How much do I love Lynda Barry? Enough that I once dressed up as her for my sixth-grade Admirable Women project, even though the mass of Harriet Tubmans and Helen Kellers shot puzzled glances at my clomping boots and lopsided glasses. I had already discarded the sterile characters from young-adult novels for Freddie, Arna and especially Marlys — the characters in Barry's continuing Ernie Pook's Comeek — who epitomized the geeky, bug-loving, notebook-filling agony of childhood. Her drawing style seemed a little messy at first, but it also looked like my favorite paintings in the Outside Art exhibitions my parents were always dragging me to, and her books are so lovely and so true. At Skylight Barry will discuss and sign her new book, Picture This: The Nearsighted Monkey Book, a sequel to What It Is, which is kind of a cross between an illustrated memoir and a writing manual. You should be there.

Tue., Oct. 19, 7:30 p.m., 2010

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