I will not equivocate on my opinion, I have always worn it on my sleeve

The first Julia Wertz graphic novel that I read was Drinking at the Movies and, as I read it, I realized I’d found a kindred spirit. Wertz is a sarcastic curmudgeon who drinks too much and makes the same mistakes over and over and yet still remains realistically optimistic about her life. So. She’s a person, I guess. She also has a fucking filthy mouth and is hilarious and reminds me of my friends. So reading her books is like hanging out with a friend. (That sounded super goofy and is not something Wertz would ever say about her own book, probably.) Anyway.

The Infinite Wait is a collection of three comics, and all follow Wertz through her succession of shitty jobs, romantic trials and tribulations, a bit about her alcohol problem, and her eventual diagnosis of lupus, which is a chronic, autoimmune disease. It’s that thing that’s always on House (or never on House, your pick).

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bueW1i9kQao]

I find it difficult to review these autobiographical novels, because it feels shitty to say anything bad about them. I don’t have anything bad to say about this novel (or any of her other novels) but when reviewing someone’s life, I’m always hesitant because I don’t want to say anything that would offend them if BY SOME CHANCE they were to ever read my review.

Luckily, I loved this book, just like I loved Drinking at the Movies, and I realized while reading it that I never read her first two novels, Fart Party: volumes 1 and 2. Fart Party was the name of her original webcomic. (I mean, seriously, how can you not love someone who named her comic Fart Party?)

I’ve gotten far off track but let’s try to get back, shall we? We shall. In The Infinite Wait, not only are we treated to Wertz’s thoughts on her numerous shitty jobs, but she’s beginning to work through her feelings toward her alcohol abuse, and she’s diagnosed with a chronic disease, which is enough to shit on anyone’s day. She tackles the diagnosis with humor, though that is a huge thing to have to deal with (especially while struggling with alcoholism and that whole Figuring Yourself Out thing that happens in your twenties). The fact that she’s able to keep her sense of humor about it says a lot about Wertz as a person. In this novel, she also discovers her love of comics, not just reading them, but making them, and we’re all extremely lucky that she did.