Friday, July 18, 2008

way down yonder in the yonder of yonder...

way down yonder by the A & P."

The first lines of a great Lynda Barry comic strip. Remember "Ernie Pook's Commeek?" This strip was titled "Free Dog," and it's the story of a little girl who finds an old sick dog and brings it home. And her mother flips out, and the girl tries to find a home for the dog, but in the end the dog just walks off on its own. Free dog.

I have this yellowed, encrusted piece of newsprint on my bulletin board at home. It has traveled for years and years, between states even, showing intermittently on refrigerators and doors and bulletin boards near and far. I love this particular comic, and particularly, that opening line. "Way down yonder in the yonder of yonder..." This was written in 1994. I think it might have been published in the City Pages, here in Minneapolis. I should get this thing framed -- it has candle wax and cooking splatters and who knows what else stuck to it. And I'll be sad if it's ever lost. Why am I so attached to this thing? No idea.

The last line is, "And I knew how he felt about everything. Free dog. Free dog where ever you are."

PS Lynda Barry just put a new book out! In May. I hear it's the bomb.

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