Young Liars Vol. 3: Rock Life
The final arc of a resolutely recondite series opens with rock musician wannabe Danny Noonan finally having achieved his goal of stardom, albeit under the guise of Johnny Jukebox. His success is soon revealed to be illusionary, however, which is to be expected, given Young Liars’ sidelong approach to reality. Lapham’s artwork, far more straightforward than the knotty plotline, focuses on the characters—appropriately, since they’re the entertainingly abrasive glue that has held the sprawling saga together. The title’s cancellation forced Lapham to wind up the story prematurely, and the resolution he comes up with affords a measure of closure while remaining obliquely open-ended. --Gordon Flagg