Week of 3/18/2024 Sunday Edition
Dirty Plotte #2 Review
Issue 2 of Julie Doucet’s semi-autobiographical or autobio-inspired comic book series is a diary of the oneiric and macabre. These short episodes feature an eclectic cast of oddball characters who interact with the gritty urban landscape including the bohemian Dre, winsome Monkey the cat, deadbeat pussy Living Dead (both literally and figuratively), and the author herself. The closest the comic gets to straightforward autobio is “An English Lesson” (well, that and the three-panel Christmas anxiety strip) in which Julie practices English with her friend Dre over drinks at a bar. As she gets increasingly drunk with each draft beer, the better her English becomes processing from casual to technical and eventually literary diction with the font changing for each progression. Okay, being able to speak Old English during a drunken episode is a stretch, but I’m sure Doucet had one of those moments of acting more conversational after having too much booze.
Most of the comics throughout read like stream-of-consciousness manifestations of surreal and nightmarish fears, fantasies, and hypothetical scenarios which are viscerally illustrated in lurid detail. It never feels gratuitous, however, because Doucet has a way of using these grotesque elements as a point for reliability or imaginatively stretching them to farcical lengths to play around with narrative tropes alongside language both visual and phrasal.
The reliability aspect is embodied in “The Syringe” which recounts a dream where an acquaintance of Julie stabs her in the eye with the eponymous syringe. While impalement by syringe is very specific, the idea of anything getting in your eye is universally frightening because we know how painful it is for even a speck of dust to touch there.
Meanwhile, comics such as “The Lord’s Supper” and “Blow a Job” revel in their absurdity. In the former, the Eucharist is taken literally as Julie’s cartoon persona and a cast of animals including a goose, deer, cat, horse, crocodile, etc. partake in consuming the meat of a roasted person they call Jesus. “Blow a Job” follows a man who goes inside a hotel room with an escort who then proceeds to undress her clothes and then skin revealing a rodent who subsequently eats itself inside out, thereby turning into a snake that slithers its way to the man’s leg and gives him the blowjob.
Of course, it would be remiss to end this review without mentioning “Monkey and the Living Dead” which is part of an ongoing story that began in the first issue. While I haven’t read the first installment, I was still able to jump into this go along with the comic’s gist which follows the feline Monkey who is searching for a “faucet” that’s a penis. I know it sounds silly, but once you get into it, it’s really whimsical and funny.
Overall, Dirty Plotte #2 is a dreamy trip that’s won me over. I look forward to collecting more of these issues.
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