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I may or may not be Wendy.
For the first time since graduating university, I took a break from my snoozefeed (that’s scrolling through my newsfeed on Facebook in lieu of getting out of bed) last week and decided to read an actual book.
…sort of.
Wendy (Koyama Press, $18), a graphic novel by Kahnawa’kehró:non artist Walter Scott, was one of the funniest and most relatable things I have read since I hit my 20s.
The book, published in 2014, is a collection of Scott’s fictional satire comic series that follows the life of you guessed it – Wendy.
She’s a 20-something year old crop top-wearing party girl that makes some sort of non-descript art… It doesn’t really matter.
Wendy is an adventurous young woman floating through her post-graduate life in Montreal whose dreams of making it in the art world are perpetually derailed by townie-like dudes in dumb bands.
She parties hard, makes a handful of regrettable decisions, and spends a fair share of her time sprawled out in bed – braless – eating pizza while binge-watching Netflix.
And there you have it – I am totally Wendy.
Her personality and the life situations she faces as she grows older are so relatable.
The darling protagonist, that I’ve grown to love since Scott created her in 2011, represents the quintessential millennial – no matter how cliché that sounds or how much I cringe at using the word ‘millennial’ to describe my Tinder swiping, Starbucks drinking, Netflix and chilling generation.
Wendy is chock full of jokes about the pretentiousness of the contemporary art world – which is known to poke through in much of Scott’s other work beyond the pages of his comic book.
He also doesn’t shy away from subjects that are often viewed as taboo for Indigenous artists, such as having a protagonist that openly drinks a lot, does drugs, is stupid about the guys she dates and has a lot of regrettable sex.
Even if you’re neither a millennial, nor have ever been a 20-something post-art school party girl, Wendy is still a great read.
Scott perfectly captures and conveys the subtleties of life within his series of panels. You know, like, that embarrassed reaction on your face when you tap someone on the shoulder and they end up being not who you think, or the feeling you get when messaging someone who’s online and they immediately go offline or when shit gets real when Tota starts dropping truth bombs.
I finished reading the graphic novel in its entirety in just one sitting – and that means a lot for someone that usually falls asleep three pages into an attempt at reading anything that isn’t beaming from an iPhone.
You will too. Then, you’ll be left a little sad that it’s over.
Luckily enough for us, we’ll be able to get your next Wendy fix soon enough. Scott is currently working on a second volume.
“It’s about 230 pages, or it will be, and it is going to come out in the fall,” he told The Eastern Door in an interview last month. “She’ll be getting into more of the same adventures, but she hopefully learns a little bit more about herself.”
Can’t wait.
