No Heroine blends the Strong Female Archetype of Buffy and Tank Girl
Remember Buffy the Vampire Slayer? Ok great. Now, do you remember Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season3, Episode 1? No? Let’s take a trip down memory lane.
That episode of Buffy featured a broken and damaged Buffy Summers after her confrontation with Angelus and loss of a fellow slayer completely broke her. Both mentally, physically and emotionally. It had a particular emphasis on what the late 90s considered to be hitting rock bottom.
As Buffy waited those tables in some forgotten about suburb in a nearby city she began to rediscover herself. Because when you feel like all is lost you either rekindle the flame that was you or you sink even deeper into a pit of hopelessness and despair. Thank goodness it was the former.
A Messy Strong Female Heroine
Frank Gogol’s No Heroine trudges those same murky depths of hopelessness and loss of self as the protagonist, Kayla Strong, crawls out of the drug abuse lifestyle. Coming out barely on top as her character begins an uphill battle to prove herself to her mother, her ex-lover and to her most vengeful critic; herself.
Critics are coining the phrase “the Tank Girl and Buffy the Vampire Slayer crossover” when looking to describe Issue One of No Heroine. Though if you dig a bit deeper, Gogol’s narrative is telling a story of a woman decorated with life scars and her struggle to reclaim a certain degree of self worth.
Just like Buffy Summers crawled out of her own pit of worthlessness and depression to remake her self. So does Kayla Strong. Except the fight isn’t just vampires. It’s the demons of addiction and self criticism. A fight she greets head on.
Thematically its on Point
If you dumb down the basic themes of this comic book, it’s rather simple. Former addict who struggles to remain clean owes it to herself that her friend who helped her through the worst kinds of shit also gets clean. Only she can’t find him because he’s holed up in a den of vampires because he’s one himself. Simple, no?
Combine this with a veritable all you can eat buffet of punk rock meets drugs and a fresh serving of action on the side. Kayla Strong is far from the femme fatale submissive and artist Criss Madd makes sure you know it. With scenes that are well within the grains of a seedy underbelly of vampire drug dealers. There’s no feeling of surrealism here. Just fun, uncompromising Vampire butt kicking action!
While at the time of writing this article No Heroine has likely sold out direct through Source Point Press. I would recommend you do whatever you can to get this comic book in your collection. A worthy addition to the Vampire horror sub-genre.
You can grab No Heroine through Source Point Press or your local LCS.
