Julie Doucet (born December 31, 1965)
is a Canadian underground cartoonist and artist, best known for her autobiographical works such as '' Dirty Plotte'' and ''My New York Diary''. Her work is concerned with such topics as "sex, violence,

menstruation Menstruation (also known as a period, among other colloquial terms) is the regular discharge of blood and Mucous membrane, mucosal tissue from the endometrium, inner lining of the uterus through the vagina. The menstrual cycle is characterized ...

and male/female issues."

Biography

Early career

Doucet was born in

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

. She was educated at an all-girls

Catholic school Catholic schools are Parochial school, parochial pre-primary, primary and secondary educational institutions administered in association with the Catholic Church. , the Catholic Church operates the world's largest parochial schools, religious, no ...

, studied fine arts at Cégep du Vieux Montréal (a junior college), then attended

Université du Québec à Montréal The (UQAM; ), is a French language, French-language public university, public research university based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is the largest constituent element of the system. UQAM was founded on April 9, 1969, by the government o ...

. Her university degree was in printing arts. She began cartooning in 1987. She was published in small-press comics and self-published her own comic called '' Dirty Plotte''. She used the photocopied

zine A zine ( ; short for ''magazine'' or ''fanzine'') is, as noted on Merriam-Webster’s official website, a magazine that is a “noncommercial often homemade or online publication usually devoted to specialized and often unconventional subject ...

to record "her day to day life, her dreams, angsts, ndfantasies." It was only when she was published in '' Weirdo'',''Weirdo'' #26
(Fall 1989), Grand Comics Database.

Robert Crumb Robert Dennis Crumb (; born August 30, 1943) is an American artist who often signs his work R. Crumb. His work displays a nostalgia for American folk culture of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and satire of contemporary American c ...

's magazine, that she began to attract critical attention. Shainblum, Mark: "Canada's Alternative Comic Creators Stand Up For Themselves", ''Onset'', vol. 1, #4, p. 25.

Comic works

Doucet began being published by Drawn & Quarterly in January 1991 in a regular-sized comic series also named ''Dirty Plotte''.''Dirty Plotte'' (Drawn & Quarterly) at the GCD
/ref> Shortly thereafter, she moved to New York. Although she moved to

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

the following year, her experiences in New York formed the basis of the critically acclaimed ''My New York Diary'' (many stories of which were taken from ''Dirty Plotte''). She moved from Seattle to

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

in 1995, before finally returning to Montreal in 1998. While in Berlin, she had a book named ''Ciboire de criss'' published by

L'Association L'Association is a French publishing house located in Paris which publishes comic books. It was founded in May 1990 by Jean-Christophe Menu, Lewis Trondheim, David B., Mattt Konture, Patrice Killoffer, Stanislas, and Mokeït. L'Associatio ...

in Paris, her first book in French. Once back in Montreal, she released the twelfth and final issue of ''Dirty Plotte'' before beginning a brief hiatus from comics. She returned to the field in 2000 with ''The Madame Paul Affair'', a slice-of-life look at contemporary Montreal which was originally serialized in '' Ici-Montreal'', a local alternative weekly. At the same time, she was branching out into more experimental territory, culminating with the 2001 release of ''Long Time Relationship'', a collection of prints and engravings. In 2004, Doucet also published in French an illustrated diary (''Journal'') chronicling a year of her life and, in 2006, an

autobiography An autobiography, sometimes informally called an autobio, is a self-written account of one's own life, providing a personal narrative that reflects on the author's experiences, memories, and insights. This genre allows individuals to share thei ...

made from a

collage Collage (, from the , "to glue" or "to stick together") is a technique of art creation, primarily used in the visual arts, but in music too, by which art results from an assembly of different forms, thus creating a new whole. (Compare with pasti ...

of words cut from magazines and newspapers (''J comme Je''). In spring of 2006 she had her first solo print show, named ''en souvenir du Melek'', at the galerie B-312 in Montreal.Art show introduction at galerie B-312 by Jean-Emile Verdier
In December 2007, Drawn and Quarterly published ''365 Days: A Diary by Julie Doucet'', in which she chronicled her life for a year, starting in late 2002.

Post-comic works

She remained a fixture in the Montreal arts community, but in an interview in the June 22, 2006, edition of the ''

Montreal Mirror ''Montreal Mirror'' or just ''Mirror'' was a free English language alternative newsweekly based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada which was distributed every Thursday. It had a circulation of 70,000 and reached a quarter of a million readers per week. ...

'', she declared that she had retired from long-form comics.Interview in the Montreal Mirror, June 22, 2006
She also said "...it's quite a lot of work, and not that much money. I went to a newspaper to propose a comic strip because I only had to draw a small page and it would be out the next week. For once it was regular pay and good money." She had a book of poetry published by L'Oie de Cravan in 2006, ''À l’école de l’amour''.Interview with Doucet
''The Walrus'' Her post-comics artwork consists of

linocut Linocut, also known as lino print, lino printing or linoleum art, is a printmaking technique, a variant of relief printing in which a sheet of linoleum (sometimes mounted on a wooden block) is used for a relief printing, relief surface. A design i ...

s, collage, and

papier-mâché file:JacmelMardiGras.jpg, upright=1.3, Mardi Gras papier-mâché masks, Haiti Papier-mâché ( , , - the French term "mâché" here means "crushed and ground") is a versatile craft technique with roots in ancient China, in which waste paper is s ...

sculptures.Biography at Drawn & Quarterly
/ref> In 2007, Doucet designed the cover for the

Penguin Classics Penguin Classics is an imprint (trade name), imprint of Penguin Books under which classic works of literature are published in English language, English, Spanish language, Spanish, Portuguese language, Portuguese, and Korean language, Korean amon ...

Deluxe Edition of

Louisa May Alcott Louisa May Alcott (; November 29, 1832March 6, 1888) was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet best known for writing the novel ''Little Women'' (1868) and its sequels ''Good Wives'' (1869), ''Little Men'' (1871), and ''Jo's Boys'' ...

's ''

Little Women ''Little Women'' is a coming-of-age novel written by American novelist Louisa May Alcott, originally published in two volumes, in 1868 and 1869. The story follows the lives of the four March sisters— Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy—and details th ...

''.

Return to comics

In April 2022, Doucet returned to making comics with ''Time Zone J'', published by Drawn and Quarterly. As she said about making the new comic: ''Time Zone J'' is notable for its unusual format, which is designed to be read from the bottom of each page to the top.

Awards and honours

In 1991, ''Dirty Plotte'' was nominated for best new series and Doucet won the

Harvey Award The Harvey Awards are given for achievement in comic books. Named for writer-artist Harvey Kurtzman, the Harvey Awards were founded by Gary Groth in 1988, president of the publisher Fantagraphics, to be a successor to the Kirby Awards, which were ...

for " Best New Talent". In 1999, when ''

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 ...

'' made a list of the top 100 comics of all time, she was on several of the short-lists and ''Dirty Plotte'' ranked 96th. In 2000, her book ''My New York Diary'' won the Firecracker Award for best graphic novel. Doucet's book ''365 Days: A Diary'' was nominated for best book award at the 2009 Doug Wright Awards.CBC on the 2008 Doug Wright Awards
/ref> In 2019, Doucet's ''Dirty Plotte'' collection was nominated for the SPX Ignatz award for outstanding collection. In April 2021,she was awarded the Prix Albert-Chartier, during the Festival Québec BD, for her contribution to comics in Quebec. In March 2022, she was awarded the Grand Prix de la ville d'Angoulême as a lifetime achievement. She is only the third woman to win the award.

Bibliography

* ''Dirty Plotte'' (

minicomic A minicomic is a creator-published comic book, often photocopied and stapled or with a handmade binding. In the United Kingdom and Europe the term small press comic is equivalent with minicomic, reserved for those publications measuring A6 (105& ...

) (12 issues, 1988-1989Dirty Plotte mini-comics at the GCD
/ref> * '' Dirty Plotte'' (12 issues, Drawn and Quarterly, Jan. 1991–Aug. 1998) * ''Lift Your Leg, My Fish is Dead!'' (Drawn and Quarterly, 1993) * ''My Most Secret Desire'' (Drawn and Quarterly, 1995) * ''My New York Diary'' (Drawn and Quarterly, May 1999) * ''The Madame Paul Affair'' (Drawn and Quarterly, 2000) — also published in French (

) and Spanish (Inrevés Edicions) * ''Long Time Relationship'' (Drawn and Quarterly, 2001) * (with Benoît Chaput) ''Melek'' (2002) * ''Ciboire de criss'' L'Association, 2004) * ''Journal'' (L'Association, 2004) * ''J comme Je: Essais d'autobiographie'' (Seuil French, 2006) * ''Elle Humour'' (Gingko Press, 2006) * ''Je suis un K'' (2006) * ''365 Days: A Diary by Julie Doucet'' (Drawn and Quarterly, 2007) * ''À l'école de l'amour'' ( L'Oie de Cravan, 2007) * (with

Michel Gondry Michel Gondry (; born 8 May 1963) is a French filmmaker and producer noted for his inventive visual style and distinctive manipulation of mise en scène. Along with Charlie Kaufman, he won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay as one o ...

) ''My New New York Diary'' ( PictureBox, 2010) * ''Dirty Plotte: The Complete Julie Doucet'' (Drawn and Quarterly, 2018) * ''Time Zone J'' (Drawn and Quarterly, 2022) * ''Suicide Total'' (L'Association, 2022)

In popular culture

Doucet's name appears in the lyrics of the

Le Tigre Le Tigre (, ; French for "The Tiger") is an American art punk and riot grrrl band formed by Kathleen Hanna (of Bikini Kill), Johanna Fateman and Sadie Benning in 1998 in New York City. Benning left in 2000 and was replaced by JD Samson. ...

song " Hot Topic."

References

External links

*
Tumblr blog

Store

Julie Doucet webcomic at ''The Walrus'' magazine

Chronological list of Julie Doucet's work at the Grand Comics Database
{{DEFAULTSORT:Doucet, Julie 1965 births Artists from Montreal Canadian comics artists Canadian comics writers Canadian graphic novelists Canadian women artists Canadian women novelists Canadian female comics artists Canadian female comics writers Harvey Award winners for Best New Talent Living people Quebec comics Underground cartoonists Grand Prix de la ville d'Angoulême winners Cégep du Vieux Montréal alumni Novelists from Montreal