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Making the Invisible Visible – Mental Health in Comic Form – Book Reviews
Today I want to talk about three cartoon/graphic books that each explore the experience of mental health. Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh, It’s All Absolutely Fine by Ruby Elliot and Night Shift by Debi Gliori.
The first two books don’t only share bright yellow covers but have a similar style with rather unusual looking characters. The images in Hyperbole and a Half are in colour whereas It’s All Absolutely Fine contains line drawings in black on white.
I’m pretty sure you will have seen Allie Brian’s images shared as memes on social media. Two chapters within the book focus explicitly on Depression although other topics such as Dogs are also covered. This is a funny book with a good balance between the images and textual story linking them.
It’s All Absolutely Fine by Ruby Elliot (RubyETC) I only know about because of YALC this year and I picked up a signed copy. Every now and then there is some prose discussing the images in that section with the images then left to their own devices. This is much more ‘individual comic image’ style. I found her prose particularly insightful though.
Night Shift is different to the other two being more poetic in nature. It’s a beautiful midnight blue clothbound hardback and the images inside are muted greyscale with the very occasional flash of colour.
It is a story of depressive episodes that uses the metaphor of a dragon as a formidable opponent. Debi both wrote and illustrated the book and in one picture even talks about the difficulty of using words to describe the experience. Her combined use of words and images are a powerful exploration of thoughts and feelings as well as reminder of how episodes might start.
I’m sure I’ve mentioned my own experiences with depression before. These three books each spoke to my experience. Not perhaps all of it because we are each different but aspects definitely helped me to feel less alone and that there are others that get it.
Each book also includes little hints at hope and recovery/living with.
Two are more comic comics, one is more melancholic but beautifully illustrated and perhaps slightly more real. But also maybe one to read when you are feeling stronger and ready to fight your dragons.
Please note I was provided with a copy of Night Shift from the publisher Hot Key but all opinions are my own.
#TimetoTalk – Feb 6th 2014
Every year in my unit I use a fun creative activity to explore the concept of task analysis, activity analysis and occupational mapping. I call it the monster mash. This year I incorporated #TimetoTalk and we made monsters that either represented how mental health conditions such as depression and anxiety feel, or monsters that might help chase those feelings away.
Here is my monster which represents how depression can feel like a fog around you. The red cheeks are the embarrassment you can feel when sharing experiences of mental ill health and the purple buttons the concept of feeling stared at or observed warily. I briefly shared my own experiences with depression.
On the positive side the purple gems represent the glimmers of hope that we can cling to. Finally the geek badge is shining through the fog because it is no longer something that contributes to depressive feelings. I’m proud of my geek status and taking part in geeky activities helps my mood.
Did you have Time to Talk about mental health today?