Wild That We're Alive: Momboy Comics

By Lauren Haldeman

Book Overview

You haven't really experienced how weird and beautiful the world is until you see it through Lauren Haldeman's eyes. These beautiful diary comics by the award-winning poet offer a fresh, humorous, and emotionally resonant perspective on the wonders and weirdness of everyday life.

Following the artist and her family--three humans, three cats, and one dog--through twelve months of morning coffees, late night TV, laundry folding, and walks in the woods, Wild That We're Alive invites the reader to marvel at the wonder and weirdness of the ordinary.

Depicting herself as a wolf on the page, Lauren embraces the moniker "Momboy" part responsible child-rearing adult and part lovable feral kid. In her particularity, she is all of us: grappling with anxieties, awed by the little things, and ready to throw her hands up and laugh or cry in the face of social media, squirrels, politics, and figuring out what to have for dinner. In these pages, Lauren intersperses her diary comics, pithy observations, and philosophical musings with a handful of painterly full-bleed illustrations to show the passing of the seasons.

Like a Midwestern, sweatpants-wearing Roz Chast, Lauren portrays herself and those around her with affectionate self-deprecation--occasionally grumpy, rarely pretty, but always real. For fans of Lucy Knisley's portrayals of life with both cats and children and Julia Wertz's explorations of the ways we struggle and succeed in the work of caring for ourselves and others, Wild That We're Alive is a debut book from an exciting new voice in comics.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0FCDBXKTF
• ISBN13: 9798881603250
• Release Date: March 2026
• Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing
• Length: 160 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.0" x 7.9"
• Age Range: 18 years and up

Customer Reviews

I love the color palette

This was a collection of one-page comic-strips. And some of them are just one panel. It has short glimpses of life that I thought was refreshing. What I loved most about this book was the use of colors. There's not a lot of colors but there's a lot of shades of specific colors. The use of a particular color palette stood out to me. It felt like simplifying the chaos of life. Plus, some of these comic strips are funny. And some of them are sad. And I like how the author divided it by seasons. For real, it's just depicting life. And as you read it, your brain is thinking of your version of what the artist experienced. This was a fun quick read. And I think this makes for a good coffee table book.