Marbles

Author: Ellen Forney
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101617195
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 258

Book Description
Cartoonist Ellen Forney explores the relationship between “crazy” and “creative” in this graphic memoir of her bipolar disorder, woven with stories of famous bipolar artists and writers. Shortly before her thirtieth birthday, Forney was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Flagrantly manic and terrified that medications would cause her to lose creativity, she began a years-long struggle to find mental stability while retaining her passions and creativity. Searching to make sense of the popular concept of the crazy artist, she finds inspiration from the lives and work of other artists and writers who suffered from mood disorders, including Vincent van Gogh, Georgia O’Keeffe, William Styron, and Sylvia Plath. She also researches the clinical aspects of bipolar disorder, including the strengths and limitations of various treatments and medications, and what studies tell us about the conundrum of attempting to “cure” an otherwise brilliant mind. Darkly funny and intensely personal, Forney’s memoir provides a visceral glimpse into the effects of a mood disorder on an artist’s work, as she shares her own story through bold black-and-white images and evocative prose.

Rock Steady

Author: Ellen Forney
Publisher: Fantagraphics Books
ISBN: 1683961013
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 182

Book Description
Rock Steady: Brilliant Advice From My Bipolar Life is the eagerly awaited sequel/ companion book to Forney’s 2012 best-selling graphic memoir, Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo, and Me. Whereas Marbles was a memoir about her bipolar disorder, Rock Steady turns the focus outward, offering a self-help survival guide of tips, tricks and tools by someone who has been through it all and come through stronger for it.

I Love Led Zeppelin

Author: Ellen Forney
Publisher: Fantagraphics Books
ISBN: 1560977302
Category : Comics & Graphic Novels
Languages : en
Pages : 113

Book Description
I Love Led Zeppelin is a long-awaited collection of strips by the Harvey and Eisner Award-nominated cartoonist Ellen Forney. This book includes full-page comics published in prestigious weeklies such as the L.A. Weekly and Seattle's The Stranger, as well as the leading feminist magazine Bust, and the Oxford American. Her strips are characterized by bold, sensual brushstrokes and striking images of powerful, butt-kicking women. p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Calibri}

Haldol and Hyacinths

Author: Melody Moezzi
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1583335501
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 306

Book Description
With candor and humor, a manic-depressive Iranian-American Muslim woman chronicles her experiences with both clinical and cultural bipolarity. Born to Persian parents at the height of the Islamic Revolution and raised amid a vibrant, loving, and gossipy Iranian diaspora in the American heartland, Melody Moezzi was bound for a bipolar life. At 18, she began battling a severe physical illness, and her community stepped up, filling her hospital rooms with roses, lilies and hyacinths. But when she attempted suicide and was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, there were no flowers. Despite several stays in psychiatric hospitals, bombarded with tranquilizers, mood-stabilizers, and anti-psychotics, she was encouraged to keep her illness a secret—by both her family and an increasingly callous and indifferent medical establishment. Refusing to be ashamed or silenced, Moezzi became an outspoken advocate, determined to fight the stigma surrounding mental illness and reclaim her life along the way. Both an irreverent memoir and a rousing call to action, Haldol and Hyacinths is the moving story of a woman who refused to become a victim. Moezzi reports from the frontlines of an invisible world, as seen through a unique and fascinating cultural lens. A powerful, funny, and moving narrative, Haldol and Hyacinths is a tribute to the healing power of hope and humor.

My Degeneration

Author: Peter Dunlap-Shohl
Publisher: Penn State Press
ISBN: 0271078952
Category : Comics & Graphic Novels
Languages : en
Pages : 110

Book Description
How does one deal with a diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease at the age of forty-three? My Degeneration, by former Anchorage Daily News staff cartoonist Peter Dunlap-Shohl, answers the question with humor and passion, recounting the author’s attempt to come to grips with the “malicious whimsy” of this chronic, progressive, and disabling disease. This graphic novel tracks Dunlap-Shohl’s journey through depression, the worsening symptoms of the disease, the juggling of medications and their side effects, the impact on relations with family and community, and the raft of mental and physical changes wrought by the malady. My Degeneration examines the current state of Parkinson’s care, including doctor/patient relations and the repercussions of a disease that, among other things, impairs movement, can rob patients of their ability to speak or write, degrades sufferers’ ability to deal with complexity, and interferes with the sense of balance. Readers learn what it’s like to undergo a dramatic, demanding, and audacious bit of high-tech brain surgery that can mysteriously restore much of a patient’s control over symptoms. But My Degeneration is more than a Parkinson’s memoir. Dunlap-Shohl gives the person newly diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease the information necessary to cope with it on a day-to-day basis. He chronicles the changes that life with the disease can bring to the way one sees the world and the way one is seen by the wider community. Dunlap-Shohl imparts a realistic basis for hope—hope not only to carry on, but to enjoy a decent quality of life.

Lighter Than My Shadow

Author: Katie Green
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 1407086189
Category : Comics & Graphic Novels
Languages : en
Pages : 517

Book Description
A poignant, heart-lifting graphic memoir about anorexia, eating disorders and the journey to recovery Like most kids, Katie was a picky eater. She’d sit at the table in silent protest, hide uneaten toast in her bedroom, listen to parental threats that she’d have to eat it for breakfast. But in any life a set of circumstance can collide, and normal behaviour might soon shade into something sinister, something deadly. Lighter Than My Shadow is a hand-drawn story of struggle and recovery, a trip into the black heart of a taboo illness, an exposure of those who are so weak as to prey on the vulnerable, and an inspiration to anybody who believes in the human power to endure towards happiness. ‘Even at its most heartbreaking it never feels sombre ... Inspiring, plucky and, in the end, consoling, it’s hard to put down’ Observer

Billy, Me & You

Author: Nicola Streeten
Publisher: Myriad Editions
ISBN: 1908434112
Category : Self-Help
Languages : en
Pages : 218

Book Description
Nicola Streeten's little boy, Billy, was two years old when he died following heart surgery for problems diagnosed only ten days earlier. Thirteen years later, able finally to revisit a diary written at the time, Streeten begins translating her notes into a graphic novel. The result, a retrospective reflection from a 'healed' perspective and gut wrenchingly sad at moments, is an unforgettable portrayal of trauma and our reaction to it - and, especially, the humour or absurdity so often involved in our responses. As Streeten's story unfolds and we follow her and her partner's heroic efforts to cope with well-meaning friends and day-to-day realities, we begin to understand what she means by her aim to create a 'dead baby story that is funny'.

Goblin Girl

Author: Moa Romanova
Publisher: Fantagraphics Books
ISBN: 1683962834
Category : Comics & Graphic Novels
Languages : en
Pages : 186

Book Description
A dating site match goes really wrong in this troubling, funny graphic memoir. Things seem to be looking up when Moa Romanova ― broke, depressed, and living in a squat above an old store ― matches with a very famous celebrity on a popular hook-up site. Not only does the 53-year-old man like Moa ― he also immediately validates and motivates her in a way that not even her therapist does, even offering to help financially support her artistic ambitions. However, Moa soon discovers that there are strings attached. Drawn in a style that's de Chirico by way of the '80s, Romanova's relatable graphic memoir is a thought-provoking debut.

Eat, and Love Yourself

Author: Sweeney Boo
Publisher: Boom! Studios
ISBN: 1641446641
Category : Young Adult Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 164

Book Description
For fans of Seconds and Wet Moon. Mindy is a young woman living with an eating disorder and trapped in a battle for her own self-worth. When she accidentally discovers a magic chocolate bar that will give her a chance to revisit her past, she thinks she has a chance to put her life back on track. But will she be able to find a way back to her present, and just as important, a way to treat herself with love and kindness, at any size? Join writer/artist Sweeney Boo (Marvel Action: Captain Marvel) on a journey of self-discovery, self-acceptance, and just a bit of magic.

PathoGraphics

Author: Susan Merrill Squier
Publisher: Penn State Press
ISBN: 0271087315
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 257

Book Description
Culturally powerful ideas of normalcy and deviation, individual responsibility, and what is medically feasible shape the ways in which we live with illness and disability. The essays in this volume show how illness narratives expressed in a variety of forms—biographical essays, fictional texts, cartoons, graphic novels, and comics—reflect on and grapple with the fact that these human experiences are socially embedded and culturally shaped. Works of fiction addressing the impact of an illness or disability; autobiographies and memoirs exploring an experience of medical treatment; and comics that portray illness or disability from the perspective of patient, family member, or caregiver: all of these narratives forge a specific aesthetic in order to communicate their understanding of the human condition. This collection demonstrates what can emerge when scholars and artists interested in fiction, life-writing, and comics collaborate to explore how various media portray illness, medical treatment, and disability. Rather than stopping at the limits of genre or medium, the essays talk across fields, exploring together how works in these different forms craft narratives and aesthetics to negotiate contention and build community around those experiences and to discover how the knowledge and experiences of illness and disability circulate within the realms of medicine, art, the personal, and the cultural. Ultimately, they demonstrate a common purpose: to examine the ways comics and literary texts build an audience and galvanize not just empathy but also action. In addition to the editors, the contributors to this volume include Einat Avrahami, Maureen Burdock, Elizabeth J. Donaldson, Ariela Freedman, Rieke Jordan, stef lenk, Leah Misemer, Tahneer Oksman, Nina Schmidt, and Helen Spandler. Chapter 7, “Crafting Psychiatric Contention Through Single-Panel Cartoons,” by Helen Spandler, is available as Open Access courtesy of a grant from the Wellcome Trust. A link to the OA version of this chapter is forthcoming.