Martin and Hewlett first met in the mid-1980s in Worthing, when Martin was in a band with Philip Bond called the University Smalls. They began collaborating on a comic/fanzine called Atomtan.

The Tank Girl series first appeared in the debut issue of Deadline (1988), a UK magazine intended as a forum for new comic talent, or as its publishers Brett Ewins and Tom Astor put it, "a forum for the wild, wacky and hitherto unpublishable," and it continued until the end of the magazine in 1995.

In 1995, the comic was also adapted into a critically and financially unsuccessful film, albeit with a considerable cult following. The film featured Lori Petty as Tank Girl and Naomi Watts as Jet Girl.

Martin and Hewlett are known for speaking poorly of the experience, with Martin calling it "a bit of a sore point" for them. Despite its critics, the film did however undeniably broaden the comics' fanbase from a relatively modest UK cult following to an international audience.

After the film, Martin wandered around for a bit, staying at communes with hippie friends, looking for stone circles and ancient sites before settling in Berwick Upon Tweed in Northumberland with his wife Lou and son Rufus Bodie (named after Lewis Collins' character in The Professionals). Martin has played in various bands, written a Tank Girl "novel" (Armadillo) published in March 2008 by Titan Books, as well as various screenplays and scripts. He wrote the first new Tank Girl limited series in over ten years: Tank Girl: The Gifting with award-winning Australian artist Ashley Wood and Rufus Dayglo. Published by American publishers IDW, the first issue of which was released in June 2007. He is also producing Tank Girl: Carioca with Brit comics' legend Mike McMahon for Titan Books which should see print in summer 2010. On October 24, 2008, it was announced that Alan and Rufus will be doing an exclusive page a month of Tank Girl for SuicideGirls. The first page in the series was posted on November 2, 2008.

Summer 2008 saw Tank Girl: Skidmarks appearing in all-new Nine-page episodes in the Judge Dredd Megazine, again written by Martin, with art duties taken on by Rufus Dayglo, who drew issues 2-4 of the The Gifting, and Visions of Booga for IDW Comics. In an interview Martin revealed that Visions of Booga was the only Tank Girl comic that doesn't contain any major swear words: "It has a "bastard" here and a "bitch" there, but it doesn't have any F-words or C-words."

Martin and Dayglo have produced a comprehensive Tank Girl www.tank-girl.com website which has info, exclusive art, forums, blogs, exclusive sneak previews, as well as links to all Tank Girl material in print.

Titan Books have released The Cream of Tank Girl, compiled by Alan Martin, containing Jamie Hewlett art and Alan Martin scripts, starting from her earliest beginning as a pin-up in Atomtan, it features a brand new Hewlett cover as well as brand new script from Martin.

Interviews

• Suicide Girls Interview - With Alan Martin about the Tank Girl relaunch
• Alan Martin interview - about the 2007 relaunch from IDW comics.