#juliawertz

Drinking at the Movies by Julia Wertz

I’ve thought a lot about Julia Wertz’ work, but only since I started breastfeeding. I bought Drinking at the Movies on my first outing to the comic book store after giving birth this past January. I have no memory of what compelled me to buy the book, but it was a revelatory read.

Wertz’ comics were the only thing I wanted to read during those first few months when life was all about nursing, resting, healing, and learning, learning, learning how the fuck to be a mom. I not only blazed through Drinking at the Movies, but The Infinite Wait and then Museum of Mistakes. Reading Julia Wertz’ comics is like accessing a remote part of your most basic, most interior self that truthfully thinks that farts, poo, and anything excretory is the only comedy worth laughing about. For me, that was the only part of myself that was still in tact amidst excruciating nipple pain, a debilitating hormone tsunami, and a wounded under carriage. I needed the comedy.

I found a friend in her autobio stories, and maybe that’s because we have a few things in common—living in San Francisco, living in Brooklyn, biking everywhere, having way too much experience in food service, and dressing in mostly pants n’ hoodies. We’re both from the same generation of girls who thankfully missed the cues on how we were supposed to act right.

I can firmly say that Wertz’ work is feminist, but to engage with it is to also dismantle the part of your brain that could explain exactly why that is. Wertz is a liberating read for that reason.