Young Liars #17
With only one issue left until oblivion, David Lapham's Young Liars #17 this week was one of those issues that could easily have suffered from the need to cram a lot of exposition, explanation and plot into a single issue. Instead, it was an issue full of revelations, great character moments and intriguing clues as to what's come before, and what's to come next. Seeming to answer some huge questions while leaving some of the biggest questions of the book open for #18, this month's Young Liars was a single-issue embodiment of so much of what was great about the series--and it did all of this, because of Lapham's plans already having been put in place, without ever feeling too cramped or forced. The last six issues of this series should be collected and handed out to every writer of every B-level superhero book on the planet so that when cancellation eventually comes to them, they'll have studied how to handle it right. Lapham, as per usual, sat down with Comic Related to discuss the issue, the end of the series, and whether a confessed liar is to be believed when he admits to horrible, horrible acts.
Comic
Related: The kind of idyllic rhetoric that Browning spouts here
about his founding of the town, with no real regard to the truth of the
matter--it's very much like Sam Walton's "authorized" version of his life. Are
you looking to comment on events outside of Young
Liars a little?
David Lapham: Only in the broadest sense. I have no particular beef with Sam Walton. I know a lot of small towns fight Wal-Marts coming in because they tend to crush everything in their path while spouting the American Dream, so it's kinda like that. But really all big companies put a face on which is not reality. Personally I don't like shopping at Wal-Marts I find them aesthetically displeasing, but I would if I needed something there. For several years I resisted Costco on "moral grounds" then I went. Now I love the Costco. I've been beaten into submission by cheap liquor and triple packs of Raisin Bran Crunch, I'll admit it.
CR: So after a break from the action, we finally get to see that Loreli did in fact make it out of the events of issue 15.
DL: Oh sure. What would we do without her? even if she was dead she'd have to come back anyway as Danny needs her.
CR: at the beginning of the Danny/Loreli story she's leaving him. It would have been easy to pursue a single, character-driven issue where you just look at their relationship falling apart, etc., but I think that's almost what's EXPECTED when you start the issue that way. Instead we get a couple of big twists. Was that a bit of a trope you were trying to avoid or am I just reading too much into a framing device?
DL: I had just come off of issue 16 which was a kind of introspective stand alone. With two issues to go I had to get more to the point. Beyond that, though, as long as there's Danny, there will be Sadie. They're stuck together, at least as long as Danny is in his current state. And Loreli's been stuck on Danny from the first. She's not going to just dump him over him getting her shot in the head and running away, let's be real here. There's an ending to this arc coming next issue, which is part of the Sadie/Danny/Big C dynamic, and now it's become part of the end of my Vertigo series as well, so the personal beef between Danny and Sadie is really small potatoes in comparison.
CR: Wait...isn't his dick ALREADY cut off by now, when she says it's what he deserves?
DL: He got it back in issue 12--or more precisely, he said that getting it cut off was a lie. Maybe it grew back or he has a spider penis. Only time--and the right woman--will tell.
CR: He doesn't even appear to be looking at that kid--was he trying to save him at all, or did he just jump in front of traffic and end up in the right place at the right time?
DL: As we see in his conversation with Jackie/Annie X right after , danny is having psychic visions. He didn't have to see the kid. He knew he'd be there.
CR: Is the suicide victim someone we should recognize? The face looks vaguely familiar but it's obviously sketchy.
DL: No. She's just a reference to Danny's vision from the night before. If she looks familiar, it's because you, in fact, had a similar vision, and you, in fact, failed to act to save that poor woman's life. Shame on you.
CR: In terms of this club owner--why would he dump a gig with a proven track record of success for someone he just really dug one night?...Wow, that sounds like a relationship question.
DL: Was your innuendo an attempt to answer the question yourself? Because I can go along with that. Neither Danny or Loreli have shown any prudishness. Or we can just say the club owner compared her to Joan Jett and she said she's do him for--do it,meaning the gig, for free.
CR: Now...when he said he was a monster, did it not occur to him that he might be one of the same monsters he's been dealing with all along?
DL: Well, no. Not many people look at themselves and honestly come to the conclusion "hey, I'm an asshole." I doubt Hitler ever got up in the morning and said "Man, it's good to be evil." He thought he was the good guy. Danny thinks he's the good guy. What he saw through the hole allowed him to view himself from an outside perspective.
CR: Will the next issue help bring things into order, for those of us who aren't all that bright and are having a hard time formulating a timeline?
DL: I can't promise anything. I don't know how people view the series. Everyone is different. I know what I think is going on and that's the conclusion I work toward in 18. So I guess if you're on the same mental track as I am, all the pieces are there to explain what exactly is going on. That doesn't mean it completes the story--that would have been impossible in the time left--but it is about what the truth of the matter is.
Unless I'm lying to myself.
Want to talk to David?
Visit him at
STANDARD ATTRITION
jasonaaron.org/index.php
Russell Burlingame / Comic Related Columnist
Russell Burlingame is a journalist and columnist living and working in New York City. In high school, Russell interviewed Elliot S. Maggin for a review of the Kingdom Come novelization, and since then has worked consistently in and around the comics industry. He interned for Wizard magazine, and has freelanced for Wizard and Newsarama, in addition to a number of non-comics publications, Russell is currently working on a graphic novel based on Cap'n Internet, the comic strip that ran in his college newspaper; and a graphic biography of folk singer Phil Ochs with artist Marion Vitus.
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