By Leslie Stein (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 978-1-60699-672-0
Help Wanted: Girl cartoonist seeks meaning of contemporary existence and like minded individuals to share bewilderment and revelations with.
Interests/Hobbies include: drinking, counting sand, growing stuff, antiquing for pop culture “trashâ€, drinking, meaningful conversations with musical instruments, playing board games with same, recreational herbal intoxicants, reminiscing about wild-times with gal-pals and old cronies, drinking, visiting difficult relatives.
Employment: unwanted but regrettably necessary. Although a newcomer to the BigCity, is extremely adaptable and willing to do anything – unless it’s hard, boring or she sucks at it…
After graduating from the New York School of Visual Arts, Leslie Stein began producing unbelievably addictive cartoon strips in the self-published Yeah, It Is. Winning a Xeric Grant for her efforts, she then started the even better comicbook Eye of the Majestic Creature, miraculously blending autobiographical self-discovery, surreal free-association, philosophical ruminations, nostalgic reminiscences and devastatingly dry wit to describe modern life as filtered through her seductive meta-fictional interior landscape. Here at play is a creator who sees things as they really aren’t – but makes them authentic and even desirable to everyone willing to pay attention…
This long-awaited second collected volume (gathering issues #5-7) resumes the airy, eccentric and addictive pictorial mood-music as the mythologized autobiography continues to reveal the history of Larrybear – a girl deliberately and determinedly on her own, trying to establish her uniquely singular way of getting by.
Eschewing chronological narrative for an easy, breezy raconteur’s epigrammatic delivery, all illustrated in loose, flowing line-work, detailed stippling, hypnotic pattern-building or even honest-to-gosh representational line-drawing, Stein operates under the credo of “whatever works, works†– and she’s not wrong…
Larrybear makes friends easily. Bums, winos, weirdoes, dropouts, misfits and especially inanimate objects – her BFF is her talking guitar and flatmate Marshmallow – all aggregate around her, sharing her outré interests and ambitions (of a sort) but she just doesn’t want an average life, just more experiences, less hassle and good companions to share it all with …
Delivered in mesmerising, oversized (292 x 202mm) monochrome snippets, these incisive, absurdist, whimsically charming and visually intoxicating invitations into a singularly creative mind and fabulous alternative reality begin with the delightful story of how the country girl hit the untamed New York metropolis and found a job in a clothes shop.
‘Sister Carrie’ is a partly pantomimic tour de force underpinned by pertinent extracts from American Naturalist author Theodore Dreiser’s novel of the same name, revealing how Larrybear’s debilitating daily toil is leavened by new friends, odd customers, alcohol and second-hand sand-counting memorabilia…
Issue #6 takes a ride on the Wayback Machine to the 1980s; disclosing childhood fun and traumas as Larry’s mom meets a guy in a bar and invites the freewheeling Jonathan to join them on a visit to Disneyworld Orlando.
‘Brown Heart’ dips into even more intimate territory as precocious doodler Larrybear accompanies her mom to AA meetings whilst ‘That Sticky Machine’ recounts the girl’s tragic relationship with a gumball machine…
Larry’s brief flirtation as a thirteen year guitarist with politically aware – and older -grunge band Lithium in Chicago neatly segues into a family reunion and Jonathan’s departure…
The final portion of the chronicle opens with ‘A Better Intoxication: the Subconscious Noodle’ as in contemporary New York Larrybear, Marshmallow and drinking buddy/life guru Boris renew their relationship with booze, whilst in ‘Soup’ her new boyfriend Poppin the Flower grows closer after she meets his incredibly difficult dad over a memorable Thanksgiving dinner…
The memories lane ramble then concludes with ‘Who Are You?‘ as after finding an iconic pop culture mask (Booji Boy from Devo, hipsters and post-punks!) Larrybear at last finds the drive and initiative to quit her job…
With additional art and info-features on Dreiser and Booji Boy, this exceptional wander on the wild side is a gloriously rewarding and enticing cartoon experience and one no serious fan of fun and narrative art can afford to miss.
© 2013 Leslie Stein. All Rights Reserved.