Blabber Blabber Blabber

From her first comics published in the Evergeen State College school paper to her influential weekly comic strip, Ernie Pook's Comeek; from her bestselling creative how-to memoir comic books, What It Is and Picture This, to her novels, graphic memoirs, plays, and awards in between, Lynda Barry has been part of the North American alternative comics scene for thirty years. Everything collects all of the seminal Ernie Pook's Comeek and includes her earliest books such as Boys & Girls and Big Ideas. It also features an introduction penned by Barry, complete with photographs. Reflective of the early 1980s before the appearance of Barry's well-known characters Marlys and Arna, the comics in Everything Volume 1 cover the more adult subjects of bad love, bad perms, being single, Prince, and miserable break-ups—resulting in one of the most oft-quoted Barry sayings: "Love is an exploding cigar which we all willingly smoke." Though Barry's early drawing style is most often described as "scratchy"-her affinity for large swaths of text and narration; fondness for exclamation marks; angular shapes cursive penmanship: and her uncanny ability to zero in the very essence of life all within a few panels is as present as ever in this collection.