Good Luck To Us All: A Graphic Memoir of Sorts by Karen Vermeulen

In this graphic memoir, Cape Town artist Karen Vermeulen reflects on the absurdities of contemporary womanhood-from romance and friendship to the ever-elusive "self-care".

Trust her-Karen is trying really hard to be an adult. Harder than she should probably have to, as a thirty-something with a cat, a flat, and a job. She would have gotten away with it, too, if it weren't for those meddling influencers, always raising the bar of what it means to be a proper woman.

Accompanied by her trademark quirky artwork and signature wit, Karen pokes fun at her attempts to "grow up": whether that's becoming a meditation girlie, getting Botox, faking self-confidence, using dating apps, going to therapy, or living the childfree life (unless you count her feline companion Sir Henry, which, of course, she does.)

From emotional support pigs to ectopic pregnancies, cuticle care to under-boob chakras, the laugh-out-loud and deeply perceptive illustrated essays in Good Luck To Us All are a testament to these wild and crazy times.

Karen Vermeulen is an artist, illustrator and teacher living in Cape Town, South Africa, known for her happy, uplifting and quirky creations. She is the illustrator of two Catalyst Press children's books, It's Just Skin, Silly! (2023) and Wanjiku, Child of Mine (2024), middle grade books Small Mercies (2020) and The Cedarville Shop and the Wheelbarrow Swap (2022) as well as many Catalyst Press book covers.

"Vermeulen, a 'chronically single and chronically childless' Cape Town artist and Instagram cartoonist, debuts with a savvy collage of self-deprecating personal anecdotes....Charming illustrations add a welcome dimension of silliness....What initially appears as breezy as a Cathy cartoon reveals a surprising well of novelty and depth." - Publishers Weekly

"My internal reader nodded along happily... ...except in those parts where my internal reader laughed out loud and gave my external quietly-sitting-reading reader a fright. [Good Luck To Us All] has these tiny, quiet observations that surprise and amuse." - Karin Schimke, author of The Karen Book of Rules

"Candid and funny, Karen lifts the veil, the bandage, and the skirt on life in all of its complicated beauty" - Alex Latimer, author-illustrator