Wendy

by Walter Scott

The outrageously funny and painfully relatable satire of an aspiring artist and millennial culture

Walter Scott’s Wendy comics have become a critical sensation, with rave reviews in The New Yorker and The Guardian , and an appearance in the Best American Comics anthology. Learn Wendy’s origin story as Scott hilariously plumbs millennial culture, creative ennui, and the nepotism of the art world’s institutions.

Wendy’s an aspiring artist in a party city, and she’s in a rut. She spends her time snorting mdma in gallery bathrooms and watching Nurse Jackie reruns on her laptop while hungover. So when she’s accepted into the prestigious Flojo Island residency, Wendy vows to buckle down and get working. But during the remote, woodsy residency, Wendy and her collaborator/bff Winona put on a performance piece that becomes the centre of an art world controversy, and so Wendy returns to Montreal, getting a job in a coffee shop to make ends meet.

With Wendy , Scott launches the Wendyverse, brimming with painfully relatable characters like the back-stabbing frenemy Tina, the name-dropping Paloma, the cool drummer Wendy obsesses over, Jeff, and of course, our treasured Wendy, the hot mess we can’t live without. In blunt, laugh out loud funny vignettes with perfect punchlines, Scott illuminates the opacity of artspeak and the ceaseless anxieties plaguing a largely privileged generation.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Bande Dessinée, Art, Canada, Fiction, Graphic Novels Comics

216 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

Walter Scott is an interdisciplinary artist working with writing, illustration, performance and sculpture. In 2011 while living in Montreal, he began a comic book series, Wendy, exploring the narrative of a fictional young woman living in an urban centre, who aspires to global success and art stardom but whose dreams are perpetually derailed. The position of the outsider and shape shifter is central to this body of work and the influence of feminist icons such as Elle Woods in Legally Blonde or artist, punk poet, experimental novelist and filmmaker Kathy Acker lingers. Recent exhibitions include Fictive Communities, Koganecho Bazaar, Yokohama, Japan 2014, Pre-Existing Work, Macaulay & Co. Fine Art, Vancouver 2015, and Stopping the Sun in Its Course, Francois Ghebaly Gallery, Los Angeles 2015.

Based on research in the AGO’s archives, Scott wrote fictions around the works in the collection to create new performances and installations during his residency.

Reviews

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yet another cartoonist castigation of art school, the first in a series by (duh) former art school student Scott, whose final volume, Wendy, Master of Art, I read first. This one feels fresher and more alive, though it is the same Wendy, who wants to be an artist but like most folks in art school spends more time doing drugs, getting drunk (and regularly vomiting, don't forget that) and cruising for boys in bars and punk concerts. But this manages to be fun and funny and was very popular (this one came out in 2014 and MA came out in 2020).

[Troy · Rating 3 out of 5]

1. It creeped me out a bit when I realized this story about a young girl was written by a young guy.

1b. But the characterization of Wendy is dead-on, so I stopped caring nearly immediately that this story about a young girl was written by a young guy. I've known this girl. I've dated this girl. I've been this girl.

2. It also creeps me out that I still haven't totally left Wendy's lifestyle which is nothing but precarity, cynical abandonment of that precarity through paaarrrtaays, bitches!, some despair, a healthy dose of delusion, a sprinkle of treachery, and some tenacity to keep on. I mean, I no longer party like I'm 22, or like my roommate who is a bartender and is constantly bringing home new people. I'm more sedate and more secure and less interested in getting wasted, omg, wtv. But yeah, this book gets that "OMG, want to die; wil nvr drink again... ... OMG lets get hammurt tonight!"

2b. The book is filled with the precarity of being young AND nails what it's like to be a wannabe Artist surrounded by others who want roughly same thing (or at least want to fuck people who are Doing That Thing or are at least talking about Doing That Thing) yet everyone isn't doing much other than so getting so really wasted and, like, so trying to get some. (Go read Sentimental Education. That book nails this same bohemia hipster shit, and in 1869.))

3. And the art? It's fast and shitty and totally awesome. There's this style that the kids are doing which is half manga and half sloppy underground comix let's-draw-really-fast and fuck all that "professional" bullshit from the majors. But it works. Seriously. The drawings are simple enough to completely project your identity, yet different enough to recognize individual characters, e.g., one of Wendy's bffs is a party boy named Screamo who is a cartoon version of Munch's The Scream but a punk hipster version wearing black and constantly drinking or fucking "hot" guys. (All the cartoon boys or girls Scott draws look roughly the same, so "hot" really doesn't mean much to the reader.)

3b. One great thing Scott does is switch drawing styles for Wendy panel to panel. It's a wonderful technique and it works well to get that whole 'early-20s mercurial—hell, nearly bi-polar—emotional state.' Check out a few of the faces of Wendy:

[Bridget Bonaparte · Rating 4 out of 5]

The comic is good but it made me want to quit drinking and move away from mtl lol

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I housed all four of these in about a week. Horrifically accurate and you can't stop reading.

[Jules]

Sad party girl fun: messy sexy horny drunk, esoteric self-aware art bullshit. Brat summer? Wendy year.

[Big Al · Rating 5 out of 5]

This straight-up roast of the art scene in Montreal is one of the funniest comics I’ve ever read. Wendy is a total hot-mess, but I still found myself rooting for her (somehow). She has an optimistic outlook paired with a tendency to over-indulge in self-destructive behaviour. She has grandiose ambitions, but very little focus or perseverance. She is surrounded by toxic people (aside from Winona!), but she can’t stand being alone. This all sounds depressing when I think about it, but Scott’s illustration choices, such as bizarre facial expressions and extreme shifts in emotion, add so much hilarity to the story.

[Romane Robinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

i need to discuss the montreal endless gap year party girl spiral with walter scott

[Gus · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was hilarious and cathartic. Almost like a high brow meme that's actually funny, Wendy's manic peppiness then subsequent embarrassment/sadness/whatever feels so true to real life, as well as the fact that u never rlly see her work or her working, just the partying and gossip and uglier stuff. One of my fav parts was this page that's almost like from a high school yearbook, except it's for an artist residency that Wendy is a part of, and as she looks around the room at all of the diff artists she guesses their mediums. They're all spot on ("net art. noise witch." ) and reminds one of the hierarchies, groups, classifications, wtvr that are everywhere, even in an "elite" (?) art community. Lol idrk

[Robin · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm so relieved I don't have people like the characters in this book in my life.

[Justine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having lived in mile end in Montreal for the past four years I can say this depiction of mtl art scene is spot on . Wendy is every mile end girlie with an art dream.

[Sally Elhennawy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh Wendy… we love you 😭😭

[Cat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Y’a comme un shift qui vient de s’opérer en moi. Un avant et un après Wendy. 🥁🥁🥁 J’aime officiellement les BD! Dans la dernière année j’ai tenté d’apprivoiser ce type de littérature. Faut dire qu’à part quelques Archie au primaire, je n’avais pas trop tenté le coup. Persuadée d’une certaine façon que ça ne pouvait pas être aussi hot que bon roman, un bon récit. Et boom! Le déclic!

Une BD c’est un autre médium, ça permet d’illustrer des petits moments, des pensées, des gestes qui ne pourraient pas être racontés avec la même puissance dans un roman.

L’œuvre de Walter Scott est incroyable ! Wendy est fucking attachante, tu veux être son amie, tu as l’impression d’être elle. C’est drôle, trash attachant et surtout, efficace !! Vive les BD !

[Merritt K. · Rating 4 out of 5]

It would be easy to dismiss this book as a misogynist portrait of a shallow girl artist, but basically everyone in the book is shallow, mean, manipulative, self-centered, and cruel. There are little sparks of generosity and empathy but usually they're later shown to be hollow or simple ruses. It's a pretty relentlessly brutal depiction of arts communities that seems to argue that they're ultimately a trap in which a few lucky and self-serving people succeed and most everyone else gets chewed up and spit out into the gutters of late capitalism. Which, yeah.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

are you ok or do you relate to wendy?

[Marcela Huerta · Rating 4 out of 5]

re-reading the whole series and damn it's so wild to revisit wendy's journey T___T the screamo NDG joke still hits so hard smh

[lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

not all the hipsters working at ‘seagulls’ 😭

[Sam Albert · Rating 4 out of 5]

I AM WENDY I AM SCREAM-O I LOVE THIS AND I AM OBSESSED WITH THIS WHOLE CONCEPT. Despite some jokes that have maybe aged a bit poorly, this really captures the Montreal art scene so accurately it’s perfect and incredible. Basically Girls as a graphic novel but a little more Bratty and a little less PC 🫢 I will be reading all of these I need more

[Eli lit pour la cause · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5

[Camille · Rating 5 out of 5]

Relecture et toujours 5 étoiles! Maudit qu’on l’aime Wendy!

[Renaud Houde · Rating 4 out of 5]

J'ai aimé la variété de styles, le mix de sérieux et d'humour. Un roman graphique pas mal plus profond que ce que la couverture pourrait laisser penser. Excellent.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

If Wendy were to be turned into a movie character, she would be played by Greta Gerwig. I had such a strong sense of this and Gerwig's recent-ish film Frances Ha when I read this that I feel like it's almost crazy this hasn't actually happened yet. Wendy is kind of a train wreck but also kind of fabulous. She's an artist and dreamer who falls for the wrong guys and makes poor life choices, but manages to hold on to her authenticity in the art community cloud of artifice and pretention. She is ridiculous; she is completely real.. You root for her to figure it out even as you watch it all go pear-shaped. A great companion for fans of Greta Gerwig's films (I'm not letting this go) or fans if Girls.

[Emi Yoshida · Rating 1 out of 5]

Well, it's a quick 30 minute read, I will say that for Wendy. And I learned some Canadian Hipster things from reading it, like "WTV" stands for whatever; "NDG" stands for Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, a not cool place to live in Montreal; and "SNF" in this case is not an acronym for Senior Nursing Facility, but the sound one makes when one snorts coke. But other than that I can't think of anything nice to say about the hipster art world or Wendy their ersatz representative.

[Derek Royal · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've known about this book since last fall, but what prompted me to finally read Wendy is this year's Ignatz nominations. We're doing a podcast episode on the nominees for next week, and I wanted to know this book. It's funny, but I had wrong assumptions of Scott's work just by looking at the cover art. Talk about not judging a book by its cover... Actually, an interesting and compelling story.

[Sabrina Gaggino · Rating 5 out of 5]

Les BD de Walter Scott sont hilarantes, j'adore Wendy! Très hâte de lire la 3ième.

[Pascale · Rating 5 out of 5]

A-DO-RÉE

[Sophie Del Degan · Rating 4 out of 5]

4,5⭐️

J’étais une avide lectrice de bandes dessinées quand j’étais plus jeune, alors je suis contente d’avoir trouvé (merci à mes amis pour le cadeau!) une bande dessinée pour adultes.

Wendy est attachante et m’a rappelé ma jeune (et moins jeune) vingtaine avec ses hauts et ses bas. J’ai adoré l’humour, souvent au deuxième degré, autant dans les dessins que dans l’écriture. J’ai trouvé la traduction excellente et bien représentative de notre français québécois. Bien hâte de lire les autres tomes!

[Nicolas Arseneault · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cette BD nous fait revivre le début de la vingtaine avec son lot d'amourettes, de niaisage, de coups bas, de trahison, etc.
Malgré les actes parfois démesurés du personnage de Wendy ou des autres, on s'attache quand même à eux dans toute cette naïveté parce qu'on s'y reconnait encore.

[michal k-c · Rating 4 out of 5]

read in basically one sitting, very good. the screamo bits didn’t land for me but all of the wendy artist residency stuff is so perfect. if you’ve ever read a contemporary artist’s statement and thought “what the fuck are you talking about” then this book is for you

[kate j · Rating 3 out of 5]

this was good!! (2.5? maybe? let goodreads give a book half stars challenge) the dialogue is already sooo so dated which threw me off. but there’s really great and silly comedic panel timing which makes up for it imo! a lot of phoebecomix in this style (or, maybe, a lot of walter scott in phoebecomix)

rip koyama press :(

[Annie L · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wendy évolue dans un milieu trash entouré de gens toxiques. Son côté naïf et son besoin d'être aimée par l'homme du moment la rendent attachante.