Description: A critical biography of one of the pioneers of alternative weekly comic strips
Brief description: Susan E. Kirtley is professor of English, director of composition, and director of comics studies at Portland State University. She is winner of the 2013 Eisner Award for Best Educational/Academic Work for her book Lynda Barry: Girlhood through the Looking Glass and coeditor (with Antero Garcia and Peter E. Carlson) of With Great Power Comes Great Pedagogy: Teaching, Learning, and Comics, both published by University Press of Mississippi.
Review Quotes: I thought I knew about Lynda Barry, until I read Susan Kirtley's Lynda Barry: Girlhood through the Looking Glass. In each chapter, Kirtley gives us new, provocative interpretations of such diverse Barry texts as the Naked Ladies! Naked Ladies! Naked Ladies! coloring book, The Good Times Are Killing Me play, the novel Cruddy and the graphic novel What It Is. Kirtley's writing--a combination of enviable clarity and the savvy application of narratology, comic art theory, and other ideas--does justice to Barry's kaleidoscopic take on troubled American girlhood. Anyone interested in Barry, female comics creators, or contemporary comics culture should read Kirtley's book.--Craig Fischer, Department of English, Appalachian State University