Tank Girl
Tank Girl | |
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Publication information | |
Publisher | Deadline Magazine Dark Horse Comics DC Vertigo IDW Publishing Image Comics Titan Comics |
Genre | Science fiction |
Publication date | 1988 |
Creative team | |
Created by | Jamie Hewlett Alan Martin |
Written by | Alan Martin |
Artist(s) | Jamie Hewlett |
Tank Girl is a British comic book created by Jamie Hewlett and written by Alan Martin. Originally drawn by Jamie Hewlett, it has also been drawn by Philip Bond, Glyn Dillon, Ashley Wood, Warwick Johnson-Cadwell, Jim Mahfood, Brett Parson, Jonathan Edwards, Craig Knowles, Rufus Dayglo, Andy Pritchett, and Mike McMahon.
The eponymous character Tank Girl (Rebecca Buck – later revealed to have been born as Fonzie Rebecca Buckler) drives a tank, which is also her home. She undertakes a series of missions for a nebulous organization before making a serious mistake and being declared an outlaw for her sexual inclinations and her substance abuse. The comic centres on her misadventures with her boyfriend, Booga, a mutant kangaroo. The comic's style is heavily influenced by punk visual art, and strips are frequently deeply disorganized, anarchic, absurdist, and psychedelic. The strip features various elements with origins in surrealist techniques, fanzines, collage, cut-up technique, stream of consciousness, and metafiction, with very little regard or interest for conventional plot or committed narrative.
The strip was initially set in a futuristic Australia, although it drew heavily from contemporary British pop culture.
Publication history
Martin and Hewlett first met in the mid-1980s in Worthing, while studying at The West Sussex College of Art and Design (WSCD, later renamed Northbrook College). Martin was in college band The University Smalls with fellow comics enthusiast Philip Bond. One of their songs was called "Rocket Girl". They had started adding the suffix 'girl' to everything habitually after the release of the Supergirl movie, but "Rocket Girl" was a student at college who Bond had a crush on and apparently bore a striking resemblance to a Love and Rockets character. They began collaborating on a comic/fanzine called Atomtan, and while working on this, Jamie had drawn
"a grotty looking beefer of a girl brandishing an unfeasible firearm. One of our friends was working on a project to design a pair of headphones and was basing his design on the type used by World War II tank driver. His studio in Worthing was littered with loads of photocopies of combat vehicles. I pinched one of the images and gave it to Jamie who then stuck it behind his grotty girl illustration and then added a logo which read 'Tank Girl".[1]
The image was published in the fanzine as a one-page ad, but the Tank Girl series first appeared in the debut issue of Deadline (1988),[2] a UK magazine intended as a forum for new comic talent and it continued until the end of the magazine in 1995.
Tank Girl became quite popular in the politicized indie counterculture zeitgeist as a cartoon mirror of the growing empowerment of women in punk rock culture. Posters, shirts, and underpants began springing up everywhere, including one especially made for the Clause 28 march against Margaret Thatcher's legislation. Clause 28 stated that a local authority "shall not intentionally promote homosexuality or publish material with the intention of promoting homosexuality" or "promote the teaching in any maintained school of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship." Deadline publisher Tom Astor said, "In London, there are even weekly lesbian gatherings called 'Tank Girl nights.'"[3]
With public interest growing, Penguin, the largest publishing company in Britain, bought the rights to collect the strips as a book, and before long, Tank Girl had been published in Spain, Italy, Germany, Scandinavia, Argentina, Brazil and Japan, with several United States publishers fighting over the licence. Finally Dark Horse Comics won, and the strips were reprinted in colour beginning in '91, with an extended break in '92, and ending in September '93. A graphic novel-length story named Tank Girl: The Odyssey was also published in '95, written by Peter Milligan and loosely inspired by Homer's Odyssey, Joyce's Ulysses[4] and a considerable quantity of junk TV.
Characters
- Tank Girl: Her real name in the strip is Rebecca Buck, but this is very rarely mentioned throughout. In the kickstarter edition of 21st Century Tank Girl, it is discovered that she was actually born under the name Fonzie Rebecca Buckler. According to her own history included as a preface to one of the books, her first words were "cauliflower penis". When she was 7, she started a collection of novelty pencil sharpeners (the collection is now housed in the National Museum of Modern Pencil Sharpeners, Sydney). She later became a tank pilot and worked as a bounty hunter before shooting a heavily decorated officer, having mistaken him for her father, and failing to deliver colostomy bags to President Hogan, the incontinent Head of State in Australia, resulting in him publicly embarrassing himself at a large international trade conference. These events resulted in Tank Girl becoming an outlaw with a multi-million dollar bounty on her head. She is prone to random acts of sex and violence, hair dyeing, flatulence, nose-picking, vomiting, spitting, and more than occasional drunkenness. She also has the ability to outrun any ice cream van – even Mr. Whippy.
- Booga: A mutated kangaroo, formerly a successful toy designer of "products Santa would've sacrificed a reindeer for," and presently Tank Girl's devoted boyfriend. She met him when he sneaked into her tank one night to pinch a pair of her knickers. He is a big Dame Edna fan and once impersonated Bill Clinton. Booga, often against his will, always does the cooking, particularly the great British institution of tea. He follows Tank Girl everywhere and does, by his own admission, whatever she tells him. This includes murder.
- The talking stuffed animals:
- Camp Koala: A stitchy, brown, gay, koala-shaped stuffed toy described as "the Jeremy Thorpe of comics", whom TG sodomizes with a hot banana. Camp Koala died tragically when they were playing baseball with live hand grenades which Camp eagerly caught in the outfield, exploding on impact, resulting in a violent, bloody, and gruesome death. After a tearless and comical funeral service, the other characters go to a toy store and buy a new one. Camp Koala is known for visiting occasionally as a guardian angel. He is the only character TG's ever admitted to loving.
- Squeaky toy rat: A squeaky toy rat.
- Mr. Precocious: A "small Shakespearean mutant" who looks a bit like a mini bipedal pink elephant, though may possibly be a bilby.
- Stevie: A wild-haired blond Aboriginal man who owns a convenience store and chain-smokes. Being TG's ex-boyfriend, Booga is always a bit jealous of him. He has various familial ties and connections with Aboriginal culture and remote traditionalist tribespeople.
- Barney: Busted out of a mental hospital by TG, she is more or less insane. In The Odyssey, she is responsible for killing the whole cast, thereby sending them all to the land of the dead, from which TG was forced to save them by finding the Prince of Farts.
- Sub Girl (real name unknown, although a trading card for the film once listed her real name as 'Subrina'): Described as "like a beautiful flower floating in the loo", she pilots a submarine. A friend of TG's since childhood, she used to come round her house with Jet Girl and try on her mum's underwear.
- Jet Girl (real name unknown): A talented mechanic who flies a jet. All her friends call her "boring" (she has admitted to being a big fan of Rod Stewart).
Subsequent Tank Girl
After the 1995 film, Hewlett went on to create the band Gorillaz with Blur's Damon Albarn.[5]
Martin has played in various bands, written a Tank Girl novel (Armadillo) published in March 2008 by Titan Books, as well as various screenplays and scripts. He wrote the limited series Tank Girl: The Gifting with Australian artist Ashley Wood.
On 28 September 2012 Titan Books released The Hole of Tank Girl, which encompasses the original Hewlett and Martin material, as well as additional content.[6]
Hewlett and Martin released the series 21st Century Tank Girl on 10 June 2015.[7]
Martin and artist Warwick Johnson-Cadwell have also created a kid-friendly spin-off called Young Tank Girl, published in the digital anthology Moose Kid Comics.[8]
Collected editions
Tank Girl has been collected into a number of trade paperbacks over the years. The entire back catalogue was reprinted by Titan books in 2002 and these books were "re-mastered" in anniversary editions, stripped of their subsequently-added computer colouring and line work repaired. In 2018 the entire Hewlett and Martin back catalogue was once again reprinted under the "Tank Girl Colour Classics" banner, this time as collectable hardbacks, with all new colouring and extra material.
Title | Authors | ISBN | Release date | Comments |
---|---|---|---|---|
Tank Girl 1 | Jamie Hewlett and Alan C. Martin | ISBN 978-1840234350 (Reprint) ISBN 978-1845767570 (Remaster) | 26 April 2002 (Reprint) 24 April 2009 (Remaster) | Consists of the first 15 episodes, originally published in Deadline Magazine, starting Sept. '88, all originally in black and white. |
Tank Girl 2 | Jamie Hewlett and Alan C. Martin | ISBN 978-1840234923 (Reprint) ISBN 978-1845767594 (Remaster) | 21 June 2002 (Reprint) 24 April 2009 (Remaster) | Consists of the next 17 episodes, some colour, some black and white. |
Tank Girl 3 | Jamie Hewlett and Alan C. Martin | ISBN 978-1840234930 (Reprint) ISBN 978-1845767617 (Remaster) | 25 October 2002 (Reprint) 24 July 2009 (Remaster) | Rounds up a final 9 episodes, including some featuring Booga as the star. Some colour, some black and white. |
Tank Girl – The Odyssey | Jamie Hewlett and Peter Milligan | ISBN 978-1840234947 (Reprint) ISBN 978-1845767631 (Remaster) | 27 December 2002 (Reprint) 25 September 2009 (Remaster) | Consists of 4 issues released between June and October 1995, published by DC's Vertigo imprint. These comics were printed in full colour. |
Tank Girl – Apocalypse | Alan Grant, Andy Pritchett, and Philip Bond | ISBN 978-1840237252 (Reprint) ISBN 978-1845767655 (Remaster) | 21 August 2003 (Reprint) 26 February 2010 (Remaster) | Consists of 4 issues released between November 1995 and February 1996, published by DC's Vertigo imprint. Again these comics were in full colour. |
Tank Girl – Movie Adaptation | Peter Milligan and Andy Pritchett | ISBN 978-1563892196 | 28 March 1995 | A graphic novel adaptation of the movie released by Penguin books in 1995. This was not reprinted or remastered by Titan Books |
Tank Girl: The Gifting | Alan C. Martin and Ashley Wood | ISBN 978-1845761707 | 23 November 2007 | Four issue mini-series published by IDW Publishing. The first new Tank Girl comic material since 1995. |
Tank Girl: Armadillo and a Bushel of Other Stories | Alan C. Martin | ISBN 978-1845764845 | 21 March 2008 | A fiction text novel with cover art by Jamie Hewlett |
Tank Girl: Visions of Booga | Alan C. Martin and Rufus Dayglo | ISBN 978-1848561663 | 28 November 2008 | Four issue mini-series published by IDW Publishing |
The Cream of Tank Girl | Jamie Hewlett and Alan C. Martin | ISBN 978-1845769420 | 24 October 2008 | A retrospective art book by Titan Books |
Tank Girl: Skidmarks | Alan C. Martin and Rufus Dayglo | ISBN 978-1848566811 | 30 July 2010 | 12 part series in the Judge Dredd Megazine, re-published by Titan Comics as a four issue mini-series |
Tank Girl: The Royal Escape | Alan C. Martin and Rufus Dayglo | ISBN 978-0857681249 | 25 February 2011 | Four issue mini-series published by IDW publishing |
We Hate Tank Girl | Alan C. Martin and Rufus Dayglo | ISBN 978-1607063490 | 19 January 2011 | Collecting the Tank Girl One-Shots: Dark Nuggets, Dirty Helmets, and Hairy Heroes by Image Comics |
Tank Girl: Bad Wind Rising | Alan C. Martin and Rufus Dayglo | ISBN 978-0857687425 (Hardcover) ISBN 978-0857681188 (Paperback) | 27 January 2012 (Hardcover) 31 December 2014 (Paperback) | Four issue mini-series published by Titan Comics |
The Hole Of Tank Girl | Jamie Hewlett and Alan C. Martin | ISBN 978-0857687449 | 28 September 2012 | A hardcover, large-format book with slipcase, collecting the first three Hewlett & Martin books (with extra archive material) by Titan Books |
Tank Girl: Carioca | Alan C. Martin and Mike McMahon | ISBN 978-0857687432 | 26 October 2012 | Collecting the six-issue mini-series published by Titan Comics |
Tank Girl: Everybody Loves Tank Girl | Alan C. Martin and Jim Mahfood | ISBN 978-0857687500 | 22 February 2013 | Collecting the three-issue mini-series published by Titan Comics |
Tank Girl: Solid State Tank Girl | Alan C. Martin and Warwick Johnson-Cadwell | ISBN 978-1782760030 | 14 January 2014 | Collecting the four-issue mini-series published by Titan Comics |
The Power of Tank Girl | Alan C. Martin, Ashley Wood, and Rufus Dayglo | ISBN 978-1782760641 | 30 September 2014 | An omnibus edition compiling the three Tank Girl graphic novels "The Gifting", "Visions of Booga", and "The Royal Escape" published by Titan Comics |
21st Century Tank Girl | Alan C. Martin, Jamie Hewlett, Brett Parson, Craig Knowles, Jim Mahfood, Jonathan Edwards, Philip Bond, and Warwick Johnson-Cadwell | ISBN 978-1782766612 | 4 November 2015 | Collecting the three-issue mini-series published by Titan Comics (originally self-published in 2014 by Alan Martin/Action Alley as a Kickstarter project) |
Tank Girl: Two Girls, One Tank | Alan C. Martin and Brett Parson | ISBN 978-1785853562 | 6 December 2016 | A four-issue mini-series published by Titan Comics, first part in a trilogy |
Tank Girl: Gold | Alan C. Martin and Brett Parson | ISBN 978-1-78585-525-2 (1-78585-525-5) | 25 April 2017 | A four issue mini-series published by Titan Comics, second part of the trilogy |
Total Tank Girl | Alan C. Martin, Warwick Johnson-Cadwell, Rufus Dayglo, and Jim Mahfood | ISBN 978-1785863059 | 10 October 2017 | An omnibus edition compiling the three graphic novels "Everybody Loves Tank Girl", "Bad Wind Rising", and "Solid State Tank Girl" published by Titan Comics |
World War Tank Girl | Alan C. Martin and Brett Parson | ISBN 978-1785855269 | 17 November 2017 | The third and final chapter in new Tank Girl trilogy and anticipated follow-up to Tank Girl: Gold. Published by Titan Comics |
The Way of Tank Girl | Alan C. Martin, Jamie Hewlett, Ashley Wood, and Brett Parson | ISBN 978-1785864636 | 17 April, 2018 | A square format art book, featuring artwork and panels taken from Tank Girl's back catalogue, along with new and unseen material. Published by Titan Comics. |
The Wonderful World of Tank Girl | Alan C. Martin and Brett Parson | ISBN 978-1785862076 | 28 August, 2018 | A four-issue mini series comprising four stand-alone stories. Published by Titan Comics. |
The Legend of Tank Girl | Alan C. Martin and Brett Parson | ISBN 978-1785864643 | 11 September 2018 | An oversized, hardback omnibus edition, celebrating Tank Girl's 30th anniversary, compiling the three graphic novels "Two Girls One Tank", "Tank Girl Gold", and "World War Tank Girl". Published by Titan Comics. |
Tank Girl Colouring Book | Alan C. Martin, Jamie Hewlett, and Brett Parson | ISBN 978-1785867514 | 16 October 2018 | An oversized, square format paperback, featuring black and white line art. Published by Titan Comics. |
Tank Girl Colour Classics Book One | Jamie Hewlett and Alan C. Martin | ISBN 978-1785866753 | 11 December 2018 | A hardback collection of the original Hewlett & Martin strips (previously "Tank Girl One"), recoloured for the 30th anniversary, augmented with unseen material. Published by Titan Comics. |
Tank Girl All Stars | Alan C. Martin, Brett Parson et al. | ISBN 978-1785864803 | 29 January 2019 | A four-issue mini-series of short stories and prose pages, featuring a host of Tank Girl artists, celebrating Tank Girl's 30th anniversary. Published by Titan Comics. |
Dirty Old Tank Girl | Alan C. Martin, Rufus Dayglo, and Mick McMahon | ISBN 978-1785869822 | 19 March 2019 | An omnibus edition compiling the two graphic novels "Tank Girl: Skidmarks", and "Tank Girl: Carioca" Published by Titan Comics. |
Tank Girl: Action Alley | Alan C. Martin and Brett Parson | ISBN 978-1785864810 | 13 August, 2019 | The first four-issue arc of Tank Girl's first ever on-going series. Published by Titan Comics. |
Tank Girl Colour Classics Book Two | Jamie Hewlett and Alan C. Martin | ISBN 978-1785866777 | 24th September 2019 | A hardback collection of the original Hewlett & Martin strips (previously "Tank Girl Two"), recoloured for the 30th anniversary, augmented with unseen material. Published by Titan Comics. |
Tank Girl Forever | Alan C. Martin and Brett Parson | ISBN 978-1787730304 | 25th February 2020 | The second four-issue arc of Tank Girl's first ever on-going series. Published by Titan Comics. |
Tank Girl Colour Classics Book Three | Jamie Hewlett and Alan C. Martin | ISBN 978-1787734081 | 26th May 2020 | A hardback collection of the original Hewlett & Martin strips (previously "Tank Girl Three"), recoloured for the 30th anniversary, augmented with unseen material. Published by Titan Comics. |
'King Tank Girl | Alan C. Martin and Brett Parson | TBC 2021 | A five-issue mini-series. Published by Albatross Funnybooks. |
Film
The comic was also adapted into a critically and financially unsuccessful film, albeit with a small cult following. The film featured Lori Petty as Tank Girl and Naomi Watts as Jet Girl. Martin and Hewlett are known for speaking poorly of the experience, with Martin calling it "a bit of a sore point" for them.[9]
In September 2019 it was reported that a Tank Girl reboot movie is in development with Margot Robbie's production company LuckyChap Entertainment optioned rights from MGM, Robbie co-produce with her partners Tom Ackerley and Josey McNamara, Mallory Westfall writing and Miles Joris-Peyrafitte directing.[10][11]
See also
References
- ^ "Alan Martin on Tank Girl – Interview". Archived from the original on 30 December 2002. Retrieved 6 July 2016.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) - ^ Whelehan, Imelda; Sonnet, Esther (1997). "Regendered Reading: Tank Girl and Postmodernist Intertextuality". In Cartmell, Deborah (ed.). Trash Aesthetics. Sydney: Pluto Press. p. 31. ISBN 0-7453-1202-0.
- ^ Bates, John K. "Wired 2.12: Tank Girl Stomps Hollywood". Wired.
- ^ "Analysis of the parallels between Tank Girl: The Odyssey and Homer and Joyce's works".
- ^ "Keeping It (Un)real". Wired. July 2005. Retrieved July 9, 2014.
- ^ "THE HOLE OF TANK GIRL – OUT TODAY! – Tank Girl". Archived from the original on 28 October 2012. Retrieved 6 July 2016.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) - ^ "21st Century Tank Girl". Archived from the original on 2017-05-18. Retrieved 2017-05-18.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) - ^ Freeman, John. "Moose Kid Comics launches today, features Young Tank Girl and much more!". downthetubes.net. Retrieved 13 August 2018.
- ^ "Alan Martin on Tank Girl – Interview". Retrieved 6 July 2016.
- ^ Martin, Alan (September 9, 2019). "Just heard that Margot Robbie's company have optioned rights from MGM to make a new Tank Girl movie - now several months into development. We haven't been contacted by any of the parties involved with the project, so not sure if there will be any input from the original creators.pic.twitter.com/7RxbV4qLFt". Retrieved November 19, 2019.
- ^ Sneider, Jeff (September 10, 2019). "Exclusive: Margot Robbie's 'Tank Girl' Movie Lands Director Miles Joris-Peyrafitte". Collider. Archived from the original on September 12, 2019.
External links
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fa/Wikiquote-logo.svg/34px-Wikiquote-logo.svg.png)
- Official website
- Tank Girl at Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Archived from the original on September 29, 2015.
- The Nao Of Brown – Glyn Dillon (Jamie Hewlett collaborator) blog
- Philip Bond – Tank Girl collaborator and artist
Interviews
- Suicide Girls Interview – With Alan Martin about the Tank Girl relaunch
- Alan Martin interview – about the 2007 relaunch from IDW comics.
- Jamie Hewlett interview about influences
- 1988 comics debuts
- Anarchist comics
- Bisexuality-related fiction
- British comics titles
- Female characters in comics
- Comics about women
- British comics adapted into films
- Dark Horse Comics characters
- Dark Horse Comics titles
- Feminist comics
- Comics characters introduced in 1988
- Feminist science fiction
- Fictional bisexual females
- Fictional outlaws
- Fictional bikers
- IDW Publishing titles
- Post-apocalyptic comics
- Punk comics
- Vertigo titles
- Comics set in Australia
- Fictional Australian people
- Sexuality in fiction