Art For Art’s Sake #83: The Memorable Art Of Julie Douchet

The joy of comics, bringing just a little light into the long, long darkness we’re seeming to have to put up with right now. Seriously, when is it going to get better? WHEN???? Right now, all we can do is keep on keeping on and look after ourselves and look after each other.

Now… Art For Art’s Sake…

Joe Decie – an old one but add a mask and bang up to date!

Simon Gane – Andre Franquin’s Gaston…

Joe Matt…

Jim Mahfood

Mike McMahon Dredd

Mike Hoffman Modesty Blaise

Tetsuo – Trad Moore

Wally Wood

Hunt Emerson

Alison Bechdel

Carol Lay

Mary Fleener

Roberta Gregory

We shall end with an extended look at some of Julie Douchet’s powerful work.

Douchet was an artist whose work first caught attention in the late ’80s with her small press comics and her self-published version of Dirty Plotte, before being published by Drawn & Quarterly from 1991-1998.

Her work is about so much – female creativity, the struggles of being a woman and a woman cartoonist, beign smart and strong in a society where that’s not universally accepted as a woman, but it’s also all about the little things – everyday life, dreams, worries, fantasies, and all of it done with a freshness, an intensity, an openess. People saw it as loud, as rude, as brash, as crude… and it was, but it was also magnificent.

That she quit comics in 2006 is a tragedy for comics. But we have plenty of her work still to enjoy.