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This article contains explicit illustrations.
Julie Doucet was surprised by the number of penises she received.
Enjoy this silly issue.
Ugh, she replies.
And how many had she expected?
Maybe a couple, but not that many.
So why did she even ask for all those phalluses?
I just wanted to get something in the mail, she says.
Something different, rather than just, I love your work or whatever.
In fact, theres a good deal of evidence that she is.
The winds may be shifting.
This week sees the release ofDirty Plotte: The Complete Julie Doucetfrom venerable indie publisher Drawn + Quarterly.
The compilation might be what it takes to make Doucet finally achieve the notoriety she deserves.
Another open question is just how much of the real Julie Doucet can be found in the compiled comics.
The living Julie, however, says her young life was generally pleasant.
But that was it.
From an early age, she fantasized about subverting gender and its conventions.
When I ask her what she used to doodle as a kid, she replies, Horses.
I just wanted to horse-ride and go swimming and explore the forests.
Around age 17, she started making her own comics, which shes reluctant to revisit.
Very hippie-style, she says of them, laughing.
What can I say?
It was pretty bad.
In 1986, with a circulation of God knows how few people, Doucet had her first published work.
Its remarkable how confrontational even that first, brief comic is.
It features a woman wordlessly dancing a striptease.
So … thats all folks, see you next week, same time, same channel!
Doucet had emerged more or less fully formed.
A path had been lain.
She quickly chafed at the frustration of sharing that path with others.
The anthology was just coming out once in a half a year, she says.
It was really frustrating, always waiting for people, for something to happen.
She put comics into local zines and her school paper, but it wasnt enough for her.
She tried to create a series with a friend, but it was not to be.
We had a fight, Doucet says.
So I decided just to do it myself.
By chance, she came across a periodical calledFactsheet Five, which advertised underground comics.
It was a cornucopia for the curious young Doucet.
She resolved to make her own comic and sell it there.
Factsheet Fivehad these tiny little ads and it was a world in itself, she says.
I guess it felt like I was a part of something then.
She dropped out of school, went on welfare, and got to work.
Shes just a natural-born cartoonist.
Cartoonist Chris Oliveros came across aDirty Plottecomic at a Montreal bookstore in 1989 and was astounded.
Soon afterward, he wrote a letter to Doucet and the two met.
She mentioned that she was looking for a publisher forDirty Plotte.
But the best stuff was about the quasi-fictional Doucet herself.
while her crotch emits the sound effect Clit!
AsDirty Plottewent on, Doucet retained her powerful rawness and idiosyncratic imagery, but her storytelling matured.
The story is never saccharine or lugubrious, and its straightforward storytelling belies a command of the comics form.
But that year also brought a shock to her fans: she announced that she was quitting comics.
I felt trapped, she tells me.
And men tend to be your comic people.
Men tend to be very obsessive about comics and not be interested in anything else but comics.
That drove me crazy.
I used to be so comfortable hanging out mostly with men, but I just couldnt relate anymore.
Indeed, she stopped drawing altogether, even in her private time.
That said, she has a little secret: she recently started drawing again.
They have the distinctive Doucet touches, but theyre more naturalistic, somehow; more based in anatomy.
Could it be that shell make a triumphant return?
She talks about coming back to comics, says her friend and fellow artist Diane Obomsawin.
She says she likes to draw, and recently, shes into a lot of drawing.
But I dont know.
Maybe shell find the right angle to do a new comic.
In the meantime, Doucet is happy to simply revel in what she made all those years ago.
While some artists hate revisiting their old work, she delights in it.
To me, it is my favorite, she says of her firstDirty Plottemini-comics.
It has this vibrant energy in it.
Its just over the top.
When I reread them the first time, I was just laughing.
But if that happens, just ensure you dont deceive yourself into thinking you know Julie Doucet.
When I ask her if her comics were autobiographical, she shakes her head vehemently.
No, she says.
I was just using my own character to tell stories.
But to say that it is autobiographical?
Even the dreams, can you call that autobiographical?
