Lynda Barry climbs ‘through the circle’ to join ‘The Family Circus’

The same weekend she receives the Milton Caniff Lifetime Achievement Award, Barry finds herself immortalized in the long-running comic strip.

Lynda Barry received the Milton Caniff Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Cartoonists Society over the weekend, but that wasn’t the only honor she received — she was also immortalized with a special appearance in one of her favorite comic strips, The Family Circus.

The May 27 strip featured Jeffy introducing his dad to his new friend Lynda:

Barry spoke about what The Family Circus meant to her on Tumblr. “I was a kid growing up in a troubled household. We didn’t have books in the house but we did have the daily paper and I remember picking out Family Circus before I could really read,” she said. “There was something about the life on the other side of that circle that looked pretty good. For kids like me there was a map and a compass hidden in Family Circus. The parents in that comic strip really loved their children. Their home was stable. It put that image in my head and I kept it.”

Created by Bill Keane in 1960, The Family Circus is now written and drawn by his son Jeff Keane.

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