So what’s up?
DOES Everybody Love Tank Girl?
Its the mark of a professional to make the good stuff end up completely unrecognizable.
You mustve seenThunderbirds the Movie?
Barney, mocking the Tank Girl movie, inEverybody Loves Tank Girl.
Oh irony, you are a heartless bitch.
I am a diehard Tank Girl fan; the old collection is basically my bible.
But the minute I had it, I knew there was going to be a problem.
The cover art does not match what I know of the subject matter.
Since when has Tank Girl been so dang … pretty?
Still, I resolved to try and keep an open mind.
So I scrubbed my wee brain and read on.
Oh dear, something was dreadfully amiss.
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Lets be clear.
Tank Girl is punk rock, as in Sex Pistols Sid Vicious (not Nancy).
Tank Girl is Lisbeth Salander, Vyvyan from The Young Ones, or Alex in A Clockwork Orange.
Tank Girl is not trendy.
Tank Girl does not baby sit.
I know I am getting pedantic here.
That doesnt necessarily make it awesome.
We run into this problem all the time.
Am I callingEverybody Loves Tank Girlan abortion?
No, far from it.
Yes I just typed that, dear Christ I am old.
Everybody Loves Tank Girlis cute and filled with guns and toilet humor, but it lacks sophistication.
Jet and Sub Girl are largely absent.
Booga has been reduced to a drooling nincompoop.
Yes, you read that right; this is Tank Girl with hardly any tank time.
They have stripped out quite a bit of what made the lady iconic in service to making her appealing.
Shes cute and curses and runs around with guns but the old ultra violence is pretty much gone.
It all seemed very bizarre, very unlike Martin.
Unfortunately in this volume they were largely whiny, sanctimonious missives against being judgmental.
How are they being oppressed?
What prejudicial treatment are they receiving?
Oh, the horror!
These days, not so much.
We live in a post Jersey Shore world.
We have been anesthetized to toilet humor and unladylike behavior.
Just look at the Kardashian sisters (who recently had a televised vagina smelling contest).
Martins work is no longer reactionary, and watching Tank Girl pick on Justin Beiber is just depressing.
It might be time for Martin to hand the reins over to someone a bit edgier.
But Martin could not or would not commit and caved to convention.
Sure it was very meta of him to acknowledge he had caved but that did not save the book.
In my opinion it just was not consistently appropriate for Tank Girl.
Art should stand up on its own merit, and Mahfoods work definitely does.
I just wish he had spent less time making Tank Girl look like a circa-1960s pretty pinup.
), but that isnt Tank Girl.
What can I say?
Mahfood got the style; he just could not hit the mark when it came to Tanks spirit.
Well, no, that is not entirely true.
When I saw it, I SQUEEd.
I could not help myself, it just came out.
One Mahfood sketch is a direct nod to Pablo Picassos Blue Nude.
Now THAT is my girl.
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