Of Monsters and Mothers

Abstract

The late Filipino American author and cultural critic N. V. M. Gonzalez described the Filipino imagination as a slow yet tenacious rhizomatous growth working toward the of America (Gonzalez and Campomanes 1987, 63). 1 Gonzalez's optimism aside, Filipinization thus far has amounted to Filipinas magazine, words such as boondocks and yo-yo, and hip hop icons DJ Q-Bert and the Invisibl Skratch Piklz. However, unnoticed by most, Filipino American artist has contributed greatly to this process, single-handedly redefining and influencing American popular culture for over twenty years. Lynda J. Barry, born in 1956, is best known for her syndicated alternative newspaper comic strip, Ernie Pook's Comtek, and its high-spirited gifted child Marlys Mullen, and for her disturbing first novel, Cruddy (1999). Praised by The Village Voice as one of the greatest cartoonists in the world, Barry is heralded for developing both the alternative and the wimmin's comics traditions (qtd. in Hempel 27 November 1988). Many of her fans are unaware, however, that Barry's earliest cartoons include stories of her growing up a working-class, mixed-race Filipina in Seattle in the 1960s.2 One Hundred Demons, a series of twenty-panel fiill-color comic strips published semimonthly online at from 7 April 2000 to 15 January 2001, is Barry's return to a more personal, autobiographical art form.3