Young Liars #18
What do you say about the final issue of a great comic gone too soon? It's much easier to analyze the final issues of Preacher,Transmetropolitan or Y: The Last Man than it is to talk about Young Liars #18. With many of the series' dangling questions having to be answered abruptly, an ending like this for a series so complex is bound to be one that some hardcore fans find fault with.
The release a couple of weeks ago was bittersweet-a terrific issue that put an unfortunate and premature punctuation at the end of a brilliant, creative and daring young series by one of the premiere creators of comics-for-grown-ups in America. Sometime soon, there'll be more room for consideration of what the series' end means (as well as a look at Danny Duoshade's series-long batch of recommendations)-but for now, Comic Related presents the final conversation with David Lapham about the monthly ins and outs of the series. Apologies to Lapham and the readers that this has taken so long to post, but I've spent the last ten days completely incommunicado due to a family trip to Alaska, where the Internet is decidedly rarer than it is in Upstate New York.
Comic Related: So we've talked a little bit before about the need (or not) to establish a timeline for the title by using "real" dates or at least dates that can be tied together. Was there a reason for placing the climax in the future?
David Lapham: The climax is not in the future. Looking at it again I can see how that may have been confusing. The opening was set at an incident in the past, when Danny wakes up in the hospital we're on the same timeline as everything that's been happening along for the arc. When he comes out of the dream there's a caption you could miss in the lower right corner that reestablishes that we're days from the Anniversary Spectacular.
However the opening in the past on the meeting of Danny and Danny Duoshade is something important that I did put in as part of the ending. Meaning in my mind it was a past development which really brings together many of the reoccurring elements throughout the series. That and the splash were probably the new elements that came in as the end of the series rather than the end of the arc.
CR: A lot of people will read it this way: Is the "nobody got it anyway" a commentary on the comics-reading public who, by and large, didn't buy or understand Young Liars?
DL: I have no idea what your talking about. It was clearly about Danny Duoshades music and interview sessions which were bizarre affairs that made no sense and just happened, by pure coincidence to number the same as the number of issues in the series. Really, I don't know where people get this stuff.
By the way, I don't get it with a big smile on my face as opposed to bitterness in my heart.
CR: In Danny's own dreams, he's courting the nature of truth and history in the world of Young Liars. Can the readers ever truly hope to understand what the hell's going on, then, with him serving as our principal narrator for 15 or so of the issues?
DL: I don't know. There's a bit of autism going on with a thing like this. I am secure with where I was coming from. Many readers just accept that the journey is the thing rather than the end result or reveal. I think for a thing like this to work I have to have a reality andtruth of what I'm working toward.That way I know it all hangs together no matter what strange trappings I put on it. In my mind I worked extra hard to put all the elements in the last issue needed to piece together what I was thinking. I say a bit of autism though, because to get at that exact thing, you may have to be me and approach every element from my perspective like some police profiler.
Still, the thing to remember, and I don't want to say too much is that you can understand what's going on BECAUSE Danny is telling the story. Like Danny Duoshade says, "I'm in all my stories. Who else would be in them." Whatever else is going on it's a story about Danny. If the series would have continued you would know everything about him, but I think there's enough.
CR: Those first few pages, where Noonan's hiding his face from the reader? You know, if you watched The Simpsons Movie you could have gotten enough ideas to carry that through a whole issue!
Yes but then at some point he would have had to show his penis and I'm not sure Vertigo would let me do that.
CR: "I'm from Mars, where we put question marks at the end of our sentences." I may have missed it, but has there ever before been a reference to Danny Duoshade being Noonan's "Mars" persona?
DL: No. I don't think so. I've never made reference that they even are the same person, except in a dream, where Danny says he entered Sadie's dream as Danny Duoshade to affect her dream. There were bits there that were longer-ranging than these 8 issues. But in my mind there really is a Danny and there really is a Danny Duoshade and they are separate people.
CR: Is the opening meant to read as a fantasy/dream sequence or as a recovered memory? I mean, we bounce back and forth between the present day, four years ago and last week, all without any indication from the narrative boxes that one sequence is more credible than the others.
DL: This is why when the bomb goes off we have the splash page. I was being earnest.
CR: What kind of guitar is Johnny playing? As he's there in his Converse, his blue jeans and white t-shirts, with the flag thing in the background and what looks like a Telecaster, I feel like a Springsteen reference-decidedly not hip enough for this title-at play.
DL: Alright Burlingame, stop it with The Boss, already. However, it IS a Telecaster, and I am a Jersey Boy. (As a side note, one of the first reviews ever for Stray Bullets compared it to Springsteen's Nebraska.)
Another aside, it's my Telecaster, not Springsteens, and I love it even though I can't really play it. I took lessons for a few months and loved it and loved practicing even though I sucked, but then Mr. deadlines cam in and beat me about the head and neck and put a stop to it. One day, though, I will retire or go insane and THEN...
CR: Hey, I can't help myself! I'm one of those people who knows everything about a very small number of topics and can relate them to anything. On that last note-if I go create a rundown of the songs on the tapes at the front of each issue, would you have some thoughts on them?
DL: Yes. Also feel free to cut and paste from this thread on the Standard Attrition board:http://jasonaaron.org/viewtopic.php?t=1071 The first two arcs are on page one and arc #3 is on page 4.
CR: I can almost see Danny willing to sacrifice himself, but it's hard for me to imagine him letting Sadie go up with the town. What the hell kind of plan was that?
DL: That's everything. Everything there is to know. I mean Danny and CeeCee were making plans post-explosion. Clearly there's more going on or they're very religious. Also, CeeCee had a gun on them, Danny wasn't going to get it away from her. Sadie could, of course, but she seemed okay with things.
CR: Was that final sequence-"I have never lied to you," followed by Danny's resolution-always the intended ending of the story?
DL: No. It was the intended ending for this arc. Well, the holding room part was intended for this arc. Danny was going to put on the clown makeup and transition into the next arc which would have taken place in the Browning mansion. But it works as an ending for me because of the circular nature of it and ultimately, as I said it's ALL about Danny. The "I have never lied to you" came in a moment of inspiration where I wanted to give people a clue as to what I was thinking as I made the series. (To which most of you will respond with a big "huh?!?" But that's okay.)
CR: And who was that "I have never lied to you" written by and for?
DL: It was for you. It was all for you. And by "you" I mean not me.
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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