Podcast appearances and mentions of Mimi Pond

Back with new episodes on January 30. Lucia Berlin has been called one of America's "best kept secrets.” We'll be discussing Berlin's engrossing short short story collection A Manual for Cleaning Women, published posthumously in 2015 and soon to be adapted for the screen by Pedro Almodovar. Joining us is a longtime friend of Berlin's, the inimitable Mimi Pond, a cartoonist, illustrator, and humorist whose work has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, and The Paris Review.Discussed in this episode: A Manual for Cleaning Women by Lucia BerlinThe Simpsons, “Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire” A Manual for Cleaning Women adaptation (Pedro Almodovar)Over-Easy by Mimi PondThe Customer Is Always Wrong by Mimi PondMimi Pond on InstagramThe American Way of Death by Jessica MitfordLost Ladies of Lit episode on Louise Fitzhugh's Harriet the Spy with Leslie Brody Support the showFor episodes and show notes, visit: LostLadiesofLit.comDiscuss episodes on our Facebook Forum. Follow us on instagram @lostladiesoflit. Follow Kim on twitter @kaskew. Sign up for our newsletter: LostLadiesofLit.com Email us: Contact — Lost Ladies of Lit Podcast

** Come see us record LIVE in Los Angeles on Sunday, November 6! **Avengers, Assemble – at the Center for Inquiry for a brand new episode of Go Fact Yourself!Rob Corddry is perhaps best known for “Childrens Hospital,” the comedy show that he created and starred in. It was so well-received, it earned him four Emmy awards. But his first Emmy award actually came years earlier as part of “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart”... sort of. He'll tell us about that and explain the skills he's gathered as an Eagle Scout. Mimi Pond learned to love drawing early on from her dad and from some of her favorite comics. That led to her creating the graphic memoirs Over Easy and The Customer is Always Wrong. She'll tell us about why she doesn't have much patience for stick figures, and discuss the magic of Oakland, California. Our guests will compete to answer trivia about comic book characters on the page and small screen. What's the Difference: Hall of JusticeWhat's the difference between a hallway and a corridor?What's the difference between “illegal” and “unlawful”?Areas of Expertise:Rob: The TV show “Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.,” the movie The Abyss, and CIA tradecraftMimi: Mad Magazine, Patty Hearst and shopping at Costco.Appearing in this episode:J. Keith van StraatenHelen HongRob CorddryMimi PondWith guest experts:Mark Evanier, blogger, comic book writer, and author of the book Mad Art : A Visual Celebration of the Art of Mad Magazine and the Idiots Who Create It Paperback.&Sergio Aragones, illustrator best known for his contributions to Mad Magazine and creating Groo The Wanderer.Jed Whedon & Jeffrey Bell, two of the showrunners for “Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.”Go Fact Yourself was devised and is produced by Jim Newman and J. Keith van Straaten, in collaboration with Maximum Fun. Theme Song by Jonathan Green.Live show engineer is Dave McKeever.Maximum Fun's Senior Producer is Laura Swisher.Associate Producer and Editor is Julian Burrell.Seeing our upcoming live shows in LA by YOU!

Meg puzzles over what happened in Arnold Friedman's computer classes. Jessica fer shurr visits The Mall and finds it way gnarly.

Lucia Berlin has been called one of America's "best kept secrets.” We'll be discussing Berlin's engrossing short short story collection A Manual for Cleaning Women, published posthumously in 2015 and soon to be adapted for the screen by Pedro Almodovar. Joining us is a longtime friend of Berlin's, the inimitable Mimi Pond, a cartoonist, illustrator, and humorist whose work has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, and The Paris Review.

She was spotlighted on Turner Classic Movies when artist Mimi Pond confessed “Movies Made Me Do It!” Find out what films inspired her to follow her dreams as an artist, her experience covering the TCM film festival for the New Yorker, and how her career as a cartoonist, illustrator, and author was directly connected to her love for classic film. Hosted by Tami Goveia. Follow everywhere @likeitclassic

Merrill Markoe's storied career in comedy has included co-creating and serving as head writer for Late Night with David Letterman (earning her three of her four Emmys and giving the world "Stupid Pet Tricks" in the bargain), TV writing stints for Mary Tyler Moore, Bob Newhart, Moonlighting, and Sex and the City, a Writers Guild Award for writing and performing on HBO's Not Necessarily the News, and even an acting gig on Friends. The versatile Markoe, who recently received the prestigious the Paddy Chayefsky Laurel Award for Television Writing Achievement, has also published much-loved collections of her comic essays and three hilarious novels-and her cartoons have been featured in The New Yorker. All of this Renaissance woman's considerable talents converge in her first ever graphic memoir, WE SAW SCENERY: The Early Diaries of Merrill Markoe (Publication Date: October 13, 2020; $24.95), which, with hindsight and wit, transforms the comedian's real-life adolescent journals into a laugh-out-loud work of art. "There are occupational hazards to being a writer," the grownup Markoe reflects. "In addition to the emotional mess that can come from writing about the people you love, there is the physical mess that accumulates from seeing everything as a potential topic. Usually I save things that strike me as funny, thinking maybe I'll write about them some day. At least that is the excuse I give myself for the weird stuff in the boxes of things I didn't get rid of because they make me laugh..It wasn't until the day that I decided to try and clean house that I found the little stack of childhood diaries I'd received as Christmas and birthday presents. They were lying way at the bottom of one of the biggest boxes. Each one came with a lock and key, because in the early sixties it was very important for preteen girls in suburban housing tracts to keep their dangerous secrets safe from prying enemy eyes." Those little tin keys unlocked a trove of now funny memories of events that, admittedly, didn't always seem funny to young Merrill at the time. Rereading the diaries, Markoe says, she often felt like she was reading about a stranger. But it also spurred a narrative of a childhood during what is often perceived as a simpler time, but was nonetheless fraught with family dysfunction, the angst of puberty and, ultimately, the first steps toward honing her singularly off-kilter talent. Markoe finds the hilarity in being a girl scout or running for 8th grade treasurer or first "love," even as she awkwardly navigates a daily reality controlled by a chronically angry suburban mother and shaped by the rapid social changes of the 1960s. With deadpan retrospection, she recounts honing her unique vision of the world through humor, even when her family made it feel as if she were doing something wrong. "Merrill Markoe got all the talent," says Nell Scovell, author of Just the Funny Parts. "WE SAW SCENERY is revealing, sad, funny, and above all, relatable. Markoe captures the experience of a young woman finding-and holding on to-her own voice. And we're all lucky she did." Mimi Pond, author of The Customer is Always Wrong, adds, "Merrill Markoe's visual and written analysis of her childhood diaries are acute, devastating, and hilarious." This is a witty, poignant, and perceptive story of a girl growing up told by the woman she became

Merrill Markoe's storied career in comedy has included co-creating and serving as head writer for Late Night with David Letterman (earning her three of her four Emmys and giving the world "Stupid Pet Tricks" in the bargain), TV writing stints for Mary Tyler Moore, Bob Newhart, Moonlighting, and Sex and the City, a Writers Guild Award for writing and performing on HBO's Not Necessarily the News, and even an acting gig on Friends. The versatile Markoe, who recently received the prestigious the Paddy Chayefsky Laurel Award for Television Writing Achievement, has also published much-loved collections of her comic essays and three hilarious novels-and her cartoons have been featured in The New Yorker. All of this Renaissance woman's considerable talents converge in her first ever graphic memoir, WE SAW SCENERY: The Early Diaries of Merrill Markoe (Publication Date: October 13, 2020; $24.95), which, with hindsight and wit, transforms the comedian's real-life adolescent journals into a laugh-out-loud work of art. "There are occupational hazards to being a writer," the grownup Markoe reflects. "In addition to the emotional mess that can come from writing about the people you love, there is the physical mess that accumulates from seeing everything as a potential topic. Usually I save things that strike me as funny, thinking maybe I'll write about them some day. At least that is the excuse I give myself for the weird stuff in the boxes of things I didn't get rid of because they make me laugh..It wasn't until the day that I decided to try and clean house that I found the little stack of childhood diaries I'd received as Christmas and birthday presents. They were lying way at the bottom of one of the biggest boxes. Each one came with a lock and key, because in the early sixties it was very important for preteen girls in suburban housing tracts to keep their dangerous secrets safe from prying enemy eyes." Those little tin keys unlocked a trove of now funny memories of events that, admittedly, didn't always seem funny to young Merrill at the time. Rereading the diaries, Markoe says, she often felt like she was reading about a stranger. But it also spurred a narrative of a childhood during what is often perceived as a simpler time, but was nonetheless fraught with family dysfunction, the angst of puberty and, ultimately, the first steps toward honing her singularly off-kilter talent. Markoe finds the hilarity in being a girl scout or running for 8th grade treasurer or first "love," even as she awkwardly navigates a daily reality controlled by a chronically angry suburban mother and shaped by the rapid social changes of the 1960s. With deadpan retrospection, she recounts honing her unique vision of the world through humor, even when her family made it feel as if she were doing something wrong. "Merrill Markoe got all the talent," says Nell Scovell, author of Just the Funny Parts. "WE SAW SCENERY is revealing, sad, funny, and above all, relatable. Markoe captures the experience of a young woman finding-and holding on to-her own voice. And we're all lucky she did." Mimi Pond, author of The Customer is Always Wrong, adds, "Merrill Markoe's visual and written analysis of her childhood diaries are acute, devastating, and hilarious." This is a witty, poignant, and perceptive story of a girl growing up told by the woman she became

Writer, cartoonist, graphic novelist and more Mimi Pond was kind enough to sit down and talk with me about the ever-popular Nichols and May, and discuss her history in the publishing and cartooning industries, as well as why we hold … Continue reading →

Artist, cartoonist, writer, and graphic novelist - from her early days in New York, to a hamster show in California - Mimi Pond is my guest today.

This week we celebrate the launch of Henry’s new book, Comics and Stuff, with another installment of our series on comics. We have Mimi Pond, author and artist of 2014 New York Times bestseller Over Easy and The Customer is Always Wrong and Carol Tyler, author and artist of You’ll Never Know (which was compiled into Soldier's Heart) and Fab Four Mania. Both of these authors are discussed in Comics and Stuff. And the heart of the interview comes as they discuss here their relationship with the stuff they render in rich detail across their books. These two inspirational artists discuss their origin stories as comics creators and their involvement with some of the men who created the underground comics movement in the 1960s. They discuss what it meant to them to tell women’s stories of work and family life through their comics and how they took inspiration from the scrapbooking tradition. They open up about contemporary comics artists they think we should be reading, offering lots of great recs for comics readers. Make sure to stay tuned in for the wrap-up since Henry gives readers a preview of Comics and Stuff and what he says there about today’s guests. Looking for comic recommendations? Check out our notes section!

Mimi Pond and Wayne White are a creative couple extraordinaire. They first met at one of Wayne’s puppet shows in New York City in the early ‘80s. Both Mimi and Wayne went on to make their mark on American culture, starting on Pee-Wee’s Playhouse, where Mimi served as a writer and Wayne as a puppeteer and art director. Mimi went on to write the first full episode of “The Simpsons,” as well as writing on “Designing Women.” Wayne went on to work on the CBS series “Beakman’s World” and art directing the videos for Peter Gabriel’s “Big Time” and The Smashing Pumpkins’ “Tonight Tonight,” for which he won an MTV Video Award. In this interview, Mimi discusses her work as a cartoonist for The Village Voice and National Lampoon, as well as her graphic novels about her time as a waitress in Oakland, and Wayne discusses his painting and print-work based on his interest in history and wordplay. They impart many lessons of living a creative life, urging creative people to follow what they really love to do, be prepared to work anywhere, and find the right boss.

December 17, 1989, was the debut of the first-ever episode of The Simpsons, and thanks to various production issues, the show debuted with its holiday episode: Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire aka The Simpsons Christmas Special. We're doing lots to celebrate the 30th Anniversary of that debut, starting with sharing our 2017 interview with the episode's writer, Mini Pond! Mimi Pond is a very accomplished artist and writer, but her side of the story on writing this landmark episode is rarely heard. Mimi talked with us about her time working on the show in its earliest months and so much more, so please listen to this interview recorded in late 2017. And if you enjoy it, be sure to listen to our many other interviews with Simpsons veterans all available to Patreon subscribers! Also, if you'd like to see more of Mimi Pond's work, check out her comics Over Easy and The Customer Is Always Wrong, as well as her other work including recent New Yorker comics and more on her website.

In 2014, Drawn & Quarterly published Over Easy. It was a story that had been percolating for decades in cartoonist Mimi Pond’s mind, but life, family and the daunting task of actually sitting down to write it got in the way. By the time the cartoonist was ready to pitch the story, the publisher insisted on breaking it up into two volumes. In 2017, the second part, The Customer is Always Wrong, arrived, wrapping up the tale of her time as a waitress in her 20s. These days, Pond is in the midst of researching a new book, having been liberated by the act of actually getting a massive two-volume graphic memoir into the world. This time, however, she’s sought inspiration outside of herself, in spite of her own fascinating history that involves writing the pilot episode of The Simpsons, penning a best-selling book on Valley Girls and writing for the 80s children’s classic Pee-Wee’s Playhouse alongside her puppeteer husband Wayne White.

Join LA-based cartoonist Mimi Pond for the launch of her highly-anticipated graphic novel The Customer Is Always Wrong. Told in the same brash yet earnest style as her previous memoir Over Easy, The Customer is Always Wrong is the saga of a young naïve artist named Madge working in a restaurant of charming drunks, junkies, thieves, and creeps. Taking place in Oakland in the late seventies, Pond’s story details the trials and tribulations of Madge’s daily grind as a waitress at the Imperial Cafe. Mimi Pond is a cartoonist, illustrator, and writer. She has created comics for the Los Angeles Times, Seventeen magazine, National Lampoon, and many other publications. She has also written for television: her credits include the first full-length episode of The Simpsons, “Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire”, and episodes for the television shows Designing Women andPee Wee’s Playhouse. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband, the painter Wayne White. Wayne White was born and raised in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Originally White built his reputation as a world-class illustrator, animator, puppeteer, cartoonist and art director in New York and Los Angeles. He is most well-known as the Emmy-award-winning set and puppet designer of the seminal and influential 1980s children’s TV show “Pee-wee’s Playhouse.” In the last 16 years, White’s reputation in the art world has been firmly established with his masterfully created word paintings and for his rollicking, site-specific installations. He lives in Los Angeles. Event date:  Saturday, August 12, 2017 - 5:00pm

First up: Matt Ingebretson and Jake Weisman. They created and star in the brand new Comedy Central show "Corporate." Look. Technically, Corporate is a workplace comedy. But it's so much darker, weirder and universal than that. The show follows the lives of Matt and Jake, two junior executives in training at Hampton Deville, a hopeless megacorporation. They have just enough power and money to keep working there, but not enough to make any real impact in the company. The show tackles themes like the capitalism, art, suicide, and even the meaninglessness of life. They join Jesse in the studio to chat about getting the shows tone right, what it was like pitching the show to a corporation, and why they cast Lance Reddick, who played Cedric Daniels on The Wire to play the CEO of Hampton Deville. Plus, they talk about how magic mushrooms helped them write some of the episodes — you don't wanna miss that! Plus, cartoonist and writer Mimi Pond tells us about the craziest day of her entire career. And finally, Jesse tells us about "Understanding Comics" by Scott McCloud — a comic book about understanding comic books. If you've never picked up a comic book before this is a good place to start, obv.

Three dozen of the year's Virtual Memories Show guests tell us about the favorite books they read in 2017 and the books they hope to get to in 2018! Guests include Pete Bagge, Kathy Bidus, Sven Birkerts, RO Blechman, Kyle Cassidy, Graham Chaffee, Howard Chaykin, Joe Ciardiello, John Clute, John Crowley, John Cuneo, Ellen Datlow, Samuel R. Delany, Nicholas Delbanco, Barbara Epler, Joyce Farmer, Sarah Williams Goldhagen, Paul Gravett, Liz Hand, Vanda Krefft, Michael Meyer, Cullen Murphy, Jeff Nunokawa, Mimi Pond, Eddy Portnoy, Keiler Roberts, Martin Rowson, Matt Ruff, Ben Schwartz, Vanessa Sinclair, Ann Telnaes, Michael Tisserand, Gordon Van Gelder, Shannon Wheeler, Wallis Wilde-Menozzi, Matt Wuerker . . . and me! Check out their selections at our site! Support The Virtual Memories Show via Patreon or Paypal

First Pete Bagge rejoins the show for a live Spotlight session at CXC - Cartoon Crossroads Columbus. We talk about FIRE!!, his new cartoon biography of Zora Neale Hurston, his shift from fiction to nonfiction comics, his interest in feminist icons who didn't ask for permission, dealing with cultural/gender appropriation issues in writing about women of color, expressing serious moments in his funnybones cartooning style, going through male menopause, making a living, and why he hasn't made any Buddy Bradley stories in a long time. Then, we get a few segments from my CXC spotlight session with Mimi Pond, where we talk about her creative process, sexism in comics, and what she misses about the '70s. • More info at our site • Support The Virtual Memories Show via Patreon or Paypal

Cartoonist and humorist Mimi Pond makes her third appearance on the show, this time to celebrate publication of The Customer is Always Wrong (Drawn & Quarterly). We talk about the joys of coming back to NYC (and her favorite diner in the city), the East Village becoming kitsch, the process of translating her book from prose to comics, the differences between working in print and making web-comics for The New Yorker, publishing the conclusion of her unreliable memoir and lamenting a story that didn't make it didn't make it into the book, navigating celebrity-adjacent moments in LA, her fascination with the Mitford sisters, her realization that San Diego Comic-Con is "cosplay concentration camp", having a very creative plan for dental coverage, why she considers Beverly Clearly the Hemingway of children's writers, her pet peeve of being shelved in bookstores beside superhero comics, and her great lesson for being an artist: "make friends with discomfort"! • More info at our site • Support The Virtual Memories Show via Patreon or Paypal

Artist Mimi Pond talks Valley Girls and refusing to care about superheroes. And sushi! Please subscribe to (and rate & review) this podcast in iTunes or the Podcasts app so you never miss an episode! https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/smart-mouth/id1171755407?mt www.facebook.com/smartmouthpodcast/ www.instagram.com/smartmouthpodcast/

Today we talk about comics, the Simpsons, and do Pee Wee's Playhouse puppet impressions with "Over Easy" author Mimi Pond.  You can pre-order her book "The Customer is Always Wrong" now! 

Karen Green, Curator of the Comics and Cartoons collection at Columbia University, joins the show to talk about her secret origin! How did she go from bartender to medieval scholar to comics librarian? We get into the evolution of the library and comics scholarship, her proudest acquisitions, her love of NYC and being a bartender there in the '80s, reading Playboy for the cartoons, the experience of having a portrait done by Drew Friedman, her Venn diagram with Mimi Pond, and the one cartoonist she's speechless around. More info at our site • Support The Virtual Memories Show via Patreon or Paypal

Encore Broadcast: Marc Maron gives etiquette AND time-travel advice… Graphic novelist Mimi Pond lists criminals, spies, and other bohemians … “Man On Wire” tightrope-walker Philippe Petit explores creative chaos…  “The Descendants” author Kaui Hart Hemmings tells a new tale… load up on Kleenex ’cause here comes SADvertising… the history of the least respected trophy in […]

This episode was pre-recorded specifically for KWTF Sonoma County Radio on March 3, 2015. In this episode, Tristy is flying solo and sharing six of her favorite books published in 2014. Along with her review, she shares music that she feels go hand-in-hand with the book:10:04 by Ben Lerner (songs: Cold Blooded Old Times by Smog & It Happened Before Our Time by Jeremy Jay)The Blazing World by Siri Hustvedt (songs: New York Social Life by Laurie Anderson & Hard Headed Woman by Wanda Jackson, The Queen of Rock!)Why Are You So Sad? by Jason Porter (songs: Right Track Now by Rocky C. Hall and The 13th Floor Elevators & I Started a Joke by Bee Gees)Dept. of Speculation by Jenny Offill (songs: Marriage Tree by Throwing Muses & Marriage by Palace Music)Over Easy by Mimi Pond (songs: Judy is a Punk by the Ramones & Lust for Life by Iggy Pop)Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant? by Roz Chast (songs: The Song is Ended by Annette Hanshaw)Songs also played:Books by Blank Dogs (2009)Outta Money by Calamity Jane (1992)Don’t forget to stay connected on all the social media places!Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, 8Tracks, Pinterest, SoundCloudPlease feel free to rate and subscribe and do all the things the robots like to push us up the ladder on I-Tunes at https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/spilling-rubies/id928952261

This episode was pre-recorded specifically for KWTF Sonoma County Radio on March 3, 2015. In this episode, Tristy is flying solo and sharing six of her favorite books published in 2014. Along with her review, she shares music that she feels go hand-in-hand with the book:10:04 by Ben Lerner (songs: Cold Blooded Old Times by Smog & It Happened Before Our Time by Jeremy Jay)The Blazing World by Siri Hustvedt (songs: New York Social Life by Laurie Anderson & Hard Headed Woman by Wanda Jackson, The Queen of Rock!)Why Are You So Sad? by Jason Porter (songs: Right Track Now by Rocky C. Hall and The 13th Floor Elevators & I Started a Joke by Bee Gees)Dept. of Speculation by Jenny Offill (songs: Marriage Tree by Throwing Muses & Marriage by Palace Music)Over Easy by Mimi Pond (songs: Judy is a Punk by the Ramones & Lust for Life by Iggy Pop)Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant? by Roz Chast (songs: The Song is Ended by Annette Hanshaw)Songs also played:Books by Blank Dogs (2009)Outta Money by Calamity Jane (1992)Don’t forget to stay connected on all the social media places!Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, 8Tracks, Pinterest, SoundCloudPlease feel free to rate and subscribe and do all the things the robots like to push us up the ladder on I-Tunes at https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/spilling-rubies/id928952261

The era of humor books, vintage restaurant ware and characters you shouldn’t root for but you find yourself rooting for anyway. In this episode, I talk to comic book illustrator Mimi Pond, author of the fictionalized memoir Over Easy, a New York Times best-selling graphic novel about diners, drugs, and California in the 1970s.   Music Show Opening Mix: Brand New – Salt-n-Pepa, Brand New – Pharrell Williams (with Justin Timberlake), Brand New Key – Melanie, Brand New – Kanye West (feat. Rhymefest) Valley Girl - Frank Zappa Senior Service - Elvis Costello & The Attractions Show Closing Mix: Brand New Funk – DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince, Brand New You’re Retro – Tricky, Brand New Me – Dusty Springfield, Brand New Me – Isaac Hayes   Reading List Over Easy– by Mimi Pond The Valley Girls' Guide to Life – by Mimi Pond The Official Preppy Handbook – by Lisa Birnbach Carsick: John Waters Hitchhikes Across America - by John Waters The Custom Of The Country - by Edith Wharton Edith Wharton: A Biography - by R. W. B. Lewis One Lifetime Is Not Enough - by Zsa Zsa Gabor and Wendy Leigh   Watch List Beauty Is Embarrassing The Third Man   ** If you like my show, please subscribe and review in iTunes, or wherever you get your podcasts. For more information, visit brandnewways.com --> Find the show on Twitter: @brandnewways_ --> Send me an email: show@brandnewways.com

More than 30 of this year's podcast guests tell us about the favorite books they read in 2014! Guests include Maria Alexander, Ashton Applewhite, David Baerwald, Nina Bunjevac, Roz Chast, Sarah Deming, Michael Dirda, Jules Feiffer, Mark Feltskog, Mary Fleener, Nathan Fox, Josh Alan Friedman, Richard Gehr, Paul Gravett, Sam Gross, Rachel Hadas, Kaz, Daniel Levine, Sara Lippmann, Merrill Markoe, Brett Martin, Mimi Pond, George Prochnik, Emily Raboteau, Jonathan Rose, Ron Rosenbaum, Dmitry Samarov, Seth, Katie Skelly, Ron Slate, Maya Stein, Rupert Thomson, and Frank Wilson! Check out the list of books at our site!

I really enjoyed Mimi Pond‘s book Over Easy. A story about her time as a waitress in a very charming diner in Oakland. Mimi’s work in comics includes stints at the Village Voice, National Lampoon and much more. Her comics … Continue reading →

Food, sex, and newfound freedom, all in comic form, by writer and cartoonist Mimi Pond in her new graphic novel/memoir Over Easy.

Over Easy (Drawn & Quarterly) Artist and Los Angeles resident, Mimi Pond comes to Skylight Books with her sort-of memoir Over Easy, a brilliant portrayal of a familiar coming-of-age story. After being denied financial aid to cover her last year of art school, Margaret finds salvation from the straightlaced world of college and the earnestness of both hippies and punks in the wisecracking, fast-talking, drug-taking group she encounters at the Imperial Cafe, where she makes the transformation from Margaret to Madge. At first she mimics these new and exotic grown-up friends, trying on the guise of adulthood with some awkward but funny stumbles. Gradually she realizes that the adults she looks up to are a mess of contradictions, misplaced artistic ambitions, sexual confusion, dependencies, and addictions. Over Easy is equal parts time capsule of late 1970s life in California--with its deadheads, punks, disco rollers, casual sex, and drug use--and bildungsroman of a young woman who grows from a naive, sexually inexperienced art-school dropout into a self-aware, self-confident artist. Mimi Pond's chatty, slyly observant anecdotes create a compelling portrait of a distinct moment in time. Over Easy is an immediate, limber, and precise semi-memoir narrated with an eye for the humor in every situation. Praise for Over Easy: "As funny and warm-hearted as a memoir about a bunch of punks, drug dealers, hippies, and art school dropouts screwing in the 1970s can get. Mimi Pond's coming-of-age graphic novel, "Over Easy", is a delicious charmer." --Jami Attenberg, author of The Middlesteins Mimi Pond is a cartoonist, illustrator, and writer. She has created comics for the Los Angeles Times, Seventeen Magazine, National Lampoon, and many other publications too numerous to mention, and has written and illustrated five humor books. She has also written for television: her credits include the first full length episode of The Simpsons, "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire" in 1989, and episodes for the television shows Designing Women and Pee Wee's Playhouse. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband, the painter Wayne White.

Cartoonist Mimi Pond spent a good chunk of 1978 working as a dishwasher and a waitress in an Oakland diner. Thirty-six years later, she's collected her experiences in the graphic novel, OVER EASY. This 40 minute conversation examines that experience, looking into the difficulties of accurately portraying that era in a politically correct age and how a crisp glimpse into working-class life is generally more reliable than nostalgia.

Mimi Pond joins the Virtual Memories Show to talk about Over Easy, her 15-years-in-the-making, New York Times bestselling graphic novel about diners, drugs and northern California in the 1970s!

This Week: Marc Maron gives etiquette AND time-travel advice… Graphic novelist Mimi Pond lists criminals, spies, and other bohemians … “Man On Wire” tightrope-walker Philippe Petit explores creative chaos…  “The Descendants” author Kaui Hart Hemmings tells a new tale… load up on Kleenex ’cause here comes SADvertising… the history of the least respected trophy in […]

LARB Podcast #58: Mimi Pond by LA Review of Books

From the documentary 'Beauty Is Embarrassing', Mimi Pond and her husband Wayne White talk about their prolific art, marriage, children and Wayne's work ethic.

A Day at the Happiest Place on Earth (no, not Bhuton!). Another look at life by Mimi Pond. The post Back to D-Land appeared first on VidLit.