A Day in the Life

November 30 - December 6, 2015

Living in a tank

By Becca Bona

Lately, when I get home from work, I don’t want to read. As an avid reader – a bibliophile, if you will – it is terrifying to not want to participate in one of my favorite pastimes.

I can’t exactly pinpoint the reason. Perhaps it’s getting colder, and my reaction to the change in weather is an unnecessary bout of laziness. Maybe it’s that I work with words all day, and upon arriving home, I need a break from the page.

Whatever it is, I think I’m close to solving the problem thanks to the comics and graphic novels MC has been bringing me.

First up, I read “The Watchmen,” as I’d never read that one before and it’s considered a classic in its genre. I’ve also read countless issues involving Miss Marvel, Gotham City, and the Spider-Verse. I’ve enjoyed all of them so far, but my favorite has to be Tank Girl.

Let me explain.

I specifically told MC to find me works that had a heroine as opposed to a hero. Turns out those can be few and far between, as there aren’t as many lady characters. Plus, I’m relying on the library and there are likely other young ladies out there who want to read about female heroines, too.

So MC brought me Tank Girl, a British comic series conceived by Jamie Hewlett and Alan Martin in the mid-80s. Martin and Hewlett first met over music, as Martin was in a band called the University Smalls.

When I first began reading I had a hard time staying focused. It’s probably because the stories don’t really follow a plot at all, and were often disorganized and full of anarchy. The art was influenced heavily by punk visual art, which is interesting in and of itself to view.

The loose storyline is this – readers follow Tank Girl and her boyfriend Booga, a kangaroo, in their shenanigans in the post-apocalyptic Outback.

At one point I thought I might quite reading entirely, but I got sucked in. I love how the comic feels like an inside joke between friends, yet is still able to capture a bit of universality.

I got completely distracted in one strip reading all the writing that was upside down and sideways across the page and didn’t coincide with the action on the page. I finally discovered, thanks to the Internet, that these lines were often bits of lyrics which the authors happened to be listening to at the time.

I’ve had fun looking up various bands, most of which aren’t my favorite per se, but it’s like I’ve been sent on this quest in which I have to crack the code to fall in line with the comic world. Plus what’s better than a story on the page that comes with its own theme music?

And, while at first I was confused by the storyline, it’s become a sort of ritual of mine to read a bit each day. Tank Girl is one serious lady, wielding crazy weapons and acting fiercely as her unapologetic self.

We’ve all got a little bit of punk in us … what better way to find it then through comics?

Becca Bona is the managing editor of the Daily Record and an award winning columnist and photographer. Contact her at Becca@dailydata.com.