Lynda Barry is an American cartoonist and author. One of the most successful non-mainstream American cartoonists, Barry is perhaps best known for her weekly comic strip Ernie Pook's Comeek. Barry's cartoons often view family life from the perspective of pre-teen girls from the wrong side of the tracks – particularly sensitive, freckled Arna and the cousins with whom she lives; pig-tailed Marlys, overly confident, unpopular and mean, and the older Maybonne, who goes out with boys – but she often ventures far afield from this, such as in her strips featuring a poetry-spouting poodle named Fred Milton. She also garnered attention when her book The Good Times are Killing Me was made into a play.