Tank Girl: Visions of Booga #1

Rating All Ages Genre action Author Alan C. Martin Publisher IDW Publishing

If the first thought through your head is "What the hell is Tank Girl?" then you need to educate yourself. Here is a handy link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tank_Girl

For those who actually recognize the title, yes Tank Girl has a comic again, and yes, it is as ridiculous as you can hope for. For those of you who are too lazy to read up on what this comic is generally about, here is the skinny: There is this girl, see, and she has a tank. 'Nuff said. Well, okay there is more to be said.

The new comic revolves around Rebecca Buck, a.k.a. Tank Girl and her friend Booga, an anthropomorphic Kangaroo (yeah that's right). They hire themselves out to the mafia to make a quick buck. Things go from bad to worse of course and the pair end up neck deep in trouble with the mob. They are set up as fall-guys, or is that fall-gal and fall-kangaroo? In the process they uncover some shady business and the mob decides they need to be whacked. They also have the unfortunate luck of touching a man's trousers. Tank Girl: Visions of Booga jumps right into action from the get go, so if you are not familiar with the backstory, read up on it. Do not be discouraged though. You do not need to know the history of the characters in order to enjoy it, but it will help.

The artwork in the comic is simply amazing. No, it isn't incredibly realistic and finely detailed. It is just incredibly colored and artistically appealing. It took a while for me to notice that Christian Krank, the artist, was using colors in an interesting way to give off the illusion that things are colored appropriately. I realize that makes little sense, but if you open the cover, you will see what I mean. The general style keeps with the punk aspect the comic series has always had, but perhaps a little less gritty. It fits well with the setting, of course, as well as the storyline.

It is really nice to see this title dusted off and started fresh again. Sure, it would have been nice simply to re-release the comics for all those who missed the original take, but having something new is always good. The goofy dialog, oddball characters, ridiculous situations, and pop culture references make Tank Girl quite enjoyable to read.