Young Liars is a comic book series created by David Lapham. It is published by DC Comics as a part of that company’s Vertigo imprint. The first issue was released in March 2008.
The book centers around a group of 20-somethings in modern day New York City, though the story quickly expands to other parts of America and the world. All of them have disturbing secrets about themselves that they keep from the others, and even the readers are left to decide what is true and what are lies.
Publication history
In April 2009, Lapham announced that the title had been cancelled, with the last issue being #18.
Characters
- Danny: The protagonist of the book. He is an aspiring musician who moved to New York along with Sadie. He is obsessively in love with Sadie, and often falls into extremely self-destructive behaviour. He has tried to kill himself multiple times in the series, including trying to set himself on fire, leaving horrific burns on his torso (Though he claims to the others that he got them elsewhere).
- Sadie: The other central character in the story. Sadie is the daughter of the owner of the Brown Bag Superstore (A Wal-Mart style store), and has run away from her family. As a result, her family have sent the Pinkertons out to find her. She has a bullet lodged in her brain, which causes her to act erratically. Namely, she only wants to dance, fight, and sleep with Danny. She repeatedly brings up warnings about “The Spiders from Mars” and their plans to enslave Humanity, though at this point it is not certain if this is a result of her injury, if she’s lying, or if what she says is in fact true. As the story progresses, it becomes evident that Danny has a manipulative hold on her.
- Big C: CeeCee is a Groupie for rock bands. Danny hates her and insultingly calls her Big C. She was in college at one point, but dropped out to “have a rock star’s babies” instead. Instead, she got Syphilis and is now unable to have children, though it does not stop her from sleeping with Musicians. While she and Danny dislike each other, they have bonded in later issues.
- Donnie: Donnie is a male cross-dresser. All the other characters seem to like him, despite their own conflicts amongst themselves. He is also a Heroin addict, and has overdosed at least once.
- Annie X: A former fashion model, Annie begins in the story by bussing tables at a club. Ironically, despite the nickname, she is not anorexic but actually bulemic. She generally dislikes both Sadie and Danny, particularly for the troubles with the Pinkertons that they brought upon the group.
- Runco: Although rich, Runco is obsessed with Get-Rich-Quick schemes. He is the one who suggests that the group to go to Spain in order to “recover” a painting. He has repeatedly informed the Pinkertons of Sadie’s whereabouts in hopes of profit, though this has backfired on him.
- Puss Bag: An English Punk Rock fan that the group meets in Spain. It’s unclear at this point if Puss Bag is actually his name or not. According to him, his mother was kicked in the stomach by Johhny Rotten of the Sex Pistols while he was still in the womb. Though he’s friendly to all of the characters and even saves them on a couple occasions, Danny takes an immediate disliking to him, largely because he thinks Puss Bag slept with Sadie.
- The Pinkertons: A group of elite killers who are in pursuit of the Young Liars. Sadie describes them as “Nazis injected with special powers by the Spiders from Mars”. They tend to be somewhat questionable masters of disguise, but make up for this with their Sadism, including castrations and beheadings. It is not likely that they have any connection with the real life Pinkerton Agency.
Plot
The story opens up outside of a nightclub, where Sadie beats up a Bouncer and later a Gang member. The main characters are all introduced inside, where Runco tries to convince them to go to Spain. When they refuse, he calls the Pinkertons, who quickly advance on the nightclub. Meanwhile, Donnie shoots Heroin in the bathroom, and Danny tries to tell Sadie he loves her, with no success.
Issue 2 sheds some light on Danny’s background and how he met Sadie. He worked in a Brown Bag Superstore (In the firearms department), and was trying to put a band together with some friends. Even at this point, he was obsessed with Sadie, and was upset when his best friend ditched him to go to a concert with her.
In a near suicidal state, Danny crashes the concert, and with gun in hand, takes a drugged Sadie away just before a group of Pinkertons looking for her advance on his friend. After he escorts her home, Danny returns to his own home only to find his friend’s severed head in the fridge, and his mom and brother dead. (As with many aspects of the story, whether this is actually what happened is up to debate).
Back to the Nightclub, the Young Liars flee just as the Police raid the building, while Donnie is having an Overdose. Outside, they encounter the gang member from before, as well as some of his friends. The Pinkertons arrive and kill the gang members, but Sadie steals a Garbage Truck and they make their escape. They take Donnie to a hospital, where yet another Pinkerton (disguised as a doctor) takes Sadie at gunpoint. Sadie and Danny kill him, which freaks out the others. They all eventually decide to flee the country, and go to Spain on Runco’s get-rich-quick scheme.
On the cruise to Spain, Danny and Sadie have sex. They eventually have to hijack the ship and go the rest of the way by Lifeboat, as Runco lied to the others about paying for the tickets. Once they get there, Sadie goes missing. This causes extreme anguish for Danny, as he thinks that she will now start having sex with other people. She is in actuality at a Bar fighting Puss Bag and keeping score.
Danny drinks with and confides in Big C, and reveals that it was actually him who shot Sadie in the head. The two drunkenly have sex, but are interrupted by Maxim, the midget head of the Pinkertons. He proceeds to castrate Danny and rape Big C, but then is attacked by Donnie and Puss Bag, stabbed in the eye, and jumps out a window.
Danny leaves the hospital shortly after, determined to save Sadie. Puss Bag tells him that she went with Runco and Annie X to steal the painting. In flashbacks, we see what led up to Sadie getting shot in the head. Where she killed a man (though she claimed he was one of the Spiders from Mars) and Danny helped her cover it up. Sadie constantly belittled Danny and seems to have different memories of meeting him than what was in issue #2. In a rage, he chases her down and shoots her.
Meanwhile, both Runco and Annie contact the Pinkertons in hopes that they will be rewarded, but instead get captured. When the others arrive, Runco gets decapitated, and the Pinkertons demand to know where Sadie is. Sadie drives through the window on a motorcycle and kills all the Pinkertons. Immediately after, she has a stroke resulting from the bullet in her brain and collapses. Danny attempts to kill himself, but Puss Bag knocks him out.
In an odd flashback, Sadie is on Mars, where the Spider race is planning to use her to lay thousands of eggs and amass an army to conquer the earth. She listens to the Earth DJ Danny Duoshade, and wins a contest to go to a concert. She stows away on a flying saucer heading to Earth, and causes it to crash land. She takes Spider form and possesses a young girl.
She goes back to the child’s dysfunctional home (the mother and father being Danny and Big C). However, other Spiders have also survived, including Sadie’s father, who impregnates her with eggs. The DJ Danny Duoshade (Who also looks like Danny) arrives, and Sadie is able to acquire a gun from him. She kills all but five of the Hatchlings, and vows to get the others. Back in “the real world”, Danny reveals (to the reader) that he created the Duoshade identity to try to manipulate Sadie. Danny, Puss Bag, and Sadie visit her mother, as Sadie wants to destroy all of the space spiders. Her brother comes in, and Sadie shoots him, killing him as the mother’s lover comes in with a militant group. The group manage to get away, and in the process, Sadie’s mother is killed along with the entire group, but not before two flashbacks reveal that Cee was once pregnant and miscarried. Finding solace with Danny, he had sex with her when Sadie is away. When C miscarries again, she saves the fetus and puts it in a box. Danny finds out, and throws it in a garbage disposal. In the other, Danny had set himself on fire to cover up something important.
Returning to the present, Sadie and her friends stage a showdown against the Pinkertons at her father’s home. In the midst of the ensuing carnage, Danny commands the Pinkertons to release Sadie, shedding his shirt to show his burn scars and a spider tatoo underneath it, declaring himself the King of all Spiders.
Collected editions
The series is being collected into trade paperbacks:
| # | Title | Release date | Collected material | Pages | ISBN |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Daydream Believer | December, 2008 | Issues #1-6 | 144 | ISBN 1-40121-978-0 |
| 2 | Maestro | June 10, 2009 | Issues #7-12 | 144 | ISBN 1-40122-272-2 |
