Every superhero has an origin story. But most people will probably go their whole life without being bombarded by gamma rays or bitten by a mutant spider. What if superpowers could originate from something a little closer to home, like say, from our own health and the ways that we treat it? This is the…
REVIEW: You Will Be Okay Will Help You Fight Your Anxiety
You Will Be Okay is Meggie Ramm’s pocket-sized anxiety-buster that anyone dealing with anxiety—and even people at the start of the lockdown five months ago—can refer to. If you’re feeling overwhelmed and stressed, this is a short and powerful tool that will help you.
PEOW is Publishing Wildly Creative Comics for Everyone
When I look for new comics or zines in a shop, at a festival, or online, I tend to browse wildly and pick up anything that catches my eye. We are blessed to live in a comics era filled with small presses and distros that are putting a variety of wild, creative work out into…
Still Standing: Mister Miracle Escaping the Stigma of Mental Illness
As someone with depression and a love for comics, I often find myself looking to superheroes for escapism. A hero can always push forward no matter the difficulty, even if it takes a toll on them. More often than not, the trials and tribulations our favorite heroes are put through are those in the physical…
Just Butterflies: Steven Universe and Distress Tolerance
“Watch Steven Universe,” they said. “It’ll be fun,” they said. Alright, I’m joking, but Steven Universe certainly is unique in how it handles serious and pertinent topics such as queerness, characters who are coded as people of color (POC), and characters living with mental illness. The show’s depiction of mental healthcare in particular isn’t just…
Indigo Panics: Anxiety in Gaming
Dear video games, We have long had a strange and tenuous relationship. I have very often been busy with life. Building one’s own business is a long and difficult task. I had been trying to find time to myself, but when I had that time, I usually found I needed to sleep. It seems strange,…
Seeing Myself in Wonderland: Mental Health in American McGee’s Alice
I have to admit, I’m a little embarrassed when I, a grown woman at the ripe age of 25, tell people that one of my favorite games is American McGee’s Alice. It definitely has connotations of early 2000s mall-goth culture. You know, kids who had Vampire Freaks accounts, worshiped The Nightmare Before Christmas, and wore…
Book Beat: Mental Health, Feminism, and Dissent
Hello again, readers! The week before last, I suggested borrowing books with both female protagonists and authors. This week, I suggest reading for mental health, but I don’t necessarily mean self-help books. For instance, I recently went by my local library’s book sale and bought a book of Irish myths, a copy of The Alchemist…
Not Gaming: Always On My Mind
Recently, I haven’t had a lot of time to game. I don’t mean that I haven’t thumbed around on a phone game or two, because we all know I’m obsessed with certain brightly colored addictive interactives, but I mean really game. There’s just been too much going on, what with the US election, my dissolving health, and my…
Mental Health & Comics: An Interview with Tee “Vixen” Franklin
Tee “Vixen” Franklin, known on Twitter as @MizCaramelVixen, creator of #BlackComicsMonth, is now overseeing an anthology of comics focused on mental health. She’s assembled an impressive list of comics professionals to contribute, including Scott Snyder, Tess Fowler, Gail Simone, Paulina Ganucheau, Tini Howard, and others. Franklin has also been accepting submissions from creators who have mental…
Comics, Anxiety, and Capturing the Abstract: An Interview with the Creators of Sweaty Palms
We often read hoping to see a piece of ourselves reflected in stories, but it’s the surprising connections that can have the most impact. These connections are not always comfortable, but are often invaluable, such as Jennifer Gonzalez’s experience with depression and Katie O’Neill’s webcomic Mushrooms. Each time readers respond powerfully to comics such as O’Neill’s it…
The Borderline Mother in Netflix’s Stranger Things
The Duffer Brothers’ Stranger Things intrigued me with the fantastically ’80s splash screen on the Netflix series page and totally hooked me with the title sequence. And then my wife and I watched the entire, too-short eight-episode series in, oh, a weekend. I reveled in the plethora of cinematic and musical nods to the decade…
