(Titan Books �10.99)

ONE of the few breakout British comics characters of the last 20 years, the hard-drinking, foul-mouthed Tank Girl has retained her popularity despite a disastrous movie adaptation, and continues to appear in new stories on a sporadic basis.

This latest adventure, written by Alan Martin with art from Rufus Dayglo, returns us to her post-apocalyptic Australian wasteland, and finds best friend Barney in a coma following a freak skateboarding accident. The only way of paying for the $20bn operation is to drive thousands of miles across the burning Outback and win the cross-continental Watermelon Run, but this deadly race could prove to be Tank Girl’s biggest challenge yet…

Unrestricted by anything but the creators’ imagination, Tank Girl never fails to disappoint, dragging her readers through madcap concepts and scenarios which would crush lesser characters like bugs. Reading like an extreme version of Wacky Races, Skidmarks offers the perfect template for a first-rate Tank Girl adventure, and hopefully will prompt further appearances of our kangaroo-loving protagonist in the not-too-distant future.