Hard-hitting rock ‘n’ roll gets a whole new meaning in this high energy tale of pop punk vigilantes from Cult Empire Comics, the team behind Lady Hollywood.

Publisher: Cult Empire Comics
Writer: Erin Keepers
Artist: Catriona Laird, Gaby Epstein
Price: £11.99 from Cult Empire’s Online Store

Nasty Girls sees an all girl garage band turn into ass kicking vigilantes when they have one bad gig too many and their violent on stage antics go viral. Hired by a fan to beat up an angry uncle, it’s the making of the group and their bad girl antics see them get a new manager and a new spark of success. But it’s not all roses as they also make an enemy or two along the way who want them to fail.

Nasty Girls reads like Gem and The Holograms meets Kick Ass with it’s mix of high energy all girl musicality and back street beatings. There are also a few shades of Brian K Vaughan’s Paper Girls in there for good measure too. It’s an interesting idea for a comic about a band, and is certainly a fresh take on this well trodden genre. While it may appear to have a violent core to it, Nasty Girls never quite goes as dark as you think it might, which is definitely a good thing and makes it a much more readable book as a result.

Nasty Girls get nasty

The whole thing has a slick anime infused, glossy and colourful style to it, which also stops things getting too bleak. While the characters are all very empowering and positive, they aren’t necessarily great role models either, and it’s nice to read a group of flawed female characters. However based on this first outing there isn’t too much depth to them yet, but we hope that will change in time. With a final page that looks set to introduce some more antagonists in future issues, this is a solid debut and a fun and feisty debut that will definitely make you think twice about heckling a band in your local bar, just in case they come back and beat you up!