Chicago cartoonist Nate Beaty’s notes from attending Lynda’s writing workshop in Milwaukee, in 2010 (that’s Lynda with her distinctive red bandana bow).

Chicago cartoonist Nate Beaty’s notes from attending Lynda’s writing workshop in Milwaukee, in 2010 (that’s Lynda with her signature red-bandana bow).

Lynda’s scratchy, vibrant, simple, rough drawings opened up possibilities for me as a cartoonist. I couldn’t draw with the slick finish of my then-hero Daniel Clowes, who made Ghost World—I tried, and I got fairly good at imitating his polished style, which was lauded in comics scenes. That way of working culminated with my 2011/2012 comic that adapted “Araby,” a short story by James Joyce. Near the end of making Drawing James Joyce, a comic book of a couple short adaptations of his stories, I realized with sadness that I had given so much of my creative time to shitty, canonized, mostly straight white-dude authors.

A filler page from my Drawing James Joyce comic book.

A filler page from my Drawing James Joyce comic book.

The story “Araby,” which I’d spent so much time translating into comics, now seemed like such a classic male fuckboy story—a young boy crushes on his friend’s older sister, and he realizes that he’ll never have a shot at being with her. The controlled, “classic” drawing style that I employed started to feel deeply connected to straight maleness. Male-dominated comics scenes revere a clean, classic inking look with a strong technical finish. I certainly bought into this during art school and after, and I had a hard time breaking out of it, into looser ways of drawing (at least in my comics work—my sketchbooks often told a fresher story).

Looking at Lynda’s work, I thought about what I’d heard and read so many people say about the Ramones and other punk bands: that it looked like I could do it, and it looked like fun.