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One Hundred Demons (2002)
Published
Barry borrows the idea of a procession of demons and uses it to revisit difficult memories in short, vividly colored pieces. The form gives you space to stop between stories. Begin here if you want to experience the emotional range of her comics before trying the exercises.
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What It Is (2008)
Published
Open this when you want to write and have no idea what to write about. The crowded collages give you something specific to look at before you get to the exercises. It's the workbook to reach for when you have a memory in mind but can't yet find a way into it.
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Picture This (2010)
Published
This is the drawing companion to What It Is. Its doodles, cartoons, and scraps let you see the value in making a mark before you know where it's going. Start here if you quit drawing because you thought you weren't especially good at it.
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Syllabus: Notes from an Accidental Professor (2014)
Published
Pick up Syllabus for lesson plans you can try at home. Its handwritten pages make you feel as if you've borrowed a teacher's working notebook. Use it when an open-ended invitation to be creative isn't enough and you want a concrete assignment to start.
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Making Comics
Barry asks students to draw themselves as monsters and superheroes and to keep a journal by hand. Reach for this after you've made a few loose drawings and want a practice that can carry you through a whole week. You can try the exercises even if your first figures look unconvincing.
More about Making Comics6
The Greatest of Marlys
Marlys is the way into Barry's recurring Mullen family. Start here for the precision of her children's voices, especially the confidence with which they explain things they only half understand. Maybonne and Freddie are here too, so it helps to read this before following each of them in a book of their own.
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The Freddie Stories
Freddie is the youngest in the Mullen family, and the book follows a year of his life. Bullying is part of what makes this one a harder read than Marlys's collection. Choose it when you want Barry's attention on a boy whose inner life barely registers with the people around him.
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Come Over Come Over
These strips bring the embarrassment and excitement of junior high down to the size of a conversation. Make this your first Maybonne book if you want the everyday agonies of school and friendship in small doses.
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My Perfect Life
Continue with Maybonne here. The longer threads make this a good choice if you like the characters in Come Over Come Over and want to stay with them after the first joke has landed. The humor has room to turn awkward or painful without breaking the story's rhythm.
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It's So Magic (2022)
Published
Start here if you want the three siblings' perspectives in the same book. Marlys falls in love for the first time, and the children find small refuges while life at home is uncertain. It's a fine companion to the books that give one sibling most of the room.
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Everything: Comics from Around 1978-1981 (2011)
Published
Look for Blabber Blabber Blabber, the first volume of Everything, to see Barry work out how much a small cartoon can say. It collects Girls & Boys and shows her trying out approaches before settling into the voices you know from Marlys and Maybonne.
More about Everything: Comics from Around 1978-1981
