“The library was open for one hour after school let out. I hid there, looking at art books and reading poetry.”

American cartoonist

Lynda Barry is an American cartoonist known for her long-running comic strip Ernie Pook's Comeek. Her work spans comic strips, illustrated novels, and graphic novels, and she has also written about creativity and the making of art. She drew wider attention with The Good Times are Killing Me, an illustrated novel from 1988 about an interracial friendship between two young girls, later adapted for the stage. She later published Cruddy, One! Hundred! Demons!, and What It Is, a mixed memoir, collage, and workbook that offers exercises for opening creative work. What It Is won the 2009 Eisner Award for Best Reality-Based Work.