Lynda Barry, known and loved for her zany irreverence and imagination, brought the graphic literature genre onto new terrain with her invention, the graphic memoir. In the first iteration, Picture This: The Nearsighted Monkey Book (Drawn & Quarterly), she brings back Marlys and Arna, characters from her previous book, What It Is, and introduces the Near-Sighted Monkey, a cigarette-smoking alter ego from Hell.

Through these tough cookies, she poses questions that no adult in their right mind would ask. For example: "Why do we stop drawing? And why do we start?" Or "What is the difference between torn and cut (paper)? Which do you prefer?"

As you squirm in your seat, remembering how boring childhood often was, and how we sometimes squandered our time and talents on coloring books (they destroy creativity, according to Marlys) in order to conquer our fears about making pictures. And so, for the days when we don't feel that we can draw, the kindhearted artist offers a stand-in chicken to use instead. We can trace it, cut it out, and paste it into our own drawing space.

Lynda Barry, Everything: Part I poster (detail).

"What happened on the day I realized I could not draw?" Now that's an ugly thought, but Marlys, a courageous artist, assures us that "it happens to almost everyone." She explores the fear that a blank drawing book, or even a blank sheet of paper can conjure up, then proceeds to annotate the process of making ugly and pretty shapes, collecting them into nice piles, and then "finding your way back to the place where the shapes are happening." Another piece of sage advice about overcoming our inherent inabilities is a blinding glimpse of the obvious: "The trick is to stand not knowing certain things long enough for them to come to you."

Original art for a page from Two Sisters / Blabber Blabber Blabber: Volume 1 of Everything.

"Picture This covers just about every kind of art crisis imaginable and what to do about it. "What makes you able to endureuncertainty. What makes your mind wander? Why do we lose focus?" Part of the solution is "You have to be willing to spend time making things for no reason."

After much struggle, Marlys finally uncovers her personal Rosetta Stone. "I had an idea for a party," she writes, "where people made pictures together and the rule is you can talk about anything except the pictures. What happens when we make pictures without talking about them? Why would we not talk about a picture? What does not talking give us?" And if you want to find out, dear readers, as my friend the English film critic always says, ”Suck it and see.”

Which you can do, starting next week, at Adam Baumgold Gallery. The exhibition Everything: Part I will feature over 80 original comic drawings, watercolors, and mixed media collages from the past 35 years, including work from her seminal books Two Sisters Comeek, Girls and Boys, The Freddie Stories, The Greatest of Marlys!, One! Hundred! Demons!,What It is, and Picture This: The Near-Sighted Monkey Book, as well as works that were published in Raw, The Village Voice, Esquire, Newsweek and The New York Times, among others.

Lynda Barry | Everything: Part I opens May 13 with a reception for the artist from 6-8 pm. Adam Baumgold Gallery, 60 East 66^th Street, NY, NY.