An open, honest, and vulnerable memoir-ish book, with vignettes of the "demons" that still sometimes haunt her.

After first not getting her and being put off by her illustration style, I now love Lynda Barry. I almost wrote, "I now get..." but I'm not sure I do. I just know that I can't get enough of her instructional comics memoirs, or whatever other genre she flirts with but doesn't quite fall into. She is utterly unique, and I want to read everything she's written. ( )

What a great book! A collection of short illustrated stories, really about the stuff that plagues us and weighs us down. They never head in the direction you think they will but always end up somewhere complete and satisfying. If you love to be in the company of someone who doesn't quite think like anyone else, Lynda Barry is a magnificent host. ( )

Cool art, sad stories (mostly). ( )

This book was good--not brilliant, but really solid work. I particularly love how she breaks one of the cardinal rules of memoir (it shouldn't be therapeutic) and then celebrates that she did ("Writing this was SO therapeutic!"). I also love how she breaks another cardinal rule of memoir and just makes stuff up for the sake of a good story (From now on, I'm planning to use her term "autobifictionalography" in response to everyone who asks if my fiction is based on my own life).

Some funny stuff, some heartbreaking stuff, and a few pieces that didn't quite go far enough, I thought. But overall, great work--I'm definitely going to keep my eyes open for more of her work.
( )

Semi-autobiographical graphic novel of Lynda Barry's childhood in Seattle (98144 zip code!). Touching, funny, bittersweet and aching. Memorable chapters: Lynda loses her magic and her best friend Ev; being intrigued by the smells of people's houses; missing a lost stuffed toy or blanket; adopting an abused dog.

Lynda Barry is brilliant. So is this book. Hard hitting and deeply moving. ( )

Awesome, thought-provoking, nostalgia-making book. Longer review later. ( )

I think I would like this more had I not also read The Diary of a Teenage Girl, Fun Home, and Persepolis of late; I think I'm done with semiautobiographical female comics memoir for the time being. I'm not saying One Hundred Demons is like the others completely-- it has a sense of humor that none of those books do-- but after reading them (not to mention American Splendor, Jimmy Corrigan, and Ghost World), I get it. The literary establishment likes its comics to be literary memoirs of tortured people. Now can we do something else? Why don't we like literary fiction at least? Thankfully Barry is less tortured than most. (Though in the seminar I read this in, at least one person criticized Barry for not being tortured enough. She demanded to know why race was more explicitly discussed. Maybe because nonwhite writers are allowed to write about things other than their own nonwhiteness?)

Lynda Barry is amazing. She captures the poignancy and pain of youth and awkwardness with incredible clarity and pathos. And the pix are amazing, too.

Barry uses both real-life events and fictional embellishments (without telling you which is which) to touch on a wide variety of issues. Some of the topics discussed are change, abuse, suicide, depression, music, drug use, etc. It could encourage students to explore their own 'demons' whether through fictional means or by telling their own stories.

Since the book is broken into chapters which can each stand alone, it would be easy to teach part of the book without teaching the entire thing. ( )

This is one of the books I can honestly say has significantly changed my life. I'm not entirely sure why. I see in this parts of myself long forgotten and see experiences I will never have. She touches on such simple truths and finds a wonderful way to communicate them with her art style.

I hope more people discover this and revel it it as I have. ( )

Hillary Chute, Junior Fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows, currently writing a book on contemporary women cartoonists, has chosen to discuss Lynda Barry’s One Hundred Demons, on FiveBooks (http://five-books.com) as one of the top five on her subject - Graphic Narratives, saying that:

“…Joe calls his work ‘comics journalism’. Lynda Barry calls hers ‘autobifictionalography’. Which I think is brilliant and hilarious. So on the table of contents page, which is this beautiful, dense, colourful collage, she draws two check boxes after the question: ‘Are these stories true or false?’ She ticks both. .…”.

The full interview is available here: http://thebrowser.com/books/interviews/hillary-chute ( )

The book's title is based on an Oriental painting exercise, which seems to involve exorcising one's personal demons by creating illustrations of their significance. The book is a collection of the author's own demons, though perhaps not quite as many as one hundred.

The book is biographical in many ways as the demons were all part of her past; but also fiction in many ways as each of us hold memories that are colored by our own perceptions and the distance from which we look back on them.

An entertaining and thought-provoking reflection on one woman's coming-of-age with hints of the adult she has since become.

Rated 4/5. ( )

This collection of autobiographical comics is both brutally honest and wise. Barry manages the significant feat of dredging her memories for material and inspiration without ever seeming nostalgic or saccharine. Her illustrations are wonderfully ugly in the way that we all remember out painful adolescences. ( )

An amusing autobiographical(?) take on a girl's childhood. In graphic novel form. ( )

In my dreams of teenage trauma prophylaxis Kathleen Hanna hands me Pussy Whipped and this book as a 13 year old, before I lose my virginity. Avenue D is playing in the background: "Shit, you know they all just want to hit it./They're just talking shit 'cos they want it," which, although nobody will prank call my house at 3am to call me a slut for a couple years, is a revelation that rings true.I come out of adolescence unscathed. ( )

The book contains 17 stories relating to her life, family relationships, boyfriends, school and neighbors. The stories are honest, poignant and sometimes painful.

I really enjoyed the creative and quirky drawings in this book. It reminded of how much I enjoyed drawing as a kid (before
I cared what other people thought of my drawings). ( )

This comic books is a set of 17 vignettes, stories of events, feelings, or people that seem to haunt the author. Each story is self contained, and the author's age hops about a bit, but reading them together builds a picture of her life.

The art is wonderful, bright and vibrant, and each section is introduced by a richly texture mixed media display - in one case, including a photograph of some child's beloved toy that she found at an airport.

There is a section at the end showing instructions for using an ink stone and Japanese brush to paint your own demon.

I'd give this to people interested in art, in biography, in touching stories. ( )

Written in graphic novel form, One! Hundred! Demons! is , according to the author, an autobifictionalography. Inspired by a 16th century Zen monk's painting of one hundred demons chasing each other, Lynda expels her own demons about certain event in her life focusing mainly on her childhood. From dealing with an overbearing yelling mother to learning from a great dancer that you can't actually dance, Lynda gives the reader a bittersweet look into her life. One can't help feel sorry for her, but at the same time laugh. This book is a wonderful example on another way one can expel our own demons in a non-traditional diary form. ( )

I've always loved Lynda Barry comics and I thought this was a unique look into what she went through to grow up and become Lynda Barry. She shares 17 of her "demons" in the form of little chapters. She's so honest, self critical and hilarious. The book has also inspired me to think about my own "100 demons"

Hmmm.. Something to add to 43things.com? 100 demon challenge? I think so! ( )

One Hundred Demons is a unique work, and allows the author a forum to share experiences from her "growing up years" that still have emotional impact in her adult life today. As with other works by Lynda Barry, One Hundred Demons is funny, sincere, and thoroughly human, and her simple but beautiful drawings complement her direct use of language wonderfully. ( )

Lynda Barry is one of America's best storytellers and her newest book is filled with her demons. And maybe some of yours.
Highly recommended.
--Michael

One thing’s for sure: comics are NOT just for kids!! However, cartoonist Lynda Barry is an absolute genius at depicting the lives of children and teenagers. Somehow she just remembers exactly how it felt, what it looked like, and what it sounded like to be young. In ONE HUNDRED DEMONS, she uses a Japanese painting exercise to draw out some of her lost and forgotten personal demons. Sometimes funny, sometimes deeply sad (and often both), these cartoons lead the reader through familiar territory of growing up. The demons in this book include -- head lice, nasty ex-lovers, lost childhood friends, first jobs . . . and at the end of the book, you’re Invited to try it! (show back pages). Whether or not you paint your demons, you won’t be sorry that you read these comics. ( )

A beautifully rendered sad and funny book about confronting one's inner demons: heartbreak, joy, humiliation, loss of innocence, cruelty, best friends, school, dysfunctional families, kickball, adolescent angst... Lynda Barry is a genius. ( )