Title: Big Mushy Happy LumpAuthor: Sarah Andersen
Series: Sarah's Scribbles #2
First Published: March 7, 2017
Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing
Pages: 128
Genre: Humor, Young Adult
Format: Paperback
Source: Library
Rating:
Sarah Andersen's hugely popular, world-famous Sarah's Scribbles comics are for those of us who boast bookstore-ready bodies and Netflix-ready hair, who are always down for all-night reading-in-bed parties and extremely exclusive after-hour one-person music festivals.
In addition to the most recent Sarah's Scribbles fan favorites and dozens of all-new comics, this volume contains illustrated personal essays on Sarah's real-life experiences with anxiety, career, relationships and other adulthood challenges that will remind readers of Allie Brosh's Hyperbole and a Half and Jenny Lawson's Let's Pretend This Never Happened. The same uniquely frank, real, yet humorous and uplifting tone that makes Sarah's Scribbles so relatable blooms beautifully in this new longer form.
For the uninitiated, Sarah’s Scribbles is a webcomic series about an introverted and socially anxious millennial named Sarah. Her comics are wildly popular on social media and are well known for being relatable to many millennials.
I didn’t think I could like a comic collection more than Adulthood is a Myth but I honestly feel that Big Mushy Happy Lump improved greatly from its predecessor. This volume definitely contains some of Sarah’s strongest body of work, many of the comics were genuinely funny that had me smiling the whole time. There was also a good amount of social commentary peppered into various comics here and there that I appreciated.
The greatest improvement over the previous collection, however, was the newly added essays at the back of the book. All of them were humorous, but the essay about social anxiety and overthinking could actually be really helpful for young adults struggling socially.
Also, I have to admit, the physical edition of this book is great because the lettering and the sweater on the cover are actually fuzzy. A silly detail, sure, but it’s one that I really like for the printed edition that made me happy. Overall, if I were to recommend only one of Sarah’s Scribbles to a reader it would probably be this one. It’s a delightful comic series that’s just plain fun to read.
“When someone doesn’t like being social, many people will assume it’s because they don’t like people. But that’s not necessarily the case. I’m often eager to at least try to engage; it just doesn’t always work out.”
About Sarah Andersen
Sarah Andersen is an American cartoonist and illustrator, and the author of the webcomic Sarah’s Scribbles. She graduated from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2014 and currently lives in Brooklyn.