I recently found out about the work of cartoonist Lucy Knisley (thanks, Drawn!) and have been enjoying her portfolio, blog, and songs. As Drawn! points out, her ligne claire style, reminiscent of Joost Swarte and Herge, is very appealing.

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Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

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Lucy Knisley got Boing Boinged
Memory Harker

Wow, Anonymous.

Are your filters perhaps a bit out of true?

I read really really closely,
but I didn’t see a single poster
“writing her off as a Flenniken wannabe.”
Enoch_Root

I do love the style. Very fun and it kind of reminds me of Tin Tin.
whisper dog

My first thought was Shary Flenniken.
kmccmack

The style is reminiscent of Shary Flenniken’s work.
Stewart Haddock

This reminds me of Ernie and Burt’s Banana in my Ear skit.

Bert: “Hey, you’ve got a banana in your ear!”
Ernie: “What?”
Bert: “I said, YOU’VE GOT A BANANA IN YOUR EAR!”
Ernie: “What? I can’t hear you; I’ve got a banana in my ear!”

Timeless.
Anonymous

I am not sure about the art but this is a CIDU for me. funny? HTW!
wygit

#KMCCMACK
You beat me to it. I looked at the strip and immediately flashed on “Trots & Bonnie”.
I still have a lot of her old strips.
morcheeba

Sometimes when people might hear me going to the bathroom, I’ll take a large glass of water and …slowly… and …loudly… poor it in the toilet. Just to see if anyone notices.

Oh, also, I learned something about cartoon styles today, thanks.
teapot7

It does look a little clear-lineish (though not as crisp), but more than that, it’s a dead ringer for Shery(?) Flenniken’s old “Trots and Bonnie” strips – in fact, that’s what I thought you were posting.
Anonymous

This particular strip and subsequent comments left me laughing because it reminds me of how men (especially old men) love to hold the water hose at crotch level and water the yard. They could attach the hose to a sprinkler, but no—they want to hold the hose and let that gusher of water flow.
Jesse M.

Maybe anonymous is just reacting to the fact that everyone in this comments thread is discussing Flenniken while no one is really discussing Knisley. If so, it might help to point out that Knisley’s site became inaccessible (or at least incredibly slow, I’ve had the window up for a while now and it’s still not loading) almost immediately after this entry was posted to boingboing, presumably due to a huge increase in traffic, so those of us who don’t know her work already can’t really discuss anything except for that one comic Mark included in the entry.
EricT

#8 & #7
Thats exactly what I was thinking when I first saw it. Got a serious 70s High school National Lampoon flashback
Mark Frauenfelder

Yep, Flenniken, too, of course. Those striped shorts make it even more so.
dwasifar

+1 Flenniken. :) I really miss Trots and Bonnie.
Anonymous

In case anyone’s interested… Lucy recently did an interview about her book, French Milk.

http://www.cafe-creme-magazine.com/blog/2009/04/lucy-knisley-an-american-in-paris/
Wigwam Jones

Oh, wow. I haven’t thought of “Trots and Bonnie” in years. And yes, it also reminded me of Tin-Tin, and Gasoline Alley. Amazing.
Anonymous

She came out with a book a little while ago, “French Milk” (you can find it if you follow the link to the website and click Buy Stuff.) It’s funny, charming and autobiographical. It’s about her travels in Paris with her mom and her anxieties about graduating and trying to make it as a cartoonist. I highly recommend it.
Stefan Jones

I had an email exchange with Flenniken a few years back. Tried to convince her that a Trots & Bonnie book would be most welcome . . . she wanted to distribute the strips on a CD-ROM.

Any publishers out there who might convince her otherwise?

http://sharyflenniken.com/
Anonymous

Reminds me of Liz Prince, especially the guy’s appearance. The art is different, but the dialog is like something you would read here:

http://www.google.com/books?id=KhFGNWa16VcC
halfvenus

To me, the guy looks proud-feigning-ignorance. Just like a real guy with “masterful” peeing. Which has always creeped me out.

Please do not tell my husband.
teapot7

> I had an email exchange with Flenniken a few years back. Tried to convince her that a Trots & Bonnie book would be most welcome . . . she wanted to distribute the strips on a CD-ROM.

I guess Lulu or CafePress is the no-risk option, but it would be nice to see a real book in shops. She’s still great.
dwasifar

I think she (Flenniken) already has at least one other book out on Fantagraphics.
Teller

And a touch of Frank King’s Gasoline Alley.
TroofSeeker

As a cartoonist myself, I like her style. Notice that the frames are freehand and wiggly? I hate when cartoonists use a ruler, circle template or typed text. I feel the ‘purity’ of cartooning is compromised when such tools are used.
The true art in producing a cartoon is in the writing, not the art (much to my chagrin). So if you want to be a great cartoonist, being funny is much more important than creating great art.
OMHO
jimbuck

I swear – no joke – just yesterday my wife was trying to talk to me from the hallway while I was peeing. I said (mostly to myself) “I really can’t hear what you’re saying” and it was all because of the insanely loud peeing.
Anonymous

As someone who has followed Lucy since her undergrad years, drawing comics for the SAIC newspaper, I’m not really sold on the simple Flenniken reference. Lucy’s work seems to draw from many different sources and writing her off as a Flenniken wannabe greatly under minds the quality of her work.

Lucy has an outstanding sense of humor by today’s standards, note her music and biographical comic strips. I think what really sets her apart is her quality of writing and great perspective on her surroundings.

I don’t mean to troll or overly downplay Flenniken, I just hate to think you guys are missing the sweeter points of Lucy’s work.

The comic art of Lucy Knisley

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