Today’s entry in my Greatest Comics of All Time series is another Vertigo title, written by the Eisner-award-winning author of Stray Bullets and DeadpoolMAX, David Lapham.
Young Liars is a challenge to read. At first, it appears fairly straightforward: A group of young, troubled twentysomethings having adventures in big city bars and nightclubs. But little bits of a mystery reveal themselves, very, very gradually. Every word in the book ultimately has meaning, as the story is told in layers and is decompressed in the extreme. If you get frustrated by “not knowing” what’s going on, this is definitely not the book for you. In fact, even at the end you may be wondering what was real and what wasn’t.
But unlike Lost, every question you have gets answered by the book. More than once. And in different ways. Is it about normal people with fantastic delusions, or is it about extraordinary people who create fantastic delusions? Or, is the point of the book that delusion itself is what matters—that what we want to believe is more important than what actually exists?
The book is funny, profane, and constantly compelling. You probably don’t know much more than the title after reading this review, but that’s really how it should be: I can’t recommend this book highly enough.
