Lynda Barry borrows the phrase "childhood and other neighborhoods" from poet Stuart Dybek. Then, she gives the phrase her own spin in "What It Is," Barry's delightful and hard-to-categorize book.

"It's a good way to start," she writes about being creative, "by thinking of childhood as a place rather than a time ... like an unplayed-with-playset, needing only one thing to set all things in motion."

Well, maybe two things, as it turns out: a willingness to resurrect memories and the desire to turn them into words and/or pictures. Being Lynda Barry, she does both — and completes both well.

The drawing style in the pages of "What It Is" has the same inviting flair that makes her comics so good. But this is a different kind of book. It's part autobiography — there are vignettes about her tough childhood and about Marilyn Frasca, a beloved art teacher — and it's part instruction book. But pedantry is taboo.

If you want to delay that work of art you've secretly wanted to create, Barry's book is simply a pleasure to peruse. You can read and view it in sequence or dive in midpoint. Everything is done by hand, words and images; she's combined them in collage fashion and they've transferred well to the printed page.

Underlying everything is Barry's willingness to concoct questions like "How are monsters different? How are they the same?" Or, she encourages your own memories by offering up a sad comic strip about "all the dogs you have ever known." As sophisticated and philosophical as "What It Is" is, it approaches creativity with a childlike sense of wonder and with levity. It's impossible to separate charm from vision in its pages — and why would you want to anyway?

To find out more about Richard L. Pincus and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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