From Publishers Weekly
Doucet follows her popular underground comics series Dirty Plotte with an autobiographical graphic novel chronicling her six-month stint as a New Yorker. The book opens when Doucet is 17, just graduated from an all-girls' school in Canada. Before she leaves for New York, she loses her virginity, confronts the deadly monotony of art school and endures a suicide attempt by an odd and pathetic boyfriend. It's soon clear that Doucet learns things the hard way, but in New York City she finds another boyfriend and gives love a second shot. It isn't long, though, before she's in a downward spiral, suffering from both a mysterious bout of seizures and the new boyfriend--who, it turns out, is grimly possessive and a bit of a psycho to boot--so Doucet must plan an escape from him. Full of their author's most intimate and painful moments, Doucet's comics bring a depth of humanity and a deadpan humor to a succession of personal calamities. Doucet's unapologetic candor captures the harsh realities of her life and the pluck (and luck) that gets her out of one self-inflicted jam after another. Much like her life, her black-and-white drawings are complex, detailed and cluttered, and transform the hard knocks and bad decisions of a somewhat innocent underground cartoonist into wonderfully charming tales of urban survival. (Dec.) Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Kirkus Reviews
paper 1-896597-24-6 Among the younger generation of alternative comix artists, Doucet (best known for her comic book, Dirty Plotte) stands out for her engaging combination of a cartoonish style and frank realism; her postfeminist autobiographical tales are tough and self- effacing, bitchy and sweet, and all peopled with her rubbery characters with goofy oversized heads. This beautifully produced volume collects two short stories, both set in Doucets native Montreal, and the long title piece, a tale of misbegotten bohemianism in latter-day Manhattan. The First Time records Doucets unromantic deflowering, soon after graduating from convent school, by an aging hippie. The great backgrounds, full of visual jokes, also contribute to Julie in Junior College, a hapless tale of her subsequent days in art school. The bulk of this b&w collection is made up of Doucets episodic New York diary, a memoir of her year in the city that begins in romantic bliss, builds to a messy breakup, and ends with her escape to Seattle. Endpaper photographs prove Doucets claim that her Washington Heights neighborhood is exceedingly grimy, not just in her deliberately messy drawings. If anything, her rich comedic style softens the scuzzinessthe endless cockroaches and garbage-strewn sidewalks seem funny in her heavily littered frames. With her new beau, Julie guzzles beer by the case, begins to worry about work, and longs to move closer to the action on the Lower East Side. As her career takes off (theres a RAW party scene with a cameo by Art Spiegelman), her lovers career goes nowhere, and he grows increasingly angry and needy, a pattern that culminates in a particularly awful scene on the subway. All of Doucets panels charm with their clutter and with her self-portrait as a sartorially challenged, scraggly haired waif (literally wide-eyed) whos not as weak as she first seems. The hand-lettering, with some misspellings (French is the artists first language), adds to the overall effect: spunky and smart, Doucet is the true voice of grrrrl power. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.


Book Description
It's 1991 and Julie Doucet abruptly packs her bags and moves to New York City. Trouble follows: a jealous boyfriend, insecurity about her art, worsening epilepsy, and a tendency to self-medicate with booze and drugs. One of D+Q's backlist best-sellers comes back with a new cover design by legendary cartoonist Julie Doucet.



About the Author
Julie Doucet is widely regarded as one of the top female cartoonists working in graphic novels. She has worked with D+Q since 1990 and has published 5 graphic novels. As well, editions of Doucet's books have been published in Japan, France, Germany, Italy, and Finland, and her original artwork has been exhibited across the world. Her next new project with D+Q will be the publication of her daily diary, set for a publication date of early 2005.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

It's 1991 and Julie Doucet abruptly packs her bags and moves to New York City. Trouble follows: a jealous boyfriend, insecurity about her art, worsening epilepsy, and a tendency to self-medicate with booze and drugs. One of D+Q's backlist best-sellers comes back with a new cover design by legendary cartoonist Julie Doucet.

Author Biography: Julie Doucet is widely regarded as one of the top female cartoonists working in graphic novels. She has worked with D+Q since 1990 and has published 5 graphic novels. As well, editions of Doucet's books have been published in Japan, France, Germany, Italy, and Finland, and her original artwork ahs been exhibited across the world. Her next new project with D+Q will be the publication of her daily diary, set for a publication date of early 2005.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly