Welcome to the Weekly Comics Hype! I do these alphabetically, but occasionally skip around a bit, and today I've come to the sort of book I rarely enjoy, a black-and-white autobiography. The world of independent comics is stereotyped as being full to choking with tales of the creators' own lives, and most of those efforts are pretty tedious and grim. But there are occasional examples of autobiographies which are full of brightness, sunshine and smiling nostalgia, like Monkey Food by Ellen Forney.
Monkey Food is a complete collection of Forney's incredibly silly strip I Was Seven in '75, which used to run in Tower Records' free Pulse! magazine along with a handful of weekly newspapers. Each installment featured a scattershot reminder of suburban life in the mid-70s, from shag carpets to goofy childhood games, when a little girl's heroes included Farrah Fawcett-Majors and Lindsay Wagner and she collected things like rainbow stickers and "I'm okay / You're okay" T-shirts.
Not that Forney's young life was entirely like the one I remember. My own seven year-old girl probably isn't ready to read about Forney's well-to-do parents smoking pot and visiting nudist camps. But hey, it was the seventies. It was a really weird time. (That strikes me as being very odd, drawing your parents naked.)
Monkey Food turns out to be effortlessly charming and funny, with topics ranging from CB radio to step-by-step instructions of putting wings in your hair to longer stories about her gang getting busted reading Forever by Judy Blume, which was apparently the second-grade girl equivalent of the Penthouse forum. (Note to self: Check the girl's backpack; prepare for explanations.)
I'm not sure what more to say about Monkey Food. If you were a kid in the 1970s, you'll laugh at the forgotten memories even before you get the giggle at how well Forney presents it. She has a new book coming out later in the summer called I Love Led Zeppelin, and if it's anywhere as amusing or insightful as "The Final Soundtrack" on her website's comics page, then I believe I shall adore it completely.
Monkey Food is available from your local comic shop, who would enjoy your custom; new books ship on Wednesdays, so why not stop in after work?
Monkey Food is a complete collection of Forney's incredibly silly strip I Was Seven in '75, which used to run in Tower Records' free Pulse! magazine along with a handful of weekly newspapers. Each installment featured a scattershot reminder of suburban life in the mid-70s, from shag carpets to goofy childhood games, when a little girl's heroes included Farrah Fawcett-Majors and Lindsay Wagner and she collected things like rainbow stickers and "I'm okay / You're okay" T-shirts.
Not that Forney's young life was entirely like the one I remember. My own seven year-old girl probably isn't ready to read about Forney's well-to-do parents smoking pot and visiting nudist camps. But hey, it was the seventies. It was a really weird time. (That strikes me as being very odd, drawing your parents naked.)
Monkey Food turns out to be effortlessly charming and funny, with topics ranging from CB radio to step-by-step instructions of putting wings in your hair to longer stories about her gang getting busted reading Forever by Judy Blume, which was apparently the second-grade girl equivalent of the Penthouse forum. (Note to self: Check the girl's backpack; prepare for explanations.)
I'm not sure what more to say about Monkey Food. If you were a kid in the 1970s, you'll laugh at the forgotten memories even before you get the giggle at how well Forney presents it. She has a new book coming out later in the summer called I Love Led Zeppelin, and if it's anywhere as amusing or insightful as "The Final Soundtrack" on her website's comics page, then I believe I shall adore it completely.
Monkey Food is available from your local comic shop, who would enjoy your custom; new books ship on Wednesdays, so why not stop in after work?