Book cover titled "Our Easy" by Mimi Pond, featuring an illustrated woman in a checkered shirt and apron in a restaurant setting with various other characters in the background.

Over Easy

Drawn & Quarterly 2014

  • Five dark blue stars arranged in a row.

    “For lovers of tawdry tales from the ‘70s, told with smarts and sensitivity, Over Easy is a gold mine.”

    - LA Times

  • Five blue stars aligned in a row.

    “Surprisingly tender.”

    - Entertainment Weekly Must List

  • Five black stars aligned horizontally.

    “There’s a tactile thrill to reading about the down and dirty of 70’s kitchen life that makesme want to abandon my computer forever.”

    - Buzzfeed

  • Five navy blue stars arranged horizontally.

    “Her lines are unpretentious and airy, and her people aren’t overwhelmed by their affectations; Pond can capture facial expressions with a line or two.”

    - NPR

  • Five navy blue stars in a horizontal row.

    “This graphic memoir captures the funky ethos of the time, when hippies, punks and disco aficionados mingled in a Bay Area at the height of its eccentricity...There’s an intoxicating esprit de corps to a well-run everyday joint like the Imperial Cafe and neverhas the delight in being part of it been more winningly portrayed.”

    - Salon

  • Five blue stars arranged in a horizontal row.

    “Pond dishes up a memoir that’s light on the nostalgia and heavy on the humor…The book feels like an honest time capsule from a city and era that don’t exist anymore...Herillustrated anecdotes about sexually liberated wait-staff mingling with pretentious punks serve as a sincere ode to the maligned city and decade. I wolfed it down and wished fora second course.”

    - Bitch

A watercolor-style illustration of a vintage-style coffee shop or kitchen with checkered flooring, a bar counter with stools, cabinets, hanging pots and pans, and a clock on the wall. A woman is standing near the back, holding a tray, with various kitchen items and decorative elements, including a mounted animal head.

A fast-paced semi-memoir about diners, drugs, and California in the 1970s

Over Easy is a brilliant portrayal of a familiar coming-of-age story. After being denied financial aid to cover her last year of art school, Margaret finds salvation from the straightlaced world of college and the earnestness of both hippies and punks in the wisecracking, fast-talking, drug-taking group she encounters at the Imperial Café, where she makes the transformation from Margaret to Madge.

A cartoon illustration of two men in a kitchen, one wearing glasses, a hat, and a checkered shirt, peeking into the room, while the other is cooking at the stove, smiling and holding a tool. The kitchen has hanging plates, stacked dishes, and a large pot.

At first she mimics these new and exotic grown-up friends, trying on the guise of adulthood with some awkward but funny stumbles. Gradually she realizes that the adults she looks up to are a mess of contradictions, misplaced artistic ambitions, sexual confusion, dependencies, and addictions.

Over Easy is equal parts time capsule of late 1970s life in California—with its deadheads, punks, disco rollers, casual sex, and drug use—and bildungsroman of a young woman who grows from a naïve, sexually inexperienced art-school dropout into a self-aware, self-confident artist. Mimi Pond's chatty, slyly observant anecdotes create a compelling portrait of a distinct moment in time. Over Easy is an immediate, limber, and precise semi-memoir narrated with an eye for the humor in every situation.

See Inside

Comic strip depicting a person walking six blocks from school, avoiding a diner, sketching coffee pots, napkin dispensers, and waitresses at a diner, with handwritten narration in a humorous tone.
A three-panel comic strip showing a woman in her room, a woman walking outside, and an exterior view of a cafe with an 'Open' sign. The woman in her room is sitting at a desk, looking at a record player and books, with a window behind her. The second
A watercolor illustration of a cozy café with a counter and barstools, chandeliers hanging from the ceiling, a woman holding a tray near the back, and decorative items like a cow head and clock on the wall.
A comic strip showing a woman ordering coffee at a cafe, where she receives a tiny beaker of cream with her coffee. The comic includes a detailed view inside the coffee mug with a message about the flavor of coffee.
A comic strip with two characters in a cafe. The man introduces himself as 'Lazlo,' and the woman responds 'Lazlo Merengue.' Below, three illustrated figures labeled 'Captain America,' 'E.Z. Mark,' and 'The Mullah' are shown, with a paragraph explain
Comics page featuring a conversation between a man with a beard and glasses, and a woman with glasses, set in a kitchen and a cafe, discussing a comic book or scrapbook with photos and notes, and a story about Shirley.
A comic strip featuring a man and a woman in a cafe. The man, wearing a hat and glasses, laughs loudly, and the woman, with a ponytail and glasses, asks if he has a girlfriend. The man talks about his family and hopes for immortality in his sketchboo
Comic strip of a man and woman in a kitchen, discussing trading a drawing for a meal. The man pitches the idea, and the woman agrees. The man then peeks into the kitchen where a cook is preparing food, observing the activity.
Comic strip featuring people in a kitchen explaining a character named Madge and a tour of a pantry and kitchen area.
Comic strip with a character planning to do something mischievous, telling others not to corrupt an innocent lamb, and making jokes about behavior around drugs and comedy, ending with a character being insulted.
A comic strip showing a woman trying to figure out how to stay in her workplace despite it being closed, with scenes of her coworkers working and her checking her guest check for a free meal.