Life's A Bitch (The Complete Bitchy Bitch Stories) - Softcover

Gregory, Roberta

Softcover

ISBN 10: 156097656X ISBN 13: 9781560976561

Publisher: Fantagraphics Books, 2005

Synopsis

by Roberta Gregory
Naughty Bits, the longest-running solo comic by a female alternative cartoonist, came to an end in 2004 after a 14-year, 40-issue run. This extra-thick, very reasonably priced volume collects the entire first half of the "Bitchy Bitch" saga, and it ranges widely in her eventful life. The book will also feature a brand new full-length story that chronicles the (never-before-revealed) death of Bitchy's tempestuous father, as Gregory once again finds the humor in even the grimmest situation.

About this title

About the Author

Retired underground cartoonist and current comics historian Trina Robbins has been writing graphic novels, comics, and books for almost half a century. Her subjects have ranged from Wonder Woman and The Powerpuff Girls to her own teenage superheroine, GoGirl!, and from women cartoonists and superheroines to women who kill. She's won an Inkpot Award and was inducted in the Will Eisner Hall of Fame at the San Diego Comic-Con. She lives in a moldering, 100+-year-old house in San Francisco with her cats, shoes, and dust bunnies.

Reviews

Midge McCracken is the self-destructive pessimist every office has. Not to mince words about it, she's a bitch. Gregory, one of the underground comics movement's few female movers and shakers, first introduced Midge, aka Bitchy Bitch, in her series Naughty Bits. This mammoth collection includes the first half of Midge's story, and a never-before-published comic on her lost decade, the '80s. Readers follow Midge through several decades, illuminating how she ended up a 40-year-old snarky office drone. Every panel includes Midge's internal monologue, always expecting the worst and usually getting it. Some of the stories focus on her office-mates—annoyingly cheerful Sylvia and her quest to solve all her problems through positive energy; power hungry manager Pam; intolerant Christian Marcie and her fight against Satan in all his forms. The art is loose and scratchy, bursting into manic episodes. It's crass, it's crude, it's biting, and it's uproariously funny. Gregory doesn't shy away from politically incorrect topics. Don't mistake Bitchy for a female Dilbert. Her life is filled with real problems that make us like her despite her offensive exterior. (Aug.)
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In any competition for most unlikable -comic-book protagonist, Bitchy Bitch would be a leading contender. Star of the long-running alternative comic Naughty Bits, Bitchy--real name Midge McCracken--is a nonstop font of vitriol, vituperating one and all, if mostly inwardly, from her exasperating coworkers to the unfailingly disappointing representatives of the opposite sex unlucky enough to cross her path. Despite Bitchy's unpleasant demeanor and other disagreeable traits--she's bigoted and narrow-minded--it's somehow easy to begrudgingly sympathize with her, perhaps because she so vividly expresses what most work hard to suppress. Occasionally, she does the right thing, even when it's for the wrong reasons; for instance, lunching with an uncloseted lesbian officemate otherwise shunned by her colleagues. The strips are wordy, since Midge's ranting interior monologues are the cruxes of the stories. Gregory's drawing style is slapdash but effective, reflecting a freewheeling sensibility reminiscent of sixties underground comics (Gregory contributed to the early-1970s Wimmen's Comix). For some, Bitchy's excesses are offputting, yet her travails should strike a responsive chord, especially in women. Gordon Flagg
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Fantagraphics Books
• Publication date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 156097656X
• ISBN 13: 9781560976561
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 240