Written and drawn by David Lapham
Published by Vertigo/DC
$2.99

Review by Frank Davis

The new crime serial by David Lapham, Young Liars is Lapham returning to the crime genre ; a genre in which he has built a reputation on exploring the human cost of crime. It is in a way a third act to his Stray Bullets series and his standalone tale Murder Me Dead; continuing his theme about ordinary people deep in extraordinary crime, the cast of Young liars cannot be trusted because no one will admit to the shooting of character Sadie Dawkins.

The book begins with the gateway character Danny Noonan telling the reader the action that has occurred before the opening. We find out that Sadie Dawkins got shot in the head and because of this she has delusions of grandeur, which allows her to be invincible. She gets into fights and likes to have a good time out wherever the music is loud and fast. With Sadie and Danny there is Don Diego, a transvestite that plays straight man to the fights, Ceecee, the girl of truly low expectations and Truman, the guy with the silver spoon and a heart of gold. With all these people, Danny is convinced that one of them got Sadie shot and the mystery of Young Liars is who did it.

The story by David Lapham is fast and kinetic; the visceral nature of the tale delivers the vibe of how a night club evening can be both scary and energizing. The pages ooze the atmosphere of a good hard party with all the sex and violence that such a night out can have. The storytelling is very functional yet authentic. Young Liars brings an authenticity and joy that has been lacking in the comic stands, and that a reader can fall into and so be happy to see this story through. There is even a subplot involving Sadie’s father that is creepy and awkwardly funny.

The artwork cements the storytelling by giving the proceedings a sense of identity, style and place. The art also helps Lapham clarify and enrich his story in a way that indicates to the reader that there is one person driving the bus and if someone does not like it, well that’s too bad!

Young Liars is a book that is fun for the party-goer in all of us. Here, Lapham introduces and builds on a good mystery, with a supporting cast that is both compelling and distinct, and with a McGuffin that is simple yet can be contorted into whatever Lapham wants. This makes Young Liars a book worthy of a regular serial read.