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CBG SATELLITES
The ADD Blog by Alan David Doane
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One Hundred Demons I used to read Lynda Barry's "Marlys" strips in the back of the
local alt-weekly paper. While I've never been a big fan of stories
about childhood, something about the way the stories seemed to be
written as a reflection on the past appealed to me. Being a casual
reader of a strip and sitting down with a book of strips are rather
different reading experiences, but I've finally spent some time with
Lynda Barry's work. I'm better off for the experience. One Hundred Demons is a collection of seventeen short
comics (plus illustrated intro and outro) based on the idea of
drawing a "demon." In an introductory comic, Barry explains where she
got the concept: a painting technique used by a 16th century Japanese
monk who painted a parade of one hundred demons on a scroll. She
decides to paint them in the form of comics. Barry's demons come out
in what she calls autobifictionalography, partially autobiographical,
partially fictional stories about childhood and those years between
childhood and adulthood. The protagonist is Lynda, a red-haired half-
filipino girl who lives in Seattle with her mom and grandmom (and
apparently her dad, though he is never seen and only mentioned a few
times). She is a bit of an outcast, has few or temporary friends, and
gets involved with sex and drugs at an early age. Her relationship
with her mother is strained, but she gets along well with her
grandmom. Autobiographical comics (and their partially fictional brethren)
are nothing new, and perhaps are even rather played out these days,
the refuge of an artist with little to say. That doesn't take away
from the power of a well-done and original spin on the genre. Barry
brings a unique voice to the material filled with humor, joy, regret,
and acceptance. She tells her stories with the partial wisdom of
experience and age looking back at the hazily remembered days of pre-
adulthood. She plays on the friction between those days (as best as
we remember them) and the altered view we hold looking back. These
are not stories of a woman growing up. They are stories of a woman
looking back on growing up, putting some of those demons to rest, and
realizing how some still haunt the present. On reading the first two stories I was worried the whole book
would hold a certain sentimentality of "lessons learned" from the
past. Thankfully this feeling was dispelled by the pages that
followed. I don't how else to say it except that there is true
feeling and power in these stories. They are funny, moving, sad,
insightful, and occasionally shocking. The first thing a reader will notice about this book is how
colorful it is. Not only is the cover bright and busy with collage,
but the margins of every interior page are colored. The edge of the
book is a rainbow of pastel-colored sections (a story for each
color). The two page spreads that act as title pages to each story
are collages of images, photos, objects, and text, each featuring the
"demon", a small dark creature representative of the issue at hand. The strips are all done in square panels, two to a page, nine
pages to a story. The panels are dominated by large blocks of
narration that squeeze the pictures into the bottom half of the
panel. This is as much, if not more, a reading book than a looking
book. Her prose is casual, like a friend telling a story. Some of the
stories are quite linear, telling about a particular event, while
others are more atmospheric, skipping through time to show us a
period in life or the recurrence of a theme. Occasionally, she jumps
into the present, showing herself as an adult. Like the narration, there is casualness to the bendy armed
characters that inhabit an iconic world of houses, streets, and
trees. The outro to the book explains the Asian ink brush method
Barry used in the book. The ink lines are flowing and consistent in
quality, filled in with bright ink washes. It's simpler and less
decorative than Barry's other works I've seen. The color palette in
each strip is slightly different, certain colors predominate. A color
will be used for the background to talking heads and will also appear
in the background of interiors and in the characters' clothes. Most
of the strips use this recurring background color, often in
conjunction with its compliment. I think this use of color repetition
is what makes the art so pleasing to the eye and also gives each
strip a unique look. We don't see enough skilled color use in comics
particularly in non-Marvel/DC books (probably because of the cost of
reproduction). I read One Hundred Demons in a single sitting. I kept
thinking, "just one more, then I'll get up", but I kept reading until
I finished. I know I'll be going back to it again.
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