I just read this Abortion Pill Zine: A Community Guide to Misoprostol and Mifepristone after buying it from Marnie Galloway at CAKE here in Chicago. I just read this Abortion Pill Zine: A Community Guide to Misoprostol and Mifepristone after buying it from Marnie Galloway at CAKE here in Chicago. I am a fan of Galloways's work, and also just read a short collection of diary comiucs she produced from 2023-20324 that is as of today not yet listed here. That diary comics work focuses on her life as co-parent of several children.
I had asked her how she was doing in "these times" and she pointed me to both the diary and this zine. She said it emerged out of conversations around the imprisoning of people for selling, using, anything with respect to abortion pills. "We had to do something," she said.
Maybe the talk about abortion pills makes you uncomfortable? Maybe you think the topic is "too political" for you? Maybe you don't really get how it all works? I suggest you read this short zine you can buy from Silver Sprocket Press or at some comic books stores. Educate yourself about why it is people might want an abortion, why they think they should have the right to do so, and how it all works at the moment (they admit that by the time you read this things will probably have changed in some small or large ways).
"Safe abortion is a huiman right"--the authors
"I have always been pro-choice by pregnancy and parenting radicalized me. The physical, emotional, financial, and logistical challenges of pregnancy and parenthood are heavy to carry even when having a family is a deeply desired outcome. Forced pregnancy is a cruel, unjust violation of our human rights"--Marnie Galloway
In 2011, 45% of the 6.1 million pregnancies in the United States were unintended.
At the opening we are in a place I know well, an optometrist’s office, where a young woman, Miss Odette Biset-Yu, is told she has a jellyfish in her lAt the opening we are in a place I know well, an optometrist’s office, where a young woman, Miss Odette Biset-Yu, is told she has a jellyfish in her left eye. Okay, so you haven’t read THAT sentence before, right?
On the next page of wordless panels, a tiny flying jellyfish floats in the air around her. And these jellyfish become two and multiply.
Odette was just told by the optometrist to “deal with it,” though I have a hard time believing that, given my own experience, but okay, maybe I got lucky. A friend suggests the same, deal with it. Apparently it comes out and floats around from time to time. You know “floaters”? This seems to be kinda what they are, these jellyfish, but they don’t go away, they proliferate.
Odette works in a bookstore, has a pet rabbit and a crush on a girl, trying to gain independence from her parents as she lives alone, has friends. . . but what is this jellyfish stuff all about?! Is this like Kafka’s “Metamorphosis”? Unlike Gregor Samsa, Odette tries eye drops, no luck.
And then I realize, when I see a sign in Odette's ophtholmalogist’s office for macular degeneration, that Odette and I have the same thing, though I am bring treated monthly for injections in my right eye for it, and she is not being treated, for reasons unclear to me. Millions of people now have it, a blind spot that essentially makes you blind in that eye, most of the affected are older, all the people I see in my doctor's office are older, like me, but I also know you can get it at any time.
This is a a powerful queer novel about a woman going blind, who needs to realize what she has more than what she does not have, and learn to accept help from others, though blindness is of course devastatingly serious.
I loved the poetic way of representing this condition, and all the pages of wordless panels to help us see and feel more what is going on. A great book, with a great, lovely ending, so much shown, yay, and almost no dialogue, yay. I like it a lot, in part because it is personal for me, though I have questions, given my treatment options. I guess some people may not be able to be treated, or it’s too late? Poignant story with terrific cartooning.
I want to thank the author of Jellyfish, Boum, and Pow Pow Press, for the early look at this graphic novel....more
Artist Wendy MacNaughton was for a time the artist-in-residence at the Zen Hospice Project Guest House in San Francisco. She sketched residents and viArtist Wendy MacNaughton was for a time the artist-in-residence at the Zen Hospice Project Guest House in San Francisco. She sketched residents and visitors there and asked visitors (family, friends) what it was they do while there and why. Of course, few know what to do when around the dying. I know because I was part of the hospice experience with my mother, with almost all of her sons and daughters present, a gift I see now. And I have been around a lot of death and dying by now. Initially MacNaughton self-published 200 copies of her book and asked people just to pass it on, but when greater interest developed around the book, she expanded it to include an introduction by physician and author BJ Miller and adding a terrific list of resources, including children’s books on death and dying.
This book is kind of an illustrated book on how to say goodbye to your loved ones (if you get the chance!), what to do when you are sitting there not knowing what to do or say. She shares a framework of “the five things” taught to her by a professional caregiver, a model for having conversations of love, respect, using the words “I forgive you,” “Please forgive me,” “Thank you,” “I love you,” and “Goodbye,” leading hopefully to peace and reconciliation.
MacNaughton also shows us illustrations of her aunt, who she went through hospice with. The book is not about the lives of those dying, but focused on this transition, what caregivers can say and do, which maybe include for much time just sitting there, being present. Paying attention. As MacNaughton does with her art. I wrote poetry, kept a journal, trying to be open to the experience, learn from it. Keep it simple, I would say is the main point here: Say I love you, hold her hand, cry, sure. With my mom we laughed quite a bit, too.
As I am getting older of course I attend more funerals than weddings or graduations. All of us will, obviously. I like this guide and will suggest it for anyone dealing with dying. ...more
A difficult read about a difficult subject, Hayley Gold's severe struggles with anorexia nervosa. Family dusyfunction, multiple hospitalizations whereA difficult read about a difficult subject, Hayley Gold's severe struggles with anorexia nervosa. Family dusyfunction, multiple hospitalizations where her angry is not quite balanced out with her sense of humor, though there is some bleak humor throughout. Gold doucments terrible experiences at hime and in medical care, and she's hard on everyone, including readers. She's not a warm person, even yelling at her readers at one point. She ios hard on mpst people, actually, so she doesn't always go for the entertainment or deep connections with her readers.
Of course a story about a still common disprder like this will be hard to read, though I do think it will be uesful for people suffering with this and related disorders, and for families living with these folks. I was not a fan of the art, even the coloring pushed me away, and she writes panels with a lot of words in them. Too many words, I say! So I have had it around for a while and was not inclined to read it many times because it was physically as hard to read for me as was the hard sad angry story itself. I just know she is calling me an asshole as she reads my review! I actually imagined it! So let me quickly say I wish you well, Hayley, and I hope you get better and people get better because of your book. You've had a hard life. And you are really smart and articulate about what you have experienced.
One thing I found weird is that there is only one image in the book of her emaciated self, in a mirror. Mis-seeing yourself, your body, is part of this (obviously neurological, so misperceptual) disorder, I know. So that is an interesting part of the book, as is a shadow/doppleganger Hayley that we see with her everywhere. This wil be a useful part of the literature of graphic medicine....more
A valuable contribution to the literature of graphic medicine (or as I catalogue it, GN-Health). You would not be reading this if Tessa Brunton hadn'tA valuable contribution to the literature of graphic medicine (or as I catalogue it, GN-Health). You would not be reading this if Tessa Brunton hadn't gotten some help figuring out how to combat myalgic encephalomyelitis (also known as chronic fatigue syndrome). This is an episodic collection of moments in the struggle with a disease the medical establishment and the general public did not take seriously for a long time. I know, because my sister (and others) had it and was told repeatedly that it was a psych issue: It's all in your head, you need a shrink, not medical treatment.
Brunton manages to find enough energy to mine her fundamental humor and wit as she gives us glimpses into a kind of paralyzed life she lived for almost eight years before she began to dig herself out of the pit her body had dug for her. And there's no sudden happy ending, no clear resolution, but this will reach readers who suffer from it, or who have friends or family living with it, or the medical establishment. I like the lively artwork, which brings a kind of ironic but necessary energy to the telling....more
A graphic memoir, first book, yay, by Austrian-born illustrator and animator Regina Hofer, a four-panel (per page, square) project, monochrome format.A graphic memoir, first book, yay, by Austrian-born illustrator and animator Regina Hofer, a four-panel (per page, square) project, monochrome format. Inventive, symbolic, minimalist. Tough to read because the art is spare and stark, but mostly because the story is about her pretty much life-long struggles with eating disorders (in part tied to abuse), even as she gains arttstic/professional recognition. Important to read if this is an issue for you or if you have a friend or family member struggling with these issues. I have by now read several such books, some of them graphic memoirs, and they are similarly honest, graphic, and wrenching. And important....more
A short book of short-short memoir stories (4 pages or less) sort of randomly organized that features a foreword by her friend and collaborator Brian A short book of short-short memoir stories (4 pages or less) sort of randomly organized that features a foreword by her friend and collaborator Brian Bendis. These are really just anecdotes with huge back stories you want to knw more about, such as her ms diagnosis, a rape, her mother wanting to give her away to a friend for adoption, addiction, family suicide. Maybe short and evocative is better, as a book four times as long that details all of this suffering would be. . . insufferable.
Bendis is one vignette encouraging her to allow her great sense of humor t come through, but maybe that will happen in her next book? I agree with him when he says he likes the format, likening it to 32 Short Films About Glenn Gould, which I once saw. I thought her digital art was fine, colorful but otherwise not striking....more
A light pastel colored pencil version of a story inspired by Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women by Kate Moore. I have not yet reaA light pastel colored pencil version of a story inspired by Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women by Kate Moore. I have not yet read that book but it has been on my tbr list for a long time. This is a story focused for the first half on women who are friends that work in a watch factory, brushing glow-in-the-dark paint on numerals on watches. They are instructed to wet the brushes on their lips first. . . which leads to tooth rot, jaw decay, diseases, death. It's radiation, at a high dose!
And at first, people think, ha ha cool, the women glow in the dark, so interesting. And the bosses assure them they are fine, no problems here! You know the drill: Don't worry about the chemicals we are dumping in the remaining fresh water! Please look the other way! Death and decay and dying, The girls just want to have fun, roaring twenties coming on, flappers, and they had no idea what was coming. But the bigger "shining" thing about them is they took legal action against their bosses, setting a precedent for worker rights and OSHA and speaking to concerns for worker health and safety, which until then was just not a management problem. Just making money here, nothing to see.
The artwork is lovely, though it becomes darker later, of course, as hope turns to horror. Well, it is hard to tell the girls apart, but in Cy's defense, I suppose, it is not about the individual girls but the collective Radium Girls. But it still was something I struggled with. And I might have gotten to the tragedy sooner, maybe, though we see that creepy poisonous radium glow early on, it's true (it creeps up on you [and them]).
But Spike Trotman's Chicago-based Iron Circus Press did a nice job with this production. It includes an interview with Cy, who admits he is no radium expert. Doesn't inspire confidence in his deep commitment, but you do get to see his process.
Reminded me of Madame Curie, who died of radiation sickness complications at 66, having won a Nobel Prize for discovering it, though it killed her in the process of discovery. So, yeah, people knew the dangers of radiation when these girls were painting watch numbers, grr.
PS: I'm reading books on ghosts, and the girls were also known as Ghost Girls as they glowed in the dark. I did not choose the book for this reason, but here it is, another book about ghosts. . . women ghosted by greed....more
A lovely, touching, sad, poetic story of an assisted living facility nurse, focusing on her somewhat muted emotional life, and the corresponding emotiA lovely, touching, sad, poetic story of an assisted living facility nurse, focusing on her somewhat muted emotional life, and the corresponding emotional lives of her patients. Of course it is about grief and death and unfulfilled dreams. In muted blue tones. Kind of ethereal. Maybe close to 3.5 stars.
I also read another nursing care facility book, a memoir from the perspective of a daughter caring for her 90-year-old mother that can also function as a guide to many of the issues we all have to eventually face on this topic. That one is more practical....more
Since Halloween approaches I read two graphic stories about long term nursing care facilities (just kidding, not for Halloween, but I know most peopleSince Halloween approaches I read two graphic stories about long term nursing care facilities (just kidding, not for Halloween, but I know most people would rather read slasher horror stories than read about this topic): this memoir from the perspective of a daughter caring for her 90 year old mother that can also function as a guide to many of the issues we all have to eventually face on this topic, and The White Lady, a fictional tale from the perspective of a nurse.
Susan MacLeod's story is hard to read, so complicated. I have an older brother and sister in long term care facilities with dementia, I have a son with autism in a group home. MacLeod in the first three chapters surprises us by being self-deprecating. She admits she never liked older people, she had always hated dealing with death, and she admits she has always been unlikable to a lot of people. She is hard on the Canadian government, on nursing facilities, and on her passive, uninvolved brother, and sometimes herself. I'll bet a lot of nursing care folks dislike this book, but it is true to her experiences. She just wants to act on behalf of her mom, she wants more. She admits ageism is a factor, that people are underpaid, facilities are understaffed, but that sometimes feels like an after though. And this was written before Covid gutted these facilities and left them even worse off.
But this was helpful to read as I myself age. . . . yikes. I appreciate her sense of humor throughout....more
The author of this award-winning graphic memoir tells the story of the time when, on the cusp of adulthood, she developed tumor-related epilepsy. She The author of this award-winning graphic memoir tells the story of the time when, on the cusp of adulthood, she developed tumor-related epilepsy. She was in denial about it, even during treatment, but she was actually losing her mind in a steady decline until finally someone found the tumor on an MRI. I have read a lot of graphic medicine memoirs, in spite of the fact that I have (until recently) been almost completely healthy all of my life. But since I just had some months of extensive melanoma surgery and recovery, somehow the trauma she depicts here was--instead of what she intended here, maybe--more terrifying to see her trauma represented visually, and so starkly. It was actually emotionally difficult for me to read it at times.
When she is depicting the worst moments, she uses smudgy, "primitive" techniques, and when she is feeling better, she uses a different style, and the range of illustration is effective. She often writes this directly to her mother, as we see that she and the whole family experienced this, supporting her, fearful for her, completely overwhelmed on her behalf at times. It reminded me of David B's Epileptic, where he tries to capture what his brother was going through during his debilitating seizures, experienced decades earlier than Durand's episodes, when treatment was less advanced. That she lived to tell the tale and is now actually epilepsy-free is good news, obviously, and inspiring, as she uses her art to attempt to create a time in her life when here memory was deteriorating, when she was in peril, and dependent (as most of us will be) on the medical establishment.....more
One of my top ten graphic novels of the year, In, a first graphic novel by Will McPhail, whose work is best known in the US through his New Yorker carOne of my top ten graphic novels of the year, In, a first graphic novel by Will McPhail, whose work is best known in the US through his New Yorker cartoons, maybe. I am told this is semi-autobiographical, as it features a guy who does illustration/art for a living. The guy has problems relating to people, doesn't know how to have conversations that get beyond the surface level, but he really wants to. He has had girlfriends, he has had a couple friends, but he is most connected to his sister, his nephew, and his mom, who understand him as socially distant though friendly, but they too know he needs to make real and deeper connections with humans.
At one point he meets and begins dating a woman, though he doesn't yet know how to talk with her. She's an oncologist, so he begins to ask her about that work, though--given his well-ingrained personality--his inclination is just to joke around a bit and have sex. But he knows this is not enough for her, nor for him. Then someone close to him gets sick--okay, it's cancer--so he needs to learn how to make connections there; this pushes him, makes it urgent.
Much of this is very moving; at one point his young nephew says he wants to see him more, and it is a poignant moment. All of it is delicately balancing wry humor (such as about coffee shops with silly names he visits daily) with poignancy. It's sad, it's funny, and sweet. The drawing is amazing, most of in black and white, except when he makes a human connection--asks good questions of others, mainly--we go into color (as with the Wizard of Oz--"that's a horse of a different color!"), and the paneled images have emotional resonance, are lyrical, more layered, more abstract.
Is the oncologist/cancer connection too "convenient" for the narrative (but then I think, if McPhail has written a semi-autobiographical story, then my comment may be perceived as insensitive)?! Well, this point occurred to me as I read it, but to tell you the truth I was very moved by all of it, so I don't object to it on any grounds. Powerful, powerful book....more
In late 2004, Vivian Chong got a rare skin disease, TEN (Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis), from taking ibuprofen, a kind of very rare allergic reaction. ScIn late 2004, Vivian Chong got a rare skin disease, TEN (Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis), from taking ibuprofen, a kind of very rare allergic reaction. Scar tissue from the event--she was in a coma for two months--would eventually blind her. As she was losing her sight she began to draw as fast as she could, documenting her experience. And yes, even after blindness Chong draws.
Then she was joined in collaboration by cartoonist Georgia Webber (who wrote her own graphic medical memoir, Dumb, about her own loss of speech). Part of a series of work in graphic medicine. Chong also does theater and dance pieces to try and document her experience. Scary stuff, and inspiring Fantagraphics production, over-sized book.
I am just struck by how clueless two different boyfriends were in the process, so disappointing. Useful for seeing her range of encounters with the medical establishment, as they too encounter this strange condition few had heard of. The point is not (to me) to learn more about this rare condition so much as it is to see how Chong copes with tragedy.
While we are waiting for the next installment of the Megg & Mogg saga, we get this big collection of a decade of stories out of their world, which is While we are waiting for the next installment of the Megg & Mogg saga, we get this big collection of a decade of stories out of their world, which is two things, basically, a gross-out, hilarious stoner comic, and a horrifying cautionary tale about these out-of-control friends drinking and smoking themselves to meaninglessness and death. Twenty-something, sideways, lost in space chaos. But can it be both, alternating between stoner goofiness and everyday death spiral? I say yes.
This collection doesn't give us anything we didn't know before: Megg and Mogg are struggling; Megg turns to Booger for release; Werewolf Jones is the worst and most irresponsible human being (and father) we can imagine, and everyone is mean to Owl. Culled from a collection of work spanning ten years and found in zines, alternative comix rags, alternative newspapers, and so on, it is still a must-have for Simon Hanselmann completists. It's hard to read, as it is in very small print to make the book marketable, but worth the effort, most of the time. There are what amounts to "outtakes" and experimental sketches, even some sci-fi tales. Psychedelia, of course. A range of sketchy self-published work to gorgeous full-color nightmare paintings.
Let's see, some highlight/lowlights: There's no food in the house, so Werewolf Jones suggests that they go trick or treating, and get candy to eat. It's not Halloween, so nobody plays along wiht the joke, people aren't home, so WWJ plays tricks on the homeowners. They all get away except Owl, of course.
WWJ wants the money from a Princess contest, so he forces two of his sons to dress up in drag. They win the contest.
There's really gross stuff I'm not telling you about, sexual stuff, anything involving a range of bodily fluids, which will either turn you off forever, juvenilia, or make you laugh until you cry. (I also just read Samantha Irby's Meaty, and I am musing on a theory of humor as body humor/outrage I see in both of their works).
But the images that stick with me, really, are the contrapuntal ones of Megg in tears, torn by depression, eyes in horror. Madness. Hanselmann is one great cartoonist, both alt-comix guy in the wacked-out, drugged-out sixties tradition of Crumb and Tijuana Bibles and Beavis and Butthead AND a glimpse into the nightmare side of it all. Quite an accomplishment, really....more
Give credit to Marvel, one of the two Comics Big Houses that focus on superheroes, to do a series about nurses, among the real heroes of our society iGive credit to Marvel, one of the two Comics Big Houses that focus on superheroes, to do a series about nurses, among the real heroes of our society in 2020. This is not the best comic you will ever read but it's important. Thanks to Rod for telling me about it, and that you can read it for free here:
I want to encourage lots of people to read it so that we can send a message to Marvel that it is a good thing to do some pro bono work that has nothing to do with their profit margin. Good for them, and good for comics that celebrate goodness and professionalism and tell stories of actual everyday health and heroism....more
A timely self-help-oriented novel about depression for middle grades/YA. When Mona's friend oves away, Mona spirals into some emotional struggles thatA timely self-help-oriented novel about depression for middle grades/YA. When Mona's friend oves away, Mona spirals into some emotional struggles that have physical manifestations. She's depressed and this has lots of different aspects; Mona calls it her "dark matter." Gulledge takes us through Mona's process to health, in part thorugh "artners" or art partners. She can't isolate too much, and since she is an artist she needs to express herself and create connections with others.
The story not only maps out Mona's road to recovery, but also provides blank pages for thos reading. Has a music playlist and book list. Maybe 3-5 for me, but I have teens living here that have been paging through it, and may yet pick it up between remote classes and homework....more
I have this year read a few books on Ebola/Pandemics/Influenza/The Plague just for fun (!) (kidding) and fairly recently, John Barry's The Great InfluI have this year read a few books on Ebola/Pandemics/Influenza/The Plague just for fun (!) (kidding) and fairly recently, John Barry's The Great Influenza, about the flu of 1918, that took place in the world just about a hundred years ago, that killed about 650,000 peopkle here in the US but millions worldwide even as WWI was going on. Woodrow Wilson had it and denied it, wanting as with many politicians to put a positive spin somehow on the pandemic so people could get behind his war effort. It's just a cold, nothing to see here!!
Much murderous denial as tens of thousands of soldiers died here from the flu as their brothers died in Europe. FDR had it and recovered, many people had it and recovered, many more died and paralyzed the country and the economy for a time, but there were almost no works written about it. There are thousands of works about WWI but comparatively little about the year of the Flu. Why is that??!
This is my favorite Brown book that I have read so far, a book for young people or people who want a quick look at the history without having to read hundreds of pages about it? Brown's book is well drawn and well researched and creates a good pretty quick narrative of the main events. If you like it, and get interested in delving deeper, Brown has an appendix, at the top of which is Barry's book which I reviewed and recommend. Trust me, we need to understand the history around these pandemics, as the one we are going through aint over and will not be the last one. You want horror on Halloween? Imagine millions dead from a pandemic....more
While I am not Jewish, I have had a lot of experience with Jewish culture through friends and one long term relationship where I was accepted as an "hWhile I am not Jewish, I have had a lot of experience with Jewish culture through friends and one long term relationship where I was accepted as an "honorary Jew" and of course family member. And not to generalize too much or stereotype but it was easy for me to see the differences between my dour, serious Dutch Calvinist upbringing where we couldn't even dance at weddings, and I recalled no laughter at funeral parlors or in dinners after funerals, whereas at Jewish ceremonies, whether weddings or funerals, there seemed to be so much joy. My first experience with "sitting shiva" (the required mourning time) was one where laughter quickly bled into tears, and vice versa. and more food than I have ever experienced seeing (or eating). I'm just saying here that that was my experience.
This book about Chicagoan Jewish Tyler Feder and the loss of her mother (from cancer, at 47) has a title that might be off-putting for some, but I understand it. No one was loved more in her life than her Mom, but sort of blunt and possibly slightly "inappropriate" humor (I guess being inappropriate is what makes humor humor, often times) that is consistent with her mom and family dominates the book. It's Feder's basic grief strategy, actually, as you can see that she still, ten years later, cries but also laughs a lot about her Mom, whom I expect she will never stop grieving (I can say from personal experience as an older, more experienced griever). The book is really useful as a kind of "self-help" book for those who have lost loved ones, who will get to relive their grief (a process than can of course be a rich and usually useful experience) and think deeply about their dead friends and relatives and also a sweet memoir of her mother, a kind of model for us. I really liked it....more
A first hand comics account by a nurse of her work with 84-year-old Josephine who, as the population gets older and older, is one of many in "neurologA first hand comics account by a nurse of her work with 84-year-old Josephine who, as the population gets older and older, is one of many in "neurological decline" and living alone, needing more intensive care. Not enough beds, so she has to get worse first to justify hospitalization. Valerie's story affirms 1:1, empathetic care as she develops a close relationship with Josephine over years, but aides are underpaid, underprepared, the system is stretched, overloaded. So this is both an affirmation and an indictment of the Parisian/French/heck, anywhere health care system so many of us are going to need to be responsive as we all get older.
And Josephine, who lived a full and rich life is not the poorest of those aging and in decline, so you can only imagine what the poorest face. But she goes for days with aides neglecting her, unfed, glasses broken for months, doesn't get outside, and so on. Heart-breaking, scary, and important to read....more
A short and what it appears to be a quickly sketched and lettered story of a man accompanied by a boy throughout, going through his past when he used A short and what it appears to be a quickly sketched and lettered story of a man accompanied by a boy throughout, going through his past when he used to catch frogs, alternating with images of him in a hospital bed. At turns nightmarish, surreal, touching, maybe bit too much on the nose in terms of its point and ultimately unsurprising, but you know, it still features the (often wordless, yay!) storytelling of Lemire, and that is always worth paying attention to.
This one is more in the Essex County realistic world of Lemire than his sci fi/horror worlds, and it is yet another of his meditations on fatherhood, as the older man regrets his having worked hard all of his life and neglected the son he now no longer really knows. This is written by the incredibly productive hard-working Jeff Lemire who actually also has a son. . ....more