CBI Archive
Young Liars #1 Review
- by Brian Cronin
- in Comic Reviews
Thursday, March 6th, 2008 at 2:08 AM EST
Updated: Thursday, March 6th, 2008 at 10:54 AM EST
There’s a question posed to the reader on the cover of David Lapham’s new book for Vertigo, Young Liars. It asks, “Are you ready for this?” And I think we are, because “this” is an interesting new book filled with tragic characters that promises to entertain us as long as Lapham can keep the book going (sorta like Stray Bullets).
Lapham’s conceit for the book is a good one. One of the (okay, THE) most popular character from Lapham’s Stray Bullets series was Amy Racecar, the fictional character (and yes, I know, I know, “they’re ALL fictional characters”) within Stray Bullets who was brash and did all sorts of crazy things. Well, the conceit of Young Liars is - what if there was a person who was like Amy Racecar - but for real? That’s what happens to Sadie Dawkins, a young heiress on the run from her wealthy father in New York City, who was shot in the head (the circumstances of the shooting are cloaked in mystery). The bullet lodged itself in her brain, leaving her unable to feel normal human emotions, but it also made her into basically a cartoon action hero (a la Amy Racecar).
Sadie is more or less controlled by our narrator, a failed musician named Danny Noonan, whose life basically revolves around Sadie, but her life revolves around him, too, as she basically does anything Danny tells her to - only she does it (to borrow a term from Poochie) “to the extreme!” To wit, Danny gave Sadie a speech recently about the value of loyalty, and then casually mentions that a waitress friend of theirs was getting a hard time from some customers - so Sadie attacks the two large men and kicks their ass.
What Lapham does quite beautifully is mix in the tragic ancillary characters (the anorexic waitress, the tread upon drag queen, etc.) with the manic nature of Sadie’s condition - it gives the book an interesting pace.
Lapham’s art is strong, as usual. He even seems to DRAW Sadie differently from the others - while they fade to the background, she pops. Lee Loughridge’s colors could certainly take some credit there, as well.
This was a great opening issue, and Lapham even mixes in some mystery (who shot Sadie? which of the group betrayed her?) to the story, giving us reason to come back for future issues.
Recommended.
11 Comments
Adam P. Knave
March 6, 2008 at 8:15 am
Interesting. I’ve been curious about this and ordered it (will get it today) but did so on the strength of creator rather than information about the book. After this I wanna read it even more.
Andrew Collins
March 6, 2008 at 10:48 am
I haven’t been terribly interested in many of Vertigo’s latest offerings, and I’m not very familiar with David Lapham’s works, but YOUNG LIARS sounds very interesting to me. I plan on checking this one out the next chance I get.
BDaly
March 6, 2008 at 10:49 am
Can’t wait.
Dave
March 6, 2008 at 11:22 am
I think if Vertigo tries to market this to the Chuck Palahniuk fanbase, they could have a pretty big hit on their hands with this series. The overall tone of this series feels reminds of Rant in terms of the social outsiders grouped around a person who’s completely out of control, and the fucked up supporting cast reminds me of the characters from Invisible Monsters or Haunted. Not that I’m saying I think Lapham’s writing sounds anything like Palahniuk (it doesn’t) but that I think the storyline and themes would probably appeal to fans of his work.
But yeah, this was probably one of the best first issues I’ve read in a while from Vertigo in terms of getting me really excited for the rest of the series.
Apodaca
March 6, 2008 at 3:54 pm
Hooray for new Lapham!
FunkyGreenJerusalem
March 6, 2008 at 5:01 pm
I can barely wait the six months before this gets a trade - I loves me some Lapham.
Silverfish’s narrative may have been anti-climactic, but you couldn’t fault the craft - anti-climatic or not it had me hooked for the whole ride.
Lee Loughridge is a colourist who deserves more recognition.
will_butler
March 6, 2008 at 8:48 pm
I’m picking up my copy tomorrow, and am really looking forward to it. Though I’d honestly prefer some more Stray Bullets. Or at least them getting the Stray Bullets trades back in print.
Will
GarBut
March 7, 2008 at 1:26 pm
I don’t think I’ve enjoyed a single Lapham title that wasn’t STRAY BULLETS. In fact, I am often astonished that the same person who wrote SB could have written those watery Bat-Man, Daredevil/Punisher, Spectre, Wolverine stories. And yet I keep reading, waiting for him to recapture that old zing. I thought he was going to get there with SILVERFISH, and boy was I wrong. Maybe it’ll be YOUNG LIARS. And I’ll check it out. But I won’t be holding my breath.
Dan Bailey
March 11, 2008 at 11:29 am
Wow. I thought I must be seriously out of step with the rest of comicdom, or something, but I just came across a review, by someone named Paul O’Brien (at http://www.thexaxis.com/misc/youngliars1.htm), that articulates everything I found distinctly unengaging about this comic …
I guess the core of my problem with the book is that I find the characters not only utterly uninteresting but also uninteresting, in large part because they’re pretty much stereotypes.
As O’Brien notes, maybe that sort of thing isn’t a problem for those who have read Lapham before & seen him overcome such obstacles. Like him, though, I haven’t.
Brian Cronin
March 11, 2008 at 11:32 am
Is that an intentional case of stressing your point, Dan?
Dan Bailey
March 12, 2008 at 5:56 am
More like an intentional case of stressing my carelessness.
Let’s make that “not only utterly unappealing but also stereotypical.”
That said, I hope it gets better. The reviews here have already convinced me to give a 2nd look at another Vertigo title that I dropped after one issue — Vinyl Underground. I found ish 2 much better. (Subsequent issues either never arrived at either LCS or were sold out, so I’m having to order them online.)
Then again, my wallet doesn’t really need yet another addition to my pull list …