Vertigo’s had a rough time lately. It’s barely been able to keep monthly titles afloat, with most new series debuting to general sales apathy and then quickly slipping into unprofitability and then cancellation. One of the few hits it’s produced over the last few years ended several months ago. It seems the best one can hope for many of Vertigo’s new series is that it staggers along well enough in monthly format to let collection sales pick up over time.
So along comes Young Liars, the latest debut. It’s got a few things going for it that many of Vertigo’s recent launches haven’t.
For one thing, it’s got David Lapham, who’s more of a name than most of Vertigo’s recent creators. Granted, he’s not exactly a sure-thing best-seller, but he’s certainly got his own fanbase, and adds a level of respectability to the casual fan.
That name recognition is built on a pretty solid career, though, which is the more important thing Lapham brings with him: Skill. Young Liars is almost certainly the most polished and assured Vertigo debut in some time.
Not that that’s saying a lot. It seems like accepted wisdom these days, even going back to the line’s beginnings: “It gets better after the first story arc.” Vertigo series, with their long-term storytelling aims, tend to take a while to get going. They spend time introducing characters, setting up the concept, and generally getting steady.
David Lapham is having none of that. Young Liars cuts right to the chase: A girl named Sadie beats the crap out of a couple bouncers outside a New York club. She has a bullet stuck in her brain (reasons unexplained) and a crazy billionaire father who mixes shrooms, Viagra, and a motorcycle helmet. A boy named Danny is in love with her and tries to keep her from getting into too much trouble. They have wacky friends, like a transvestite, an anorexic ex-model, a rock star’s ex-wife, and a guy who claims to know where to find some forgotten art treasures.
It’s chaotic, and there’s not a lot of depth. But that’s not really the point. The first issue makes a pretty clear mission statement: Young Liars is all about Sadie and Danny, and their wacky friends, and the things that happen to them. Lapham, though Danny, tells it to us straight: “This is the story of the life and death of Sadie Hawkins. … The girl I love. About her and how she changed all of our lives.”
The second issue fills things in a bit: Danny as an unpopular loser in Austin. Sadie as the rich, still-kind-of-crazy-but-not-quite-insane girl he’s in love with. It’s a reversal from the first issue: Danny’s not exactly in charge, but he’s the one exposing Sadie to the “real world”. And, well, maybe Lapham wasn’t being entirely straight with us in the first issue when he told us this was Sadie’s story, because this story – this part of it, anyway – is definitely Danny’s. He’s a likeable, sad sort of character; a bit too sycophantic towards Sadie, but it’s manageable because we already know his life is about to get much, much cooler.
The second issue still moves at a brisk pace, telling the story without stopping to explain what it all means. Which is to say that not everything is crystal-clear, but it still works quite well. It’s certainly the opposite of most Vertigo books in recent years: Grab the audience’s attention right off the bat, then worry about filling them in later on. One could argue Young Liars takes it a bit too far, but it’s hard not to admire the boldness of the book.
Even my favourite Vertigo books of recent years, Crossing Midnight and Scalped, took 3-4 issues to really find their feet. And while I’m glad I stuck with them both, not everyone is so patient; while Scalped appears to be stable, Crossing Midnight has been cancelled.
Is it a coincidence that Vertigo’s last hit, Y The Last Man, started off with a bang and a great first issue? Probably, since their other hit, Fables, had a pretty dull opening arc. But it’s like the early baseball season: Two weeks of baseball don’t mean a whole lot in the grand scheme of things, but it’s better to be flukishly good than flukishly bad. Young Liars may not be the next Y The Last Man, but hopefully it can at least avoid being the next American Virgin.