FEATURE
amie Hewlett likes the kind oftank that
you used to get in Gerry Anderson
programmes or Godzilla films. His own
one is Tardis-like. frequently . .
u side-down. de ending on the :
dfunkenness ofitl:~ cropped and (yes. I‘m , , P TH . S afraid so) scantily-clad driver. and it mutates . V E H‘ c ! every time he draws it. At the moment. it houses a - . kitchen and bathroom. which his heroine shares with a randy kangaroo and an evil—looking koala bear struggling to come to terms with its sexuality.
Tank Girl is one ofthe new breed ofpost-Love
and Rockets comic-book heroines. An
THESE mo sun's
irresponsible, conscience-free hedonist with a Prodigious capacity for beer. she rides her mean A 2' E R l SC A p E’ D/ machine through the Australian outback. not Q E C, K ON ‘ M 6 o N N A
averse to a smidgeon of ultraviolence (or
shredding a holy relic to fashion a boob tube) . \J E S O m E PU N when the occasion demands. Iler sole redeeming . A F R A L L .
feature is that she‘s been stealing the hearts of readers of Deadline magazine since its first issue in October 1988.
Artist Hewlett and writer Alan Martin. now two of the most sought-after creators in British comics. have been pumping out a strip a month ever since. now all collected in an anarchic. rock‘n‘roll lucky bag of a book. Sometimes their jokes aren‘t much above Viz level. but these occasional lapses are inevitable. given the spontanaeity with which the strips are written.
‘We spend the rest of the month doing other stuffand . . .dossing around quite a bit.‘ explains Hewlett oftheir method. ‘I Iaving to work every day gets a bit boring. And then we get a phone call saying “You‘ve got a week“. and then we doss around for a few more days and then get started. So Tank Girl is done very quickly. and that‘s a formula we use all the time now. I‘ve had Alan writing the punchlines as I‘ve been drawing the last page. We have bad Tank Girl strips and we have good ones. but it‘s the best way to do it. I think. It‘s instant comics.
‘It takes about three days.‘ Martin continues. ‘The longest we‘ve taken has been about a week. The rest of the month. we earn money.‘
‘Earning money‘ means a long-running2000A 1) story Hewlett has been working on with writer Pete Milligan. a colour Martin/I lewlett strip due to start in Revolver Issue 7. and a lot of work for the excellent anthology A-I. Fleetway‘s heavy-relevant-issues adult comic (‘risis is always asking them for material. but they‘re less keen. One oftheir most recent offers has been to design a game show for a satellite TV station. They‘re still thinking about that one.
Martin: ‘It‘s usually them coming up with ideas for us and we look at it and think . . .‘
Hewlett: '. . . not really.‘
Originally from Ilorsham in Wales. I lewlett attended college in Worthing. where he met
When she appeared in the first issue of Deadline in 1988. Tank Girl was an Emma Peel for the Transvrsion Vamp generation. Now her adventures have been collected between two soft covers. Alastair Mabbott climbs into the bunker with her creators. ' '
ALAN MARTIN and JAMIE HEWLETT.
TIN I.
\ .. 4'l‘hc List 14 — 27 September 19‘)”