Part 2: Strip 32 - Pray...

Happy Mother's Day!

-Saraƒin

Book review: "Bitter Medicine - A Graphic Memoir of Mental Illness"

I had my eye on this book for a while, having first heard of it last year.  Today, I finally picked up a copy.  Here's my review:

This is not a comic - it is a memoir coupled with sketchy but expressive drawings, drawings that reminded me somewhat of Quentin Blake's artwork at times.  The drawings were created by Olivier Martini, the writing by his brother, Clem Martini.  It is the story of Olivier's battles with both schizophrenia and the (supremely flawed) Canadian mental health system.

I enjoyed this book a great deal.  It is, however, extremely dark, and I found myself angered by a lot of the injustices I read about in Olivier's "treatment".  This is actually one of the best critiques of the mental health system that I have ever read - it even goes into accurate detail about the kind of environmental factors psych wards exhibit... and what was described was just like CAMH!  Going into this book, I was slightly hesitant because it was written by someone related to a sufferer of schizophrenia (and not by someone with schizophrenia himself), so I was not sure of what to expect regarding tone or insight, but in the end I was pleasantly surprised.  I think I'll lend this book to my mom and dad, because even though I still dispute my psychiatric label, I'm sure my folks shared the writer's experiences when it came to the frustrations of dealing with systematic bullshit and hypocrisy.

The one thing that bothered me a little is how bleak this book felt, most of the time.  It had a tone that suggested that there is little hope of ever recovering from schizophrenia, which I think is one of the myths of the illness.  I think that yes, if you rely too heavily on the medications alone, and ignore nutritional/holistic approaches to recovery, you are likely to get stuck - I say this as someone who has observed many who have recovered from what doctors have called schizophrenia, myself included (well, schizoaffective disorder, in my case).  Or maybe the ones I know who have recovered never really had the real deal illness to begin with.  Maybe they were, like in my case (as I believe), "spiritually ill", and don't know what it's like to feel trapped, as others have been.  I don't know.  But if the shrinks who dumped the schizoaffective label on me were right and I do have a fundamental chemical flaw in my brain, it seems to be anything but degenerative... in fact, I'm mentally stronger now these days, in some ways, than ever before.

Anyway, that was my one minor critique of this otherwise wonderful book.  It was sad as hell, enraging, but necessary.  I'm very glad I bought it - I think it should be required reading for anyone working in or around the mental health system.

-Saraƒin

Asylum Squad Side Story: The Psychosis Diaries update...

Hooray!

I just got the first seven books from the printers today!  They are digital print, test-run books... the 50 I ordered will be printed using offset (higher quality).  But these books are pretty good quality as well - perfect bound, everything.  I sat down and read though a copy - it took me roughly 2 and a half hours to read it cover to cover.  There were only two minor errors I could detect, which will be fixed for later copies.  Please note that if you don't live in Toronto, I won't be selling these by online order just yet - I have to set things up with my Print On Demand publisher.  The 50 I ordered are my personal copies for selling at conventions, meet-ups - anywhere where I can hand over the copy in person.  Some will go in Toronto comic stores.  I am selling them for $20 a copy.

Stay tuned for more info about how you can order your copy online!

-Saraƒin

Part 2: Strip 31 - >:P

TCAF is this weekend!  Hooray!

-Saraƒin

Comics and Medicine conference schedule...

Check out the following link to see where my presentation falls in the schedule for Comics and Medicine: Navigating the Margins, 2012:

http://www.bmc.med.utoronto.ca/graphicmedicine/prog.html




Hope I give a good presentation!

-Saraƒin

Part 2: Strip 30 - "There's no problem."

I'm 30 now... yay?

Also - an article will be up soon about how antipsychotics have stifled my artwork, which will include examples of artwork from both "then" and "now".

-Saraƒin

Part 2: Strip 29 - *Tsk*tsk*tsk*

Have you noticed the drug jokes with the staff names yet?  ;-)

-Saraƒin