Monkey Food: The Complete I Was 7 in '75 Collection

Had a copy years back. Donated it to a comic library. Recently, I missed reading it, so I acquired a copy.Ellen Forney covers her hippie parents and her journey while she was a seven year old. Each of these pages was part of a comic strip yet fits well into the overall narrative that Ellen strings together.

Ellen Forney is one of the most talented comics artist around. She's sexually uninhibited without being creepy, fun-loving in an easy-going rather than frenetically determined way, imaginative, creative, insightful, sensitive, and wickedly funny. She has an amazing ability to convey oodles with just a few evocative strokes of her pen (the facial expressions on her characters are priceless), and her writing is fluid but compact in the way that her genre demands. I love her stuff.I came to Monkey Food late, by way of her I Love Led Zeppelin and Lust. Although I really like the two later books, Monkey Food is my hands-down favorite of the three. It's a fantastic mixture. Forney portrays her family with such warm affection that you ache to have grown up similarly. There are laugh-out-loud moments (something I rarely do when I'm reading) as she tells stories of zany moments from her childhood (the visit to the nudist camp was one of my favorites). And there's a nice satirical edge to a lot of the pieces (such as a comparison of "legal" vices such as booze and tobacco and illegal "vices" such as pot-smoking).Being raised on monkey food (read the story on Unitarianism to find out what it is) seems to have worked out pretty darn good for Ellen. And that works out well for the rest of us. I look forward to more from her.

I bought a copy of "I Was Seven In '75" at a used bookstore. Good as it was, "Monkey Food" is apparently the complete series collected in one volume. Needless to say, I had to have it!From her vivid and humorous recollections of grade school and seventies culture to her glimpses of seventies decadence as seen through her young and innocent eyes (what did mom and dad have those mirrors on the ceiling over their bed for, anyway?), Ms. Forney gives us a vivid (and humorous!) picture of her childhood in the "avocado" decade.

I like graphic art/comics and I LOVE the 70s. I was 5 in 75 and I remember sooo much that I thought this was going to be like talking to one of my friends from childhood. While I did enjoy Ellen's memories, they were waaay different than mine. My parents were not nudists, didn't throw swing parties, etc. While we did go to a Universalist Church and my mother was a pluralist (so she really had an interesting variety of friends), my parents were more "regular" and the only thing modern was that they got divorced. I am still looking for that person who remembers Tickle deodorant, Loves Baby Soft, Kissing Potion roller lip gloss, Kissing Sticks, tube socks, terry cloth short sets, Frost & Tip, shiny pants, and roller rinks.

Found out about Ellen Forney a few months ago and have read all her books, except one. It seems like she really puts her heart into her work.

Loved it! Great artist and amazing look into another generation.