Young Liars is a comic book series created by David Lapham. It was 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.
Contents
Publication history
Young Liars was cancelled in October 2009, with the final issue being #18.
Characters
Danny: The protagonist of the book, he is an aspiring musician who moved to New York from Texas along with Sadie. He obsesses over 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, but bigger), and has run away from her family. As a result, her family have sent Pinkertons, or wetworks spies and assassins, out to find her. She repeatedly brings up warnings about "The Spiders from Mars" and their plans to enslave humanity. As the series progresses, it is revealed that prior to being shot in the head, Sadie was a self-involved manipulator who constantly argued and fought with Danny. After being shot in the head, the bullet becomes lodged in her brain, turning her into a "living cartoon character" with a lust for dancing, fighting, performing insane stunts, and upon losing her virginity to Danny, sleeping with him. Danny develops a hold over Sadie after she is shot, and she will do anything for him.
Loreli: Towards the end of the series, it is revealed that Sadie was becoming as perverted as the rest of the Browning clan, so her mother put her younger sister Loreli up for adoption early on. Danny finds out about the existence of Loreli, and goes to find her. He sets up a new persona for himself, and eventually comes to believe that Sadie's "spiders from Mars" have altered reality and have buried Sadie in Loreli's subconscious, although Danny is told that Sadie died at age 6 when she fell down a well.
CeeCee: CeeCee is a groupie for rock bands. She is considered Sadie's best friend. Danny hates her and insultingly calls her "Big C". She was in college 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. It is later revealed that Danny dislikes her because she slept with him, feigning neediness so she could manipulate her way into Sadie's life. Later on, she sleeps with him again when they bond over their pasts. It is later suggested Danny raped her at one point instead, and that she does not know him at all except as the rapist.
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, Jackie (her real name) is a waitress at a club initially. Ironically, despite the nickname, she is not anorexic but actually bulimic. She generally dislikes both Sadie and Danny's neediness, especially when the Pinkertons begin to cause trouble for the entire group, even though she calls Sadie's location in. Jackie also pulls double duty as an observer of Danny and Sadie for the Martian spiders, though she quits to "join the rebellion".
Runco: Although rich, Runco is obsessed with get-rich-quick schemes. At one point, he suggests the group "recover" a painting. He repeatedly informs the Pinkertons of Sadie's whereabouts in hopes of profit, though this always backfires on him.
Puss Bag is an English punk rock fan that the group meets in Spain. According to him, his mother was kicked in the stomach by Johnny 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 of occasions, Danny takes an immediate disliking to him, largely because he thinks Puss Bag slept with Sadie, though he never did.
Lloyd Browning, Lloyd, Jr., Jack Wonderwall, and The Pinkertons: Lloyd Browning turned his wife's parents' mom and pop store into a retail empire that provides everything from car to groceries to entertainment to health care; his son and spider lord who wishes to wrestle control of the Brown Bag from Sadie so he can propagate a world takeover with his spider army; and the President of Brown Bag, who is a spider, but claims to be rebelling against the invasion force. Lloyd's personal army, The Pinkertons, are a group of elite killers who chase Sadie down when Browning receives tips of his wayward daughter's whereabouts. Sadie describes them as "Nazis injected with special powers by the Spiders from Mars". They tend to be somewhat questionable masters of disguise (sometimes adopting elaborate ones, and at others wearing eyeglasses with fake noses and moustaches attached), but make up for this with their brutal sadism, including castrations and beheadings. The general public believes the faces of the Brown Bag chain to be as American as apple pie, but in reality, they are a group of deviants.
Lance is a non-believer, a cynical gay guy, a lover of the entertainment medium, and above all, a soldier in the army of love. He makes particular YouTube situation videos.
Plot
The story opens up outside of a nightclub, where Sadie (who was shot in the head sometime prior, leading her to have mental delusions of invulnerability) 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 to steal a painting. When they refuse, he calls the Pinkertons, a group of thugs working to find Sadie for her father, 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.
In a flashback, it is revealed how Danny met Sadie. He worked in a Brown Bag Superstore, a chain of stores owned by Sadie's father. Danny planned to go to a concert with his questionably best friend Kenny, who betrays Danny by revealing he is taking Sadie after he lies to their friend Joanie about taking her.
Ronald, his boss and Joannie's brother, forces Danny to work to indirectly anger Kenny (not knowing Kenny lied to Danny too). Danny abandons work for the concert and finds Kenny, who says Sadie left him after the pair arrived for cooler attendees. At the concert, the Pinkertons arrive for Sadie, a self-absorbed, verbally abusive woman, who escapes with and warms to Danny after he steals alcohol for her and the two go carousing. When he gets home, Danny finds Kenny's severed head in the fridge, and his mom and brother dead, a message from the Pinkertons.
Back to the Nightclub in the present, the group flee the Pinkertons just as the police raid the building, while Donnie is having an overdose. Outside, they encounter the gang member from before with his friends. The Pinkertons kill the gang members, but Sadie steals a garbage truck and they make their escape. They take Donnie to a hospital, where a Pinkerton takes Sadie at gunpoint. Sadie and Danny kill him, which freaks out the others. They decide to flee the country, and go to Spain on Runco's theft plan.
On the cruise to Spain, Danny and Sadie have sex. They abandon the ship and go the rest of the way by lifeboat, after finding out Runco lied about paying for the tickets. Once they get there, Sadie goes missing and turns up at a Bar, where she befriends a thug, Puss Bag. Danny reveals (to the reader) he worked for Sadie's father as a clown (part of Sadie's dad's strange obsessions) and that is what started his fascination with her.
Collected editions
The series is collected into trade paperbacks: