Kill Your Boyfriend
Encyclopedia
Kill Your Boyfriend is the title of a comic book
one-shot written by Grant Morrison
and drawn by Philip Bond
and D'Israeli
for DC Comics
Vertigo imprint in June 1995
.
(ISBN 156389453X) in 1998
with an afterword from Morrison and a paper fortune teller. A third edition was published in October 2008 .
of British
youth culture (with hints towards such films as Natural Born Killers
) which revolves round a bookish middle class
schoolgirl, who has a bland unexciting life until she meets a strange young boy who convinces her to kill her boyfriend. They then go on the run together for a series of anarchic adventures across Britain.
Meeting up with a group of travellers in a double-decker bus
, the pair indulge in more crime and sexual experimentation before making their way to Blackpool
to meet their final fate.
Morrison notes in the afterword of the second edition that the story is inspired in part by the myth of Dionysus
.
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
one-shot written by Grant Morrison
Grant Morrison
Grant Morrison is a Scottish comic book writer, playwright and occultist. He is known for his nonlinear narratives and counter-cultural leanings, as well as his successful runs on titles like Animal Man, Doom Patrol, JLA, The Invisibles, New X-Men, Fantastic Four, All-Star Superman, and...
and drawn by Philip Bond
Philip Bond
Philip J. Bond is a British comic book artist, who first came to prominence in the late 1980s on Deadline magazine, and later through a number of collaborations with British writers for the DC Comics imprint Vertigo....
and D'Israeli
D'Israeli
Matt Brooker, whose work most often appears under the pseudonym D'Israeli , is a British comic artist, colorist, writer and letterer. Other pseudonyms he uses include "Molly Eyre" , for his writing, and "Harry V...
for DC Comics
DC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...
Vertigo imprint in June 1995
1995 in comics
-January:*After Xavier: The Age of Apocalypse is launched. All X-titles change to different names for the next four months.* Thor marks his 400th appearance in Marvel Comics with issue #482....
.
Publication history
Originally published as part of the Vertigo Voices series of one-shots in 1995, Kill Your Boyfriend was reprinted in the prestige formatPrestige format
Prestige format is a term coined by DC Comics and later came into wider use to refer to a square-bound comic book with cardstock covers. A prestige format comic book is usually longer than a normal, stapled 32-page comic...
(ISBN 156389453X) in 1998
1998 in comics
-Spring:* Gay Comix , with issue #25, publishes its final issue -October:* Toy Biz buys Marvel Comics* Excalibur is canceled by Marvel with issue #125.-November:...
with an afterword from Morrison and a paper fortune teller. A third edition was published in October 2008 .
Synopsis
The story is a darkly comic satireSatire
Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...
of British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
youth culture (with hints towards such films as Natural Born Killers
Natural Born Killers
Natural Born Killers is a 1994 crime/black comedy film directed by Oliver Stone about two victims of traumatic childhoods who became lovers and psychopathic serial killers, and are irresponsibly glorified by the mass media...
) which revolves round a bookish middle class
Middle class
The middle class is any class of people in the middle of a societal hierarchy. In Weberian socio-economic terms, the middle class is the broad group of people in contemporary society who fall socio-economically between the working class and upper class....
schoolgirl, who has a bland unexciting life until she meets a strange young boy who convinces her to kill her boyfriend. They then go on the run together for a series of anarchic adventures across Britain.
Meeting up with a group of travellers in a double-decker bus
Routemaster
The AEC Routemaster is a model of double-decker bus that was built by Associated Equipment Company in 1954 and produced until 1968. Primarily front-engined, rear open-platform buses, a small number of variants were produced with doors and/or front entrances...
, the pair indulge in more crime and sexual experimentation before making their way to Blackpool
Blackpool
Blackpool is a borough, seaside town, and unitary authority area of Lancashire, in North West England. It is situated along England's west coast by the Irish Sea, between the Ribble and Wyre estuaries, northwest of Preston, north of Liverpool, and northwest of Manchester...
to meet their final fate.
Morrison notes in the afterword of the second edition that the story is inspired in part by the myth of Dionysus
Dionysus
Dionysus was the god of the grape harvest, winemaking and wine, of ritual madness and ecstasy in Greek mythology. His name in Linear B tablets shows he was worshipped from c. 1500—1100 BC by Mycenean Greeks: other traces of Dionysian-type cult have been found in ancient Minoan Crete...
.
External links
- Before All Star - Grant Morrison on Kill Your Boyfriend, NewsaramaNewsaramaNewsarama is an American website that publishes news, interviews and essays about the American comic book industry.-History:Newsarama began in Summer 1995 as a series of Internet forum postings on the Prodigy comic-book message boards by fan Mike Doran. In these short messages. Doran shared...
, November 6, 2008
Reviews
- Review of Kill Your Boyfriend by Matt FractionMatt FractionMatt Fritchman, better known by the pen name Matt Fraction, is an Eisner Award-winning American comic book writer, known for his work as the writer of The Invincible Iron Man, The Immortal Iron Fist and Uncanny X-Men for Marvel Comics and Casanova for Image Comics.-Career:Fraction wrote two...
, Art Bomb - Review of Kill Your Boyfriend at KvltSite