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Lève ta jambe, mon poisson est mort!
Julie Doucet's first book collection, featuring a selection of strips culled from her cult comic book series Dirty Plotte is just as odd as it's title suggests. You'll find it all in here: fatal kisses, early misadventures with tampons, ecstatic lovemaking with giant beer bottles, and a host of other strange and unconventional themes from the unfettered imagination of Ms. Doucet.
96 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 1993
134 people want to read
About the author
Julie Doucet
62 books178 followersJulie Doucet is a Canadian underground cartoonist and artist, best known for her autobiographical works such as Dirty Plotte and My New York Diary.
Doucet began cartooning in 1987. Her efforts quickly began to attract critical attention, and she won the 1991 Harvey Award for "Best New Talent".
Shortly thereafter, she moved to New York. Although she moved to Seattle the following year, her experiences in New York formed the basis of the critically-acclaimed My New York Diary (1999). She moved from Seattle to Berlin in 1995, before finally returning to Montreal in 1998. Once there, she released the twelfth and final issue of Dirty Plotte before beginning a brief hiatus from comics.
She returned to the field in 2000 with The Madame Paul Affair, a slice-of-life look at contemporary Montreal which was originally serialized in Ici-Montreal, a local alternative weekly. At the same time, she was branching out into more experimental territory, culminating with the 2001 release of Long Time Relationship, a collection of prints and engravings. In 2004, Doucet also published in French an illustrated diary (Journal) chronicling about a year of her life and, in 2006, an autobiography made from a collage of words cut from magazines and newspapers (J comme Je).
In 2007, Doucet published 365 Days, in which she chronicles her life for a year, starting in late 2002.
After a long hiatus, Doucet came back to publication with Time Zone J (2022).
Doucet began cartooning in 1987. Her efforts quickly began to attract critical attention, and she won the 1991 Harvey Award for "Best New Talent".
Shortly thereafter, she moved to New York. Although she moved to Seattle the following year, her experiences in New York formed the basis of the critically-acclaimed My New York Diary (1999). She moved from Seattle to Berlin in 1995, before finally returning to Montreal in 1998. Once there, she released the twelfth and final issue of Dirty Plotte before beginning a brief hiatus from comics.
She returned to the field in 2000 with The Madame Paul Affair, a slice-of-life look at contemporary Montreal which was originally serialized in Ici-Montreal, a local alternative weekly. At the same time, she was branching out into more experimental territory, culminating with the 2001 release of Long Time Relationship, a collection of prints and engravings. In 2004, Doucet also published in French an illustrated diary (Journal) chronicling about a year of her life and, in 2006, an autobiography made from a collage of words cut from magazines and newspapers (J comme Je).
In 2007, Doucet published 365 Days, in which she chronicles her life for a year, starting in late 2002.
After a long hiatus, Doucet came back to publication with Time Zone J (2022).
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
May 9, 2008
This one got me started. Some of these strips i didn't understand (not speaking Quebequois) some i didn't care for, and some I still show to every human who strays past my door.
March 4, 2019
*I list as translated because she did it herself as you can see from the cover and the early stories that are highly francophonic*
This one gets increasingly fun as it goes- the last 75% (******) makes up for the first 25% (***).
The art in the beginning is the closest similarity I've ever seen to Rick Geary's so that kept me happy through the .5-1 pagers that kept annoyingly switching from vertical to horizontal and were occasionally completely over my head. It's also got (even for her) a heavy flow of the theme expressed in the book's title which as a guy can only be understood theoretically and through association but the slapstick of it is quite funny in her "ROADKILL IS ALWAYS THE MAIN COURSE" sort of way !
Once her art begins to become the signature Julie Doucet, that I adore so, the book gets incredible AND hysterical! The short stories make at least enough sense and the "longer" stories feverishly remind me how much I am in love with this woman! When you see how she portrays herself and you're still in thrall it must be true love!
My favorite details of her work are the chronically messy tables and floors- especially in the kitchen where there is enough room to fit all kinds of Doucettery- and a coffee pot.
The review on the back by one Village Voice Dick made zero sense to me until about three-quarters of the way through the book when I realized it was a one of the best clinical deductions I've ever read in a review:
"Doucet has sweetness and daring, and a self-destructive melancholy no male cartoonist has come close to capturing."
This one gets increasingly fun as it goes- the last 75% (******) makes up for the first 25% (***).
The art in the beginning is the closest similarity I've ever seen to Rick Geary's so that kept me happy through the .5-1 pagers that kept annoyingly switching from vertical to horizontal and were occasionally completely over my head. It's also got (even for her) a heavy flow of the theme expressed in the book's title which as a guy can only be understood theoretically and through association but the slapstick of it is quite funny in her "ROADKILL IS ALWAYS THE MAIN COURSE" sort of way !
Once her art begins to become the signature Julie Doucet, that I adore so, the book gets incredible AND hysterical! The short stories make at least enough sense and the "longer" stories feverishly remind me how much I am in love with this woman! When you see how she portrays herself and you're still in thrall it must be true love!
My favorite details of her work are the chronically messy tables and floors- especially in the kitchen where there is enough room to fit all kinds of Doucettery- and a coffee pot.
The review on the back by one Village Voice Dick made zero sense to me until about three-quarters of the way through the book when I realized it was a one of the best clinical deductions I've ever read in a review:
"Doucet has sweetness and daring, and a self-destructive melancholy no male cartoonist has come close to capturing."
July 8, 2016
A short, weird collection of short, weird stories. Incredibly perverse and twisted, it starts with the author graphically cutting up parts of her body in an insane fashion... Although violent and sick, it is an interesting and creative artistic exploration and dramatization of someone's life experiences, as well as an attack on taboos, norms and boring reality. It dares to 'go there', and functions as a pictorial, chaotic SCREAM. The jokes are kind of lame, the art is OK, the cartoons repetitive, and the micro-plots don't always make sense, in French or English. NSFW.
*Note: The book is about 90% in English, 10% in French, with some French Québecoise jokes.*
True Rating: 2.9 Stars
October 3, 2014
Julie Doucet made her name by creating comics that held nothing back. 'Dirty Plotte' was funny, emotionally authentic and seemingly guileless; but behind the earnest explorations of topics previously untouched by other cartoonists was a keen intellect that was consciously provocative. This volume collects some of her earliest stories. It lacks the stylistic and narrative consistency of her game-changing memoir 'My New York Diary', but is still a funny and fascinating read.
September 24, 2008
This is compiled from Doucet's 'Dirty Plotte' series. She makes great, heavily inked panels that alternate between dreamlike fantasies and autobiographical stories. Even better is 'My New York Diary', but this is a great place to start if you want to get into one of the best comic artists going these days.
June 6, 2007
Never have charming, foxy, disgusting, and nightmarish been combined in such a compelling format. Absolute classic.
February 13, 2009
most of the stories in this book were really great and i would've given it four stars were it not for a few really violent, fucked up stories that disturbed me.
didntfinish-yet
September 12, 2011ummm no, this book is not for me.
July 8, 2016
Incredible. Probably people think of this as the less loved "reject" shorter strips from Dirty Plotte, but worth checking out. Rare. Wierd comics. Feminist. Incredible.
September 3, 2018
why do people waste their time & energy & earth’s resources reading & publishing dude underground alternative comics when we have Julie Doucet?
May 4, 2020
My copy is not called "Lift Your Leg..", it is "Leve ta Jambe...", but I had to choose the hardcover signed and numbered just to brag that I had it.
So, I'm thinking about Julie Doucet the other day, and I couldn't find this book. I scoured the apartment, searched every shelf, finally dug though some boxes, and there it was. So worried that I'd loaned it to someone who never returned it. Big lesson: keep your signed and numbered hardcovers to yourself!
I started seeing Doucet's work in anthologies in the late 80's and was thrilled when the first issue of Dirty Plotte came out around 1991. This coincided with a switch in my employment when I began working for Shinder's Readmore Bookstore in downtown Minneapolis. The comic book buyer of the time decided that 7 was the right amount of copies to sell of DP #1. It sold out right away. And so, when it was resolicited, I asked him if we could purchase more copies, please, sir? "What?" he bellowed at me, "you like that Picasso on crack shit?" Yes, I do, of course, sir, but that's not what it is, either....In my time there, I brought the sales numbers up issue, after issue and was saddened when she stopped at #12. It's alright...
There's so much great storytelling and cartooning here, very honest and raw tales of deep psychological stuff. Torn straight out of the psyche. Cannibalism, fictional, or dreamed, gender-switching, cats, dates, dogs, fantasies, murders, castrations, the dread of Christmas, the love for beer, animated inanimate objects, sex, violence, this was just the start of what she would go on to do.
I am especially protective of this volume, as it holds inside it's flaps a postcard that Julie sent to me after I wrote to her. I'll share with you her sign-off: "Please don't get a tattoo of my penis, ok ) i know you're just kidding...) Bye now, Julie d. I love that she drew a wine (or maybe beer) glass spilling onto my name in the address portion.
In short: Read Julie Doucet! Her other collections are better, but this one is fun, too, if a little, you know, rough. Rough, but beautiful.
So, I'm thinking about Julie Doucet the other day, and I couldn't find this book. I scoured the apartment, searched every shelf, finally dug though some boxes, and there it was. So worried that I'd loaned it to someone who never returned it. Big lesson: keep your signed and numbered hardcovers to yourself!
I started seeing Doucet's work in anthologies in the late 80's and was thrilled when the first issue of Dirty Plotte came out around 1991. This coincided with a switch in my employment when I began working for Shinder's Readmore Bookstore in downtown Minneapolis. The comic book buyer of the time decided that 7 was the right amount of copies to sell of DP #1. It sold out right away. And so, when it was resolicited, I asked him if we could purchase more copies, please, sir? "What?" he bellowed at me, "you like that Picasso on crack shit?" Yes, I do, of course, sir, but that's not what it is, either....In my time there, I brought the sales numbers up issue, after issue and was saddened when she stopped at #12. It's alright...
There's so much great storytelling and cartooning here, very honest and raw tales of deep psychological stuff. Torn straight out of the psyche. Cannibalism, fictional, or dreamed, gender-switching, cats, dates, dogs, fantasies, murders, castrations, the dread of Christmas, the love for beer, animated inanimate objects, sex, violence, this was just the start of what she would go on to do.
I am especially protective of this volume, as it holds inside it's flaps a postcard that Julie sent to me after I wrote to her. I'll share with you her sign-off: "Please don't get a tattoo of my penis, ok ) i know you're just kidding...) Bye now, Julie d. I love that she drew a wine (or maybe beer) glass spilling onto my name in the address portion.
In short: Read Julie Doucet! Her other collections are better, but this one is fun, too, if a little, you know, rough. Rough, but beautiful.
December 28, 2024
made by the unique Julie Doucet, I found this completely out-of-stock graphic novel in a small Brooklyn bookstore; contrarily of what the title might indicate, this piece is in English!; it was quite fun, many one-two-three pages stories; again I love Doucet’s style (very dark, very chaotic, very funny too!); the themes are often the same (alcohol, drugs, periods, being in Montreal or nyc) but they are quite fun and original; would be interested to read her more recent work!
January 13, 2024
Not sure how I feel about this one.. a lot of questionable things happening coming from a white lady
December 11, 2014
So awesome. Couldn't stop giggling.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews