Comics have come a long way since Dan Clowes penned "Art School Confidential" nearly (good lord, >choke!<) thirty years ago (how?), and now, the tables are (well, somewhat) turned, as comics makers can now hold their head high in the hallowed halls of art schools (nearly) everywhere. Those who may now be reduced to walking these halls virtually, will now – thanks to Walter Scott's comics – have recourse to the full experience of art school here in the 270 pages of Wendy, Master of Art. Ups and downs, highs and lows, friends and lovers, art theory and art projects, roomates, apartments, drinking and drugs, cellphones and therapy, and, finally, graduation – it's all here!
Believe it or not, here's the fourth Wendy volume. Is it the best yet? We'll leave that for you to decid. Just arrived (belatedly) here at Copacetic, so, for now, here's D & Q's hype-up:
Everybody’s favorite party girl Wendy is so back in the fourth volume of Walter Scott’s smash series
When Wendy is nominated for the coveted National FoodHut Contemporary Art Prize alongside her friend Winona, all of her millennial dreams seem to be coming true. She lives a post-pandemic, polyamorous fine artist’s lifestyle in the big city and basks in the glory of national attention with the success of her popular comic strip, “Wanda.”
But not even achieving bona fide art star fame can hide the truth: a never-ending struggle with imposter syndrome. After she cracks in an online interview and gets dragged in the comments section, she heads straight to a local watering hole to drown her sorrows. Several lines of coke, too many drinks, and one all night rager with fans later, Wendy is ready to curse Gen Z and confront her addictions. All the while, she and Winona drift apart as a younger Indigenous artist wedges herself between them. Will Wendy’s commitment to change wind up short-lived?
The Wendy Award incisively skewers the art world with its corporate overlords, performative activism, generational wealth, and weaponized therapy speak. A showcase of Walter Scott’s deft wit and social commentary, The Wendy Award asks the hard questions, like Do they still give awards to men? Should we be grateful for the exposure? and What exactly is Big Auntie Energy?
Since 2019, The Museum of Modern Art has commissioned cartoonists and illustrators to craft stories about their experiences inside and outside the museum. Editors Alex Halberstadt and Arlette Hernandez have gathered together here, in the 184 pages of this horizontally formatted, 6" x 12", full color hardcover, twenty-five of those comics, all taking place in the comp;any of – and inspired by – modern art, primarily that shown in and/or part of the collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City (NYC). These comics have been created by a stellar array of cartoonists, including Jon Allen, Gabrielle Bell, Barbara Brandon-Croft, Jessica Campbell, Roz Chast, Ted Closson, Liana Finck, Ali Fitzgerald, November Garcia, Anna Haifisch, Mari Kanstad Johnsen, Patrick Keck, Lee Lai, Ellen Lindner, John Vasquez Mejias, Danica Novgorodoff, Tommi Parrish, Ben Passmore, Weng Pixin, Anna Sarvira, Walter Scott, Bishakh Som, Karl Stevens, Chris Ware (whose contribution is a stand-alone, pull-out / fold-out poster; of course), and Erin Williams.
The horizontaliity of the format* makes for a reading experience akin to that of reading mammoth sized daily newspaper strips of spectacularly diverse approaches, intents and manifested styles. We will admit to having had some trepidation that the work would veer towards the precious and/or self-consciously arty – but no! Our concerns were misplaced. The work presented here largely adheres to the cartoonist ethos and stays true to the comics making / reading experience. So, readers whose personal Venn diagrams show a strong overlap between museum going and comics reading have a very good chance of connecting with much of the work that this collection contains. If that sounds like you, then we can say, "Recommended!"
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*Two of the contributing artists – Ben Passmore and John Vasquez Mejias – decided to "flip the script" (read, format), and chose to go vertical instead, necessitating a ninety degree rotation of the book and making for yet another take on the (very) Old School daily strips that also sometimes ran vertically in the paper, as dictated by space requirements.
