What It Is

This book is stunning. Page after page of art, confessions, insights, instruction, and questions -- it is creative genius. I am pausing on each page to savor the artistic details and the window into Barry's creative process. I am in awe. Writers, artists, creatives of all types, get this book. You will identify with it; you will learn from it; you will love it!

I bought this book because I was fortunate enough to see Lynda Barry speak, and her message was so powerful and inspiring. This book is amazing, complex, and very nuanced as she guides the reader through her creative process through the lens of imagination and memory. Barry has spent the last 40 years of her career pondering the question, "What is an image?" and this book is a fabulous journey through her own creative process and how she accesses her own creativity.This book is particularly meaningful to me because I haven't drawn anything since I dropped out of graduate school about fifteen years ago; a sad death of my own creativity that was once integral to my self-image, and I haven't been able to reclaim. I feel like a cherished part of myself is still stuck somewhere in time, preserved like a fly in resin that has fossilized into amber, an artifact of an earlier self that still feels alive in some respects. Barry's work explores these artifacts and how images and memory offer insight into our experience.When I was young, I loved art and images so much that I had dreams of becoming an artist. I discovered Barry's comics when I was 13 years old, and I found her work to be fascinating and something that I identified with very strongly. Barry's work, "What It Is", courageous and at times confessional in nature and raw, shows us that self-expression and creativity are fundamental to the human experience, and that it's accessible by ordinary people, too. At Barry's urging, I am drawing in the margins, during meetings at work, and reconnecting with the story that is mine alone to tell. With clarity and loving-kindness, she took her hand in mine and said, "Don't let the architecture bastards win." Her courage to connect with her own experience and earlier selves and memories, is a formidable example to others how our shared humanity can be accessed through images and the arts.Thank you, Lynda Barry.

Didn’t know what to expect but turns out to be a very intriguing book, deeper than it seems, with wonderful graphics laid out so as to keep the reader interested all the way through. A puzzle for the mind.

This book is fantastic. Linda is an artist, mentor and her work is so special. This will be the 3rd picture book by different authors I have bought from Amazon and the quality is very very low. The color is flat and paper cheap. If I were to purchase this at Barnes and Noble the quality would be superior, pages glossier, and better paper weight. I am not sure why they sell facsimiles but that not on artist. The content is still good. I wont be buying anymore coffee table books or picture style books from this outlet in future. Just going straight to real book store.

The media could not be loaded. This book screamed "Buy me!" when I saw it at the Drawn & Quarterly booth at San Diego Comic Con 2009. It is that good!With a brush in the right hand, and a pencil on the left, the multi-eyed monster on the back cover spoked, "Welcome to writing the unthinkable". That's the essence of this book created by Lynda Barry, putting vivid imagination onto paper.What It Is is a scrapbook that's filled to the brim with sketches, coloured illustrations, collages, comics, autobiographical writing, random thoughts and even a bit on creative writing.Every page is elaborately decorated, an exploration into the unknown realms of imagination. And every page is just fun to look at.This book is creativity and self expression, great for flipping through when you're feeling random or looking for inspiration.I'll give this book two thumbs (drawn with smiley faces) up.By the way, What It Is won the 2009 Eisner award for Best Reality-Based Work, but I didn't know that when I bought it. It's also one of the top 100 books picked by Amazon editors for 2008.(More pictures are available on my blog. Just visit my Amazon profile for the link.)

I absolutely loved this book! I literally read it in one sitting because I couldn’t put it down! Every single page is thought provoking in what is written but also about the artwork. I only included 1 photo of a small portion of one of the pages to show just how much detail was put into one corner of a page. Now imagine what the rest of this book contains 👀

I ordered this book as a reference for an online creative writing notebook class. The book is a top quality "hard copy" book and is full of many different styles and techniques. I really enjoyed it, and it will always be kept on my bookshelf to explore and inspire different ways to creatively write.

The brilliant Lynda Barry, artist and author and my favorite as both, helps the reader to find (well rediscover actually) "what it is" that induces creativity and creation in us and how to recapture that process which came so easily to us as children but seemed to disappear as we aged. The book is subtitled "Do you wish you could write" and it was created to help HER students where she teaches in finding that magical space that allows one to write from unhindered, unedited and bountiful space BUT the process can be applied to any type of artistic or creative work you want to do but don't know how to channel your muse. Its the cure for those blank page/blank canvas/blank stage blues. Although her art is brilliant it can be a bit overwhelming with all of the tiny details so I do recommend getting the workbook "Syllabus" (recently published by Barry as well) to help guide you through the process. Its such an enjoyable way to reconnect with ones creative side and if for some reason her process is not for you well then, if nothing else comes of it, it is one hell of a coffee table art book.

el contenido genial, llego en buenas condiciones, el material es de buena calidad

I am an enthusiastic fan of Lynda Barry. And I'm trying to emulate her. First, I have a desire to draw, write, and think more creatively. Then, I copy (Barry's creatures, if need be). Next, I jump ship and do my Thing. This book is her masterpiece, Ur-Project, memoir, and blueprint for a life of reflection and creativity.

Un libro sorprendente. En inglés pero no es difícil de comprender con un nivel medio ;)

Magnifique et inspirant!

Algumas partes do livro são bem interessantes e provocantes, mas a maior parte do conteúdo é confusa e poluída. Muitas coisas (algumas vezes desconexas) acontecendo em cada página.