''Ernie Pook's Comeek'' is an American

underground comic Underground comix are small press or self-published comic books that are often socially relevant or satirical in nature. They differ from mainstream comics in depicting content forbidden to mainstream publications by the Comics Code Authority, ...

alternative comic Alternative comics or independent comics cover a range of American comics that have appeared since the 1980s, following the underground comix movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Alternative comics present an alternative to mainstream su ...

Lynda Barry Linda Jean Barry (born January 2, 1956), known professionally as Lynda Barry, is an American cartoonist. Barry is best known for her weekly comic strip '' Ernie Pook's Comeek''. She garnered attention with her 1988 illustrated novel ''The Good T ...

. It was first published in 1979, without Barry's knowledge, by

Matt Groening Matthew Abram Groening ( ; born February 15, 1954) is an American cartoonist, writer, producer, and animator. He is best known as the creator of the television series ''The Simpsons'' (1989–present), ''Futurama'' (1999–2003, 2008–2013, 2 ...

and John Keister in their respective college newspapers. In the very beginning, the comic chronicled the everyday life of a young boy, Ernie Pook. However, within a period of about a year, the comic's focus shifted to a slightly awkward young girl named Maybonne Mullen and her largely dysfunctional family, who live in a trailer park in the Pacific Northwest sometime in the early 1970s. Most often featured was Maybonne's passively-aggressive sour grandmother, whom Maybonne and her siblings lived with, and Maybonne's younger siblings: somewhat naive and easily-led Freddie, and cheerful, energetic and irrepressible Marlys. Cousins Arna and Arnold also lived with the Mullens off-and-on. Ernie Pook himself faded from the strip very shortly after the Mullen family took center stage -- nevertheless, the strip retained the name "Ernie Pook's Comeek" for its entire 29-year run. While Barry has stated the comic wasn't autobiographical, it was loosely based on her own childhood years. It ran in over 70 alternative newspapers, such as the ''

Chicago Reader The ''Chicago Reader'', or ''Reader'' (stylized as ЯEADER), is an American alternative newspaper in Chicago, Illinois, noted for its literary style of journalism and coverage of the arts, particularly film and theater. The ''Reader'' has been ...

''. It was discontinued in 2008.

Drawn & Quarterly Drawn & Quarterly (D+Q) is a publishing company based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, specializing in comics. It publishes primarily comic books, graphic novels and comic strip collections. The books it publishes are noted for their artistic con ...

reissued a collection called ''The Greatest of Marlys'' in 2016 and is continuing to reissue collections.

Sources

{{reflist American comics 1979 comics debuts 2008 comics endings Underground comix Comics about children Male characters in comics Child characters in comics Slice of life comics Comics set in the United States