From The Archives: Alan Martin – Tank Girl Resurrected0

by Nicole Powers

“The spirit of Tank Girl runs like a wild horse.”
– Alan Martin

Hollywood nearly killed Tank Girl. Dodgy movies have a way of doing that to people. Tank Girl’s creators, writer Alan Martin and artist Jamie Hewlett, would be the first to say the 1995 big screen incarnation of the cult comic strip character, which they had zero control over, wasn’t all that it should have been. Indeed they might even say it was a “shit sandwich” (well, actually, Martin did). Fortunately, Tank Girl’s superhuman, and her fuck you spirit would never allow a bunch of scummy film execs and industry cheese weasels to have the last word. Down but not out, after a hiatus of over a decade, she put her Tank Boots back on, and kicked, screamed and farted her way back from near oblivion, with a little help from Martin.

In the process of documenting Tank Girl’s past for a best-of book called The Cream of Tank Girl, Martin found a renewed passion for his foul-mouthed, mutant kangaroo-humping friend. Original draftsman Jamie Hewlett may have moved on to pastures new with Damon Albarn and their virtual Gorillaz band, but Tank Girl has found new pen pals to roughhouse with.

With a slew of fresh Tank Girl adventures already in print, in the bag, and on the horizon, Martin and his badly behaved progeny are smashing (“Sleesh! Plock! Glump!”) their way into one of their most prolific periods ever. We sat down for a long distance chat with Martin, and took a gander at what the future holds for Tank Girl.

Read our exclusive interview with Alan Martin on SuicideGirls.com/.

The latest Tank Girl adventure, Bad Wind Rising, is out now via Titan. And check the online edition of KO Magazine for the inside story on Tank Girl and Booga’s shocking relationship breakdown.