David Lapham is still probably best known for his series Stray Bullets, which has been in limbo for some time.  According to Lapham, he can't afford to publish it, so he's spending his time on paying work from DC instead.  I've never read it, myself, but it's always had very good reviews.

Young Liars is Lapham's new ongoing series from Vertigo.  Looking around, I see it's also had some largely good reviews, with a minority of dissenters.  Count me in the minority, I'm afraid.

It's Manhattan clubland, today.  (Well, last Friday, more accurately.)  Our lead, Danny Noonan, is a 21 year old Texan who came to New York to join a band, and ended up working in a convenience store.  He's drifted into the orbit of Sadie, one of those terribly contrived ultra-cool girl characters that you find in stories from certain indie sensibilities.  Sadie has a bullet in her brain which makes her disinhibited and erratic, which is evidently meant to be terribly exciting and fantastic.

There's an ensemble cast surrounding Sadie, and there's also a subplot about her father, an evil businessman who wants to get her back because she could apparently spoil the public image of his company.

Now, I'll give it this, there's a lot going on in Young Liars #1.  It has a lot of characters to introduce, and quite a bit of back story to set up, and it bounces efficiently through them.  It's not especially plot-heavy, but it introduces an awful lot of characters and gets a lot of information on the table.

And yet, and yet... I have no desire to see any of these people again.  I'm a little mystified, to be honest, about quite what other reviewers are seeing in them.  Perhaps this is a case of people who are more familiar with Lapham's work being willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, or seeing some sort of regular theme that they know he handles well.  Maybe that's it.  Or maybe it plays very well with New Yorkers (actual or aspirant) who identify strongly with the characters.  I don't know.

But here's what I see.  I see a bunch of stock characters.  The dreamer who came to the big city and ended up in a convenience store.  The love interest who's obviously an indie fantasy figure.  The trust fund kid.  The anorexic.  The transvestite.  There's even a comedy bad guy who's a bit of a pervert.  And there's not much to any of them beyond that, from what I can see.

Otherwise, it's competent, a bit bland, and... it doesn't make me care.  If you enjoyed it - and many people clearly did - then hey, good luck to you.  But it says nothing to me, really.

Rating: C

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