Lynda Barry is a cartoonist, author, graphic novelist, educator and recent MacArthur Foundation Fellow (known as the “genius” grants). And to my 11 and 13-year-old boys she was an inspiration. More about that later.
Growing up in a racially mixed, working-class Seattle neighborhood, Barry began drawing comics at an early age. Making it a career never crossed her mind. She drew in high school as a way to fit in socially. “Literally in my school, which was a really rough school, if I walked down the hall with a drawing board with some cartoony drawings on it, then I wouldn’t get beat up. So it was like this talisman.” (The Comics Journal)
First in her family to attend college, Barry’s Ernie Pook’s Comeek was published in the Evergreen State College (WA) student newspaper. It was picked up by the Chicago Reader when she was 23, where it ran for nearly 30 years.
One of her over 20 published works, the autobiographical graphic novel The Good Times Are Killing Me, tells the story of two best friends, one white and one Black, who stand together through upheaval and tragedy until racial peer pressure drives them apart. Barry adapted the novel for the stage where it ran off-Broadway.
In addition to her prolific publishing career, Barry is a creative inspiration through her Writing the Unthinkable workshops held throughout the country and her Drawbridge program which pairs graduate students with 4-year-olds to explores themes through a visual approach. She’s on the faculty at the University of Wisconsin – Madison in the state she now calls home, living on a farm with her husband, who is a prairie restoration expert.
Barry met her lifelong friend Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons, when they were students at Evergreen State College. They appeared together several years ago at the Chicago Humanities Festival to talk about their friendship and lives as artists. I took my boys, hoping to inspire them by listening to and meeting Groening. Turns out, they were enthralled with Barry.
They were so mesmerized with her stories and fantastic wit that they begged to join the signing line with their newly-purchased copies of her books. She spent so much time laughing at their jokes, telling them stories, giving each a nickname and asking about their dreams that over a decade later they still talk about it.
Barry’s latest work, Making Comics (2019) encourages all ages to think creatively. You can read more about Barry on the MacArthur website and get inspiration through her personal site thenearsightedmonkey.