Regrettable Nicknames

While I've been on the subject of things from the 70's and early 80's, does anybody else but Ellen Forney and myself remember those broad colorful pocket combs with slogans on them that you could get at Spencers Gifts? I know I must have had a few, even though I never could get a comb through my hair to save my life. Mother used to blow-dry my curls straight, but it didn't do a lick of good getting the tangles out. But again, no evidence of this kind of thing existing online. I even had to take a photo of the page from Forney's book.

Ellen Forney, by the way, has been my current favorite graphic artist and cartoonist. Born in Philadelphia and residing in Seattle (with Peter Bagge and Roberta Gregory -- seems all my favorites are in good company) she currently teaches at the Cornish College of the Arts. And when she's not putting out her own graphic novels she is commissioned for illustrating wedding invites as well as stories by other writers and lots more. I gotta hand it to her, the gal keeps herself busy, and out there -- and I admire that, especially in an art form that has lost money over the years due to online accessibility.

Her autobiographical I Was Seven in '75 was out of print for awhile, but resurfaced in the recent years under the title Monkey Food. Being about one year older than myself, it made following her recollections of childhood in the 1970's closer to my own, even though my family wasn't anywhere near as liberated as hers, with all the pot smoking and nudist camp vacationing. But one of Forney's trademark styles is her charming "instructional" pages, with tips on how to feather your hair or to do the "ghost arm" trick with your elbows. Much like all of our childhoods, we're all spent many an hour teaching our friends these very important skills, and Forney doesn't forget to include them amongst the pages of cute, cartoony drawings that flow through her remembrances of things past.

Whether it was worshipping the Bionic Woman or passing contraband copies of Judy Blume's Forever under the desks at school, Monkey Food almost reads like my own childhood diary illustrated by someone with twice the talent and sense of humor as mine. Which comes in handy for Forney, as she is often illustrating the lives and parables of others -- most of which are collected in the first Ellen Forney book I bought, I Love Led Zeppelin. From portraits of nerdy Gary Numan-obsessed high school girls to wacky true-life stories of encounters with the likes of Tom Waits and Camille Paglia, I Love Led Zeppelin is a great compilation of Forney and Co. adventures that also include such notables as Dan Savage's boyhood Halloween revelation, and Margaret Cho's instruction on how to fit in with the gay male crowd.

Next on my list the autobiography The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie, with art by Ellen Forney. It sounds interesting, and Ellen's innit! Plus you gotta check out Forney's latest book Lust, her one-page illustrations of kinky online personal ads from Seattle's The Stranger. Hilarious and hot. Just like the honey herself.