Julia Wertz (born December 29, 1982) is an American cartoonist, writer and

urban explorer Urban exploration (often shortened as UE, urbex and sometimes known as roof and tunnel hacking) is the exploration of manmade structures, usually abandoned ruins or hidden components of the manmade environment. Photography and historical inte ...

Cartooning career

Wertz was born in the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...

. She made her name with a comic strip titled ''The Fart Party'', which Atomic Books anthologized in two volumes in 2007 and 2009. Soon after the strip's success, she retired ''The Fart Party'', claiming she was unaware of its impending significance at the time of its creation."Julia Wertz's Fart Party blows away; Museum of Mistakes steps in"
. ''Comics Beat''. March 15, 2011. Retrieved July 18, 2011. Wertz subsequently moved her online operations to the
Museum of Mistakes
' site, where a few old ''Fart Party'' strips exist in the archive. In 2010, Random House published ''Drinking at the Movies'', Wertz's first full-length graphic memoir. Against the backdrop of her move from San Francisco to New York, the book details serious issues, such as a family member's battle with substance abuse and her own alcoholism, with trademark wit and self-effacement. The ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...

'' called ''Drinking at the Movies'' a "quiet triumph"Ulin, David L
"Book review: 'Drinking at the Movies' by Julia Wertz"
August 29, 2010. ''

''. Retrieved July 18, 2011. and critic Rob Clough, in ''

The Comics Journal ''The Comics Journal'', often abbreviated ''TCJ'', is an American magazine of news and criticism pertaining to comic books, comic strips and graphic novels. Known for its lengthy interviews with comic creators, pointed editorials and scathing r ...

'', said Wertz had "brilliant old-school comic strip timing."Clough, Rob
"Bottled Up: ''Drinking at the Movies''"
. September 4, 2010. ''The Comics Journal''. Retrieved July 18, 2011. ''Drinking at the Movies'' was nominated for a 2011 Eisner Award in the Best Humor Publication category."2011 Eisner Award Nominations Announced"
April 8, 2011. ''MTV Geek''. Retrieved July 18, 2011. In September 2012, Koyama Press published ''The Infinite Wait and Other Stories'', a collection of Wertz's short comic stories, which was nominated for an Eisner Award in the Best Reality Based Work category. In 2014, Atomic Books released ''Museum of Mistakes: The Fart Party Collection'', which anthologized Wertz's early books, plus new and extra material. Her books have been translated into many languages. From 2010 to 2012, Wertz was part of Pizza Island, a Greenpoint studio consisting of cartoonists

Sarah Glidden Sarah Glidden (born in 1980) is an American cartoonist known for her nonfiction comics and graphic novels. Biography Glidden was born in Massachusetts, to a family of Jewish background. Glidden studied painting at Boston University. She began ...

Lisa Hanawalt Lisa Hanawalt (born June 19, 1983) is an American illustrator, writer, and cartoonist. She has published comic series, as well as three books of illustrations. She worked as the production designer and a producer of the Netflix animated series ...

, Domitille Collardey, Karen Sneider,

Kate Beaton Kathryn Moira Beaton (born 8 September 1983) is a Canadian comics artist best known as the creator of the comic strip ''Hark! A Vagrant'', which ran from 2007 to 2018. Her other major works include the children's books '' The Princess and the Po ...

and

Meredith Gran ''Octopus Pie'' is a webcomic written and drawn by Meredith Gran, and coloured by Valerie Halla and Sloane Leong. It focuses on the misadventures of two 20-something women living in Brooklyn, New York. It was updated every Monday, Wednesday and ...

. In 2015, Wertz started a monthly comics series for

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

, about lesser-known historical events and facts about New York City, which appear online and in print. as well as a monthly illustration series of cityscapes for Harper's Magazine. Those pieces were eventually expanded to make the book ''Tenements, Towers & Trash: An Unconventional Illustrated History of New York City'', published by Black Dog & Leventhal/Hachette in 2017, for which Wertz won th
2018 Brendan Gill Prize
After spending a decade in New York City, Wertz moved back to Northern California where she lives with her partner Oliver, and their son Felix. She also run
Adventure Bible School
a blog about

urban exploring Urban exploration (often shortened as UE, urbex and sometimes known as roof and tunnel hacking) is the exploration of manmade structures, usually abandoned ruins or hidden components of the manmade environment. Photography and historical inter ...

.Adventure Bible School
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Books

* ''The Fart Party, vol. 1'', Atomic Books, 2007 () * ''The Fart Party, vol. 2'', Atomic Books, 2009 () * ''Drinking at the Movies'', Random House, 2010 () ** translated as ''Entre Umas E Outras'', Nemo, 2016. () ** translated as ''Drinking at the Movies: Un anno a New York'', Eris Edizioni, 2017. () ** translated as ''Whiskey & New York'', L'Agrume, 2016 () * ''The Infinite Wait'', Koyama Press, 2012 () ** translated as ''L'attente infinie'', L'Agrume, 2015. () ** translated as ''The Infinite Wait'', Eris Edizioni, 2018. () * ''Museum of Mistakes: The Fart Party Collection'', Uncivilized Press, 2023 () ** translated as ''Le Musée de Mes Erreurs,'' L'Agrume 2023 () * ''Tenements, Towers & Trash: An Unconventional Illustrated History of New York City'', Black Dog & Leventhal, 2017 () ** translated as ''Les Entrailles de New York'', L'Agrume 2018 () ** translated as ''Barrios, Bloques y Basura'' Errata Naturae Editores 2018 ()

References

External links

Adventure Bible School
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wertz, Julia Alternative cartoonists American women cartoonists American female comics artists American comics writers Female comics writers Living people 1982 births People from Napa, California People from the San Francisco Bay Area The New Yorker people American cartoonists 21st-century American women