Kill Your Boyfriend

by Teresa Jusino

Several posts ago, Lisa bemoaned the upcoming remake of Footloose, and the Pink Raygun community discussed the fact that it’s a shame that Hollywood remakes older hits for today’s audience, rather than allow them to develop their own voice. However, re-releases are a whole other thing. Re-releases make sure that future generations are aware of greatness that was, and hopefully set the bar high, inspiring future creators to greatness themselves.

Grant Morrison’s graphic novella, Kill Your Boyfriend, came out in 1995, long before I started reading comics. Had it not been re-released by Vertigo recently, I might never have known about it or read it, which would’ve been a shame.

Because Kill Your Boyfriend is one of the most amazing, thought-provoking, electric comics I’ve ever read.

A teenage girl is frustrated with her life and the world. She meets a boy who seems to have the world figured out. He is a refreshing change of pace. She runs away with him, and they proceed to kill, steal, and f#@k their way around England.

Grant Morrison, who seems to excel at anti-establishment rebellion, is the perfect writer to capture the intensity of what being a thoughtful, intelligent person trapped in a teenager’s life feels like. But it isn’t only about teenage ennui. This is the kind of comic that would make anyone wonder if he or she is living life to the fullest. Not that one needs to go on a murder spree to live life to the fullest, but still. The main point of the comic is spoken by The Girl as the couple joins a van full of traveling “artists”:

Shake a person up enough and what they thought was a personality starts to separate. We can be anything.

Kill Your Boyfriend is about trying on different personalities and seeing which ones fit. We should all be so brave.

There are very few coming-of-age stories about girls that aren’t about periods, angst, and pining for boys. The Girl knows the system is a trap and does something to change her life. She doesn’t pine for a boy; she has her boring boyfriend killed and replaces him with a boy she likes better. She makes the decision to escape her life and she does it, so even the mistakes she makes are on her own terms. The best thing about Kill Your Boyfriend is that the main character is not only female, but she’s not idealized. She’s not treated like a fanboy fetish, nor is she a spunky role-model for young women. She’s an independent-minded girl who wants to take chances. Some of them are worthwhile and freeing. Others are horrific. But her choices are neither glorified nor condemned. They’re simply hers. The only things that are glorified in this story are freedom and independence. And there’s nothing wrong with that.

Kill Your Boyfriend feels a bit dated in places. Raves, ecstasy, and even Philip Bond’s art are so very early nineties. However, the story itself is lively and timeless and worth bringing back again and again.

Never miss an update. Subscribe to Pink Raygun by Email or subscribe via RSS

TERESA JUSINO was born on the same day that Skylab fell. Coincidence? She doesn’t think so. As a writer, her work has appeared in Elmont Life newspaper, and on the sadly defunct website, CentralBooking.com. She is currently at work on a collection of short stories. As a geek, Teresa loves Star Trek, Lost, comics, and anything Joss Whedon ever touched. She has a fangirl *squee-ing* crush on Brian K. Vaughan, which beat up her Robert Downey Jr as Iron Man crush in a fight proving once again that writing skill trumps gadget skill even when that gadget skill is attached to bulging biceps. Teresa is also an aspiring fangbanger. Visit her in The Red Room.