Freddie is the youngest sibling of the idiosyncratic Mullen family, whose travails Lynda Barry lovingly and brilliantly chronicles in Ernie Pook's Comeek. He's an odd, bright, troubled and frequently bullied kid, who in this collection of strips is left emotionally scarred by a brush with the law and the death of a classmate. But those are merely the plot points, which are the least essential aspects of Barry's cartooning.

To read Barry is to have your perception fundamentally