Wertz, Julia – The Fart Party Sampler

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The Fart Party Sampler

Would you believe there’s not a single fart joke in here? Three cheers for that, although there are plenty of poop jokes in here. None of that makes the slightest bit of difference though, for one simple reason: this comic is funny. Seriously, consistently, laugh-out-loud (to drag out the tired cliche) funny. Will-I-get-in-trouble-if-I-sample-every-page funny. It’s mostly just online because Julia’s too poor to print too many of these things, which is a damned shame, and a good reason for you to go that website up there and order comics. What, you want to read about the actual comic first? OK. In here are strips about career options, being small, how to get a boyfriend, drinking, first swear word, Squitches, Jesus camp, insomnia, and babies vs. abortions. And that’s just the first half of the book. She seems to have completely avoided the strip trap of doing every one with the same damned number of panels and set-up, these range from three panels to the whole page. And did I mention that it’s hilarious? I really was laughing pretty much all the way through, which is a rare and welcome thing. Sure, this is the sampler and maybe all of her other comics suck, but looking at some of the examples on the website I really doubt that this is true. She’s also trying to save up money to go to James Sturm’s Center for Cartoon Studies, but screw that. So she could maybe learn to refine her drawing skills, but so what? She already knows how to tell a good story, what more do you need to know? $2