Tank Girl One

Tank Girl One is the first remastered compilation of the comic/graphic novels by Jamie Hewlett and Alan Martin. It combines the first fifteen episodes originally published from October 1988 to February 1990.

It’s a post-apocalyptic world out there and a girl’s gotta eat. And drink. And smoke.

‘Tis why Tank Girl doesn’t bother with many moral qualms or ethical dilemmas. She does what she needs to in the wilds of the Australian outback.

Whether that be participating in a heist to obtain beer for her birthday party or training her mutant kangaroo boyfriend to fight in the ring, it’s always something. Tank Girl always has an angle, varied levels of minimal modesty – and a dirty mouth.

Being an outlaw who lives (and attacks) in a tank isn’t always easy. But it’s almost always fun.

I sought out Tank Girl One after seeing the 1995 film adaptation starring Lori Petty and (an unrecognizable) Naomi Watts. Though I now know that the creators of the graphic novels, Hewlett and Martin, were unhappy with the film – it drew my interest.

With the cyber punk vibe, sassy lead and utter absurdities, I was intrigued. I am a sucker for weird and surreal with a big helping of humor. That’s sorta my thing. So, after being truly entertained by the movie, I picked myself up the source material.

So how does the comic stack up? Well, it’s certainly explicit and R-rated in terms or content, no doubt about that. But goodness gracious if it did not DELIGHT me and send me into shocked giggles every so often. Several times I would have to stop and tell my boyfriend about this or that ridiculous scene I just read because it just HAD TO BE DISCUSSED.

As a character, Tank Girl is deliriously fun-loving. She takes the life she has and makes it vibrant – whether getting her jollies with mutant kangaroos, massacring her enemies or just getting her drink on. It is joyful and absolutely ludicrous to read with a very distinctive art style.

Unfortunately the narrative does not maintain too much consistency. It is rather non-linear and jumps about from idea to idea, plot wise. However, this seems to the charm of Tank Girl. You can pop in and enjoy a new episode without having to remember all the details of the ones before.

All in all a fun read and I would happily read more. And I, for one, think Lori Petty got the vibe just right.