Tank Girl and co are back in the second of four brand-new, stand-alone stories! The gang spend a farcical evening enacting a play what Barney wrote. Tea is drunk, crumpets are munched, antique dresses are worn, a secondary character dies in excruciating pain, more tea, and a startling revelation about one or more of our heroes’ ancestries is revealed…!

Bearing the title The Importance of Being Tank Girl, it’s fairly obvious from the get-go that this episode is a spin on Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest. We join the gang as they are about to go on stage – just as soon as Barney has finished writing the script! “Just a couple more pages to go,” she tells Tank Girl.

Snigger-inducing character names include Allergy Von Creep (instead of Algernon Moncrieff), Aunt Disgusta (Aunt Augusta, geddit?) and Miss Jism (replacing Miss Prism). John Worthing’s first name is changed to the not particularly amusing Bosie (played by Sub Girl), though the surname has a special significance in the world of Tank Girl, as it was in the town bearing that name that Alan Martin (with Jamie Hewlett) originally devised the strip.

Actually, the title The Importance of Being Sub Girl might have been more apt, because as the plot develops beyond the confines of the theatre, it ultimately has more to do with Sub Girl than with her tank-loving friend. Having said that, Tank Girl learns something, too…

I must admit that I’m not completely au fait with Oscar Wilde’s play, or I might have found this comic more entertaining than I did. However, I think most people will get the haaaaandbag reference!

5

Richard McGinlay