ERNIE POOK'S BOSS GETS PROFFED

 

Cartoonist Lynda Barry, famed for her Ernie Pook’s Comeek strip in alternative newspapers, has joined the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery (WID) and the University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of Art as an assistant professor. Her fabled strip, which started in 1979, began losing client papers after 20-25 years (chiefly because the papers were running out of money to pay for such essential trimmings), and since about 2007, Barry’s work has been available only in books and on the web. In 2012, Barry worked as an artist in resident at the Arts Institute. Starting this fall, she became a permanent addition to the Madison campus as an assistant professor of interdisciplinary creativity. And it couldn’t happen to a more deserving cartooner, who is not only talented but uproariously funny in person.