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Who is Tank Girl?
(First published in Planet Magazine, 11apr1995)
The former continent of Australia, next century A.D., after the fall of the long-heralded apocalyptic meteorite, is the home of underground comic hero Rebecca Buck—better known as Tank Girl.
Originally featured in the British comic magazine Deadline, the Tank Girl comic is the creation of artist Jamie Hewlitt and writer Alan Martin. The comic features little in the way of plot, relying instead on sense of humor, a detailed drawing style, and (im)pure Tank Girl attitude.
In British terms, Tank Girl is what Edwina Monsoon of Absolutely Fabulous would be if she had self- confidence, a functional brain, and a diet plan. Oh, and a tank. Converted into American, Tank Girl is four parts Sarah Connor, three parts Nancy Spungeon, two parts Susan Atkins, and one part Roseanne. (Can you guess which part is the tank?)
Tank Girl likes her beer, her smokes, and Booga, her Ripper boyfriend. (Rippers are more or less mutant humanoid kangaroos.) They do a lot of beer drinking in post- destruction Australia (some things never change), but whether sober or completely tanked (ripped?), Tank Girl is fearless, fun- loving, and most of all, trigger-happy.
New installments of Tank Girl are now appearing in Details (though in weakened form, according to some TG fanatics). Thus far, courtesy of new writer Peter Milligan, Tank Girl has crash-landed a passenger jet on American soil (a jet that was conveniently, if inexplicably, carrying her tank), saved Booga from being arrested for impersonating Bill Clinton, extinguished JFK's eternal flame with beer by- product, and blown holes in Southern rednecks. Wild Palms this ain't.
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