On Thursday we had carpeting installed in our three bedrooms and since all the furniture from those three rooms were stacked in my living room and dining room I was confined to my kitchen from about 10:30am to 2:30pm. In this time I unwrapped 72 candy canes and made about 80 ounces of peppermint bark for my husband and I’s coworkers, hostess gifts for holiday parties and Christmas Day. I also made 2 dozen cookies for good measure. With about an hour left before I could re-move into my home I was out of things to make and decided to read something light & easy at our tiny kitchen table. Big Happy Mushy Lump by Sarah Andersen of Sarah Scribbles was the perfect antidote to carpet install induced stress.
If you don’t know Andersen I would compare her style to Allie Brosh from Hyperbole and a Half; not just because she suffers from anxiety but because she has a similarly imperfect drawing style. A lot of her comics are very relatable and draw from common, everyday situations young women find themselves in. It is no surprise that she won Goodreads Choice Award for Best Graphic Novel or Comic.
There is some repetition in Big Happy Mushy Lump from Andersen’s first collection and her popular Instagram account but overall the comics are new, funny and charming. She also includes a little more information about herself in between comic panels, particularly when talking about “borrowing” her mom’s cat for a few months, which I don’t believe she did in her other book. I hope she continues to drop in more information about herself in-between comic strips, she has a unique voice that could easily translate to the fans of Jenny Lawson, Mindy Kaling or any other funny lady with some social quirks.
Oh and the cover is velvet!