I want Carl Kasell's voice on my home answering machine, too!

January 17, 2012 2:23 PM

Julia Wertz has been posting comics thrice-weekly about her life in San Francisco and then Brooklyn for the past 5 years. Sometimes they're sad. Sometimes they're hilarious. And sometimes they're just strange.

"Formerly and regrettably known as Fart Party," Wertz's comic blog has covered such topics as wanting Carl Kasell's voice on your home answering machine, trying to be stylish, first kisses, her own alcoholism (also, when drinking goes bad, and when it goes wrong, but it's ok), what happens when Lizzy Caplan wants to make your comic into a TV show, being short and, of course, hipsters.

She's been featured previously on the Blue as a part of Pizza Island, a group of young female comic artists, although it looks like they are disbanding.

posted by lunasol (15 comments total)

I'm always on the lookout for more quality webcomics to suck my time away. Thanks for posting. I dig her work.
posted by bryanthecook at 2:29 PM on January 17, 2012

Updates are sporadic, but I still check every day. This girl lays her soul bare for all to see. Not always pretty, but always interesting.
posted by Lone_Wolf at 2:30 PM on January 17, 2012

Just what I needed: a new time suck.
posted by asnider at 2:35 PM on January 17, 2012

I had Carl Kassell's voice on my home answering machine.
posted by pinky at 2:41 PM on January 17, 2012 [2 favorites]

For a long time I dismissed Wertz as a millennial* Julie Doucet only without the drawing chops, but her interviews with Mike Dawson and Alex Robinson helped me realize I wasn't giving her a fair shake.

*Or whatever the hell they're calling the people younger than me nowadays.




http://www.tcj.com/julia-wertz/
http://theinkpanthers.mikedawsoncomics.com/episode-78-featuring-julia-wertz/
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 3:35 PM on January 17, 2012

Stupid posting from iPod or whatever the hell they're calling it nowadays.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 3:36 PM on January 17, 2012

"...being short..."

What is a Skinner box?
posted by mreleganza at 3:39 PM on January 17, 2012

I love her, and I love her drawing style.
posted by Sidhedevil at 3:58 PM on January 17, 2012

A Skinner box is a psychological testing device used to test how rats react to various reward schedules. The joke is that it's appropriately sized for a rat, with a side joke about how it reveals patterns of behavior that seem more mechanical than indicative of free will.

Skinner boxes sized for human beings are called slot machines.
posted by localroger at 3:58 PM on January 17, 2012 [2 favorites]

Julia shared a studio space in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, nicknamed Pizza Island with fellow cartoonists Kate Beaton, Lisa Hanawalt, Meredeth Gran, Deena Sorbel, Domitille Collardey, and Sarah Glidden. That's an incredible amount of talent in one space.

Today it was announced that they lost their lease and that Pizza Island is shutting down.
posted by 1970s Antihero at 4:00 PM on January 17, 2012

This is my favorite.
posted by snapped at 4:18 PM on January 17, 2012 [3 favorites]

My goal is to have my voice on Carl Kassell's home answering machine!
posted by Sidhedevil at 12:26 PM on January 18, 2012 [2 favorites]

I just ordered all three of her books!
posted by Fizz at 3:16 PM on January 18, 2012

I love that one, snapped...I love all of this. Hadn't seen her stuff before, thanks.
posted by purenitrous at 7:39 PM on January 18, 2012

I think she could have used her mother's connection. Just not wirelessly.
posted by Obscure Reference at 2:30 PM on January 19, 2012