Review by Booklist Review
Kicking off a series reprinting Barry's complete comics oeuvre, this volume collects the earliest installments of Ernie Pook's Comeek, a mainstay of alternative newspapers for more than two decades, as well as two books from the late '70s and early '80s. The earliest pieces rely heavily on absurdist humor, but Barry soon began deriving both laughs and poignancy from deftly limned characters (including Ernie Pook himself, who would swiftly vanish from the strip bearing his name). Barry's embryonic drawing style is scratchier and rawer than her later work, although she'd never shake the rough-hewn quality that makes her art immediately recognizable. In introductions to each section, handwritten and drawn in the scrapbookish mode of her autobiographical examination of creativity, What It Is (2008), Barry discusses her influences, from Dr. Seuss to Robert Crumb, and traces her artistic evolution. The declining fortunes of the nation's alternative newspapers prompted Barry to drop Ernie Pook in 2007; this retrospective serves as a reminder of what her fans have lost.--Flagg, Gordon Copyright 2010 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Barry (What It Is; Picture This) has emerged as a 21st-century creative guru, a teacher with a knack for helping students find their inner spark. But in the late 1970s and '80s, she was a young cartoonist with a pocketful of underground influences and her own inimitable perspective on the world. In this first volume of an omnibus of her work, Barry introduces the collection of comics strips produced between 1978 and 1981 with drawings copied (her word) from artists like Dr. Seuss and R. Crumb, as well as what she calls the "sweeter line" of late '70s advertising illustrations. Barry's distinction between the "bitter" and the "sweet" informs the three strips collected-the scratchy-lined "Ernie Pook's Comeek," a collection of almost random observations and non sequiturs that sometimes veer into the incomprehensible; the ethereal line of "Two Sisters," about sweet-faced identical twins with an innocent but slanted view on life; and "Girls and Boys," with its chaotic panels and geometric figures, which focuses on the intense absurdity of relationships between the sexes. Barry's touch as a creator is already established even in this early stage, her talent for creating child characters, penchant for encouraging the reader to engage creatively, and touches of surrealism impelling a creative force that cannot be categorized. (Nov.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
What It Is and Picture This tell us how she does it; this collection of Barry's early work shows us how she got there. Focusing on 1978 to 1981, it includes Ernie Pook's Comeek, Sisters, and Girls and Boys, with a scrapbook-style introduction by Barry outlining early influences. The black-and-white art showcases her jagged line, which progressively becomes stronger and takes over the white space. Though the characters are different and the concerns more adult than those in her later work, her delight in the weird and her ear for strange but convincing dialog are here. Mostly, the comics speak for themselves. If there is a unifying idea, it is Barry's quest to balance the bitter and the sweet in her work-and she does, managing to be both sensitive and vulgar, so we can laugh about things that should make us cry. Verdict This collection of early work by Barry is a treat for fans and newbies alike. From the beginning, her offbeat characters, bizarre action, and chatty style add up to a crazy kind of reality with great appeal. Recommended for adult collections.-Julia Cox, Penticton P.L., BC (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
