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 Location:  Home » Arts » Science Fiction & Fantasy » What It IsAugust 21, 2008  


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What It Is
What It Is
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Author: Lynda Barry
Publisher: Drawn and Quarterly
Category: Book

List Price: $24.95
Buy New: $14.48
You Save: $10.47 (42%)
Buy New/Used/Collectible from $14.48

Avg. Customer Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars(12 reviews)
Sales Rank: 3173

Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 209
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.1
Dimensions (in): 10.9 x 8.6 x 0.9

ISBN: 1897299354
Dewey Decimal Number: 741.5973
EAN: 9781897299357
ASIN: 1897299354

Publication Date: May 13, 2008
Release Date: May 13, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days

Editorial Reviews:

Product Description
?Deliciously drawn (with fragments of collage worked into each page), insightful and bubbling with delight in the process of artistic creation. A+? ?Salon
How do objects summon memories? What do real images feel like? For decades, these types of questions have permeated the pages of Lynda Barry?s compositions, with words attracting pictures and conjuring places through a pen that first and foremost keeps on moving. What It Is demonstrates a tried-and-true creative method that is playful, powerful, and accessible to anyone with an inquisitive wish to write or to remember. Composed of completely new material, each page of Barry?s first Drawn & Quarterly book is a full-color collage that is not only a gentle guide to this process but an invigorating example of exactly what it is: ?The ordinary is extraordinary.?



Customer Reviews:   Read 7 more reviews...

5 out of 5 stars Way exceeded my expectations! The coolest book I own!   August 15, 2008
I ordered this after reading about it on Kelly Kilmer's blog, where she highly praised this repeatedly and made me think that I was missing out on something wonderful if I didn't buy it.
So I bought it, and what I found out is that I had been missing out on something wonderful!!

I couldn't be more happy that I bought this book! First of all this book surprised me in that it is nicely sized 8.5 x 11 (approx) and it's much THICKER than I had imaged it, and it's HARDCOVER.(I was expecting a soft cover magazine type book)So, after I admired the outside, and opened it up, I was even more impressed and excited with what I found!! Yes, I thought I was in comic book/collage/art journal/writing prompt heaven!! With so much to look at, I just about wore myself out trying to look at/read everything. -Which is also a nice thing about this book, I am highly doubting that you'd run out of things to look at or read here.

This is kinda like looking at one of your school friends notebook, or journal, except SO MUCH BETTER! There are comic book pictures, random thoughts, journal prompts, drawings, ideas, etc, etc, etc. This is an awesome and inspiring book. This tops the list of coolest books that I own!!



5 out of 5 stars Amazing Book   July 11, 2008
  2 out of 2 found this review helpful

I am an artist-teacher, and I wish someone had presented this information to me sooner.

The book has a front section that is sort of an artistic, stream of consciousness, diaristic account of Lynda Barry's own creative life. Followed by a workbook, which I didn't have any specific expectations about, but I was sitting there following the steps, and it was pretty amazing how effective the method Barry advocates is. It took me off guard, and I think I am going to use it next week in the class I teach.

Overall this book ranks somewhere around the best books I have ever read because it sort of snuck up on me, and made realize some stuff about myself and my creative process that I may have resisted in a less charismatic presentation.



5 out of 5 stars what it is   July 3, 2008
  2 out of 2 found this review helpful

I recommend this to anyone who loves Linda Barry. This book is supposedto be a condensed version of her wrtining workshop. Mostly, it is L. B. collages and drawings. It explores many of the issues that arise during the creative process.


5 out of 5 stars A guide on remembering   June 24, 2008
  3 out of 3 found this review helpful


One of the most important aspects of writing anything-- memoir, fiction, poetry--is the ability to remember. Sounds simple, but we forget so much naturally and are actively encouraged to forget what doesn't suit the needs of any particular group, usually family. Lynda Barry's wonderful primer on how to being to probe the images of your life is just grand
and will doubtless serve many artists and writers as they explore their lives and the lives of others. An exercise as simple as try to recall the earliest phone number you had and try to picture that phone seem so simple, but take you to places that you'd long forgotten.

Like everything by Barry, it's humane and masterful and compassionate and smart. A wonderful addition to any artist's desk.



4 out of 5 stars what is it   June 19, 2008
  1 out of 1 found this review helpful

Lynda Barry is idiosyncratic, funny, dreamy, hardcore etc. etc. She's also a practicing pragmatist. Anyone needing a refresher course on disassembling the obstacles to creativity could probably benefit from this book. The collages are elaborate, beautiful and tender but I think I actually like the hand drawn asides that bring the reader into the world of the artist's upbringing and self-talk, the area at which she's always excelled. It's by being herself that Barry becomes Everyman for every man and woman.


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