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Hewlett and Martin's Tank Girl #2
Tank Girl 2
She’s back! The crazed counter-culture heroine returns in another completely hatstand series of anarchic adventures, with a new introduction by Alan Martin, and previously unseen material from artist Jamie Hewlett! Join Tank Girl as she escapes from the asylum, goes back to comics school with Hewlett and Martin, meets Sheriff Harry Poussini, enjoys a ‘Summer Love Sensation’, and goes on the road with Jack and Neal in ‘Blue Helmet’! Plus, detective adventures with Booga in ‘Askey & Hunch’, Hewlett and Martin’s Guide to Joy, and much more - including a priceless chance to join Booga’s Treehouse Club! Who could ask for more? Who would?
128 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1995
21 people are currently reading
1252 people want to read
About the author
Alan C. Martin
191 books108 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 69 reviews
June 23, 2021
Boobs! Yes there's boobs, full frontal male nudity, and more great wacky shit from Martin and Hewlett. This very much has that "zine" feel in the analog print production days. It's rough, poorly edited, misspelled, meta-fictional. It's heavy handed satire, slapstick, and damn good fun!
June 14, 2012
If you don't get the brilliance of Tank Girl, I don't think I want to know you.
July 30, 2013
I've been meaning to read some Tank Girl for ages. Bill had these ones and dug them out for me. I have to say it wasn't what I was expecting. First of all the most amazing thing about the comics was that they were a mixture of colour and black and white in a single issue. I've never seen anyone do that before! I didn't think the comic format allowed for that. So i thought that was really cool. I did quite enjoy them. I liked the art work style. I liked how Tank Girl was both an attractive punk and kinda hideous at the same time. The humour just didn't always sit right with me though and I'm not such a fan of vinegette story telling rather than longer narratives. But I am curious enough to read more.
March 6, 2012
Tank Girl is chaos. Just pure chaos. And if you expect anything else, you will be sorely disappointed.
This second volume is more of a mish mash of drug induced side comics, a couple stories, and lots of lovely art work. There are some gorgeous full page, full color illustrations of Tank Girl and Booga. It is worth those alone to own this book.
No, there isn't much of a story, but that's not why I read Tank Girl. Hewlett & Martin's weird sense of humor just clicks with me. Combined with the lovely art, this is just a cool comic.
This second volume is more of a mish mash of drug induced side comics, a couple stories, and lots of lovely art work. There are some gorgeous full page, full color illustrations of Tank Girl and Booga. It is worth those alone to own this book.
No, there isn't much of a story, but that's not why I read Tank Girl. Hewlett & Martin's weird sense of humor just clicks with me. Combined with the lovely art, this is just a cool comic.
January 20, 2019
Este segundo libro de Tank Girl tiene ilustraciones increibles, pnnk rock, tramas psicodélicas, un monton de páginas a color, más ilustraciones, y varias otras cosas más, pero lo que casi no tiene es el tanque de Tank Girl, y mucho menos una historia coherente. El tema de la historia lo dejamos pasar, porque es obvio que los autores no apuntaban a crear una historia tanto como a poner a su personaje en situaciones interesantes y locas, pero vamos, ¿En donde está el tanque?
October 30, 2020
Senseless violence, nudity, sex content in 100 flavours, strong language, blasphemy, dark humour, breaking of the 4th wall, even more senseless violence, drug and alcohol abuse, horrible fart jokes, anarchy, even more violence...
Oh, and it's a story about love and freedom.
And it's completely f***** up.
Oh, and it's a story about love and freedom.
And it's completely f***** up.
July 23, 2025
I really enjoyed the first few stories within the volume. The art was brilliant throughout as usual. I feel like the stories just kept getting odder and odder as time progressed. Although I should have expected that from what I know of tank girl.v
February 6, 2014
I'd like to say that Tank Girl improves from the riotous ridiculousness of the first of these remastered editions, I really would. But it doesn't so much improve as it changes, expands and warps. These stories are delivered to us from Hewlett and Martin in the thick of the British self-proclaimed psychedelic revival (via ecstasy & acid house), trying desperately to adjust their beloved character from her earlier madcap escapades to ones of a more cerebral (or at least hallucinogenic) nature. The results are interesting, but feel just as brainless as before.
Tank Girl in this book is still attached to Booga, but there's considerably less beer, less tanks, less explosions, less guns, more swirling colours, more 'historic' pop-culture references (Kerouac, Hair Bear Bunch/Banana Splits, Jimi Hendrix and Starsky & Hutch all surface here while we get less of the earlier contemporary swipes) and more tangents from the established Tank Girl Reality. Naturally, there are drugs, there are half-assed soul-searches (in what appears to be a lift from/homage to a similar issue of Howard the Duck at the start of this book) and there are the requisite 'meta' appearances of the creators alongside their creations.
Again, not bad and clearly all in the sense of good, filthy fun, and the addition of a large amount of colour work here really enhances Hewlett's overwhelmingly filled-in artwork. Alan Martin appears to be shouldering a bit more of the writing work this volume, if their in-story dialogue is anything to go by, and perhaps it's his fault that this two-dimensional intercontinental vandal is being shoehorned into the way-out wackiness present here. It does prove a respite from the relentless zaniness of book one, and does suggest the potential to do more, but I'm not sure if Tank Girl's the character to be doing it with. We'll see how book three fares.
This edition includes stories from Deadline, the Tank Girl Poster Magazine, an issue of Speakeasy and a short non-TG story from a Comic Relief benefit book. There's about a half-half split between black & white and colour, though the reproduction on both could be better (there are times that the text proves unreadable and it doesn't seem intentional). There are also colour covers from the second Dark Horse TG mini, and what appear to be random pinups from who-knows-where. Alan Martin contributes another entertaining intro, basically laying the groundwork for how off-kilter things get within. The intro is boosted with photos and art that doesn't seem to bear any relation to Martin's words but does a nice job illustrating the time of the original publications (and it's nice to see a photo of an early meeting between eventual Gorillaz co-creators Hewlett and Damon Albarn).
Tank Girl in this book is still attached to Booga, but there's considerably less beer, less tanks, less explosions, less guns, more swirling colours, more 'historic' pop-culture references (Kerouac, Hair Bear Bunch/Banana Splits, Jimi Hendrix and Starsky & Hutch all surface here while we get less of the earlier contemporary swipes) and more tangents from the established Tank Girl Reality. Naturally, there are drugs, there are half-assed soul-searches (in what appears to be a lift from/homage to a similar issue of Howard the Duck at the start of this book) and there are the requisite 'meta' appearances of the creators alongside their creations.
Again, not bad and clearly all in the sense of good, filthy fun, and the addition of a large amount of colour work here really enhances Hewlett's overwhelmingly filled-in artwork. Alan Martin appears to be shouldering a bit more of the writing work this volume, if their in-story dialogue is anything to go by, and perhaps it's his fault that this two-dimensional intercontinental vandal is being shoehorned into the way-out wackiness present here. It does prove a respite from the relentless zaniness of book one, and does suggest the potential to do more, but I'm not sure if Tank Girl's the character to be doing it with. We'll see how book three fares.
This edition includes stories from Deadline, the Tank Girl Poster Magazine, an issue of Speakeasy and a short non-TG story from a Comic Relief benefit book. There's about a half-half split between black & white and colour, though the reproduction on both could be better (there are times that the text proves unreadable and it doesn't seem intentional). There are also colour covers from the second Dark Horse TG mini, and what appear to be random pinups from who-knows-where. Alan Martin contributes another entertaining intro, basically laying the groundwork for how off-kilter things get within. The intro is boosted with photos and art that doesn't seem to bear any relation to Martin's words but does a nice job illustrating the time of the original publications (and it's nice to see a photo of an early meeting between eventual Gorillaz co-creators Hewlett and Damon Albarn).
April 8, 2016
EDIT: Guys, you don't know how proud I am to have finally finished Tank Girl 2.
I've been trying to finish this book -- nay, to get past the first story, even -- for years. YEARS. It's just that the tone's all wrong and there's NO DAMN TANK. Without a tank, what is Tank Girl? Pretty much Reality Bites with a kangaroo.
So Tank Girl is in this book and this book is called Tank Girl, but that's where it all ends. The stories here are quite long -- Tank Girl and her friends are in a mental hospital, Tank Girl visits a dying relative, Tank Girl has an adventure with Hewlett and Martin for some reason. There's a godawful story where Booga is a police detective and it's horrible. There are a lot of gags at the expense of the editor of DEADLINE, TG's first home, and I'm not sure what that's all about, but it does result in the only interesting story here, in which Tank Girl loses her job as a cartoon character and has to moonlight as a waitress. That was kind of a funny idea.
Oh, and there's one story-within-a-story where Jet Girl talks about that one time she cameoed in another comic. I guess I thought that was also funny, sort of. And I liked cameos by in-world old favorites like Stevie and Camp Koala. And Hewlett's art improves markedly with each story, even while the writing is out to lunch. (Seriously, I don't even know if you'd call most of this "plotted.")
But otherwise it's mostly a lot of boobs (one story seems to just be about TG having an orgasm), as noted previously, which isn't the worst thing? But also not as good as actually making a good comic.
--
12/13: The first time I read this, I actually didn't -- I got sort of bored looking for fight scenes, flipped through for boobs and forgot about it. Recently I decided to revisit the series, figuring that as a sophisticated, nuanced older reader, I was sure to get more out of this one a second time around.
But no. I got about three pages into a story where Tank Girl and Jet Girl were stuck in a mental hospital (sounds cool, but boring), flipped to a sequence where the creators had a cameo (long, and whatevs), found a place where Booga had an afro, and then....flipped through for boobs and forgot about it.
I think the classic amazingness of Tank Girl might be confined to the first book, honestly. The first book has fights and, yknow, tanks (!!) and some boobs too. Tank Girl 2 has more boobs, but for some reason isn't a better book. There's just a lot of sitting around and talking while wearing interesting clothes and questionable hairstyles. I don't want Bushwick -- I want Tank Girl!!
Maybe the third book is good? I dunno.
I've been trying to finish this book -- nay, to get past the first story, even -- for years. YEARS. It's just that the tone's all wrong and there's NO DAMN TANK. Without a tank, what is Tank Girl? Pretty much Reality Bites with a kangaroo.
So Tank Girl is in this book and this book is called Tank Girl, but that's where it all ends. The stories here are quite long -- Tank Girl and her friends are in a mental hospital, Tank Girl visits a dying relative, Tank Girl has an adventure with Hewlett and Martin for some reason. There's a godawful story where Booga is a police detective and it's horrible. There are a lot of gags at the expense of the editor of DEADLINE, TG's first home, and I'm not sure what that's all about, but it does result in the only interesting story here, in which Tank Girl loses her job as a cartoon character and has to moonlight as a waitress. That was kind of a funny idea.
Oh, and there's one story-within-a-story where Jet Girl talks about that one time she cameoed in another comic. I guess I thought that was also funny, sort of. And I liked cameos by in-world old favorites like Stevie and Camp Koala. And Hewlett's art improves markedly with each story, even while the writing is out to lunch. (Seriously, I don't even know if you'd call most of this "plotted.")
But otherwise it's mostly a lot of boobs (one story seems to just be about TG having an orgasm), as noted previously, which isn't the worst thing? But also not as good as actually making a good comic.
--
12/13: The first time I read this, I actually didn't -- I got sort of bored looking for fight scenes, flipped through for boobs and forgot about it. Recently I decided to revisit the series, figuring that as a sophisticated, nuanced older reader, I was sure to get more out of this one a second time around.
But no. I got about three pages into a story where Tank Girl and Jet Girl were stuck in a mental hospital (sounds cool, but boring), flipped to a sequence where the creators had a cameo (long, and whatevs), found a place where Booga had an afro, and then....flipped through for boobs and forgot about it.
I think the classic amazingness of Tank Girl might be confined to the first book, honestly. The first book has fights and, yknow, tanks (!!) and some boobs too. Tank Girl 2 has more boobs, but for some reason isn't a better book. There's just a lot of sitting around and talking while wearing interesting clothes and questionable hairstyles. I don't want Bushwick -- I want Tank Girl!!
Maybe the third book is good? I dunno.
February 23, 2012
Ok I don’t have a great deal to say about this one but here is what I do have…
This graphic novel is made up of quite a few short pieces and they were way to short! A story would start getting interesting only to be cut short with an ending that was either a big letdown or made no sense to me at all.
What I did like is Tank girl herself. She is quirky, isn’t scared of the taboo and has a lot of personality; I have never previously found a character quite like her. I found the trip down strange lane intriguing and refreshing.
The artwork was amazing I absolutely loved it. I found that I spent most of my time studying the pictures more than anything else. The art gave me a lot of motivation and inspiration for my own art.
Now as for all the other aspects of the book… well I didn’t like it. I have heard that the first one in the series is a lot better so maybe I might give that one a try (one day).
This graphic novel is made up of quite a few short pieces and they were way to short! A story would start getting interesting only to be cut short with an ending that was either a big letdown or made no sense to me at all.
What I did like is Tank girl herself. She is quirky, isn’t scared of the taboo and has a lot of personality; I have never previously found a character quite like her. I found the trip down strange lane intriguing and refreshing.
The artwork was amazing I absolutely loved it. I found that I spent most of my time studying the pictures more than anything else. The art gave me a lot of motivation and inspiration for my own art.
Now as for all the other aspects of the book… well I didn’t like it. I have heard that the first one in the series is a lot better so maybe I might give that one a try (one day).
October 8, 2019
I Just recently bought the recently remastered version of this book. I've read plenty of comics and graphic novels over the years but this one stands as my favourite books art thanks to visually impressive of Jamie Hewlett in the 4 books available to which at this point of his career he was getting more paint based and the panels look less scratchy to book 1. (note: i said 4 books availabe of the original series as I dislike Tank girl: apocalypse's story and art style with a passion and because of that now distance myself away from any other TG volume that doesn't feature by Hewlett or TG revivalist artist and all-round good guy Rufus Dayglo).
the stories in this volume do start meaningful but are a bit nonsensical and lack a plot, but I enjoy the art so much its not really much of a bother. My fav story in this volume is Blue Helmet, in which Booga and Tank Girl hitchhike with a writer and his friend whom secretly fancies and much killing/madness ensues. I must of read the volume a number of times and still laugh at half of the gags in it. A lot of the gags revolve around quite warped British-centric humour of the 90s and pisstakes of popular TV series and music at the time. all in a great volume with plenty of visual eye candy to feast on. It may not be for everyone, but certainly is for me!
the stories in this volume do start meaningful but are a bit nonsensical and lack a plot, but I enjoy the art so much its not really much of a bother. My fav story in this volume is Blue Helmet, in which Booga and Tank Girl hitchhike with a writer and his friend whom secretly fancies and much killing/madness ensues. I must of read the volume a number of times and still laugh at half of the gags in it. A lot of the gags revolve around quite warped British-centric humour of the 90s and pisstakes of popular TV series and music at the time. all in a great volume with plenty of visual eye candy to feast on. It may not be for everyone, but certainly is for me!
October 30, 2019
I've kind of become hooked on the Tank Girl series this past few months. Tank Girl 2 by Alan C. Martin wasn't my favorite so far but it's still lots of fun. The series of stories in Vol 2 kind of follows the success and failures of writer Alan Martin and artist James Hewlett, from the beginnings of Tank Girl.
I liked the art work and some of the stories. The first was especially good, very dark and creepy. There are a series of ongoing story-lines; Summer Love Sensation, where Tank Girl goes to visit her grandparents in England and tries to find the fountain of youth to save her grandmother. There is a short take off of Starsky and Hutch. There is a road trip, Blue Helmet, where Tank and her mutant kangaroo boyfriend, Booga, travel around the US with Jack Kerouac and his friend. The story is a combination road trip and rampage.
The stories are wild and crazy but they do grab your attention. there are also nice snippets about the creators of Tank Girl. I will continue reading this series. (3 stars)
I liked the art work and some of the stories. The first was especially good, very dark and creepy. There are a series of ongoing story-lines; Summer Love Sensation, where Tank Girl goes to visit her grandparents in England and tries to find the fountain of youth to save her grandmother. There is a short take off of Starsky and Hutch. There is a road trip, Blue Helmet, where Tank and her mutant kangaroo boyfriend, Booga, travel around the US with Jack Kerouac and his friend. The story is a combination road trip and rampage.
The stories are wild and crazy but they do grab your attention. there are also nice snippets about the creators of Tank Girl. I will continue reading this series. (3 stars)
July 31, 2017
Tank Girl 2
4/5 stars
This was basically a compilation of different stories and I loved most of them (except for the ones that didn't have Tank Girl at all in them, those are what dragged my rating a bit)
But man were most of them amazing
-From the first one where Tank Girl is in an insane asylum and some guy is messing with her head. It gave me serious Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe vibes and made me realize how alike they are.
-The one with her grandparents and the fountain of youth was my favorite one I loved the vibe and the new characters and how it showed a softer side of such a tough lady
-The one where they're hitchhikers and it's very pulp and she murders everyone was cool too
The art is gorgeous! There is obviously a lot of profanity, violence, nudity, all that jazz. It's super gritty and you can tell -as it is blatantly stated by the creators- that these guys were on drugs while writing a good chunk of this book.
The characters
Tank Girl-
Ugh I have such a major crush on her I wanna have her babies.
Her kangaroo boyfriend is pretty rad too, but such a ditz.
Overall:
Thanks to my sister Sammy for getting me this.
I need more now!
4/5 stars
This was basically a compilation of different stories and I loved most of them (except for the ones that didn't have Tank Girl at all in them, those are what dragged my rating a bit)
But man were most of them amazing
-From the first one where Tank Girl is in an insane asylum and some guy is messing with her head. It gave me serious Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe vibes and made me realize how alike they are.
-The one with her grandparents and the fountain of youth was my favorite one I loved the vibe and the new characters and how it showed a softer side of such a tough lady
-The one where they're hitchhikers and it's very pulp and she murders everyone was cool too
The art is gorgeous! There is obviously a lot of profanity, violence, nudity, all that jazz. It's super gritty and you can tell -as it is blatantly stated by the creators- that these guys were on drugs while writing a good chunk of this book.
The characters
Tank Girl-
Ugh I have such a major crush on her I wanna have her babies.
Her kangaroo boyfriend is pretty rad too, but such a ditz.
Overall:
Thanks to my sister Sammy for getting me this.
I need more now!
August 16, 2018
I am new to Tank Girl. I started, Naturally, with Tank Girl: One. I found it to be a bit crazy and unfocused, but utterly charming. By the end I felt like it had started to "find itself" Maybe the authors felt that too, and then desperately tried to run away from that notion.
This collection tries real hard not to meet your expectations or to be seen as anything other than "out there." It almost seems like at times this sabotages their own comic. Also, sooo much of this is "drug trippy." And listen, I am sure drug trips are real fun to be on, I just don't find them that fun to read about.
Some positives though, the art is still real nice.
This collection tries real hard not to meet your expectations or to be seen as anything other than "out there." It almost seems like at times this sabotages their own comic. Also, sooo much of this is "drug trippy." And listen, I am sure drug trips are real fun to be on, I just don't find them that fun to read about.
Some positives though, the art is still real nice.
June 19, 2025
This collection contains the second half of the original series of comics from the early '90s, fleshed out with a variety of original artwork and a fanzine, which Tank Girl generated a large variety of (as god intended). Overall, the authors in this period took the original concept, which was more based on an aesthetic than anything, and tried to build on it by taking the characters to different environments and trying different story formats and premises. Overall a great collection of an iconic series.
December 4, 2016
This episode of Tank Girl see's a short-story format, with snappier episodes. In particular the authors play with meta inbetween and in each story-line. The character is less overwhelming and gives a good chance for development of relationships between Booga and Stevie, as well as with some longer-lived motive, other than I'm angry Ill punch, I'm hungry Ill eat. Again the images live up to a beautiful in the most coarse way standard.
May 28, 2018
The addition of color to the series does make the art stand out, allowing for more emotion depth to Jamie Hewlett’s drawings. This makes for a more intense comic, but a darker one. The anarchistic spirit and punk sensibilities are still there, but the humor has been tempered. There is rage and disillusionment here, but Tank Girl is relegated to become an observer. She isn’t fighting as hard as she used to, and that's discouraging.
December 29, 2025
Cried at the panel where hewlett and martin and like sticking their fingers up at the reader with tank girl and booga. Like its just two kids doing drawings of stuff they think is cool and making it. And then like standing with their creations to tell you to fuck off. No idea what im on about but it spoke to me in my eyes.
June 16, 2019
The artwork is amazing. The writing is terrible and I got to the end mostly drooling over Hewlitt’s visuals and ignoring the text. Maybe the writing was added in to interpret the fantastic art— book was mind numbing and should be read while dropping L.
August 24, 2017
Really weird yet every funny, the art is edgy and provocative, just a brilliant peace of punk art
July 22, 2018
Still not the biggest fan of the art style, but boy did this volume take me for a ride. The story line is still hilarious and I will continue to read this comic.
December 7, 2018
Better than #1
October 7, 2019
Love it.
March 20, 2020
Ummm.. does Tank Girl need a review? She's amazing.
April 30, 2023
These comics tap into a specific part of my brain that makes me want to run around, kiss my partner and jump into a swimming pool all at the same time.
In other words it makes me feel joy.
In other words it makes me feel joy.
September 28, 2024
El humor camp, el estilo distintivo y la representación sin complejos de su protagonista me encantan.
April 14, 2025
AAAAWESOME COMICS by the same illustrator from gorillaz (fun fact)
July 3, 2025
Big beautiful lager adventure mmmm lager
December 17, 2016
This second issue was a bit more all over the place but still a fun ride.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 69 reviews