about a pair of post-punk female friends; and 'Johnny Nemo' by Peter Milligan and Brett Ewins, a witty tale about a rock and roll detective and his gun-toting adventures in 'New London' ('Not a place for the squeamish', says Johnny. 'It's ugly, violent, dangerous, filthy and decadent... it suits my personality ... '). But the strongest character of all, and a firm reader favourite from issue 1, was 'Tank Girl' by Alan Martin and Jamie Hewlett. Inspired by the tough females in films like Alien, Tank Girl was a shaven-headed outlaw with a knack for gratuitous violence. She roams the Australian outback in a tank, getting drunk, bedding kangaroos and starting fights. Sexy and anarchic, she was 'the girl that makes Superman want to take off his pants'. The story lines were extremely fast-paced and amusing -lots of snappy one-liners - while the art was clean and vivid: it was clear from day one that a cult had arrived.  Blast! (John Brown, 1991), art: Simon Bisley |