The Greatest of Marlys [Paperback]

Lynda Barry (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 26, 2000

Lynda Barry had a bona fide hit with Cruddy, and her fans are now calling for her older comic strips, all out of print. This book answers the call as it delivers the life and times of Marlys Mullen, the most beloved character in Barry's nationally syndicated comic strip, 'Ernie Pook's Comeek.' Way back in the mid-1980s, Barry introduced the character of Marlys Mullen, her crazy groovy teenage sister Maybonne, her sensitive and strange little brother Freddie, a mother like no other, and an array of cousins and friends from the 'hood. This oversized book presents the long strange journey through puberty and life that Marlys and company have experienced. Marlys's universe and galaxy are funny, rude, disturbing, tearful . . . in short, very, very Lynda Barry.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Charmingly illustrated and written in the voices of fictional preadolescents, Barry's comics (The Freddie Stories) alternate between delightful comedy and un-self-conscious poetry. Her comics catalogue the incremental maturation of the smart but unpopular preteen Marlys; her painfully sensitive little brother, Freddie; her big sister, Maybonne; her cousins Arna and Arnold; and occasionally the various adults in their lives. The book collects more than 200 of her syndicated four-panel strip Ernie Pook's Comeek, in which Barry deftly maps the emotional terrain of Marlys and the inevitable social traumas inherent in growing up. Alternating among the voices of the family, Barry offers stories on difficult teachers (Mr. Valotto has sideburns, wears turtleneck dickeys and "thinks he's hip"); boys (Marlys goes broke "buying Twinkies to split with Kevin Turner"); Marlys's difficult mother ("five guys asked her to marry them before she picked my father, the worst mistake of her life") and much more. While Barry can be funny presenting the silly escapades and fantasies of Marlys, Arna, Freddie and Arnold, her real talent is the very nearly poetic invocation of moments of pubescent joy and humiliation as well as of the wonder at the fast-approaching, mysterious state of being a teenager. Her black-and-white drawings are crudely drawn, yet lyrical and emotionally complex. (Sept.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

The popularity of Barry's comic strip "Ernie Pook's Comeek," an alternative newspaper mainstay, continues unabated after 15 years, but earlier collections of it are out of print. Sasquatch Books began rectifying that situation with The Freddie Stories (1999) and continues in this generous collection focused on preteen Marlys without neglecting her teenaged sister, Maybonne, their freaky little brother, Freddie, and assorted cousins and neighbors. Marlys and her siblings have it tough. Their father is absent, their mother detached, and their existence hardscrabble. They find comfort in childhood joys that most will recognize, from baton lessons and toys from Sears to first love and the last day of school. The fortification they derive from those simple pleasures helps them survive the callous teachers, ruthless classmates, and vicious dogs that afflict them at every turn. The most popular member of "Ernie Pook's" cast, Marlys is endearingly gawky. That description also fits Barry's seemingly crude but deceptively expressive drawings, which perfectly capture the messiness and excitement of adolescence. Gordon Flagg
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Sasquatch Books (September 26, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1570612609
• ISBN-13: 978-1570612602
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 0.6 x 10 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #268,242 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Lynda Barry has worked as a painter, cartoonist, writer, illustrator, playwright, editor, commentator and teacher and found they are very much alike. She is the inimitable creator behind the seminal comic strip that was syndicated scross North America in alternative weeklies for two decades, Ernie Pook's Comeek featuring the incomparable Marlys and Freddy, as well as the books One! Hundred! Demons!, The! Greatest! of! Marlys!, Cruddy: An Illustrated Novel, Naked Ladies! Naked Ladies! Naked Ladies!, The Good Times are Killing Me which was adapted as an off-Broadway play and won the Washington State Governor's Award. Her bestselling and acclaimed creative writing-how to-graphic novel for Drawn & Quarterly, What It Is, won the Eisner Award for Best Reality Based Graphic Novel and R.R. Donnelly Award for highest literary achievement by a Wisconsin author. D+Q plans to publish a multivolume collection of Ernie Pook's Comeek, Barry's next prose novel, and the follow up and creative drawing companion to What It Is, November 2010's Picture This: The Near-Sighted Monkey Book.

Born in Wisconsin in 1956, Lynda studied at Evergreen State College.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hilarious and Touching, July 19, 2002

By 

Cori Redford (Denver, CO United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Greatest of Marlys (Paperback)

I love Marlys and her goofiness. She is alternately hilarious (as when she describes all the different methods of fake smoking, such as the gum cigarrette with its realistic coughing, or a hot dog, for when you're having hobo feelings) and touching (as when she describes her sister's threat to kill herself when the tree outside loses its last leaf - which prompts Marlys to glue a bunch of leaves back onto the tree). I love how she reminds me so poignantly of the bossy kid that I was, and the wacky things that kids think. This book is way worth it.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Visualize ten stars..., January 27, 2001

By 

QTeacher "qteacher" (Oakland, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Greatest of Marlys (Paperback)

Lynda Berry -- like Carson McCullers, Dorothy Allison and Earl Thompson -- writes brilliantly about the world of cast-off and broken children. [read her "The Freddie Stories" and "Cruddy" to see this world at its most tragic and beautiful.] But The! Great! MARLYS! is the sainted warrior of these damaged kids. It is through Marlys that Berry voices the finest of herself: her joy and genius and innocence. Marlys is the classic resiliant child and a beacon for kids who grow up with four strikes against them. She is one of the most heroic figures I have found in fiction.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Out of this world!, January 4, 2002

By 

Mona Gracen (New York State, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Greatest of Marlys (Paperback)

I'd give this book 10 stars if I could. It is so beyond good. You are transported back to an earlier time and really made to remember what it was to be a child - especially a child in a dysfunctional family. Lynda Barry's comics touch upon some of the sadder moments of childhood and dysfunction without losing their comic and ironic edge. They allow you to laugh without getting bogged down in the misery. They allow you to understand the pain without forgetting to enjoy the little things. This is truly a work of comic art. Lynda Barry is one of the best comic artists of our time.