What It Is named among 11 essential comics

What It Is by Lynda Barry

When Lynda Barry was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 2019, it came after nearly 40 years of work—work that started when she went to Evergreen State College after growing up in Seattle. Among her most beguiling books is this graphic reverie—part diary, part cartoon inquiry into the nature of life, part scrapbook. To say it defies genre doesn’t go far enough: It simply is what it is.