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It's So Magic
Two of the inventive cartoonist Barry's most popular characters discover the heartache and pain of being a teenager. "Barry . . . conjures up the essence of life's experiences in her drawings with oddball insight and a perfect ear for the way people talk".--Entertainment Weekly. 128 cartoons.
127 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 1994
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241 people want to read
About the author
Lynda Barry
45 books1,146 followersLynda Barry is an American cartoonist and author, perhaps best known for her weekly comic strip Ernie Pook's Comeek.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews
November 10, 2022
Writing from the perspective of two sisters in the late '60s or early '70s, Barry shows an amazing knack for getting the way kids write, draw, and see the world. In particular, looking at the pages supposedly created by her characters, I instantly recognized the sorts of letters, comics, and essays I and my classmates used to create. I imagine most readers will get this feeling of deja vu.
August 26, 2022
Been loving these D&Q reprints of what was probably Lynda Barry's most creatively fruitful period while drawing her long-running weekly strip "Ernie Pook's Comeek." These comics are alternately hilarious, moving, and sad. I especially love the strips written and drawn by Barry's child characters (a great example being "Marlys's Guide to Queers"): the language and the scribbly drawings feel incredibly authentic. Stay tuned for my full review coming in Sept '22 on Solrad.
April 5, 2023
Devastating and also majorly awesome
August 4, 2022
A collection of short comic strips that together make up a sort of composite graphic novel. Like most of Barry's work that I've read, it's noticeable for two things. The first is that everything's from the POV of a kid or young person - in this case, the sisters Maybonne and Marlys - and this is evident not just in the voices of the narrators but in the art, which very much looks like a children's scrawl in places. (I don't particularly love Barry's artwork, but it's still very clearly considered.) Barry's child-voice has always struck me as enormously effective, precisely because it's so realistic. The kids, especially Marlys, bounce from topic to topic. It's random and a little weird and dead-on recognisable.
The second is that this voice is used to talk around topics that the kids don't fully understand, issues such as date rape and homophobia and how to feel when your country's at war. Barry is very, very good at this. This isn't a children's comic. It's a comic that uses children to communicate with other adults, and to force them to think. It can be quite funny in places, but more often it's bleak, even a little tragic, especially as this family is totally dysfunctional, and the kids live with grandma after being abandoned by both parents.
I think my favourite comic in here is "Sorry Story," in which the girls' brother Freddie writes a book report about colonialism. He doesn't quite understand colonialism, so he's describing everything as an adventure story, one in which brutality is on full display. It's horrifying and sad and very clever all at once.
The second is that this voice is used to talk around topics that the kids don't fully understand, issues such as date rape and homophobia and how to feel when your country's at war. Barry is very, very good at this. This isn't a children's comic. It's a comic that uses children to communicate with other adults, and to force them to think. It can be quite funny in places, but more often it's bleak, even a little tragic, especially as this family is totally dysfunctional, and the kids live with grandma after being abandoned by both parents.
I think my favourite comic in here is "Sorry Story," in which the girls' brother Freddie writes a book report about colonialism. He doesn't quite understand colonialism, so he's describing everything as an adventure story, one in which brutality is on full display. It's horrifying and sad and very clever all at once.
November 6, 2022
This book has been such a comfort to me over the past several months. I’ve kept it near my bed and read it before sleep or when waking or when sad or lonely or uninspired. Inevitably, my mood would lift. The combination of heartbreak and humor, realness and playfulness, depth and lightness got me through many a complex time in my own life. Her work is so poignant and also so uplifting to me.
I’m sad this volume is over but glad I haven’t yet read all of Lynda Barry’s work and that I have more of her books on my nightstand at the ready.
I’m sad this volume is over but glad I haven’t yet read all of Lynda Barry’s work and that I have more of her books on my nightstand at the ready.
November 27, 2023
"Dear God swear to God, I will keep on believing it's magic it's magic it's still so magic."
January 23, 2011
Who mixes laugh-out-loud humor and real poignancy better than Lynda Barry?
July 12, 2015
I want to say that "This is my absolute favorite" Lynda Barry comic collection - but they all are my favorites. So, it's true.
January 1, 2023
Another Christmas gift, and my last read of 2022. A good way to go out.
Lynda Barry's name should be -- must be -- in the conversation about the best contemporary writers of literature. The debate about what it takes to "elevate" comics as a form of art or literature has largely been settled, and plenty of people out there in the world are making comics with that conceit specifically in mind at this point, but Barry has been and still proves to be a trailblazer. She is an expert at the method of drawing readers in with the familiar charm of the cartoon form, and the disarming sweetness of a character like Marlys, and then rocking you with a series of gut-punches you'll be feeling for days.
It's So Magic is another compilation of Barry's long-running and popular-in-the-alt-newspapers strip, Ernie Pook's Comeek. The compilation covers strips mostly with a focus on Marlys' older sister, Maybonne. It's like looking at a time capsule within a time capsule in so many ways. One of Barry's strength is her ability to use an authentic youthful voice in her storytelling, and she does so by setting the strip in the 1960s and 1970s, and using the language and concerns of her own youth to address the concerns of the world at the time of the strips' publication, in this case 1991 and 1992. And those strips have been collected and published in 2022. That separation of time, twice dilated, honestly has quite a poignant effect.
At the heart of Ernie Pook's Comeek is the theme of young people who are largely powerless trying to simply survive in the raging currents of a chaotic world, and given little rest because those who have the most effect upon their personal lives are also chaotic. Compiling strips that focus on Maybonne's story are particularly effective in showing this, given that she's reached that age of growing up where she understands the chaos around her, she understands the damage it's causing, and she's still desperately trying to cling to hope. It's heart-wrenching. My favorite line in the compilation, one that I think I'll have in my head for the rest of my life, is a succinct summary:
"Oh Father, who art in heaven, I don't even know what to say to you anymore."
It comes from a strip describing Maybonne's feelings about the Vietnam War, a strip written and drawn in 1991, clearly in response to the Gulf War of 1991. And now I'm reading that strip in 2022, in a year where we're supposedly no longer at war, but are primary supporters of Ukraine's defense against a Russian invasion, and continued military budget spending of nearly a trillion dollars a year. The dam was blasted away generations ago, we're all swept up in this unending current, and most of us are trying desperately not to drown while the folks who are dry on shore and still holding the dynamite scream at us to learn to swim.
It's So Magic is an excellent compilation, and Barry shows almost effortlessly, despite taking on quite a lot of effort at the time, why comics can now without controversy be discussed as literature. This is most definitely the best book I've read in 2022.
Lynda Barry's name should be -- must be -- in the conversation about the best contemporary writers of literature. The debate about what it takes to "elevate" comics as a form of art or literature has largely been settled, and plenty of people out there in the world are making comics with that conceit specifically in mind at this point, but Barry has been and still proves to be a trailblazer. She is an expert at the method of drawing readers in with the familiar charm of the cartoon form, and the disarming sweetness of a character like Marlys, and then rocking you with a series of gut-punches you'll be feeling for days.
It's So Magic is another compilation of Barry's long-running and popular-in-the-alt-newspapers strip, Ernie Pook's Comeek. The compilation covers strips mostly with a focus on Marlys' older sister, Maybonne. It's like looking at a time capsule within a time capsule in so many ways. One of Barry's strength is her ability to use an authentic youthful voice in her storytelling, and she does so by setting the strip in the 1960s and 1970s, and using the language and concerns of her own youth to address the concerns of the world at the time of the strips' publication, in this case 1991 and 1992. And those strips have been collected and published in 2022. That separation of time, twice dilated, honestly has quite a poignant effect.
At the heart of Ernie Pook's Comeek is the theme of young people who are largely powerless trying to simply survive in the raging currents of a chaotic world, and given little rest because those who have the most effect upon their personal lives are also chaotic. Compiling strips that focus on Maybonne's story are particularly effective in showing this, given that she's reached that age of growing up where she understands the chaos around her, she understands the damage it's causing, and she's still desperately trying to cling to hope. It's heart-wrenching. My favorite line in the compilation, one that I think I'll have in my head for the rest of my life, is a succinct summary:
"Oh Father, who art in heaven, I don't even know what to say to you anymore."
It comes from a strip describing Maybonne's feelings about the Vietnam War, a strip written and drawn in 1991, clearly in response to the Gulf War of 1991. And now I'm reading that strip in 2022, in a year where we're supposedly no longer at war, but are primary supporters of Ukraine's defense against a Russian invasion, and continued military budget spending of nearly a trillion dollars a year. The dam was blasted away generations ago, we're all swept up in this unending current, and most of us are trying desperately not to drown while the folks who are dry on shore and still holding the dynamite scream at us to learn to swim.
It's So Magic is an excellent compilation, and Barry shows almost effortlessly, despite taking on quite a lot of effort at the time, why comics can now without controversy be discussed as literature. This is most definitely the best book I've read in 2022.
May 1, 2018
This book traces the two years Maybonne and Marlys spend with their grandma, and it's very Maybonne heavy (which I am not complaining about). Barry has the ability to tap into teen angst and yearning and anxiety and optimism in a way that feels like paging through someone's diary. I've been thinking a lot about harnessing sadness in comics, and this collection is a fantastic example of leaning unflinchingly into everyday darkness.
My one complaint is that there are a lot of Marlys/Freddy hand-drawn strips. I like a Marlys-created strip, but there were so many that I sometimes felt bogged down.
My one complaint is that there are a lot of Marlys/Freddy hand-drawn strips. I like a Marlys-created strip, but there were so many that I sometimes felt bogged down.
March 18, 2020
This was alot sadder than I thought it would be. Though it had this really interesting charm, and was pretty entertaining and some parts were very funny. Marlys and Freddy's drawings especially were pretty nice.
But yeah. It had alot of tough topics that I did not expect in the least. But it handled them well and realistically, for teenagers. The characters feel very real.
But yeah. It had alot of tough topics that I did not expect in the least. But it handled them well and realistically, for teenagers. The characters feel very real.
January 8, 2023
I did not enjoy the book and only read it as part of a graphic novel challenge. I don't enjoy comics, the book was in black/white; despite having a very colorful cover. Nothing about this book appealed to me. I don't understand graphic books, I can't follow the story lines.
This is a def. skip all around
This is a def. skip all around
October 27, 2022
I don’t know why I didn’t realize until halfway through this one that the series is supposed to take place in the late 1960s. That explains a lot! Plus it makes the Judy Blume similarities stronger and that’s a plus in my book.
December 10, 2022
It's So Magic is another cute collection by Lynda Barry about the endearing Marlys and her working class family in 6os small town America. I love how real and tender they are whilst still being silly as.
January 14, 2023
I don’t think that I could love a set of characters more. The more Marlys, Maybonne and Feddy we get, the better. Barry it’s so good at writing them and taking us through the ups and downs of life. Hopefully many more of these volumes to come.
January 20, 2023
More like 3.5 than 3.
I adore Lynda Barry's work; her ability to write realistic kids in both dialogue and art-style is such a huge feat. I liked some of the strips more than others, and felt like there were a lot of segue chapters, so not my fave collection of hers, but I enjoyed nonetheless.
I adore Lynda Barry's work; her ability to write realistic kids in both dialogue and art-style is such a huge feat. I liked some of the strips more than others, and felt like there were a lot of segue chapters, so not my fave collection of hers, but I enjoyed nonetheless.
March 19, 2024
I have been reading Lynda Barry for so many years and I just love her. Her comics are hilarious and will also break your heart in a million pieces. The stories she writes give a true sense of nostalgia but also feel timely. This book was a collection of comics she wrote in 91.
October 19, 2024
3.5ish
Reminds me of how I used to write in my journals as a kid. Made me happy to think I had a childhood of that but sad to think of how much more I would have written if not for the internet taking over our times.
Appreciated bits and especially the end
Reminds me of how I used to write in my journals as a kid. Made me happy to think I had a childhood of that but sad to think of how much more I would have written if not for the internet taking over our times.
Appreciated bits and especially the end
February 21, 2022
really really really really really really really really really really really good.
February 3, 2023
Heartwarming and heartbreaking. My first Lynda Barry experience. Although I’m not super into the drawing style, this is true art. Barry channels children’s voices almost too well.
February 12, 2023
There is no escaping the charm of Maybonne and Marlys. Right on!
May 7, 2023
I just got the 2022 edition of this out of the library, forgetting that I'd already read this way back when it was originally published. Still just as good, but I skimmed it this time around.
May 22, 2023
Right on, from Marlys!
Reading about Marlys makes me want to be a young kid again.
Reading about Marlys makes me want to be a young kid again.
April 17, 2024
I always feel like a #1 Groover when I'm hanging out with Marlys.
September 25, 2025
10 stars out of 5! Her very best.
November 20, 2025
a perfect slice of life of siblings in the early nineties - a mix of fun silly stuff and heavy real things
August 24, 2008
I've always loved Lynda Barry, and this particular book contains the storylines that first hooked me on reading her weekly comic strip in the alternative free newspaper you can find in most cities. So poignant, and moving, and very true at their core, these stories tell it like it was to be a teen growing up in the 70's. Her ability to fully flesh out a character in just a few black and white panels is pretty darned impressive.
May 2, 2014
The last page of this book completely breaks my heart. After everything, Maybonne still believes in magic. I think that has to do a lot with having such an amazing funk soul sister like Marlys. I have to find my way back to this kind of magic.
August 15, 2016
This is a re-read. Just to get me back in the groove. I loved Lynda Barry & haven't thought of her for years. A comment on youtube (Peterlikesbooks) reminded me of her glory & my library had a bunch of books.
So I'm binge reading. Yay!
So I'm binge reading. Yay!
April 20, 2008
A sweet cartoon book. Classic Lynda Barry at her best.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews