You may know Tank Girl as many things - comic book character, punk-rock icon, failed movie star... but now you will know her as a fine-art collectible. A new giant coffee-table book, The Cream Of Tank Girl, makes the case for Alan Martin and Jamie Hewlett's creation being a work of art with pulverizing intensity. Just check out our gallery below.
Besides all of the Tank Girl covers for Deadline magazine, where she got her start, the book includes tons of design sketches, and one rejected script for a Tank Girl adventure. There's also a previously unpublished comic book, the 16s, and a ton of other random Tank Girl art, mostly but not entirely by original artist Jamie Hewlett. Most of all, the book lets you see Tank Girl in her proper context, both as the creation of two guys screwing around and goofing off, but also as the creation of the London music scene in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The Deadline magazine covers are full of references to bands you've probably forgotten, and in one sketch, Tank Girl is invited to play strip poker with Feargal Sharkey. Yes, exactly.
Mostly, looking at so much Tank Girl art, in such high quality, you start to appreciate how badass she really was, and how much we all wish she'd come back into our lives. A really great gift for anyone you know who loves comics, or tanks, or girls, or art, or music. Or stuff, really.