Marlys Magazine: Blog

Sympathy for the Mummy: Halloween Fiction (?)

2011-11-08T17:50:00.000-08:00

Lynda Barry has a short story at Salon.com for Halloween:

"It’s the mid-1800s, and a Croatian guy goes to Egypt on vacation and buys a mummy as a souvenir. So you can already tell what kind of guy he is. The mummy turns out to be wrapped in strips made from a book handwritten on linen in Etruscan, a language that died out 2,000 years ago ..."

Read the full story here.

"Lynda Barry Will Make You Believe In Yourself"

2011-10-28T22:19:00.000-07:00

The New York Times has an article on Lynda Barry's writing course "The Lynda Barry School for Drawing Spirals, Confronting Demons, Learning to Sing, Being Terrified and Maybe Becominga Capital-W Writer."

Read the full article here.

The Complete Lynda Barry: Volume 1

2011-09-01T18:12:00.000-07:00

Drawn and Quarterly have a preview of the advances of Lynda Barry's upcoming Blabber, Blabber, Blabber, a book that collects some of her earliest comics, including the early Ernie Pook's Comeek, Girls and Boys and Two Sisters, and features newly written introductions for each section.

It looks incredible!!

Lynda Barry Residency @ The University of Wisconsin!

2011-08-23T20:16:00.000-07:00

Just in from The Near-Sighted Monkey on tumblr.

During Spring Semester of 2012, Lynda Barry will be the University of Wisconsin’s Artist in Residence on the Madison campus. She’ll be teaching a writing and picture-making class called, “What It Is: Manually Shifting the Image” which will meet twice a week.

The class will be open to both graduate and undergraduate students from all academic disciplines. No artistic talent is required to be part of this class, but students should have an interest in memory, images, how the brain works, and what the biological function of the thing we call ‘the arts’ may be.

To find out more visit: The University of Wisconsin's page

Nicole Rudick interviews Lynda Barry

2011-06-04T03:14:00.000-07:00

Nicole Rudick interviews Lynda Barry:

Part 1: art, writing, and cigarettes.

Part 2: the glory of Drawn & Quarterly, gaps in comics history, and Lynda's giant crush on Charles Burns.

Chris Mautner interviews Lynda Barry

2011-01-11T17:57:00.000-08:00

"Getting to talk to Barry about the book and her reasons for making it, as the hot dog vendors added more bags of garbage next to us, turned out to be one of the highlights of my year and I thank her profusely for taking the time to talk in such smelly situation."

Read the full interview here.

Lynda Barry at CUSP

2010-12-28T17:01:00.000-08:00

Lynda Barry presentation at the Cusp Conference 2009, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago IL

Everything! By Lynda Barry!

2010-11-25T18:49:00.000-08:00

Straight from the D&Q blog comes some great news!!!

Everything! by Lynda Barry

Next fall will actually see the publication of the first volume of the complete Lynda Barry comics work (consisting primarily of her Ernie Pook's Comeek strip but not limited to just that, oh no!) Things to look forward to are her college strip, "Spinal Comics" (edited by none other than long time pal Matt Groening for the Evergreen State newspaper) and the precursor to Ernie Pook, "Two Sisters". Eventually there will be many other rare or rarely seen tidbits like Lynda's Esquire strips. We're not completely sure how many volumes there will be but we figure somewhere around ten.

Lynda! Barry! Everything! Finally!

The only downer is that next fall feels a long way away!

Hillary Chute: Graphic Women

2010-11-08T21:45:00.000-08:00

Graphic Women: Life Narrative and Contemporary Comics
Hillary L. Chute

Hillary L. Chute explores the verbal and visual techniques of five cartoonists, including a chapter on Lynda Barry.

Official page

See a preview at Amazon.com

The Leonard Lopate Show: wind turbines

2010-11-08T21:41:00.000-08:00

Director Laura Israel and cartoonist Lynda Barry talk about the controversy over wind turbines. Israel directed “Windfall,” a revealing look at wind energy that tells the story of residents of Meredith, NY, who are divided when companies want to build wind turbines in the traditional dairy farm community. Lynda Barry is researching a book on homes near turbines.

Listen here.

The View From Here: Lynda Barry

2010-08-29T17:37:00.000-07:00

In this 8 minute video, Lynda Barry sings Emily Dickinson, recites haiku, explains how poetry smells, and insists that memorizing poetry can keep you alive and well.

Watch it here!

Poetry Is a Dumb-Ass Spider

2010-08-29T17:28:00.000-07:00

Lynda's essay that originally appeared in the July/August 2010 issue of Poetry can be ready online!

Poetry Is a Dumb-Ass Spider
A cartoonist in the house of dust.
BY LYNDA BARRY

Chicago hotel room, September 2009, fourteenth floor. Hungover and awake too early because of strong sun, at the window pulling down the shade, I see a spiderweb bigger than a dinner plate on the other side of the glass.

I think, Why there? You dumb-ass spider. What are your chances? How many bugs are flying around downtown at 140 feet? Why build your web almost flat against the glass when it reduces your capture area by half?

...

Read the rest of the article at Poetry Foundation.

Lynda Barry @ Alternative Press Expo (APE) 2010 (San Francisco)

2010-08-29T17:22:00.000-07:00

Coming back to San Francisco on October 16 and 17 at the Concourse Exhibition Center (located at 820 7th Street), APE offers comics fans an event focused on creativity and devoted to the output of indie cartoonists, artists, and publishers doing the thing they love most. With over 5,000 attendees in 2009, APE remains the premiere alternative comics and publishing show in the nation.

Lynda Barry is one of APE's 2010 confirmed special guests.

APE features two full days of programming, including special spotlight panels on the special guests and other indy comics panels. Your membership badge ($10.00/single day, $15.00/both days) gets you access to these great events (space permitting). Memberships are available only onsite.

Visit the APE web site here.

Lynda Barry @ Vancouver Writers & Readers Festival

2010-08-29T17:18:00.000-07:00

Canada and Lynda Barry, two of my favourite things together!

Sun, Oct 24, 9:30am - 12:00pm
PTC Studio
$29.00

Some years ago the writer and cartoonist Lynda Barry developed a workshop to help people tap into their creativity. Since then she has worked with thousands, using a method that is playful, powerful and accessible, designed not only for established and aspiring writers, but also for people with a longing to write or explore and draw on their own memories. Barry’s latest books, What It Is and Picture This, are inspirational take-home extensions of this wildly popular approach to writing. This is a participatory event, so plan to roll up your sleeves and learn a thing or two…or three or four.

Please bring a notepad and a pencil or pen.

Full details here.

Mermaid Parade with Queen Mermaid Lynda Barry

2010-05-01T23:32:00.000-07:00

Youtube now has footage of the 1990 Mermaid Parade with Queen Mermaid Lynda Barry and King Neptune El Vez in Coney Island:

See the video here.

Comic Reflections: Lynda Barry and Roz Chast exhibition

2010-05-01T22:56:00.000-07:00

John Michael Kohler Arts Center presents:

Lynda Barry and Roz Chast
Open daily at 10:00 a.m.
John Michael Kohler Arts Center, 608 New York Ave, Sheboygan, WI 53081

Free admission

For more information, contact: 920-458-6144, info@jmkac.org

Comic Reflections features the work of two pioneering cartoonists, Lynda Barry (WI) and Roz Chast (NY). Often operating outside of the mainstream with work appearing in alternative weeklies, Barry has found great success producing comics that are humorous yet carry serious undercurrents. Known primarily for her long-running syndicated comic strip, Ernie Pook's Comeek, featuring characters such as Marlys and her friends and enemies, Barry relates stories of childhood angst and examines personal and societal topics. Similarly, Chast has drawn humor from everyday emotions and experiences. Since 1978, her cartoons for The New Yorker have poked fun at subjects such as guilt, anxiety, aging, family, friends, money, and real estate. Her brand of humor takes routine incidents and events, flips them inside out, and exposes them as flawed but funny moments.

May 30, 2010 – September 19, 2010

Lynda Barry @ Ringling College of Art and Design

2010-04-13T23:57:00.000-07:00

The Ringling College of Art and Design has named Lynda Barry, cartoonist and author, as the speaker for their 2010 commencement ceremony.

The Ringling College 2010 commencement ceremony will take place on May 7th at 7:00 pm at the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall in Sarasota, Florida. Tickets are required for the ceremony.

More information here.

Lynda Barry @ Morehead State University

2010-04-13T23:52:00.000-07:00

Morehead State University (Morehead, KY) have announced that Lynda Barry will be on the main campus of Morehead State University, April 22-24, hosting student and public workshops, seminars, and a lecture with a book signing.

Workshops will have limited seating and reservations are required by Thursday, April 22.

More information and contact details here.

Writer’s Talk interviews Lynda Barry

2010-03-16T19:54:00.000-07:00

Writer’s Talk: Writing through Reading is an online course offered by Kathryn Kuitenbrouwer through The New York Times Knowledge Network and the University of Toronto School for Continuing Studies. This term Lynda Barry visited and charmed us completely with her unique approach to writing and her generosity. The Q&A is student led and is particular in its direction.
...

WT: I was wondering how you create/build your characters. Do you know them beyond the story, or are they created/built simply to forward the plot?

Lynda Barry: One thing I do know about characters is that they hardly ever come from planning and thinking. The ones that do tend to be horrible. I don’t know if you are old enough to remember “Joe Camel” - he was a character invented to help sell Camel cigarettes.

He was most likely the product of a whole lot of meetings and a whole lot of thinking and a whole lot of focus groups. All kinds of input went into creating him, including making the shape of his face like a penis and testicles. It was supposed to work but as a character he never caught on.

Read the full interview here.

Wisconsin Wind Farms and Lynda Barry

2010-02-18T23:29:00.000-08:00

After learning about possible health effects from wind turbine placement, Lynda Barry goes from cartoonist to activist in this segment of the ENGAGE videos, championing the causes of those who want decision-making authority on the matter left in the hands of local government.

Follow this link to watch a short educational video about Wisconsin government and wind power that features Lynda Barry.

Cruddy: The Movie

2010-01-12T04:08:00.000-08:00

Beladonna Feature Films has a page for a movie of Lynda Barry's Cruddy based on the Matt Nix screenplay. They also have a Facebook page with some promotional artwork. Fingers crossed!

Lynda on Evergreen State College and Marilyn Frasca

2009-12-10T07:15:00.000-08:00

Funny stuff!

Lynda Barry's pep talk at National Novel Writing Month

2009-11-15T19:10:00.000-08:00

Dear Writer,

Reconsider your hand. Reconsider writing by hand. There is a kind of story that comes from hand. Writing which is different from a tapping-on-a-keyboard-kind-of-story. For one thing, there is no delete button, making the experience more life like right away. You can't delete the things you feel unsure about and because of this, the things you feel unsure about have a much better chance of being able to exist long enough to reveal themselves. And the physical activity of writing by hand involves many parts of the brain which are used in story making such as time, place, action, characters, relationships, and moving forward across an entire connected gesture. And that's just what goes on when we write a single
letter by hand.

...

Full pep talk (including the hand-written original) here!

Lynda Barry and Matt Groening at UIC

2009-11-09T23:05:00.000-08:00

“Chicago is a place where there is ample parking compared to [other] big cities and average looking people are considered boxy, which is why I love being here,” said Lynda Barry, popular cartoonist and illustrator of the Ernie Pook’s Comeek. Barry and the creator of “The Simpsons” phenomenon, Matt Groening, spoke at a local university’s campus on Nov. 5 to put a comedic spin on the ups and downs of their private and professional lives.

Full story here.

Matt Groening & Lynda Barry

2009-11-08T21:33:00.000-08:00

November 5, 2009 @ UIC Pavillion

Matt Groening and Lynda Barry read off titles of movies that Matt's sons want to make:

Clip from the Chicago Humanities Festival, Cartoonists in Conversation with Matt Groening and Lynda Barry reciting the comic "Important Questions About Monsters":

Wisconsin Book Festival: Lynda Barry injects some "Kapow!" into comic book talk

2009-10-11T18:14:00.000-07:00

...

While Danky and Buhle's presentations of the historical context of underground comix were relatively sedate, the event exploded into vibrant, unpredictable life when Lynda Barry seized the stage, infecting the rest of the panel with her loopy, digressive verve. With her 50s science-nerd glasses and long, gingery curls secured with a jauntily-knotted red bandanna, she resembled one of her own irrepressible characters.

Barry drew the audience into a discussion of favorite and least-favorite comics, including her own surprising pick. "I loved [Bil Keane's] Family Circus because I lived in a violent, difficult home. I used to look at that little circle and think, 'Goddam! How can I get into there from where I am?" She had Danky and Buhle red-faced with laughter as she led the Q& A period, which devolved into a collective reminiscence on beloved comics of the past.

Buhle fondly remembered the erotic promise of the Wonder Woman comics he encountered in his youth, noting, "They were the first books we were ever allowed to purchase, the first thing we stacked neatly. They were the first books we read repeatedly." Danky recalled reading comics in the grocery store while his mother was shopping. "That's how I became a fast reader." He'd save money by reading the titles he found to be of "marginal interest" in the store, and spend his allowance on those he liked best.

Barry closed the panel by encouraging each member of her audience to add his or her own irreverent mash-ups of artwork and words to the canon. "Comics are a fantastic container for experience," she said, suggesting we all start by tracing one of our hands, making a turkey out of the outline, and then drawing a cigarette dangling from its beak.

Full story here.

Lynda Barry on "living off the grid".

2009-10-04T18:54:00.000-07:00

Writer and cartoonist Lynda Barry ("Ernie Pook's Comeek") is an outspoken left-wing intellectual with an urban sensibility who now lives off the grid in rural Wisconsin. She tells Steve Paulson how that happened. Barry's latest graphic novel is called "What It Is."

Listen here (Lynda is @ 32:27).

Lynda Barry @Wisconsin Book FestivalMadison

2009-10-01T06:55:00.000-07:00

When you think of comic books do you have visions of funny animals and heroes in tights? And do you think of comics as juvenile, not really worth your time? Well, think again and take "A Serious Look at Comics" under the direction of Lynda Barry and featuring Paul Buhle (Comics in Wisconsin) and James Danky (Underground Classics: The Transformation of Comics into Comix). Comics have grown-up and so has our appreciation for graphic work that marries text and image. Today’s fans and scholars look at comics as a key element in our understanding of culture, even our lives.

Promenade Hall/Overture
Overture Center for the Arts
201 State St.
Madison, WI 53703
Saturday, October 10, 12:00 - 1:30 PM

Details here.

New interview with Lynda.

2009-09-24T22:01:00.000-07:00

Being Undigital: An Interview with Lynda Barry
by Marcia Stepanek

I caught up with Barry at last week’s CUSP conference in Chicago; what follows is an edited transcript of that conversation:

...

You’re also working on a graphic novel, about the problems that people are having living on or near wind farms, right?

Yeah, it’s probably going to be in the form of a strip, a graphic novel, and non-fiction. I live in Wisconsin and one of our neighbors invited my husband, Kevin, and I to go with her to a public meeting at a school to hear about the wind farm coming into the area. So I went and somebody had a videotape of a set of interviews with people in Mars Hill, in Maine, (the site of another wind farm) talking about how horrible it was to live near one of these, and I got interested.

Read the full interview.

Lynda Barry @Haverford CollegePhiladelphia

2009-09-24T21:49:00.000-07:00

Lynda Barry: Writing the Unthinkable

Cartoonists Lynda Barry and Eric Drooker will be joining the artists, critics, scholars, and community members taking part in the symposium "Drawing the Line: Comics and the Art of Social Transformation" on Haverford College's campus from October 22-25, 2009.

Members of the public are invited to Lynda Barry's presentation "Writing the Unthinkable".

Sharpless Auditorium
Haverford College
370 Lancaster Ave.
Haverford, PA 19041
Friday, October 23, 7:30 PM

Details here.

Lynda Barry @Chicago Humanities Festival

2009-09-21T21:28:00.000-07:00

Lynda Barry: Writing the Unthinkable

Lynda Barry’s quirky and wholly original creative voice has shone through in her syndicated strip Ernie Pook’s Comeek and in such books as One! Hundred! Demons! and the 2008 book What It Is. In this two-hour workshop designed to help participants tap their own creativity, Barry plumbs the depths of the imagination, where play can be serious, monsters can have purpose, and not knowing can be an answer in itself.

The Newberry Library
60 West Walton Street
Chicago, IL 60610
#304: Sat, Nov. 7 11:00 - 1:00 PM
Adults: $5.00
Educators & Students: FREE

Details here.

Lynda Barry @Chicago Humanities Festival

2009-09-21T21:23:00.000-07:00

Matt Groening & Lynda Barry Cartoonists in Conversation

Matt Groening (creator of the The Simpsons, Futurama, and Life in Hell) and Lynda Barry (Ernie Pook’s Comeek and The Good Times are Killing Me) first met in the 1970s at Evergreen State College, the improbable seedbed of some of the greatest graphic comic work of the past several decades. They remain close friends and continue to influence each other’s work. Two of the country’s funniest people separately, Groening and Barry together breach the comic sublime.

UIC Forum
Chicago, IL 60608
Thu, Nov. 5 7:00 - 8:00 PM
Adults: $15.00
Educators & Students: FREE

Details here.

Picture This!The Near-Sighted MonkeyPreview

2009-09-21T21:10:00.000-07:00

The Near Sighted Monkey Book was originally solicited as a petit livre but grew into a longer book. Drawn and Quarterly have some preview images on their blog.

Lynda Barry @Grand Valley State UniversityMichigan

2009-09-21T20:48:00.000-07:00

The Grand Valley State University Department of Art and Design brings to campus writer and cartoonist Lynda Barry.

Loosemore Auditorium
Thursday, October 8, 2009
7:00 PM

Her lecture is open to the public with free admission.

Details here.

Lynda Barry portrait: part asian, 100% hapain North Carolina

2009-09-17T18:11:00.000-07:00

July 1 - October 31, 2009 | FedEx Global Education Center

kip fulbeck: part asian, 100% hapa is an exhibition of portraits by artist Kip Fulbeck, who traveled the country photographing Hapa of all ages and walks of life.

This exhibition is now on show at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and includes a portrait of Lynda Barry.

"New" Lynda Barry comic from Women's Health

2009-09-17T08:15:00.001-07:00

If you missed Women's Health magazine in June 2008 (and that's got to be half of you, right?) then you missed this two-page colour strip.

Wind Farms

2009-09-10T18:04:00.000-07:00

It was the strangest sensation Lynda Barry ever felt: a near-constant vibration within her body.

“You know how sometimes, around your eye, you’ll get this little tic that kind of wiggles?” says Barry, of Footville, Wis., south of Janesville. “It was like having that in your ear and your chest. A pulsing. It’s the weirdest feeling!”

Click through for the full story and comic strip here.

Grandma's Way-Out Party! Online!

2009-09-08T08:52:00.001-07:00

Drop Everything! Forget your pirate video copy, Grandma's Way-Out Party! is now online at the Minnesota Video Vault!

Lynda Barry on YouTube

2009-09-06T05:51:00.000-07:00

I found three interesting Lynda Barry videos on YouTube:

An interview with Matt Groening from "My Wasted Life" that mentions his time at college with Lynda:

An interview with Lynda from "Prisoners of Gravity," November 3, 1993:

An interview with Lynda from "Prisoners of Gravity," December 8, 1993:

Lynda's Eisner Award!

2009-09-06T05:09:00.000-07:00

Lynda won the Eisner Award for "Best Reality-Based Work" for What It Is at this year's Eisner Awards.

Mike Judge on Lynda Barry

2009-09-06T04:54:00.000-07:00

Mike Judge (writer/director of Office Space talks about Lynda in an interview from ScreenCrave:

Who in the entertainment industry are you a fanboy of?

MJ: One of the first ones was Bill Griffith who did the Pinhead. I totally fanboy-ed Don Novello as Father Guido who also did the brilliant The Laszlo Letters. When I first did my animated shorts on VHS tapes, I did Bill Griffith and Lynda Barry impersonations. I actually got a letter back from Lynda Barry, a postcard that read, “I got your videotape. I don’t have a VHS player yet.” I got a letter back later on that said she really liked it. Her stuff back in the 1980’s was really inspired.

Drawn and Quarterly to publish Lynda's new novel

2009-09-06T01:24:00.000-07:00

Tom Spurgeon repoted on August 4 that Drawn and Quarterly will extend its recent publishing relationship with cartoonist, author and lecturer Lynda Barry to include a pair of new works. They will publish two new Barry books: The Near-Sighted Monkey Book: Picture This, featuring her well-regarded portraits of monkeys, and a prose novel called Birdis. Birdis will be Barry's first novel since Cruddy.