My Stupid Life

by Mitch Clem

Portrait of the artist as a punk in his twenties-- a dirtbag, a pervert, a wreck. A geek, obsessed with comics and music. You'll laugh, you'll cringe. You'll wish you couldn't relate. You'll crank the volume all the way up and annoy the neighbors.

This is a compendium of Mitch Clem's 2006-2013 run of hilarious, cult-adored autobiographical comics. It collects the complete archives of MY STUPID LIFE, its predecessor, SAN ANTONIO ROCK CITY, and more.

Genres: Comics

154 pages, Paperback

First published May 17, 2023

About the author

Mitch Clem first gained recognition for his comic series Nothing Nice to Say, a satire of punk music and culture, before moving on to the autobiographical comics San Antonio Rock City and My Stupid Life. He also created and curated the punk rock comic zine As You Were, and has drawn album art, merch, and flyers for hundreds of bands. He lives in San Antonio, TX with his wife (fellow cartoonist Amanda Kirk) and their daughter.

Reviews

[vegansophie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Removed a star just cause I would have loved for the pieces with Amanda’s watercolours be in colour and not b&w

[Matt Graupman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Despite his relatively sporadic output, Mitch Clem is - without a doubt - an all-timer. I love everything he’s done. “Nothing Nice To Say” may have broken him into the “mainstream,” so to speak (both career-wise and psychologically), but I’ve always preferred his autobio work, which was a bit more vulnerable and real(ish). “My Stupid Life” collects pretty much all of those strips and they’re still gold. As much as I wish Clem had kept with it, I completely understand the self-defeating thought patterns that can derail artists. I’m just glad we have these comics to keep going back to. I hope Mitch is happy and healthy, whatever he’s up to now.

[Katy · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF

[Marianne · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love Liz Prince and Ben Snakepit's comics so I figured I would like this. I never read more than one or two NN2S strips so didn't have much of a reference point for Mitch Clem's work. It turns out he's mostly not funny and also pretty gross. I really only liked the ones where his girlfriends were exasperated with him because I felt the same.

[Damian Burford · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great collection of punk rock autobiographical comics! It feels ripped straight from my own life and head!

I devoured these comics when they originally came out via Mitch's website! Huge fan. Cool collection, but It wasn't always an easy read. I have really good vision, but i often had a really hard time reading some of the comics in the collection. I think a larger format book would have helped that, but probably not the price point.

Still great to have these all handy in one place. Thanks for putting them together, even if my eyes still hurt from reading it.

[Eric Nagurney · Rating 4 out of 5]

You pick this up on your vacation, cause you saw it at a Philly comics shop and you’d been thinking of ordering it anyway, expecting only some nostalgic chuckles. But you read the whole thing in a series of hotel rooms over the next handful of days, neglecting the other books you packed, surprising yourself by being emotionally bowled over. Life’s wild that way! So much of this hit me so hard. I remember first getting into Mitch Clem’s work in high school, viewing him as this older generation punk journeyman. In reality, he’s less than five years older than me. That’s significant when you’re 16 but when you’re 36 (christ I’ve been reading him for 20 years huh), that feels like basically the same age. And then you realize that you’re reading about his experiences from when he was younger than you are now and you realize how much you relate to a lot of it (ESPECIALLY the anxiety stuff) and good lord it just got to me. Loved it.

Also as a big Duckfeed podcasts fan, finding out that Clem is longtime friends with their producer Gwen Static has been a huge worlds colliding moment.

[Joe Myers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Truly, I love everything Mitch has done. His work is fun and vulnerable and so so much more. I can’t wait for his next project.

At an SPX in DC years and years ago, he signed a copy of his book for me and a friend and he drew one of his NN2S characters in the cover. He drew a better version in my book and noted that in his signing and it’s truly one of my prized possessions and fun little memories.

[Julie Kirby · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked both the author and the material much more by the end. A very positive progression.

[Joanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

An autobiographical retrospective of a cartoonist who tried to make a career of it throughout his twenties. A bit uneven, some of the chapters were definitely better then others, with the best, for me, being the three contributions to a zine called As You Were. Apparently well known in cult punk zine circles, but I was unfamiliar with him. Good art, though, and I’m especially happy for the musical introduction to The Mountain Goats.

[Aves Trainor · Rating 2 out of 5]

Obnoxious, sexist guy laughs at his own jokes.

I did not enjoy this book.