Lynda Barry

A page from What It Is (Drawn and Quarterly, 2008), Lynda Barry’s new book about how to write as good as she does.

If you were ever a weird kid or a sad kid, you have to read Lynda Barry’s comics and novels immediately because they will freak you out with how much you’ll relate. It’s embarrassing how many of her comics have made us get all emotional, even the funny ones. They’re like repressed memories of childhood coming to the surface in cartoon form and going “Holy shit.”

And then there’s is the novel where you’re either with us or against us. It is the dark, and we mean daaaaark, tale of a teenage girl who meets a bunch of freaky kids, does acid with them, and then recounts her experience of going on a crime and murder spree with her insane dad when she was 11. It’s gory and nightmarish but also unexpectedly kooky. And it’s beautifully written in this signature language that Barry has that is so perfect, it kills us. Oh, and she wrote the whole novel by hand! Man.

So basically Lynda is our #1 hero. We’re excited because Drawn & Quarterly is putting out a gorgeous five-volume hardcover reprint collection of all her . Yay! And if she ever brings her Writing the Unthinkable workshop to New York (please!), we are very there. We’re sorry to hear about her turbine problems though. We officially hate turbines now. Down with turbines!
Vice: You. Are. Amazing.

Lynda Barry: I’m sorry to hear that. But you’re still amazing. Which of your characters do you most identify with? Are you Marlys or Maybonne or Arna or Freddy or bits and pieces of all of them? Do you have a favorite?

Can you tell me what a typical day in your life is like? Do you write and draw every day?
I’m really sorry. Writing in a barn sounds great.

From The! Greatest! of! Marlys! (Sasquatch Books, 2000)

What is the best thing about living on a dairy farm in rural Wisconsin? What is the worst thing?
Wow. Do you bother watching TV at all? What do you like to do for fun?
Wife Swap Super Nanny Can you tell us about how your most recent book, What It Is, came about?
What It Is From What It Is (Drawn and Quarterly, 2008)

Did you know that Cruddy is in our top five all-time desert island books? What would yours be?
Cruddy Playing and Reality Is it true you wrote Cruddy entirely by hand, in cursive?
Cruddy You have such a cool way of writing dialogue for your characters, especially for kids. The weird phrasings and grammatical strangeness is like a whole other language.
Romeo and Juliet

From The Freddie Stories (Sasquatch Books, 1999).

In your book, one of the writing exercises you describe is using specific words or phrases like “car” or “other people’s mothers” to bring up memories that can then be described in detail and begin to tell a story. So, can you tell us a quick, short story about, I don’t know… “haircut” or “mosquitoes”?

From My Perfect Life (HarperCollins, 1992)

OK, well, at least please tell us about some of your upcoming projects so that we can have something in life to look forward to.
Do you like teaching?
What kind of stuff happens in the workshop?
What It Is Do you think people can really be taught how to write?
What is your favorite animal?
Have you ever had a vision or seen a ghost?
Can you tell me the key to eternal happiness? I have a feeling you know it.