Tank Girl and Friends

1988  was a good year to be 15- not only was grunge in full swing, garage punk was undergoing a revial, hip hop was evolving . house music was undergoing a revolution, really fun times when you actually noticed cultural shifts and you thought after years of grime and greed something positive would accumulate at the death of the decade-comics were hip to seeing such things-not so much the British mainstream-the mainstream are never hip to these changes but the people on the fringes outside looking in.. Deadline magazine was a refreshing change to the norm-quirky surreal comic strips mixed with text articles be it interviews poetry, record reviews or the ramblings of Ron Merlin -every article held your interest and was relevant to the life you were living, it was truly different and innovative- it had attitude -the editorial team didn't strike as been a bunch of old boys with pipes- my personal favourite character was Johnny Nemo - Existentialist Hit Man of the Future , but there was also Bob the Blob Hugo Tate, Wired World (more of which later)and  B-Bop and Lulu but most famous of all Tank Girl

The ultimate post apocalypse Riot Grrrrl -before someone who listened to Metallic KO and Iggy's stage banter and coined the phrase a good few years before all that.. She was a instant hit with the readers as was the Artist and Writer team of Jamie Hewlett and Alan Martin-the Early Tank Girl stories were good anarchic fun-not too taxing on the mind with plenty of  laugh out loud moments, cool pop references and a Kangaroo boyfriend Booga... for the first couple of issues I thought Hewlett was Brett Ewins or Brenden McCarthy working under a pseudonym -for a young artist he really was that good- like punk rock but in in pen and ink form.

Liz from Wired World-I guess Liz and Pippa were like the heroines much in style of Hopey and Maggie in the US Comic Love and Rockets but in student digs in Thatchers Britain ..with lots of references to indie music  and pop culture

Not sure why these stories haven't been collected into a big volume maybe they will one day-Phillip Bond WW creator  would also go on to draw Tank Girl-like Hewlett he's gone onto other things-would be nice to see a Gorillas style Tank Girl movie I think it would suit her character and world better than live action film that came out in 1995.

Tank Girl-Lori Peri and Jet Girl Naomi Harris. Watched this at my mates house with a couple of beers -didn't really recognise as Tank Girl I knew from  Deadline -you had Ice T Malcolm McDowell ,Iggy Pop ,Booga the Kangaroo a few random references to Jack Kerouac that's all I really remember maybe I needed a spliff or something... whats more I always thought she was Australian? maybe I'll give it another look one rainy day.-But I do remember lots of girls at University sporting the Tank Girl look -when the movie came out-usually fashion students -but I bet they weren't aware of the character before film came out though,.. These girls are better at rocking the Tank Girl look

Tank Girl's been appearing in Judge Dredd Megazine and IDW publishing lately with Rufus Dayglo (strange name for an Irish Fella) on artistic duties and he did a grand job... as did the legendary Mick McMahon.

So perhaps I'll feature comic heroines or anti heroines on this page from now on comics are just as much as a passion for me too.

Cud..ehh?  the very second band I saw(Squeeze been the  first)