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The Fart Party #1-2
Museum of Mistakes: The Official Fart Party Collection 2004-2010
In 2004, Julia Wertz began a series of funny, irreverent autobiographical comics she called "The Fart Party." After posting these comics online to acclaim and controversy, she eventually started collecting these comics as self-published minis which found their way to Atomic Books in Baltimore, who thought they ought to be collected into a proper book so as to garner Julia more laughs and hate mail.
As these things go, the first volume was so successful, there was a second volume. Both are now out of print, but Museum of Mistakes collects them into one book, plus numerous pages of Julia's early comic work, unpublished and/or previously uncollected comics, short stories, illustrations, process pages, hate mail, sketchbook pages, tear stains and more.
As these things go, the first volume was so successful, there was a second volume. Both are now out of print, but Museum of Mistakes collects them into one book, plus numerous pages of Julia's early comic work, unpublished and/or previously uncollected comics, short stories, illustrations, process pages, hate mail, sketchbook pages, tear stains and more.
399 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 2014
9 people are currently reading
412 people want to read
About the author
Julia Wertz
21 books621 followersJulia Wertz is a professional cartoonist, amateur historian, and part-time urban explorer. She made the comic books The Fart Party vol 1 and vol 2 (collected in Museum of Mistakes) and the graphic novels Drinking at the Movies, The Infinite Wait, Tenements, Towers, & Trash, (for which she won the 2018 Brendan Gill Prize), and Impossible People. She does regular short story comics for the New Yorker. Her work has appeared regularly in the New York Times, Harper’s Magazine, the Believer, the Best American Comics, and other publications. Her photography of abandoned places has appeared in a handful of newspapers. She is a repeated MacDowell fellow but was rejected from Yaddo. Originally from the San Francisco Bay Area, she spent a decade in New York City before settling in Sonoma County, CA, with her partner Oliver (yup, the Oliver from Fart Party) and their son Felix. She’s currently working on the graphic novel Bury Me Already (It’s Nice Down Here) to be released in 2025.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 53 reviews
April 13, 2022
Julia Wertz made a lot of short gag strips early in her comics career which got collected in the books The Fart Party, Volumes 1 and 2, and are collected here in Museum of Mistakes, along with the unpublished Volume 3 and a buncha miscellaneous crapola.
Wertz is actually a really good cartoonist and I enjoyed Drinking at the Movies and The Infinite Wait a lot but her Fart Party stuff is complete and utter drek!
The strips are about being in her early 20s and are effectively her learning how to cartoon. The “gags” are tediously repetitive: she’s always the butt of the joke, always being drunk and silly, she’s insecure, a slob, antisocial, blah blah blah. She’s so “unladylike” - woah, what an outlaw! None of the strips are the least bit funny and it’s amazing there was an audience at all for this rubbish.
Padding out this (now out of print but apparently a new version is coming back to print soon for unfathomable reasons) edition are sketchbook pages, mixtape lists and unreadable comics from her teenage years (these are the wertzst part of this most boring of books).
It was interesting looking up what Wertz is doing these days. She ended up marrying the boyfriend she broke up with at the end of the first Fart Party book and they now have a baby together! She’s also working on a new long form autobio comic that’s soon to be published.
The extracts from Drinking at the Movies and The Infinite Wait included at the end of this collection reminded me how good a cartoonist she can be so I’m all in for the new book. In the meantime, if you’re interested in this creator’s work, definitely don’t bother with the instantly-forgettable Fart Party strips and check out Drinking at the Movies and The Infinite Wait instead.
Wertz is actually a really good cartoonist and I enjoyed Drinking at the Movies and The Infinite Wait a lot but her Fart Party stuff is complete and utter drek!
The strips are about being in her early 20s and are effectively her learning how to cartoon. The “gags” are tediously repetitive: she’s always the butt of the joke, always being drunk and silly, she’s insecure, a slob, antisocial, blah blah blah. She’s so “unladylike” - woah, what an outlaw! None of the strips are the least bit funny and it’s amazing there was an audience at all for this rubbish.
Padding out this (now out of print but apparently a new version is coming back to print soon for unfathomable reasons) edition are sketchbook pages, mixtape lists and unreadable comics from her teenage years (these are the wertzst part of this most boring of books).
It was interesting looking up what Wertz is doing these days. She ended up marrying the boyfriend she broke up with at the end of the first Fart Party book and they now have a baby together! She’s also working on a new long form autobio comic that’s soon to be published.
The extracts from Drinking at the Movies and The Infinite Wait included at the end of this collection reminded me how good a cartoonist she can be so I’m all in for the new book. In the meantime, if you’re interested in this creator’s work, definitely don’t bother with the instantly-forgettable Fart Party strips and check out Drinking at the Movies and The Infinite Wait instead.
September 29, 2015
This is Wertz's biggest collection so far, collecting volumes one and two of the Fart Party books and adding what is essentially a new third volume-worth of Fart Party stuff with all sorts of other early stuff thrown in, with commentary, maybe almost half of it I had not seen. Great and sophomoric/juvenile stuff documenting her cute and endearing and foul-mouthed loser early comics work, made in an alcoholic haze she is honest and self deprecating about, always. Self-deprecating, as she knows, makes for more and more endearment. . .. The more self trashing, in funny ways, the better, and it works for me.
This is a great collection to have, if you haven't read her at all. Drinking at the Movies is another book worth checking out, too, but this is the one to start with, this is the heart of her work. I hope she tries to figure out how to revise the book she has drafted on her darkest drunken times, and rehab, but it looks like she can't (yet) figure out how to do it to her satisfaction. Maybe she can't figure out how to do with her signature humor, as this obviously takes us into the darkest territory, but as a memoirist, she is never boring, and often hilarious, so I'd like to see how she can do it. I know you can, Julia! Come on!
Note: in case you don't like buying or borrowing books with Fart Party in the title, there are NO FART PARTIES in any of these books. It's just Wertz poking fun at academia, book-making, serious arty title-making, abhorring the idea of anyone treating her like a Serious Artist. As she does in another way when she titles her work with the stuffy title The Infinite Wait. Pretty funny, right? I think so, anyway.
This is a great collection to have, if you haven't read her at all. Drinking at the Movies is another book worth checking out, too, but this is the one to start with, this is the heart of her work. I hope she tries to figure out how to revise the book she has drafted on her darkest drunken times, and rehab, but it looks like she can't (yet) figure out how to do it to her satisfaction. Maybe she can't figure out how to do with her signature humor, as this obviously takes us into the darkest territory, but as a memoirist, she is never boring, and often hilarious, so I'd like to see how she can do it. I know you can, Julia! Come on!
Note: in case you don't like buying or borrowing books with Fart Party in the title, there are NO FART PARTIES in any of these books. It's just Wertz poking fun at academia, book-making, serious arty title-making, abhorring the idea of anyone treating her like a Serious Artist. As she does in another way when she titles her work with the stuffy title The Infinite Wait. Pretty funny, right? I think so, anyway.
June 15, 2019
Aaahhh ha hah ha this is so good. Julia is our generation's Little Lulu.
Here's what I like:
1. I like that she takes frikn Imogen's review from off here and sticks a truncated version (i.e., only the negative part) at the front of this edition in the letters from jerks section. It is a very funny and non-grovelly way to be like look it was a different time and yeah I used some dumb words (Imogen's review is like look I am as humorless as any humorless lesbian but also it's hard to read the R-word etc.). Anyway I just like that, it is nice.
2. I like how these comics are the spiritual equivalent of a cat who thinks being allergic to a cat is bullshit. Like these are very good comics to read because they remind you how satisfying it is to be transparent and flexible and not get hung up on anyone else's deal.
3. They are so fucking CLEAN. I wish I could lay shit out like this, it's gorgeous.
4. The cussing.
Here's what I like:
1. I like that she takes frikn Imogen's review from off here and sticks a truncated version (i.e., only the negative part) at the front of this edition in the letters from jerks section. It is a very funny and non-grovelly way to be like look it was a different time and yeah I used some dumb words (Imogen's review is like look I am as humorless as any humorless lesbian but also it's hard to read the R-word etc.). Anyway I just like that, it is nice.
2. I like how these comics are the spiritual equivalent of a cat who thinks being allergic to a cat is bullshit. Like these are very good comics to read because they remind you how satisfying it is to be transparent and flexible and not get hung up on anyone else's deal.
3. They are so fucking CLEAN. I wish I could lay shit out like this, it's gorgeous.
4. The cussing.
April 6, 2016
This was the first book I grabbed to read after a long few months of targeted reading for my annual outreach at middle schools. I love Wertz' work, and find her very relatable. It's hefty, so expect this to take more than one sitting. In the style of diary-comics, so don't expect a polished, fully produced Graphic Novel here.
October 14, 2017
I am a huge fan of Julia Wertz. She's like comics 'unplugged', with her stripped-down drawings and simple comic lines. You can only unplug when the complexity is obviously there, in the background. Julia's comics are consistently hilarious. She picks up on life's absurdities, she's sarcastic and she's relentless in her self-criticism.
Julia revels in others' criticism too, laughing at her family's disapproval and publishing haters' comments on her books. I actually feel quite protective of Julia at this point, like I'd fight someone who dared put her down. No question, I'm a fan for life.
Julia revels in others' criticism too, laughing at her family's disapproval and publishing haters' comments on her books. I actually feel quite protective of Julia at this point, like I'd fight someone who dared put her down. No question, I'm a fan for life.
June 25, 2018
My excuse for not having discovered The Fart Party comics years ago is that I've just begun exploring comics and graphic novels/memoirs.
No, wait. I'd prefer to blame/credit my sister for sending on her copy of The Infinite Wait a few months ago, which was when I discovered and fell in love with Julia Wertz and her work.
In any case, I'm just so happy that this woman has shown up in my life.
The comics from her first two Fart Party collections (previously out of print) are in here, but there's also random hate mail from random, idiotic people in the internet (and her responses to those complaints - which really don't merit any sort of response). Included are non-Fart Party related comics, her very early pre-FP comics, and an extensive section of sketches from the neighborhoods (especially the tenderloin district in San Francisco) where she has lived. I gather there are fools out there who have accused Wertz's drawings of being crude; the additional inclusions in this collection show her variety of artistic abilities (not that she needs to showcase anything else to justify her thoroughly delightful most-commonly published comic sketches and strips).
The last full length novel I finished was Station Eleven, and I was so affected by that novel that I just naturally stepped back from reading another regular novel for a couple of weeks. I'm happy for the coincidence that Museum arrived the same week, and I expected to quickly devour this very different sort of narrative. But it actually took me much longer to read Museum than I anticipated and that's because well written and illustrated comics and memoirs always need more time and consideration.
She just knows. She knows what it's like to be an introvert, knows the desire to make friends and then hope that those friends don't really expect you to make plans or anything like that. She knows books and their influence on your emotions, knows burritos and their influence on your belly.
No, wait. I'd prefer to blame/credit my sister for sending on her copy of The Infinite Wait a few months ago, which was when I discovered and fell in love with Julia Wertz and her work.
In any case, I'm just so happy that this woman has shown up in my life.
The comics from her first two Fart Party collections (previously out of print) are in here, but there's also random hate mail from random, idiotic people in the internet (and her responses to those complaints - which really don't merit any sort of response). Included are non-Fart Party related comics, her very early pre-FP comics, and an extensive section of sketches from the neighborhoods (especially the tenderloin district in San Francisco) where she has lived. I gather there are fools out there who have accused Wertz's drawings of being crude; the additional inclusions in this collection show her variety of artistic abilities (not that she needs to showcase anything else to justify her thoroughly delightful most-commonly published comic sketches and strips).
The last full length novel I finished was Station Eleven, and I was so affected by that novel that I just naturally stepped back from reading another regular novel for a couple of weeks. I'm happy for the coincidence that Museum arrived the same week, and I expected to quickly devour this very different sort of narrative. But it actually took me much longer to read Museum than I anticipated and that's because well written and illustrated comics and memoirs always need more time and consideration.
She just knows. She knows what it's like to be an introvert, knows the desire to make friends and then hope that those friends don't really expect you to make plans or anything like that. She knows books and their influence on your emotions, knows burritos and their influence on your belly.
June 24, 2016
I’ve been a fan of Julia Wertz since her early Fart Party days. What can I say? I’m a sucker for witty, self-deprecating, sarcastic humor—And Wertz definitely delivers.
Let me prelude this with a story:
A few years ago, in the midst of a frenzied bookstore dismemberment, I enlisted the help of my brother to assist me on my quest to find a collection of comics I had raved about in previous years. We spent two hours amid chaos searching for those comics, and I became so desperate that I started asking every employee (and stranger who looked like they could be an employee) where Fart Party was located. I looked like a nut shouting “Fart Party! Fart Party! I need to find Fart Party!”
Not surprisingly, I walked out as a defeated, empty-handed loon that day.
Needless to say, years later when I discovered Fart Party’s grown-up (ha!) self, Museum of Mistakes, I quickly snatched myself a copy and blissfully paraded it around my brother as proof that Wertz’s comical genius does indeed exists. Luckily, in addition to a third section of previously unreleased works, Museum of Mistakes coalesces her previous two volumes of Fart Party comics. You betcha I'm thrilled.
If I had to sum up Wertz’s comics, I’d say she amusingly overcomes the diarrhea sensation called life. She is a survivor. She has stories. And I'm convinced it’s a great time for everyone involved. In other words, if you’re having a day handcrafted by Satan himself, Museum of Mistakes shall be your savior because Wertz has the ability to turn a shitty day into comedic gold.
Let me prelude this with a story:
A few years ago, in the midst of a frenzied bookstore dismemberment, I enlisted the help of my brother to assist me on my quest to find a collection of comics I had raved about in previous years. We spent two hours amid chaos searching for those comics, and I became so desperate that I started asking every employee (and stranger who looked like they could be an employee) where Fart Party was located. I looked like a nut shouting “Fart Party! Fart Party! I need to find Fart Party!”
Not surprisingly, I walked out as a defeated, empty-handed loon that day.
Needless to say, years later when I discovered Fart Party’s grown-up (ha!) self, Museum of Mistakes, I quickly snatched myself a copy and blissfully paraded it around my brother as proof that Wertz’s comical genius does indeed exists. Luckily, in addition to a third section of previously unreleased works, Museum of Mistakes coalesces her previous two volumes of Fart Party comics. You betcha I'm thrilled.
If I had to sum up Wertz’s comics, I’d say she amusingly overcomes the diarrhea sensation called life. She is a survivor. She has stories. And I'm convinced it’s a great time for everyone involved. In other words, if you’re having a day handcrafted by Satan himself, Museum of Mistakes shall be your savior because Wertz has the ability to turn a shitty day into comedic gold.
March 18, 2024
I've read a Julia Wertz strip here and there, but I'm shocked that I had never read a Wertz book, because I really loved this one. She has an innate understanding of comics--like John Porcellino, her panels seem simple, but they are so easy to follow along with that there has to be some flash of genius behind their organization.
I loved the throwback to the aughts comic scene. The Laura Park collabs were a special surprise, because she's one of my favorite comics artist, and their friendship really felt like one of the book's highlights. I even appreciated the end pages showing Julia's early styles, sketchbooks, etc. Overall, as someone new to Julia's work, this was the perfect intro.
I loved the throwback to the aughts comic scene. The Laura Park collabs were a special surprise, because she's one of my favorite comics artist, and their friendship really felt like one of the book's highlights. I even appreciated the end pages showing Julia's early styles, sketchbooks, etc. Overall, as someone new to Julia's work, this was the perfect intro.
June 30, 2023
I like Julia Wertz an awful lot and I know we would be friends irl if we ever met and it's also true that there are moments when the privilege is grating and, while I appreciate the apology for her older language choices, I respectfully disagree with her decision to not edit it out. Longest sentence ever.
February 7, 2017
Museum of Mistakes collects Julia Wertz’s Fart Party mini-comics, zines, and webcomics into one, comprehensive, and hilarious account of the joys, pains, and imperfections of twenty-something life. Of course, on the face of it, a lot daily life is boring, no matter our desire to make it less, but Wertz’s wit and comic timing make even the stories about staying in her apartment all day funny and relatable. I mean, everyone stays in their apartment all day on occasion, and everyone jokes about it, but only a special talent can write a comic about that (and everything else) and make it awesome. The perfect combination of Wertz’s writing and drawing come together to make her work some of the most awesome memoir comics out today. Of course, I also like following up on the various music recommendations hidden in the various comics as well!
One of the most interesting things about the Museum of Mistakes is the insights it provides into the evolution and development of Wertz’s style over the years, from her high school scribblings to her first stabs at writing comics as an actual way to make a living, and how various life events, good, bad, and horrible, affect this continuing evolution. Museum of Mistakes also makes a great companion piece to read along with her collection The Infinite Wait, which fills in some of the gaps only hinted at here. As an armchair aficionado of what people refer to as “urban exploration,” I am very curious to see what Julia Wertz does next.
One of the most interesting things about the Museum of Mistakes is the insights it provides into the evolution and development of Wertz’s style over the years, from her high school scribblings to her first stabs at writing comics as an actual way to make a living, and how various life events, good, bad, and horrible, affect this continuing evolution. Museum of Mistakes also makes a great companion piece to read along with her collection The Infinite Wait, which fills in some of the gaps only hinted at here. As an armchair aficionado of what people refer to as “urban exploration,” I am very curious to see what Julia Wertz does next.
May 15, 2018
Museum of Mistakes is a compilation of all of Wertz's early comic work from her webcomic "Fart Party", as well as some unpublished work from her first days as a cartoonist. It's a hilarious slice-of-life comic about a fucked up 20-something and her terrible coping mechanisms. Despite her lack of training, her skills as an artist develop quickly, and Wertz has a great sense of how to frame and construct her panels. It's also fascinating to get such a clear glimpse at the development of an artist over the course of several years!
March 28, 2017
I'm torn between liking this and finding it okay. I certainly see the appeal and often could relate. But I think it's best for me in small doses, as the main character is young and makes decisions that sometimes I'm on board with (yes, more cheese!) and other times seem selfish and tiring.
December 30, 2016
This collected volume of the zines, webcomics, and short stories explores the life of Julia Wertz telling her story with sincerity and humor in an old school comic style. Her drawings, like her stories, are deceptively simple. Black-and-white line drawings depicting her time struggling with her twenties in San Francisco deciding if she is an artist, if she has a problem with alcohol, and how to get by. Wertz has the ability to tell her story so lovably with well-timed self-deprecating jokes about her clothing and job retention mixed with the far more serious issues of dealing with a breakup without a happy ending and her brother's struggle with addiction. It is hard for me not to relate to pieces of Wertz’s comics, as many people must feel which I imagine has led to their popularity. If you have yet to read Julia Wertz, Museum of Mistakes is the ideal place to start and understand her story, as it is the collected works from her comics reaching as far back as 2004. Her full length graphic memoir, Drinking at the Movies, provides a great next step in her story, including a move to New York City, when you are ready to find out what happens for her next.
Get Museum of Mistakes: The Fart Party Collection from the Denver Public Library
- Hana
Get Museum of Mistakes: The Fart Party Collection from the Denver Public Library
- Hana
April 8, 2018
I really enjoy comic/graphic novel memoirs and discovered Julia Wert's book, "Drinking at the Movies" last year. After reading it, I wrote her a message on IG telling her how much I enjoyed it and she actually responded to me. I thought was really nice and gracious of her.
I really like her books because she is so bold and funny and I wish I had a sense of humor like her. In this book, I felt like I could relate to her when she was in a relationship with her boyfriend at the time and could identify with her feelings of insecurity about being in a relationship.
The comics in this book take place in SF and it's cool to read about her experiences being in the city of SF and being able to relate to it so much. Julia Wertz seems like a really cool person and I really enjoyher honesty and humor. If you like memoirs and want to read about what it's like to actually live in SF, not just visit, this would be a good book to read. :)
I really like her books because she is so bold and funny and I wish I had a sense of humor like her. In this book, I felt like I could relate to her when she was in a relationship with her boyfriend at the time and could identify with her feelings of insecurity about being in a relationship.
The comics in this book take place in SF and it's cool to read about her experiences being in the city of SF and being able to relate to it so much. Julia Wertz seems like a really cool person and I really enjoyher honesty and humor. If you like memoirs and want to read about what it's like to actually live in SF, not just visit, this would be a good book to read. :)
July 28, 2025
I read this entire book, front to cover. I'm sure it wasn't intended to be read that way, but I was completely new to Wertz's work and just dove head in. Overall I really enjoy her comics. They are raw and relatable, slightly offensive and exaggerated but seem honest. You can tell she does it for her own outlet and almost like a diary. Some of the jokes seems a little cliche by today's standards (cats and cheese etc) but these have become online tropes after these comics were made, so in many ways she was ahead of the curve. I liked that she included the hate mail and other commentary into this collection. I enjoy seeing an artists process and their commentary on their own work. Overall I'm glad I read this and got familiar with her, I would interested in reading more of her other books and comics.
July 24, 2018
I love this book, but outside of a couple of story-based zines included in the collected works section, I'm not sure I love this any more than just Fart Party 1 and 2. I didn't get a whole lot from the suplimental stuff; Wertz is a GREAT storyteller, and single panel drawings don't do her justice. BUT like reading, say, Elizebeth Bishops letters, all these one panel one-offs provide a backstory and insight that are likely of great interest to a number of people, so even if it's not my particular cup of tea, I'm glad it's available.
Also I never woulda seen those zines, and I really like several of them, so ignore me and go get the book.
Also I never woulda seen those zines, and I really like several of them, so ignore me and go get the book.
February 22, 2019
It took me a long time to finish this because I kept having to put it down. Not because there was anything wrong with it (I love her simple but expressive drawings and self-depreciating humour) but because I found the text SO small it was difficult to read. I often read in bed before going to sleep, but my reading light is not super bright. My old (45 years, so not ancient!) eyes needed super bright daylight to read the text. So that was my only quibble with this book.
January 2, 2024
DNF - an auspicious start to the reading year, but it's due back at the library today after sitting for months half-read then ignored on my least comfortable couch. This is no shade to Wertz who is an excellent comic writer and has done great work, but very much shade to my early 20 something self and how annoying I most certainly was and this comic is far to close on the nose to that self in many ways I am not ready to revisit.
September 27, 2018
This took as long as it did because it's so good and funny but the reproductions are tiny and sometimes hard to read with my old man eyes. Wertz is a goddamn treasure she you should immediately read everything she does.
April 21, 2019
An interesting insight into the development of a graphic novelist/cartoonist. I found some of it confronting & crude but Wertz is so disarmingly honest about her life and struggles that it is hard not to feel affection for her
June 29, 2019
An enjoyable collection of stories from the artist’s life. My only gripe was the weight of the volume. Otherwise our senses of humor aren’t really a match so some of the jokes and insults didn’t have the best reaction from me.
December 14, 2023
3.5 stars. Ouch! This book made my eyes hurt. Even with my reading glasses sometimes the print was SO small and/or illegible that I just gave up reading that part. Other than that it was standard Julia Wertz goodness and entertainment.
October 20, 2024
I liked a lot of this. Impossible people is my favorite though because it is more relatable to me as a 35 year old. I def would have liked these had I known about them in my 20s though. Still enjoyed them now.
July 4, 2017
Read it up to the beginning of Fart Party 2. Good comic if you are still in the college state of mind.
January 4, 2019
Omnibus edition of Fart Party #1 & #2. I think she's funny.
March 15, 2019
FART PARTY IS MY WHOLE WORLD. Julia is pure class.
December 2, 2024
Julia Wertz is always funny.
September 10, 2016
Up there with 'The Sun Also Rises', this was a book that 2016 me needed to read. (That is hilarious. ^_^)
I've always loved Julia Wertz. She's influenced my sense of humor and timing irrevocably. However, I first discovered her in Drinking At The Movies, her 2010 graphic novel. Wertz's character there was an adventurer: a twenty-five-year-old woman moving to New York and, just, fucking up everything. I saw the courage it took to show herself and her friends in this light, simply for its own hilarious sake. I wished I had adventures, too, but I knew that people don't just wake up as adventurers. Wertz *had* to have had a backstory that my lame-o self couldn't replicate.
Museum of Mistakes covers Wertz's first two books and some additional unreleased stuff. This is the book where the curtain comes back and reveals Wertz as just another person, rather than a heroine for our aimless epoch. She has a long-distance relationship that falls apart; she travels the country and ends up hating a big chunk of the experience; she finishes college and doesn't particularly care. Drinking At The Movies had grandeur; Museum of Mistakes shows the mundane. It humanizes her. It makes the later book more human. *Anyone* can have these stories. Wertz just put pen to paper about it.
For me, Museum of Mistakes is a call to action. The Wertz in Drinking At The Movies has adventures that are attainable now that I know her story: Wertz's early twenties were nothing fancy, nothing out of the ordinary. What's stopping any of us from moving to our perhaps-metaphorical New York and becoming ourselves?
I've always loved Julia Wertz. She's influenced my sense of humor and timing irrevocably. However, I first discovered her in Drinking At The Movies, her 2010 graphic novel. Wertz's character there was an adventurer: a twenty-five-year-old woman moving to New York and, just, fucking up everything. I saw the courage it took to show herself and her friends in this light, simply for its own hilarious sake. I wished I had adventures, too, but I knew that people don't just wake up as adventurers. Wertz *had* to have had a backstory that my lame-o self couldn't replicate.
Museum of Mistakes covers Wertz's first two books and some additional unreleased stuff. This is the book where the curtain comes back and reveals Wertz as just another person, rather than a heroine for our aimless epoch. She has a long-distance relationship that falls apart; she travels the country and ends up hating a big chunk of the experience; she finishes college and doesn't particularly care. Drinking At The Movies had grandeur; Museum of Mistakes shows the mundane. It humanizes her. It makes the later book more human. *Anyone* can have these stories. Wertz just put pen to paper about it.
For me, Museum of Mistakes is a call to action. The Wertz in Drinking At The Movies has adventures that are attainable now that I know her story: Wertz's early twenties were nothing fancy, nothing out of the ordinary. What's stopping any of us from moving to our perhaps-metaphorical New York and becoming ourselves?
September 18, 2016
I read (subsequently re-read and am presently re-re-reading) Drinking at the Movies while living in Seattle, in a historic (relatively inexpensive for a city with zero rent control and charmingly decrepit) building while working at an "Artisan" Bakery as over the years my feeble protestations about Graduate Studies were reduced to an idle but eloquent resentment fueled by caffeine, alcohol, Netflix, inter-library loans and Record Store bin perusing. Perhaps I could easily identify with Julia Wertz, who relocated in a reverse manifest destiny diaspora from San Francisco to Brooklyn? Using mass transit, coping with the belligerent homeless population, noting the cultural differences between East and West Coast mentalities and cuisine, coping with a pretentious coffee shop clientele and using sarcasm to simultaneously alienate and attract people with a similar mindset while paradoxically torn between the desire to be alone and the desire to be sought out socially by others, were all things a mid-20s misanthrope can identify with. At 30-ish (that ain't none of your business) reading the Fart Party Collection (whose original Atomic publications had gone out of print and were subsequently stolen from the library by other less scrupulous patrons) for the first time, I found that these earlier online cartoons were endearing and awkward. I do not think that Oliver really defined the series, like some other uber-fans or casually condescending cognoscenti were debating. Perhaps it was because Drinking at the Movies offered a more identifiable protagonist version of Julia, I was perpetually boyfriend-less either some times through my own preferences (but often because the hyper-articulate persona I cultivated in the social vacuum of Seattle was perceived as too much by the affected and detached plaid clad bears of the Pacific Northwest). Museum of Mistakes is a bit fragmented, but that is the nature of online strips. I continue to find Ms. Wertz compelling, especially reading the hate mail sections. Hopefully the comedic memoirist and artist will find that despite the brutal mediocrity of most online criticism and the backlash against marginal literary celebrity followed by the reality of still having to make ends meet and figure out how to cope with the person you are becoming, there are people you have legitimately touched and inspired.
July 3, 2016
I hate that I didn't love it!
I didn't enjoy it as much as the first comics I read by Wertz (Drinking at the Movies). It makes sense though because "Museum of Mistakes" is a compilation of her earlier material. I like that she included her different graphic/panel styles before she settled on her typical "Fart Party" style. It was a unique insight and I enjoyed seeing her progression. I admire that she is a self-taught cartoonist and puts her life (funny parts and the other stuff) on paper for random ass strangers to read.
So why three stars?
I was frustrated with the layout of the comics and it was too random. I don't mind it not being a "graphic novel," but it got ridiculous in some parts of the book. There are also repeated comics and in some of the panels she uses a tiny font that was making me feel like I was 50, or other fonts were too whacky that they were just confusing to read. And damn, I hate to say it, but more than a few times I just didn't think it was funny or anything well, good at all. I noticed a lot of typos/grammar issues with a lot of the comics too, which isn't a huge deal, but was strange to see in a published collection of her early work. Overall, it just felt like all her hard work over the years was thrown together carelessly, which honestly upset me! I really enjoy her work and was excited to read this collection and then it just felt like an undergrad's final paper put together an hour before it was due.
I'm still excited to read her hilariously titled "The Infinite Wait" and any other work she does. Once you read Wertz you think of her as a good friend you will support wholeheartedly, and also be an honest asshole to (only because we care).
I didn't enjoy it as much as the first comics I read by Wertz (Drinking at the Movies). It makes sense though because "Museum of Mistakes" is a compilation of her earlier material. I like that she included her different graphic/panel styles before she settled on her typical "Fart Party" style. It was a unique insight and I enjoyed seeing her progression. I admire that she is a self-taught cartoonist and puts her life (funny parts and the other stuff) on paper for random ass strangers to read.
So why three stars?
I was frustrated with the layout of the comics and it was too random. I don't mind it not being a "graphic novel," but it got ridiculous in some parts of the book. There are also repeated comics and in some of the panels she uses a tiny font that was making me feel like I was 50, or other fonts were too whacky that they were just confusing to read. And damn, I hate to say it, but more than a few times I just didn't think it was funny or anything well, good at all. I noticed a lot of typos/grammar issues with a lot of the comics too, which isn't a huge deal, but was strange to see in a published collection of her early work. Overall, it just felt like all her hard work over the years was thrown together carelessly, which honestly upset me! I really enjoy her work and was excited to read this collection and then it just felt like an undergrad's final paper put together an hour before it was due.
I'm still excited to read her hilariously titled "The Infinite Wait" and any other work she does. Once you read Wertz you think of her as a good friend you will support wholeheartedly, and also be an honest asshole to (only because we care).
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