Bury Me Already (It's Nice Down Here): Comics on Pregnancy and Parenthood

Raw, honest, and hilarious, Bury Me Already (It's Nice Down Here) chronicles the joy and horror of becoming a mother during challenging times.

"Filled with brutal and brave honesty, this necessary look at motherhood speaks life into the hopes and fears of mothers everywhere and validates their experience of holding quiet grief in one hand and the fiercest of loves in the other." -- Booklist Starred Review

In this follow-up to the acclaimed memoir Impossible People--a book about getting sober and becoming a professional artist in New York City--cartoonist Julia Wertz returns home to Northern California where she reunites with her family and rekindles a relationship with an ex-boyfriend. After a surprise pregnancy and a marriage proposal, Julia settles (somewhat reluctantly) into a quiet life in a small town. But as 2020 approaches, her world, and the world at large, takes a sharp turn toward unexpected chaos. Through comic vignettes, essays, and diary doodles, Julia recounts the events of her pregnancy and its attendant body horror, a miscarriage, family trauma, marriage, a life-altering accident, and the joy and surprises of parenthood as it all unfolds against the backdrop of local wildfires and a global pandemic. The result of this unconventional collection is a heart-wrenching and hilarious story of adversity, resilience, and, ultimately, love.

Julia Wertz is a professional cartoonist, amateur historian, and part-time urban explorer. Her books include The Fart Party, Museum of Mistakes, Drinking at the Movies, The Infinite Wait and Other Stories, Tenements, Towers, & Trash: An Unconventional, Illustrated History of New York City and Impossible People: A Completely Average Recovery Story. She does monthly comics and doodles for the New Yorker and the New York Times. After leaving New York City, she settled down in Northern California with Oliver (yes, that Oliver) and their son, Felix.