The Illustrator at the Center of the Universe

Ellen Forney's "I Was Seven in '75" was, along with Dan Savage's advice column, one of the first things Seattlest "discovered" upon moving to Seattle. The "honest, charming, and good-natured" comic strip was one of the main reasons we picked up The Rocket. We still consider it (along with Freaks and Geeks) one of the most authentic artistic depictions of our preadolescent world. When Fantagraphics published Monkey Food: The Complete "I Was Seven in '75" Collection, collecting all the strips that ran from 1993 to 1998, we snapped up a copy toot sweet.

Tonight, we'll finally get to ask Ms. Forney to autograph our copy--she's appearing at The Fremont Place Book Company at 7:00. It's your chance not only to buy your own copy of Monkey Food--and we cannot recommend that enough--but to see "some of her recent and more adult-themed art," as the bookstore's website promises.

If you're a fan of her illustrations--or if you fondly remember all two issues of her comic book, Tomato--you'll want to see what she can do with color and paint. Seattlest was fortunate enough to see Forney discuss some of her recent paintings at the 2004 Seattle Erotic Art Festival. She's smart and funny and eloquent, and she's got an eye for imbuing her subjects with smart pin-up sexiness while avoiding dumb pin-up cliches.

Ellen Forney will appear at Fremont Place Books at 621 N. 35th St., the southwest corner of 35th and Fremont Ave. N., at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, July 11.