Eye of the Majestic Creature Books

Eye of the Majestic Creature is a collection of semi-autobiographical and fantasy-based comics that combine dry humor, psychedelia, and emotion to show the viewpoint of one person’s world internally and externally. The story follows a young girl, Larrybear, and her talking acoustic guitar Marshmallow on their adventures through the countryside, Chicago, San Francisco and New York. While Larrybear struggles to connect with strangers, her friends, and her family with varying degrees of success, her growing population of anthropomorphic friends go on adventures of their own. Larrybear is in a constant struggle between the desire to connect with those around her and to be left to her own devices. You get a glimpse of her past life when she visits her home town of Chicago, trying to relate to old friends who have not matured since high school, as well as her family (which includes her hippopotamus father and his harem of ex-wives, two brothers, and Salsa-dancing mom). In the present, she moves to New York to find work for a time, resulting in many hilarious and drunken adventures with her new coworkers at a cell phone decorating shop, and her old friend Boris, who shares with her his P.G. Wodehouse books, as well as his “Incredible Hulk” weed. Drawn in shades of gray using the near-deceased practice of stippling, Stein’s imagery draws you into Stein’s world for a complete and engrossing experience.

Eye of the Majestic Creature Vol. 2 is the second book collecting Leslie Stein’s loose, funny and charming autobiographical narratives that combine idiosyn cratic fantasy and stark reality. Larrybear, our hero, has moved from the coun tryside to the city, where she finds work as a shop girl. Quotes from Theodore Dreiser’s Sister Carrie are sprinkled throughout the story to add humor and poignancy. Stein then takes us back to a childhood in the ’80s filled with odd experiences including joining a rock band with older people, sitting in on her mother’s AA groups, and the mystery of the disappearing gumballs. Finally, a fun story in which Larrybear and her new friend, Poppin the Flower go on a strange trip to see his father. Let us not forget that Marshmallow, Ping-Ping and Mimolette, Larry’s walking and talking instruments, have adventures all their own. Stein’s gorgeous cartooning, highlighted by incredibly detailed stippling, and her dry sense of humor combine to make one of the most unique and immersive narrative experiences in comics.

In the third volume of her series, our protagonist Larrybear meets her new nemesis, visits her anthropomorphic guitar Marshmallow, and ponders her future as she manages a restaurant in Brooklyn. Things go awry when a hurricane arrives and the bar is packed, with no deliveries and plumbing problems. This is doing nothing to help Larry’s ever-worsening drinking problem…