David Lapham, C/D?

Young Liars is an thirteen-year-old's idea of a Vertigo comic about an eight-year-old's idea of crazy rock'n'roll livin'.

Yeah, City of Crime is probably one of the two or three best Batman stories I've read, screwy ending and all. (Thanks for the recommend, ILC!)

I only scanned it at the store, but Young Liars looked pretty terrible. I thought all Vertigo comics are for thirteen-year-olds?

Stray Bullets is in my top five favourite comix ever! Classic just for that!

Young Liars is seriously awful. I just feel really embarrassed for him.

It's maybe what Scott Pilgrim would be like if it had all of it awesomeness removed. It's Scott Pilgrim by and for inherently uncool people.

So is the only way to have a fictional comic book band not be embarrassing to make it purposefully bad, like Sex Bob-omb and Lawrence and the Love Gods? Seriously, dudes should never write out the lyrics in situations like these.

I forget, what does O'Malley do in Pilgrim with the "good" bands, like Clash at Demonhead? Are lyrics visible?

I think you do see some Clash At Demonhead lyrics, but really the key is that O'Malley does not really try to convey what the bands actually sound like other than that you're supposed to understand that Sex Bob-omb is charmingly bad. He's not really imposing any value judgments on music, nor is there any particular nostalgia for a certain type of coolness -- it just is cool because O'Malley and his characters are cool, and live in a cooler world than the one we're in. David Lapham is bending over backwards to establish his cred and impress us -- oooooh he likes Battles and Bowie, wowza!

I mean, not for nothing, but a lot of the music in Scott Pilgrim is presented in a nonsensical, abstract way, kinda like if the purple prose of a music critic was made literal on stage.

City of Crime would have been better to lose the whole cult mudball army thing. Parts of the story were pretty good like Mr. Freeze and the general premise with the mom and the daughter, but the mudball army and the whole thing at the hospital with Robin and Gordon was a bit over the top goofy (and not in a good way).

Young Liars #1 is very Vertigo-By-Numbers. It is also the first thing I have read by this fellow, possibly the last too.

Says DL:

Yes it is a Vertigo book, and I'm trying my G#$damn hardest to make sure it's not cancelled. I'm putting my heart and soul into this thing and I'm trying to spread the word.

Thus here I am. Being a novice at posting I hope I'm in the right spot. (Who knew there were so many Valiant fans gathered in one spot? I guess you all did, but ask the checkout lady at Vons. I bet she didn't....) But I just wanted to thank anyone spreading the word about Young Liars and everyone who will give it a try. It would mean everything to me to make this book a success. Not only because it's my living and my passion but also because it would allow me the freedom to get back to Stray Bullet, if even only on a limited basis.

Any advice from anyone about how I can get the word out within this forum and elsewhere, please let me have it.

I don't know if this sounds like a swell idea to anyone, but let me throw out this offer:

Anyone who tries out Young Liars and sends it to me with a SASE will have the comic returned signed (personalized or not) along with a headshot sketch of any character you choose. Could be a Young Liars character, Stray Bullets character, Your favorite Valiant character, etc.

If anyone's willing to risk sending me a Valiant comic I can sign those, too, but other than promising not to rip, fold, or crumple your comic personally and packing it back in your mailer, I can't take any other responsibility for what the good folks at the PO might do to it. So be careful.

Spread the word on this. I'll do this for anyone who tries out YL.

Send all comics to:

David Lapham
P.O. Box 3911
Glendale, CA 91221-0911

Much thanks to eternalwarrior for his wise advice and for getting this post going.

I'll check back here if anyone has any questions about the book. And I apologize in advance if this is not the best or proper place for a post like this.

that is kind of cool.