Peni Parker is proving to be quite the troublemaker.
Since the 2021 debut single Destroyher, Parker has gone on to rapid fire single after single, clip after clip at a rate that would make her so-called peers blush. It’s happened again, with the jagged new cut ‘Disrupt’, currently wreaking havoc on headphones and speakers near and far.
If you haven’t cottoned on to Peni Parker yet, you’ll soon run out of time to do so at the ground floor. As Peni Parker continues to pillage her way through the Australian punk space, we thought we’d take the moment to better understand this punk rock fury via intertextuality.
Providing us with a glimpse of the inner workings, Peni Parker hooked us up with her required reading list, a series of texts for fans to sink their teeth into to better gain purchase around their new favourite artist and hey, via process of osmosis you may pick up a new favourite book too or specifically in the case of Peni Parker, a graphic novel.
Nana by Ai Yazawa
Nana fundamentally changed my brains’ chemistry. I love everything Ai Yazawa creates, she’s an incredible story teller who brings to life such realistic and heart wrenching moments with very real topics. Nana has the fashion, the music inspirations and shows how the characters navigate their way through love and some toxic relationships.
Edge of spider-verse vol1 #5 by Gerard Way, Jake Wyatt and Ian Herring.
This wouldn’t be my recommendation list without PENI Parker’s sp//dr’s first appearance! Introducing unknown universes and some absolute badass femme leads. A beautiful read, true to the spideyverse’s vivid imagery.
Bleach (ブリーチ) by Tite Kubo
Bleach is an action/ adventure manga & it’s a long boyyy.. both to read and to watch but totally worth the effort. Not only does Bleach have incredible fight scenes, but also has plenty of powerful femme characters and *endless* great arcs. The main character Ichigio is currently really questioning who he is, whether he is fundamentally a good or a bad guy. When a string of bad things happen in your life, it’s easy to get swept up in that mentality. Ideally you want to believe good things come to good people but sometimes just isn’t the case.
Tokyo Ghoul (東京喰種トーキョーグール) by Sui Ishida
Tokyo Ghoul is a dark fantasy manga. another common starter because it’s so damN pretty and easy to read. Even though there’s a lot of gore/ ghoulish themes it’s so gorgeous, the colour themes I’ve chosen for my visuals are very much inspired by TG’s rich imagery.
Tank girl by Alan Martin and Jamie Hewlett
Tank girl is just a fun read. heavily influenced by British punk, it’s an apocalyptic crocodile Dundee meets Wendy O. Nothing is conventional about the plot or the style and I love it.
