Liz Prince, author of the world's cutest relationship comic, "Will You Still Love Me If I Wet the Bed?," returns with a new comic about being - gasp! - SINGLE. Finally bringing her popular webcomic to printed form, Alone Forever explores the joys of flying solo, free to focus on what really matters: comics, punk rock, and cute boys with beards. Drawn in Liz Prince's ultra-charming style, filled with self-deprecation and cats, there's something for everyone to relate to in this celebration of self-reliance in the age of OkCupid.
I have been a comic artist and a self-publisher since I was in high school in the mid-90's. In 2005 my book Will You Still Love Me If I Wet the Bed? was published by Top Shelf Productions; it won an Ignatz Award for Outstanding Debut. Top Shelf has since published two more of my autobio comic collections, Delayed Replays in 2008, and Alone Forever earlier this year. In September my first full length graphic novel, a memoir about adolescence and gender stereotypes called Tomboy, comes out from Zest Books.
I have had comics published in numerous anthologies, drawn stories for the wildly popular Adventure Time series, and I am a columnist for the punk magazine Razorcake.
Currently my cat Dracula is sitting on my lap, and his sister Wolfman is giving him the side-eye.
This comic book was okay, maybe I expected a little more. Some of the comics were funny and relatable, but others were just there and sometimes they also felt a bit repetitive. The drawing style wasn't my favourite, I usually prefer something a bit more elaborate. But overall, I'm definitely curious to read something else by this author.
All you need is love… right? Nah. Well, kinda, if you’re Liz Prince. Because while Alone Forever celebrates the single life and the frustrating, and sometimes funny, labyrinth that is modern dating, Prince is still in love with love.
She’s always trying different methods to meet that someone special, whether it’s being a wingman for a mate when they hit the bars, or trying to make eye contact with cute guys on the tube or in the street, or even trying the online dating site, OK Cupid. As she puts it to those who aren’t trying to find love, she’s a hopeless romantic, you’re just hopeless!
Which sounds like she’s a nutbag, but she’s not - she’s well aware of the person she’s presenting in the book which I’m sure is partly her real self but not entirely who she is as a person. So these strips, collected from her webcomic, centre around her foibles with love - falling for guys with beards and flannel shirts, being a part of the punk rock scene, and having disastrous first dates.
The strips are meant to be funny but I didn’t really laugh at any of them - they’re clever funny, not laugh out loud funny, if you know what I mean, and some are just… meh. Self-deprecating autobio comics are a genre of comics I’m quite familiar with and Liz Prince, while a charming cartoonist, reminded me heavily of other artists like Julia Wertz, James Kochalka and Jeffrey Brown (the latter two I think are also with Top Shelf).
That and all of the above artists have done comics about cats - Jeffrey Brown has published two entire books just about cats!!! - and so has Liz Prince. I get it, cats are whacky, we all love cats, but wow is it played out at this point. And to be totally honest the whole hopeless at love/neurotic girl and proud schtick gets old before the end - there are only so many strips you can read that follow along these lines before it becomes repetitive and stale.
Alone Forever is a sweet and amusing book that’s very readable and I’m sure most people will be able to pick it up and enjoy it, even relate to some of the scenarios, but it’s generally unremarkable and too light to make much of a lasting impression.
Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
A collection of comic strips from Liz Prince on being single, her search for a cute boy with a beard and all the angst that comes with it. There's not really that much to say about this book, it was entertaining but I felt as though I was missing something with the humour. I sort of got a mixed message from this as well, on the one hand it's great to be single and do your thing but this comic is all about a never ending search for Mr Right, obviously this means it's not that great to be single, confusing. I did enjoy her foray into online dating, some of her singleton situations will resonate painfully with readers as her take on dating is extremely honest. All in all it's a cute comic that is more clever than funny but it's a nice way to spend an hour.
I really loved this. Prince is a really great writer and humorist. This is slice of life focused on relationship sort of stuff, has a diary format. She is clever in her humor, pretty biting and sharp often times and I like that. Her personality shows through in the writing and art, and I think that's a great thing because she strikes me as an interesting person.
Don't go into this thing expecting detailed realism, the drawing style is charming and works perfectly to communicate the ideas of the artist imo. Look forward to reading more of her comics.
I didn't know what this was when I picked it up, but it ended up SPEAKING DIRECTLY TO MY LIFE EXPERIENCES. It's about a late 20something living in Cambridge, MA, in the early 2010s and lookin' (often longingly, always tragical-romantically) for love. And mostly falling flat on her ass.
It's about dressing like a giant dork tomboy and making awful jokes and just bein' a real nerd. It's about makin' eyes at cute bearded hipster-punks that wander around Porter Square, Davis Square, and Harvard Square. And it's about being shit at taking compliments, mismatched flirting, and the "human horror show" that is OkCupid. Like, I think literally every panel in this book happened to me in a very similar way, apparently in the exact same spots and coffee shops. Except, instead of a bunch of bearded hipster cuties complimenting my band t-shirt as I board the Porter Square T, it was my neon hi-tops (THEY ARE SWEEEET, and I still remember one boy's compliment: "Your shoes just made my day").
Now I'm convinced I must have walked past Liz Prince a bunch of times.
PERFECT IF YOU ARE LIKE US IN ANY WAY. I laughed loudly and often while reading this.
Oh Liz Prince. You never fail to make me laugh. I read her book Tomboy awhile back and I really enjoyed it, so when I saw Alone Forever I knew I needed it. I was right!
This collection of comics made me laugh out loud more than once. The beauty of Prince's work is that (at least for me) it is painfully relatable. I've done the whole internet dating scene and it's a scary and awkward place. I've internally battled myself in spurts of "I love being single!" versus "SOMEONE LOVE ME!" I'm not the smoothest person, socially, and I tend to be a bit on the awkward side. I'm also usually oblivious to flirtation.
Alone Forever is a great book for people who have done or relate to any of those things. Prince talks about them with a great sense of humor and honesty. I laughed, I said "awww" quietly to myself, and I read a few more than once because I loved them so much.
I recommend this book to anyone who has ever been single, fallen asleep among their cats, or has braved the depths of online dating. This is better suited for a more mature audience, as the language is not for little eyes and ears. This is a perfect gift for one of your girlfriends, or for yourself on Valentine's Day.
Thanks to Netgalley and Top Shelf Productions for my copy in exchange for my honest review. This review can also be found on my blog, Bitches n Prose.
As I've said in the past, one of the fun things about NetGalley is skimming through the comics and graphic novels section and finding treasures there I might not have heard of before or might have overlooked.
Liz Prince's Alone Forever: A Singles Collection is one such collection. The series of comic strips examine Liz's attempts to find love in the modern dating world that includes things like OK Cupid and texting your feelings to someone and then awkwardly waiting for a reply (this cartoon reminded me a lot of the Seinfeld episode where George tells his latest date that he loves her, only to not get a response.).
For the most part, Liz's observation are self-deprecating, witty and amusing. I can't help but hope she's exaggerating some aspects of these stories, if only for her own sake. But having been out there in the dating world once upon a time, I have a feeling that some of the more extreme quirks aren't necessarily all that exaggerated.
This collection was a quick, pleasant read and it's one that makes me curious to see what else Prince has to offer. I may have to seek our other collections by Prince or just surf over to her web site and see what other observations on life she has to offer.
In the interest of full disclosure, I received a digital ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
ARC provided through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Alone Forever is a collection of comic strips by the ever entertaining Liz Prince about being single, trying dates and the joys of OK Cupid. I have to admit that I thoroughly enjoy Liz Prince. I loved her memoir Tomboy and this was pretty damn entertaining too.
I don't think it's particularly ground breaking but as a fairly introverted, socially awkward person myself, I could definitely relate. And the OK Cupid ones were so damn perfect.
Overall, it's a fun and quick read. Well worth picking up if you're entertained by other people's dating troubles and the love of being single.
I ended up feeling a little bad for Liz. Self-deprecation can be very funny, but she seems genuinely frustrated. I wonder if she planned to look so vulnerable.
Liz goes out, initiates conversations on the subway and enrolls in Ok cupid for the chance of a true ''I didn't settle'' relationship. So why is she forever alone?
Although the comic strips are simplistic, Liz's personality is anything but ordinary. She's funny, sincere and well nourished (she prefers crying with her cat in bed over eating a whole apple pie.) Let's face it, being single when all of your friends are in couples is annoying. Life is depressing enough than to see people holding hands and ordering meals for two. Hope Liz found someone after this book got published.
I think I need to maybe give up on reading graphic novels which are collections of an artist/writer's webcomcis that I've never read before because I so rarely like them. I liked bits and pieces of this but it wasn't very funny, more just relatable. Like this one (hopefully you can read it):
Ultimately I just find comics about women meeting men who treat them poorly, even if they don't mean to, quite depressing so I wish I could have liked this more but it made me more sad that happy. Oops.
Quick and very enjoyable read of a collection of romance seeking comics. I found this book to be quite funny. My reactions fall into these 3 categories: smiley grin, light chuckles, and loud neighbor disrupting belly laugh. It was cool she referenced some Dr. Frank lyrics in one of her strips as I was able to share those with a friend of mine who loves The Mr. T Experience. Also, she parodied an EC comic cover and I love EC comics so I thought that was pretty totes.
I picked this up because I absolutely loved Tomboy (her childhood memoir). After reading this I’m definitely going to be checking out all her other works.
I liked her book "tomboy" which is why i picked up this copy from the library. However, it wasn't what i expected. Most jokes seemed forced and more on the annoying side than funny. I usually loooooove comics but i struggled to finish the book!
From a book bundle I purchased. Not really good, but some funny jokes. Mostly I was curious about making autobiographical comics, and it was interesting to see her version, but the book wasn’t very funny, and every few pages of my copy got blurry and nearly impossible to read.
While ordering Tomboy I also saw that Liz Prince had other books. I decided on this one (don't worry, I also bought all the others now that I read this one and Tomboy). And yes, until Tomboy I never heard of Liz Prince. It seems like a lot of other people knew here from years ago, either from (it seems) the internet or for her other books.
This one was really funny, ok, not always. Some parts just made me roll my eyes or shake my head. I normally am not one that minds bad language, but I didn't entirely expect in here so yeah it was a bit of a shock. However that shock was over quite quickly.
I have no clue if this is fiction/non-fiction. It is tagged as such, however I felt that some things were just a bit to bordering on not real. And if it is really all true, then I feel really sorry for her that she had to endure those times.
The humour is a bit self-deprecating, which depending on how it is done, can mean I love it or hate it. Luckily in this case I liked it though it made me cringe at times.
I loved her adventures in the trials of Ok Cupid and her trials with guys, she really has zero luck it seems. Though there were some cute guys, in the end they all turned out to be a bit weird or not really her type or some other reason.
I also laughed out loud during the cat parts. She is truly a forever-alone cat lady, doing some kind of silly dance and then booping her cat on his/her nose. :)
All in all I would really recommend this book to people, it is funny, however you will have to love self-deprecating humour and you also need to like the subject or have similar feelings towards dating. I know I did, some things that Liz did are things I did, or things that I felt (like the fact lots of her friends have someone they love).
This was nice I guess? The art work and stories were simple and easy to follow, and a couple of parts were really cute and relateable. The parts that weren't relateable though, were a bit boring. Obviously I didn't expect to agree with everything, and it was easy to skim past the parts I didn't enjoy, but I felt like there was something lacking that I couldn't put my finger on.
I had a giggle at a few points though, like when Liz spoke about her OKcupid experience. It definitely gets better as you go along, and when the comics are a bit longer.
This is the first time I've come across Liz Prince and my god is she funny. Here she pulls together a number of her comic strips that shows the highs and lows of being a singleton, particularly a singleton surrounded by couples. The artwork is simple but damn near perfect in its simplicity which just lets each little strip speak for itself. A depressingly hopeful collection that will help anyone find the humour and joy in being alone, even when it sucks (and as a singleton I feel well placed to be able to say that...maybe I should get my own copy...).
Meant to be a quirky, self-deprecating, humorous autobiographical journey on not finding love. It was mostly meh. I would have been fine with a couple of strips, not a full book. I did appreciate the reference to Boston and Porter Square. I, however, did not appreciate the use of “r[redacted] motherf*cker” right on page one.
A lot of her jokes weren’t my cup of tea. I especially got sick of the “can’t find love because I look like a lesbian” gag. The bits on Ok Cupid were amusing enough.
I got this as an e-arc from NetGalley and, truth be told, I wasn't expecting much, but I guess I was pleasantly surprised. I could really identify with some of Liz's stories about crushes, dating, expectations, etc. so I had lots of fun reading this collection. A very nice, quick and easy-going read for singles and not only! P.S. I had LOL moments as well, so that's gotta count for something! ^_^
I read a lot of these comics in zines or online, but I couldn't resist picking up the collection at Myopic last weekend. I was just writing a little bit about the history of romance comics for LA Review of Books, so the topic was fresh in my mind. Liz Prince is always laugh-out-loud funny and super relatable.
**I received a free digital copy of this book from NetGalley in return for an honest review.**
What a fun comic to read. And also I have felt all of these things before. This book drove me to her website in search of other funny offerings so I guess that aspect worked for sure. I will be grabbing up more books of this nature in the future.
Liz Prince and I got things in common. I like guys with beards and I like cats too. There's nothing wrong about being single! A collection of comic strips about Liz's experiences and attempts on liking, loving, and dating someone. Very funny and relatable.
Liz Prince's comics have long been among my favorite webcomics going. Her silly, bittersweet, self-deprecating, awkward humor has always struck a chord with me, and I'm glad to say that this newest collection is among her best.