It is atypical to create a self-incriminating memoir, but Tara Booth is an anomaly, using that discrepancy as a jumping-off point. She released her first full-length comic, D.U.I.I, at the recent LA Book Arts Fair, and although the narrative is totally wordless, the comic is so rich with linear imagery that it keeps the reader both awed and repelled from cover to cover.
The book follows Booth as the lead character in a night out that goes from bad to worse, devolving quickly from a visit to an art gallery to her spending a night in jail for a DUI. We see all of her most awkward and socially aware moments through the crude and visceral way she draws her figures. This is not lighthearted journalism; Booth boldly lays it all out there, pulling the reader in close to see her at some of her rawest moments.
Booth is both a painter and comic artist who is straddling both worlds. This is introduced at the beginning of the book, at the gallery, when she reacts with drunken disgust to the “fine art” on display. This sends her into a tailspin of activities that eventually lands her in jail, where she is forced to watch another inmate defecate in front of her. We travel full circle with Booth on her journey: from crappy art to literal crap.