Tank Girl

AUTHOR: Martin, Alan

ARTIST: Jamie Hewlett (illustrator); Chris Chalenor (colorist)

PUBLISHER: Penguin; Dark Horse Comics

FIRST SERIAL PUBLICATION: 1988-1995

FIRST BOOK PUBLICATION: 1993-1996

Publication History

Jamie Hewlett and Alan Martin met in the 1980’s and began working on the black-and-white comic Tank Girl. Tank Girl’s original appearance was a one-page advertisement in a fanzine Atomtan and was simply an image of Tank Girl, drawn by Hewlett and captioned with the phrase “She’ll Break Your Balls and Your Back.” The Tank Girl series was first published in 1988 in the first issue of Deadline, a British magazine started by Steve Dillon and Brett Ewins and published by Tom Astor that provided a forum for new comics. Penguin purchased the rights to Tank Girl, publishing the series in book format in the United Kingdom; in 1991, Dark Horse Comics acquired the rights to publish Tank Girl in the United States. Penguin and Dark Horse Comics changed the format to color, bringing Chris Chalenor into the project.

The Tank Girl issues originally published in Deadline were collected into three volumes—Tank Girl: The Collection, Tank Girl 2, and Tank Girl 3—which comprise the“classic” Tank Girl comics created by the team of Martin and Hewlett. The miniseries Tank Girl: The Odyssey (1995), written by Peter Milligan and illustrated by Hewlett, and Tank Girl: Apocalypse (1995-1996), featuring the work of Alan Grant, Andy Pritchett, and Philip Bond, were collected and reprinted in 2003. A Tank Girl comic based on the film adaptation of the series employed Tedi Sarafian’s screenplay and was written by Milligan and drawn by Pritchett. While Martin and Hewlett were credited with character creation, they were not involved with the writing or artwork. Tank Girl was revitalized in 2007, and a slew of graphic novels and miniseries have been published, written by Martin, and, for the most part, illustrated by Rufus Dayglo. Given the seminal nature of the original series, only its collections are highlighted in the volumes section.

Plot

Tank Girl had only a vague plot in its incarnation from 1988 to 1995. The basic concept, which Hewlett and Martin sometimes ignored, is that Tank Girl works for an unspecified, potentially government agency that allows her to embark on missions riding in a tank in near-future Australia. She often fails at these missions and spends most of her time drinking, cursing, fighting, and having sex with her kangaroo boyfriend, Booga.

Considered to be part of both science fiction and female superhero genres, Tank Girl has only two major science-fiction elements: its futuristic setting and a kangaroo that has mutated into compatibility with a human woman. (The comic series includes multiple unexplained kangaroo-type beings; incidentally, the movie places the action in a science-fiction setting that includes a tribe of kangaroo-humans who have mutated through human intervention.) The other genre with which Tank Girl is often identified (female superhero) is also a somewhat misleading affiliation given that Tank Girl has no superhuman powers and excels at what she does simply by being stronger, faster, and better than anyone she encounters. The character of Tank Girl is most appropriately labeled an antihero because she is in the habit of committing a number of mostly victimless crimes that advance her agenda.

Tank Girl achieved a cult following and was quickly branded, attracting a number of musicians. Adam Ant provided a blurb for the first collection, and Graham Coxon of Blur provided one for the second collection.

In the first graphic novel, Tank Girl attacks a group of barbeque-crashing kangaroos, killing them and declaring herself a bounty hunter. The next issues involve Tank Girl failing to deliver a consignment of colostomy bags to the prime minister of Australia, being tracked by bounty hunters for her failure, stealing a religious relic (God’s Dressing Gown), having sex with Booga, killing ninjas, and meeting an Aborigine. In 1989, two new characters, Sub Girl and Jet Girl, were introduced, and they joined Tank Girl in causing mayhem.

In “The Australian Job,” Tank, Sub, Jet, Booga, Stevie, Camp Koala, Mr. Precocious, and Squeaky the Toy Rat go to see the “ultimate criminal mastermind” in order to pull off their idea of a major heist: stealing beer from the Mafia in Sydney. After committing the robbery, they promptly drink all the beer. Tank Girl and Booga then spend some time in what they consider to be domestic bliss: drinking, having sex, and making tea.

Tank Girl 2 is more disjointed than the first collection, allowing Tank Girl to simply enjoy herself while committing mostly petty crime. The issues include several parodies; however, there are two multipart story lines: “Summer Love Sensation,” in which Tank Girl carjacks and kills a man for his convertible, and “Blue Helmet,” in which Tank Girl robs a convenience store.

Volumes

•Tank Girl: The Collection (1993). Collects issues published in Deadline from 1988 to 1990, including episodes such as “Whatever Happened to Good Intentions?,” “Dumpster,” “Big Mouth Strikes Again!,” “Bob’s Your Uncle,” “Here Today, Gone Tomorrow,” “Built Like a Car,” “The Australian Job,” “Hard Boiled,” “Up Jumped a Jolly Swag Man,” “The Preposterous Bollox of the Situation,” and “The Day Nothing Happened.”

•Tank Girl 2 (1995). Collects issues published in Deadline from 1990 to 1992, including episodes such as “I’ve Got Friends at Bell’s End,” “Force Ten to Ringarooma Bay,” “Half a Pound of Tupenny Rice,” “Jet Gurl In: Hairy P——,” “Summer Love Sensation,” “Sunflower,” “Askey and Hunch,” “Blue Helmet,” “F——ed Up Afro Zombies from Nowhere,” “The Fall and Rise and Fall and the Ship in a Bottle,” “Hewlett and Martin’s the Guide to Joy!,” and “Booga’s Christmas Carol.”

•Tank Girl 3 (1996). Collects the last issues published in the original Deadline series, published from 1992 to 1005.

Characters

•Tank Girl, a.k.a. Rebecca Buck, is the protagonist of the series. Her appearance changes throughout the series, but some of her general characteristics are a thin frame, a mostly bald head with brightly colored hair as an accent, and a willingness to be naked. Her joys in life are simple: violence, sex, and alcohol.

•Booga is the kangaroo-mutant boyfriend of Tank Girl. He was once a member of a roving kangaroo gang, but he failed his initiation when he stayed with Tank Girl after a marathon sex session. He is a follower and is often assigned (by Tank Girl) to unpleasant tasks.

•Jet Girl is one of Tank Girl’s friends. She has black hair, but otherwise she looks very similar to Tank Girl. She makes only brief appearances, although in a letter home to her mother, Tank Girl mentions her as a childhood friend. Her main purpose is to pilot a jet and help Tank Girl with her adventures.

•Sub Girl is one of Tank Girl’s friends. Hair color aside, she also looks like Tank Girl. Like Jet Girl, she is mentioned in Tank Girl’s letter home to her mother. She pilots a submarine and helps Tank Girl.

•Stevie is Tank Girl’s former boyfriend. He is a blond-haired Aborigine who Tank Girl uses on occasion for her own benefit. He owns a convenience store and chain-smokes. He is responsible for some tension in the series because Booga is jealous of him.

•Camp Koala is a brown talking stuffed animal. He dies tragically in a baseball game that involves live grenades. He is replaced with another stuffed koala, but he makes a few appearances as an angel after his death.

•Squeaky Toy Rat is a toy rat that squeaks. He helps with the beer heist in Sydney.

•Mr. Precocious is an oddly drawn stuffed animal that speaks; he may be a pink elephant with only two feet. He assists in the Sydney beer heist.

Artistic Style

Tank Girl began as a black-and-white comic in a magazine. Color was added when the comics were gathered into graphic novels. Possibly because of this, the artwork includes broad strokes and a lot of contrast. There are also often brightly and single-colored backgrounds for scenes.

Hewlett’s drawing style has the visual effect of graffiti and psychedelic-punk visual art. It mimics the comic’s style and lack of coherence. The comic uses bubbles for lettering, which is in all capital letters, but there are also block-style colored words, such as “MASH,” “STAB,” and “SQUIRT,” to indicate actions. Hewlett often uses these to add small humorous details. Interspersed with the strips are often full-page images or scrapbook-style collages that include fake Polaroid photos.

The early issues are drawn with a tight and sharp style. Most pages have a complex layout and appear “busy,” with up to twelve panels of varying sizes, but other pages are a single image. The images and layout are used to enhance the chaotic style.

Hewlett’s style changes and becomes experimental as the episodes progress. The page layouts still vary and retain their anarchistic style, but the images become rounder and the coloring is less brash and bold. The colors are watercolor in style, with muted tones and backgrounds that appear to have a “wash” over them, generating blue or green tones.

Themes

Tank Girl became a major influence on “riot grrrls,” Guerrilla Girls, and other feminist groups who celebrate “girl culture” and work against the patriarchy in power. Tank Girl is rebellious and fights for what she wants. She takes on stereotypical male characteristics such as cursing, committing crimes, and ignoring rules that woman are generally expected to follow. Tank Girl is aggressive and sexual but still feminine. She has sex with men, women, and kangaroo mutants. She is an action hero who is somehow both loved and feared.

The plot follows a feminist bent by letting Tank Girl do what she wants to do; she is the aggressor in her relationships, she confides to her mother that she has no plans to marry, and she does not cook or clean.

All of the characters fall in line with Tank Girl’s presentation of feminist ideology. Jet Girl and Sub Girl, while followers, are also riot grrrls. They fight and take part in the legal and illegal shenanigans that Tank Girl endorses. Booga and other male characters, such as Stevie, follow her lead and often take on traditionally female roles: Booga is responsible for cooking, cleaning, and making tea. The only “bad guys” involved are just that: guys. Tank Girl does not battle other women. Instead, there is a sense of camaraderie among the women of the series.

Impact

Tank Girl belongs to the Modern Age of comics. Its popularity reflected the rise of riot grrrl and small comics’ presses. In the 1990’s, self-published comics known as “zines,” with a circulation generally no greater than five thousand, often presented gender-based topics and helped to usher in the development of riot grrrls and bring them to the attention of mass media. Tank Girl became part of the daily popular culture and was discussed in the news. Thus, Tank Girl, with its counterculture appeal, was often emulated during this time period.

Another comics character that has used Tank Girl as a blueprint, albeit with less success, is Lady Death. Barb Wire (1996) was a film that attempted to capitalize on Tank Girl’s popularity. Despite Tank Girl’s underground success, the comic never rose above its cult status, even after the movie of the same name. Tank Girl’s willingness to stand up for herself was also noted by groups in England who opposed Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s antihomosexual legislation. They created T-shirts with Tank Girl’s likeness for a march against Section 28.

Films

Tank Girl. Directed by Rachel Talalay. Trilogy Entertainment Group, 1995. This film adaptation stars Lori Petty as Tank Girl and Malcolm McDowell as Kesslee. The film differs from the series in that the kangaroo mutants are given a backstory and Tank Girl first has a human boyfriend, living on a commune with a group fighting against the government entity Water and Power that controls the post-apocalyptic world in which the story is set. The world in the movie is similar to those in Mad Max (1979) and Blade Runner (1982), but the images evoke the original Tank Girl as it exists in the comics world. The movie began with a blueprint from Hewlett and Martin but was instead based on a screenplay by Tedi Sarafian.

Further Reading

Breeden, Jennie. The Devil’s Panties (2001- ).

Morrison, Grant, and Philip Bond. Johnny the Homicidal Maniac (1995-1997).

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. Kill Your Boyfriend (1995).

Bibliography

Driscoll, Catherine. “Girl Culture, Revenge, and Global Capitalism: Cybergirls, Riot Grrls, Spice Girls.” Australian Feminist Studies 14, no. 29 (1999): 173-193.

Helford, Elyce Rae. “Postfeminism and the Female Action-Adventure Hero: Positioning Tank Girl.” In Future Females, The Next Generation: New Voices and Velocities in Feminist Science Fiction Criticism, edited by Marleen S. Barr. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 2000.

McGovern, Celeste. “You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby.” Alberta Report/Newsmagazine 22, no. 33 (July, 1995): 24.

Romney, Jonathan. “Tanked Up on Attitude.” New Statesman and Society 8, no. 358 (June, 1995): 35.