While reading the various comics and interviews by Julie Doucet I was intrigued by how cynical and naive she seemed. Granted her life was in Montreal, Canada but was more well known in Europe and the United States. She had a view of the world through an outsiders eye, her comics are acted through a person telling a story as if they observe it, but do not live it.
Her naivete shows through in NY Diary, as she makes her way through art school and the banal activities they make her do. She waits until the very last minute to fill her sketch book and reflects on all of the experiences she has had during the semester. It is interesting to see how excited she is at the beginning but it quickly wanes as the comic goes on.
In her comic the Madam Paul Affair she tells a story that happened to her but from an outsiders point of view. She seems to take the cynical view as well and points out all of the things that goes wrong in her life. Such as the struggles with her boyfriends to school work. In the comic about her break down she even uses the grotesque to highlight and emphasize her frustrations with her job. She uses odd looking human like figures that are popping up from the ground.
Doucet makes her comics funny with the way the figures are drawn and overly exaggerated, but also makes them relate able in that they describe reality. Her work is dark and black and white with a strong line quality and has to do with human interaction. The strip above highlights her cynical world view insight into the world around her.
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It's interesting how you describe her comics as telling a story that happened to her but from an outsiders point of view. She almost puts the readers in an odd situation, she tells her stories in such way that you can relate to the reality of them, as if it were being told to you by friend. I think her work is entertaining in it’s honest and truthful, depiction of life. She does have this sense of cynical, naivety to them that kind of takes you away from the fact that she is describing herself and her own life experiences. She is blunt in the way she describes her falls and struggles, which is kind of interesting to find in a caricature. I feel like many caricatures and cartoons try and exaggerate or embellish stories in order to get a rise out of the audience. I think her cartoon is successful/shocking due to her honesty.
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