Forney hearts Led Zeppelin

Back in December when Dylan and I became official Seattlites, I picked up an issue of The Stranger, Seattle's alternative weekly paper. Within its inky pages was a small interest story about a local female comic artist marrying someone from my neighborhood co-op. It caught my attention mostly because of the illustration of the couple that the cartoonist did. It was fun and sassy while maintaing sincerity.

The style felt familiar to me, so I started going through my "inventory of cool things" (see: mental catalog of that which I give my stamp of approval to). I realized that I recognized her from a cartoon she did for my favorite magazine Bust. Even with this recollection of work I've seen of hers, I would have most likely forgotten to seek out her work if it weren't for her weekly feature in The Stranger: "Lustlab Ad of the Week". It is what it sounds like - you could be so lucky as to have the ever-talented Ellen Forney highlight to all Seattle whatever pervisities you put in your personal ad through her crafty cartoons.

Then one day while perusing the selection at Half-Priced Books I came across one of her offerings. It is called I Was Seven in '75, and I was instantly hooked. She was funny and smart and quirky and talented and someone I would love to drink beers with.

In our neighborhood of Capitol Hill it's hard to not see Ellen's pervasiveness...if you are looking anyway. Once familiar with the name, I saw her work popping up in the most random of places. I saw a postcard she did for a yoga studio while waiting in line at Caffe Vita. I saw her illustrations in The Stranger. I considered myself a fan for sure, but other than her website, there wasn't a whole lot to get my greedy little hands on.

Until now.

Enter I Love Led Zeppelin, brought to you by Kim Thompson and Gary Groth of Fantagraphics Books. For a mere $19.95 you can absorb everything from "How to be a successful call girl" to her enlightening stories of viriginity lost with Dan Savage, the best damn newspaper editor and sex columnist to call Seattle home. There is a lot more variety to her style than I previously thought, as evident through her work in "Wednesday Morning Yoga," and a lot of depth to her stories than a one panel illustration provides.