Le musée de mes erreurs - L'intégrale de la fête du prout

The Fart Party #1-2

by Julia Wertz

Le recueil des deux premiers livres de Julia Wertz. Plus de 500 pages de BD hilarantes ! Le recueil, inédit en français, des deux premières bandes dessinées de Julia Wertz : The Fart Partry 1 & 2 (La Fête du prout), enrichies de tous les strips qu'elle a dessinés à ses débuts dans la BD. Un ensemble d'histoires courtes dans lesquelles elle aborde toutes sortes de sujets, existentiels ou anecdotiques : sa famille, son enfance, son petit ami, le sexe, l'alcool, la bande dessinée. L'autrice américaine des Entrailles de New York révèle son goût du sarcasme, de l'autodérision et de l'humour trash qui constitue sa signature. Un pavé de plus de 500 pages, hilarant et indispensable, par l'une des autrices de BD contemporaine les plus remarquables.

Genres: Comics, Bande Dessinée, Graphic Novels, Memoir, Humor, Graphic Novels Comics

576 pages, Paperback

Published September 16, 2021

About the author

Julia 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.

Reviews

[Rod Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

A massive collection of most of Julia Wertz's Fart Party material. I read the first two volumes a decade ago, but I thought it a good idea to revisit them in this handy chunk of book before diving into Wertz's new graphic memoir, Impossible People: A Completely Average Recovery Story. Everything is still felt fresh and funny with the exception of some insensitive language which Wertz apologizes for up front. I appreciate that she didn't edit out the offensive stuff though, giving us a warts and all look at her early work.

I'm often put off by books that center around a person with a substance abuse problem, but somehow Wertz's cartoon avatar stays adorable despite her drinking. The bathroom humor and her introverted personality kept me hooked as she wandered around California and made her way to New York City. It's sort of fun to track her growing popularity as a creator as more and more indy cartoonists start making cameo appearances in her strips, hanging out and working with her.

It took me nearly a week to get through this brick, but it was time well spent.


FOR REFERENCE:

Table of Contents for Museum of Mistakes: The Fart Party Collection, 2014, 400 pages:
• 1 - The Fart Party, Vol. 1 : Drawn/happened in 2005/2006, published in 2007.
• 2 - The Fart Party, Vol. 2 : Drawn/happened in 2006/2007, published in 2009.
• 3 - What Would Have Been The Fart Party Vol. 3, Had I Made It Instead I made Drinking at the Movies. The random comics I made during 2008-2012 unpublished make up this section.
• 4 - Sugar Pill Comix - The earliest early work that was never shown or published anywhere, for obvious reasons.
• 5 - Behind the Scenes - Process pages and sketchbook illustrations.
• 6 - Zines n' Things - Scraps from early zines, fan (hate) mail, interviews, magazine articles, short stories, etc. . . .


Table of Contents for Museum of Mistakes: The Definitive Fart Party Collection, 2023, 528 pages:
• Introduction: An Illustrated Guide to The Museum of Mistakes
• The Fart Party Vol. 1: Published in 2006 by Atomic Books [with Foreword and contribution by Peter Bagge and contribution by Josh Wertz]
• The Fart Party Vol. 2: Published in 2009 by Atomic Books [with Foreword by Nicholas Gurewitch]
• (What Would Have Been) The Fart Party Vol. 3: If I had made it. Instead I made Drinking at the Movies, a graphic novel about moving to NYC that follows Vol. 2. This section is all the unpublished, random comics I made during that time that were not put into a book
• Sketches by Laura Park and Myself: Done in Chicago and NYC, 2006-2012
• Sketchbook: Random doodles, commissioned pieces, promo art, etc.
• Sugarpill Comix: The earliest comics I made that were never published anywhere, for reasons that will be obvious when you get to this section.
• The Legend of Rebob Mountain: A semi-fictionalized version of true events that happened during my childhood in the 1980's.
• Addendum: The Fart Party's Over: A "graphic essay" I did for Narrativly in 2014, explaining why I quit making comics for a while.

[Branca Cepelowicz · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm in this picture and I don't like it

[Tom Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

I recently went to a comic book discussion where Julia Wertz was scheduled to talk. She was a physical no-show (she was nursing a cold) but dialed in from home via Zoom. At one point the auditorium's giant screen switched from a page of her work to her giant snotty face leaning into the camera. She handled the debasement deftly, with humor and a "what the hell, we're all ridiculous" type of vibe. That was my introduction to Julia Wertz.

Though it took place right under my eyes here in San Francisco, I missed out on the initial Julia Wertz webcomic phenomenon when it began in 2005 under the inauspiciously named Fart Party. She was in her early 20s and dove into the autobio self-disclosing genre just like someone who was in their early 20s would. The quick-paced posting schedule of the web (no time to overthink or censor!) added to this recklessness. I mean reckless in the sense that maybe no one really wants their early 20 self to be out there, for public perusing, forever. Julia addresses this issue in the first couple of pages. So forgive her (if you must) for some awkward and dumb things included here. (Exhibit A, the name Fart Party.)

Initially it was a bit hard for me to get into this though—the jokes were kinda dumb and the obsessions were sort of banal (or maybe just dated, I can't tell). But by about page 50 (the book is over 500 pages), she won me over. She's funny, self-deprecating, interested in a variety of cool things, and basically seems like someone I'd like. It didn't hurt, at least initially, that her adventures were based in San Francisco where I live. I'm about 19 years older than her, but her world was only slightly different from my world. I went to the same bars and did many of the same things she did (maybe that's a poor reflection on my nearly 40-year-old self—what the hell was I doing inhabiting the same world as a 20-year-old?).

Anyhow, I really ended up enjoying this. She's a better artist than her Fart Party. style lets on—she includes other examples of her work for you to judge (if you must!).

[Doyle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Strips inégaux mais certains hilarants. Pour comprendre la genèse du dessin de Wertz et le récit précédent Whiskey & New-York. La partie sur la lecture des commentaires assassins qu'elle a reçus sur Goodreads est géniale

[Annie L · Rating 4 out of 5]

Julia Wertz m'était inconnue, ce fut un plaisir de la découvrir. J'ai aimé son oeuvre. Au premiers abords, ça peut sembler simpliste et superficiel comme univers, mais il n'en est rien. Elle nous dévoile beaucoup si on sait bien comprendre ce qui se cache derrière son humour un peu vulgaire. Déjà hâte de la retrouver dans ses autres œuvres.

[Miles · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fart party will forever be remembered throughout the annals of history

[Nakedfartbarfer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really liked this author's book about her recovery from alcohol, Impossible People, but I didn't care for this thing. I've read a bunch of graphic memoirs in comic format, and my usual complaint stands-- so many cartoonists seem to be illustrators first, writers second, and humorists (a very distant) third. If any one of the traits on this podium happen to be totally outstanding and preternatural, you can maybe pull it off without the other two.

As a compendium of effort over many years, Museum of Mistakes is impressive. I like Julia Wertz as a self-biographer, but then again, I may be too willing to accept confession in lieu of incisiveness.

Either way, so many of these punchlines were drab, even at press time. When the author started talking about house rules for Cards Against Humanity-- belligerent millennial Mad Libs 🥱-- around page 400, I gratefully quit trying to find this thing witty. My enjoyment was mostly the leftover inertia of goodwill from her Imposible People book.

[Mina]

Je ne sais meme pas évaluer cette BD il y a tellement de commentaires dans un sens et dans l'autre que je me suis perdue. J'ai passé un bon moment en la lisant et c'était plus profond qu'il n'y paraissait. Les dessins ne sont pas au coeur de l'objet c'est vraiment la narration qui est au centre. J'aimerais bien lire d'autres livres de l'autrice qui soient pensés comme des livres dès le départ. Ici c'est un recueil de strips publiés sur son site et dans des journaux. L'édition que j'ai lue était super avec plein d'explications et de remises en contexte de l'autrice. Bonne lecture !

[Eric · Rating 5 out of 5]

Saw this while on a trip to NYC and had to get it. For some reason, The Fart Party collections were impossible to get via the Denver Library system, even through interlibrary loan. Anyway, this collection was worth the wait. Humorously awkward and raw, you can’t help but root for her to make it big, her way, which it seems like she did. Her post Fart Party books are even better, but this collection was a real treat to read.

[Eliud · Rating 5 out of 5]

This autobiography of Julia Wertz was comically outstanding. I could not stop reading, each page had me laughing. Truly showed me I’m not alone with showing humor as a comic relief. My favorite moments Julia talked about were times with her ex.

[Susana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hilariously crass. If you are an R. Crumb fan, you will probably like this too.
Addictive as facebook reels.

[Daisye Orr · Rating 4 out of 5]

Can't go wrong (or if you do, it's enjoyable) with Wertz!

[Meg · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love Julia sweets comics, they always make me laugh. I didn’t enjoy this collection as much as her other work eg Impossible People but I enjoyed more exposure to the Fart Party strip.

[Butts McKenzie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible

[Mara · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve been a big fan of Julia Wertz’s work for years, since I first discovered the Fart Party in high school (did not remember that the website was a .org, lol). Very fun to be able to read so many old comics — some of which I remembered, many of which were new to me. I love all of the context this collection provides too, with the evolution of her style and different iterations of certain strips. Glad to have this one on my shelf!

[Dean · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is mostly a collection of a series of published comics known as "Fart Party," a title that exaggerates the significance of farting, to be sure, but it's nonetheless juvenile, and being juvenile is part of the goal of the characters. As before with Julia Wertz, her book is a little longer than it needs/wants to be. It's humorous, but this is too much Fart Party to read all at once.

An easy, entertaining assortment with no great insights.