Will You Still Love Me If I Wet The Bed?
by Liz Prince
Top Shelf Comics
There are two main schools of autobiographical comics: the traditional plot-driven stories prevalent since the 1970s by authors like Harvey Pekar, Robert Crumb, Joe Sacco, and countless others; and the new school of autobiographical comics that highlight moments rather than plot, usually made up of just a few panels that sum up an instance aimed at touching emotions. The best of the new school are James Kochalka and Jeffrey Brown. Liz Prince’s first major work, Will You Love Me If I Wet The Bed, falls into the latter category, but she’s got a long way to go to reach their level.
Will You Love Me follows Prince’s relationship with her boyfriend and all the cute, loveable moments they share together. It works well as an uplifting relationship book, and is a nice change from most books whose normal focus is the negative aspects of dating.
My biggest problem with Will You Love Me is the unfinished look of the artwork; it fits the bill of “charming” but doesn’t look professional enough. The book is extremely influenced by Kochalka’s early Sketchbook Diaries and Brown’s Girlfriend Trilogy. Prince doesn’t seem to have found her own voice yet, instead parroting aspects of the other two, especially the playful sex scenes from Sketchbook Diaries. If you’re madly in love, or want to be, you’ll love this book. But if you want an actual story, skip it. Enthusiasts of the new school of autobiographical comics are a rabid bunch, and they’ll eat it up. If you’re interested in giving this relatively new type of book a try, I’d instead recommend starting with Kochalka’s American Elf: Book 1 or Brown’s Clumsy.
Top Shelf: http://www.topshelfcomix.com
