As far as we’re concerned, all of this scandal and innuendo is nothing compared to the majestic news that a new Lynda Barry book is on the way and D&Q is spearheading a reprinting of ERNIE POOK’S COMEEK.
As reported in this week’s issue of Publishers Weekly, Drawn & Quarterly has announced plans to publish seven titles by the acclaimed and legendary cartoonist Lynda Barry, starting in 2008 through 2011. The publishing plan includes new material, collected material and plans to reprint the complete seminal strip “Ernie Pook’s Comeek” which was created in 1979, and has been syndicated for more than two decades. The deal includes world English rights.
Barry’s first book “What It Is” will be comprised of completely new material and will be published in early 2008. Following “What It Is” in Fall 2007, is the first of a five-volume hardcover reprint collection of “Ernie Pook’s Comeek.” Each of the five volumes in the reprint series will have an introduction penned by Barry herself, complete with visual ephemera. Also planned is a new collection of Barry’s freelance work for various magazines over the years. In May of 2007, Drawn & Quarterly will publish a “Free Comic Book Day” issue with all Lynda Barry material.
“Lynda Barry is one of the world’s most influential, inventive and groundbreaking contemporary cartoonists whose fans stretch well beyond the comic book medium,” said Chris Oliveros, President & Publisher of Drawn & Quarterly. “To borrow a word from Dave Egger’s New York Times Book Review of Lynda’s comics, her “oeuvre” should always be in print, and Drawn & Quarterly is thrilled and honored to be the company that gives her work the publishing treatment that it deserves.”
Barry is without question one of the finest cartoonists of the past 30 years, the equal in pathos and insight to Ware and Clowes any day, and we sincerely hope that this begins her critical certification as a “Master of Comics.”
On a more mundane level, WHAT IT IS will give the mainstream media a much-needed new comics figure to turn into a media figure!
Hasn’t Alison Bechdel done that?
Turned into a media figure, I eamn.
But WOO Lynda Barry!
I heart Lynda Barry.
She’s one of my top five favorite cartoonists. 100 DEMONS is the kind of book you can give any living human, and they will love it.
Unless they are lame, in which case they do not deserve such a fine gift.
Heart Lynda Barry indeed…
PLUS… she’s a novelissst… which makes her THE figure to adore by the media…
I’m pretty sure 100 Demons is fully uploaded on Salon.com too…