Sorry, the t-shirt and poster are long out of print and quite rare. Occasionally they appear on eBay but you will have to be patient! Meanwhile, email Daniel because he wants to convince Lynda to reprint it.

"To tell you the truth I can't remember where her name came from. Maybonne's name came from a phone book I stole from a motel room in Eunice, Louisiana. I have a habit of reading phone books when I travel. The one in Eunice was jam packed with good names. I originally thought I made up the name Marlys but soon enough I figured out I didn't once I began to meet people named Marlys.I am from Wisconsin and the name Marlys does seem to be around the Midwest so I probably heard it when I was a kid and it just came popping out one day. Naming characters is something I get very neurotic about, thus my life of crime in terms of stealing phone books."

In the interview at www.blairmag.com, Lynda explains that "Ernie Pook" (rhymes with book) is a name her younger brother made up for all his pets and belongings, using a number to distinguish them (Ernie Pook the 2nd etc). When Lynda started drawing comic strips at College, she used the name Ernie Pook thinking that her brother would dig it. Sadly he had no memory of his former habit, but the name stuck.

Lynda and Matt met at Evergreen State College. They both compliment eachother in the front of their books (eg. "Matt Groening is Funklord of U.S.A") and are good friends. Matt recently wrote about how they met:

In an interview in 1989 Lynda said:

"I'd say like 15 to 25 percent of the comic stripsmay have actually happened to me ..."

So, some things are autobiographical and some aren't.

Lynda's preferred method of communication is (snail) mail. Her address is:

Lynda Barry
PO Box 447
Footville, WI
53537

Lynda was born on January 2nd, 1956.

Lynda pronounces it MAR-l'ss; "like a pedestrian is carless, and a Mormon town is barless".