I think what I like best about Barry's work is that it's so rooted in childishness. The illustrations help with this - they almost look like child's drawings, sometimes, and I think it must take a lot of work to get them looking so apt for the subject matter. The comics here are bits and scraps of memories from childhood, complete with noxious cousins, schoolyard squabbles, and lots of random things of interest to a kid - growing bean plants, destroying toys, playing with a dog, the excitement of a parade. The thing is, it's all immensely recognisable, and the conceit, throughout the book, that the understanding of the narrator is limited is almost total. We can see, as readers, the undercurrents and implications that the kids are just not aware of, and that gives such an interesting tension - even a sting, at times - at the close of some of these comics.

It's just all very, very clever.