Lynda Barry

Lynda Barry
Barry in 2010
BornLinda Jean Barry
(1956-01-02) January 2, 1956 (age 68)[1]
Richland Center, Wisconsin, U.S.
Area(s)Cartoonist, Writer
Notable works
Ernie Pook's Comeek

Linda Jean Barry (born January 2, 1956), known professionally as Lynda Barry, is an American cartoonist. Barry is best known for her weekly comic strip Ernie Pook's Comeek. She garnered attention with her 1988 illustrated novel The Good Times are Killing Me, about an interracial friendship between two young girls, which was adapted into a play. Her second illustrated novel, Cruddy, first appeared in 1999. Three years later she published One! Hundred! Demons!, a graphic novel she terms "autobifictionalography". What It Is (2008) is a graphic novel that is part memoir, part collage and part workbook, in which Barry instructs her readers in methods to open up their own creativity; it won the comics industry's 2009 Eisner Award for Best Reality-Based Work.[2]

In recognition of her contributions to the comic art form, ComicsAlliance listed Barry as one of twelve women cartoonists deserving of lifetime achievement recognition,[3] and she received the Wisconsin Visual Art Lifetime Achievement Award in 2013.[4] In July 2016, she was inducted into the Eisner Hall of Fame.[5] Barry was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship as part of the Class of 2019.[6] She is currently an Associate Professor of Interdisciplinary Creativity at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.[7]

In 2020, her work was included in the exhibit Women in Comics: Looking Forward, Looking Back at the Society of Illustrators in New York City.[8]

  1. ^ Kirtley (2012), p. 15.
  2. ^ Doran, Michael. "2009 Eisner Award Winners". Newsrama. Retrieved March 5, 2016.
  3. ^ "12 Women in Comics Who Deserve Lifetime Achievement Recognition". Comicsalliance.com. Archived from the original on August 1, 2016. Retrieved August 7, 2016.
  4. ^ Schumacher, Mary Louise (May 14, 2013). "Wisconsin 'hall of fame' artists announced for 2013". The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Retrieved March 5, 2016.
  5. ^ Cavna, Michael. "Comic-Con: 'Overjoyed' Rep. John Lewis wins 'the Oscar of comics' for his civil rights memoir (+ winners' list)". The Washington Post. Retrieved August 7, 2016.
  6. ^ "Lynda Barry - MacArthur Foundation". www.macfound.org. Retrieved September 25, 2019.
  7. ^ "Lynda Barry". University of Wisconsin–Madison. June 26, 2017. Retrieved September 25, 2019.
  8. ^ "Women in Comics | Society of Illustrators". Archived from the original on June 1, 2020. Retrieved June 7, 2020.