A Daily Visual Journal of Wry Moments from a Hilarious Jewish Comic

 

Vanessa Davis’s autobiographical cartoons are embarrassing–painfully, self-consciously embarrassing--but, like a stand-up comedian, she spins her awkward, personal quirks into a compelling, identifiable, and ultimately lovable character. Davis’s comics, often no longer than a page or two, target her favorite things about life.

Whether she’s writing and drawing about her predilection for older Israeli men (“I think that Israeli guys are our real birthright”), her time at fat camp (she didn’t lose any weight, but got in some great swimming and dancing), or her childhood as a Jew in a mostly Christian part of Florida, Davis is equal parts Sarah Silverman and R. Crumb.

Make Me a Woman, Davis’s 2010 anthology, collects all of her work from 2004-2010, with interspersed black-and-white pencil drawings, a sort of daily journal of wry moments–unfinished and unrefined, sometimes little more than ideas for her full pieces. Davis’s saving grace is her basic goodness–her ability to laugh at herself, and make you laugh at her, and feel good about laughing.