Drawing Boy (and Girl)

Four artists illustrate their love for Matt Groening and Lynda Barry.

By Steffen Silvis

The 1970s ushered in a fecund period of cartooning in our region. One often hears the term "The Northwest School," which denotes a loose pantheon of pen-and-ink greats that includes Bill Plympton, Matt Groening, Gary Larson, Lynda Barry, John Callahan and Jim Bashfield. All of them are revolutionaries in their own way, whether in injecting absurdism and the theater of cruelty into the single-panel haunts of the dreaded Keane family and Marmaduke, perfecting graphic autobiography, or demolishing our fruited plains with slash-and-burn satire.

In honor of Thursday's Portland Arts and Lectures event with Groening and Barry, we asked four artists from the current generation of Northwest cartoonists and illustrators--Tyson Smith, Matt Pasteris, Amy Ruppel and Bwana Spoons (see "168 Hours")--to give us their take on the creators of Homer and Marlys.

View cartoons (in .pdf format) at www.wweek.com/PDF_Documents/031704_comics.pdf

Matt Groening and Lynda BarryPortland Arts and Lectures at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, 1037 SW Broadway, 227-2583. 7:30 pm Thursday, March 18. SOLD OUT

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