Written by Jonathan Ames Art and cover by Dean Haspiel Jonathan A. is a boozed-up, coked-out, sexually confused, hopelessly romantic and, of course, entirely fictional novelist who bears only a coincidental resemblance to real-life writer Jonathan Ames, critically acclaimed author of Wake Up, Sir!, The Extra Man and What's Not to Love? For the fictional Jonathan, writing and drinking come easy. The hard parts of life are love and hope. From a touching relationship between Jonathan and his aging great aunt, to an inebriated evening with an amorous, octogenarian dwarf, to the devastating aftermath of 9/11, Ames's first original graphic novel, with gritty, poignant art by Dean Haspiel (THE QUITTER), tells a story at once hilarious, excruciating, bizarre and universal, about how our lives fall to pieces and the enduring human struggle to put things back together again.

A brief encounter with an older woman in a coffee shop left Emily Flake swearing she would quit smoking when she turned twenty-nine. Only twenty-one at the time, she had years ahead of her to kick the habit. And then she turned twenty-eight, took a good, hard look in the mirror, and knew something had to be done. These Things Ain't Gonna Smoke Themselves is a hilarious, illustrated account of her love/hate relationship with cigarettes, from her first glorious drag to her not-so-final last puff, and everything she goes through to try to quit. It is a funny, candid exploration of the rise and fall of cigarettes, both within Emily's own life and in society at large, tracing how smoking mutated from an encouraged form of recreation to what it is today--a nasty, unpardonable habit.

Through rich illustration and narrative, Sobriety: A Graphic Novel offers an inside look to recovery from the perspectives of five Twelve Step group members, each with a unique set of addictions, philosophies, struggles, and successes while working the Steps. Larry, an “old-timer” in recovery circles, believes in the powerful, rich traditions of the Big Book in helping people reinvent themselves. Alex is a Londoner of African descent, gay and an atheist who decided to go to treatment in the States when his Ecstasy and heroin addictions landed him in the hospital. Debby, a single mother in her twenties, is on her third round of treatment. A dreamer, she’s finally owned up to being an addict and wants to live a sober life, but hasn’t quite grasped how much work that’s going to take. At nineteen, Matt is what some might call a “tough case” with Meth his drug of choice. He’s deeply lonely but has developed a tough outer shell for protection. Hannah was adopted as a baby and grew to be a smart, high-achiever. Now a college freshman, her rebellious side has taken over, her grades are suffering, and she also struggles with bulimia. The fact that they are all seeking help for addiction is the one thing that ties them together. But their approaches to recovery are as diverse as their backgrounds. As their stories unfold through their interactions as a Twelve Step group, we gain an intimate look at the challenges faced by those in recovery—and at the boundless power of working the Steps in helping people find strength in one another as they reach for a clean-and-sober life.

The powerful, unforgettable graphic memoir from Jarrett Krosoczka, about growing up with a drug-addicted mother, a missing father, and two unforgettably opinionated grandparents.In kindergarten, Jarrett Krosoczka's teacher asks him to draw his family, with a mommy and a daddy. But Jarrett's family is much more complicated than that. His mom is an addict, in and out of rehab, and in and out of Jarrett's life. His father is a mystery -- Jarrett doesn't know where to find him, or even what his name is. Jarrett lives with his grandparents -- two very loud, very loving, very opinionated people who had thought they were through with raising children until Jarrett came along.Jarrett goes through his childhood trying to make his non-normal life as normal as possible, finding a way to express himself through drawing even as so little is being said to him about what's going on. Only as a teenager can Jarrett begin to piece together the truth of his family, reckoning with his mother and tracking down his father. Hey, Kiddo is a profoundly important memoir about growing up in a family grappling with addiction, and finding the art that helps you survive.

In the vein of Alison Bechdel or Harvey Pekar, Joyce Farmerâe(tm)s memoir chronicles the decline of the authorâe(tm)s parentsâe(tm) health, their relationship with one another and with their daughter, and how they cope with the day-to-day emotional fragility of the most taxing time of their lives. Set in southern Los Angeles (which makes for a terrifying sequence as blind Rachel and ailing Lars are trapped in their home without power during the 1992 Rodney King riots), Farmer details the slow, inexorable decline in Larsâe(tm) and Rachelâe(tm)s health, and perfectly captures the timbre of the exchanges between a long-married couple: the affectionate bickering; their gallows humor; their querulousness as their bodies break down.

Retired bank manager Emilio, suffering from Alzheimer's, is taken to an assisted living home by his son. He befriends his roommate Miguel, an overconfident ladies' man. Together, they employ clever tricks to keep the doctors from noticing Emilio's ongoing deterioration -- and keep him from being transferred to the dreaded confinement of the top floor of the facility. ("Better to die than to end up there." Their determination to stay active as individuals and maintain their dignity culminates in an adventurous escape.

Once a sharp, strong-willed and independent woman, Roher's grandmother's life took an unexpected turn when an accident left her with a brain injury, leading to early onset dementia. An unlikely protagonist, grandma was an elderly woman trapped by her deteriorating mind, aging body and the walls around her. This story illuminates the often overlooked narrative of a senior, her complicated history and inner life. Loveable and tragic, she is determined to get back to a familiar place, to be home again.

Poet and novelist Hiromi Go to effortlessly blends wry, observational slice-of-life literary fiction with poetic magical realism in the tender and surprising graphic novel Shadow Life, with haunting art from debut artist Ann Xu. When Kumiko's well-meaning adult daughters place her in an assisted living home, the seventy-six-year-old widow gives it a try, but it's not where she wants to be. She goes on the lam and finds a cozy bachelor apartment, keeping the location secret even while communicating online with her eldest daughter. Kumiko revels in the small, daily pleasures: decorating as she pleases, eating what she wants, and swimming in the community pool. But something has followed her from her former residence--Death's shadow. Kumiko's sweet life is shattered when Death's shadow swoops in to collect her. With her quick mind and sense of humor, Kumiko, with the help of friends new and old, is prepared for the fight of her life. But how long can an old woman thwart fate?

"Alice was always beautiful--Armenian immigrant beautiful, with thick, curly black hair, olive skin, and big dark eyes," writes Dana Walrath. Alice also has Alzheimer's, and while she can remember all the songs from The Music Man, she can no longer attend to the basics of caring for herself. Alice moves to live with her daughter, Dana, in Vermont, and the story begins. Aliceheimer's is a series of illustrated vignettes, daily glimpses into their world with Alzheimer's. Walrath's time with her mother was marked by humor and clarity: "With a community of help that included pirates, good neighbors, a cast of characters from space-time travel, and my dead father hovering in the branches of the maple trees that surround our Vermont farmhouse, Aliceheimer's let us write our own story daily--a story that, in turn, helps rewrite the dominant medical narrative of aging." In drawing Alice, Walrath literally enrobes her with cut-up pages from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. She weaves elements from Lewis Carroll's classic throughout her text, using evocative phrases from the novel to introduce the vignettes, such as "Disappearing Alice," "Missing Pieces," "Falling Slowly," "Curiouser and Curiouser," and "A Mad Tea Party." Walrath writes that creating this book allowed her not only to process her grief over her mother's dementia, but also "to remember the magic laughter of that time." Graphic medicine, she writes, "lets us better understand those who are hurting, feel their stories, and redraw and renegotiate those social boundaries. Most of all, it gives us a way to heal and to fly over the world as Alice does." In the end, Aliceheimer's is indeed strangely and utterly uplifting.

In this powerful memoir the the LA Times calls "moving, rigorous, and heartbreaking," Sarah Leavitt reveals how Alzheimer's disease transformed her mother, Midge, and her family forever. In spare blackand- white drawings and clear, candid prose, Sarah shares her family's journey through a harrowing range of emotions--shock, denial, hope, anger, frustration--all the while learning to cope, and managing to find moments of happiness. Midge, a Harvard educated intellectual, struggles to comprehend the simplest words; Sarah's father, Rob, slowly adapts to his new role as full-time caretaker, but still finds time for wordplay and poetry with his wife; Sarah and her sister Hannah argue, laugh, and grieve together as they join forces to help Midge. Tangles confronts the complexity of Alzheimer's disease, and ultimately releases a knot of memories and dreams to reveal a bond between a mother and a daughter that will never come apart.

Laughter and pain, love and loss "Stories told in comic strips aren't generally intended to be book-length narratives, but, on occasion, a story rises above the rest of the work and marks itself as something special. [Roses in December] is one of those stories." - from the Preface Since its debut in 1987, Crankshaft has engendered reader loyalty and affection with its wry wit, engaging storylines, and identifiable characters. Created by Tom Batiuk and drawn by Chuck Ayers, the strip offers plenty of humor but also tackles serious issues like adult literacy, school violence, and the challenges of aging. Roses in December is a touching collection of two Crankshaft storylines of characters who find themselves dealing with the incurable condition of Alzheimer's disease. First, Ed Crankshaft's best friend Ralph is confronted with the trauma of his wife Helen's worsening Alzheimer's. He never knows if the love of his life will recognize him on those days that he visits her at Sunny Days Nursing Home. Ralph and Helen's love story unfolds with humor and heartbreak. In the second story arc, Crankshaft's neighbor Lucy McKenzie also exhibits symptoms of Alzheimer's and eventually is moved to Sunny Days Nursing Home by her sister Lillian. The fourteen-year struggles of Lucy, Helen, and their loved ones are elegantly told, preserving their dignity and reminding us that sometimes a sense of humor can be our greatest possession during life's trials. Through the deceptively simple medium of the daily comic strip, Tom Batiuk and Chuck Ayers address the profound effects of Alzheimer's disease in a thoughtful and occasionally humorous way. Roses in December includes a resource guide for caregivers, patients, and practitioners.

In Night Bus, a young woman wearing round glasses finds herself on an adventurous late night bus ride that constantly makes detours through increasingly fantastical landscapes. Meanwhile a young cartoonist returns home after art school and tries his hand at becoming a working artist while watching over his aging grandmother whose memory is deteriorating. Nostalgic leaps take us to an elementary school gymnasium that slowly morphs into a swamp and is raided by a giant catfish. Beetles, salamanders, and bug-eyed fish intrude upon the bus ride of the round-glasses woman as the night stretches on.Night Bus blends autobiography, horror, and fantasy into a vibrantly detailed surreal world that shows a distinct talent surveying his past. Nature infringes upon the man-made world via gigantism and explosive abundance-the images in Night Bus are often unsettling, not aimed to horrify, but to upset the balance of modern life. Zuo Ma is part of a burgeoning Chinese art comics scene that pushes emotion to the forefront of the story while playing with action and dreams.

When Lisa discovers a hidden door to an abandoned hut in her friend's backyard, her imagination runs wild with thoughts of the stories it could hold. But strange sounds and faces in the shadows give Lisa the feeling that there is more to the hut than meets the eye, especially when Great Aunt Hannah tells her about one of its previous inhabitants - the mysterious Lacemaker... Lisa quickly discovers that the Lacemaker isn't the only mystery to be solved. Great Aunt Hannah has a secret of her own, and like the criss-crossing of threads her past is tied up with the Lacemaker. Vividly reimagined in graphic form for a new generation, follow Lisa as she confronts the Lacemaker to put right the secrets of the past, and is helped to understand her own Asperger Syndrome along the way.

The last decade has seen autism become a topic of conversation the world over. Knowing no racial, ethnic or social barriers, today the complex neurological disorder is diagnosed in one in every 150 children, with boys four times more likely to be autistic than girls. Known as a spectrum disorder, autism manifests itself differently in every diagnosis. From social deficits to behavioral difficulties and language delays, the severity of autism varies greatly from person to person. The unique nature of how autism affects individuals makes the disorder a challenge for those who have it, have children with it or work with those living with the diagnosis. Art has long been an outlet used by some individuals with autism to express themselves in instances where words do not work, or cannot be made to. Drawing Autism gathers together the artwork of individuals from across the autistic spectrum, providing positive, inspiring insights into how art allows people on the spectrum to express themselves.

Born during the sunrise - an auspicious beginning - the Azumas' newborn son is named Hikaru, which means "light". But during one play date, his mother notices that her son is slightly different from the other children. In the alternately heartwarming and bittersweet tale, a young mother tries to cope with both the overwhelming discovery of her child's autism and the trials of raising him while keeping her family together. This is a story that resonates not only for those whose families have been affected by autism, but also for all past, present, and future parents.

'Come to bed with me?' 'Huh? No, I'd rather read this book about cancer...' As soon as Bob was diagnosed with aggressive prostate cancer, he and his wife Elizabeth started making cancer jokes to take the edge off of an otherwise frightening situation. A lot of those jokes were about sex. Here, textile artist Elizabeth Shefrin has picked up a needle and thread to share those intimate jokes, revealing how they helped her and her husband to process the realities of cancer treatment. Giving lightness and humour to a rarely discussed topic, this unpretentious and wry embroidered comic will create awareness and discourse around a taboo topic, resonating with others in similar situations and reassuring us that it's ok to laugh.

"Truly moving. Hayden has created a heartfelt and often hilarious tribute to her life-and to the resilience of women everywhere." - Publishers Weekly (starred review) "Heartbreaking and riveting, Jennifer Hayden's caustic, sarcastic wit streams through her quirky drawings, unfolding a survivor's tale and so much more. The Story of My Tits takes us from her flat-chested adolescence to small-boobed acceptance, then loss - until the dramatic reconstruction of Jennifer herself." - Marisa Acocella Marchetto, author of Cancer Vixen and Ann Tenna "The pacing of her storytelling is seamless... Hayden's memoir will resonate with anyone who has suffered loss and gone on to tell the tale." -- Booklist Named one of Library Journal's BEST BOOKS OF 2015! A landmark work of graphic memoir and a cancer narrative that Gabrielle Bell (Lucky and Cecil & Jordan in New York) calls, "comforting, straightforward and strongly connected to life." When Jennifer Hayden was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 43, she realized that her tits told a story. Across a lifetime, they'd held so many meanings- hope and fear, pride and embarrassment, life and death. And then they were gone. Now, their story has become a way of understanding her story. For everyone who's faced cancer personally, or watched a loved one fight that battle, Hayden's story is a much-needed breath of fresh air, an irresistible blend of sweetness and skepticism. Rich with both symbolism and humor, The Story of My Tits will leave you laughing, weeping, and feeling grateful for every day.

"Harrowing, hilarious, humbling, triumphant." -Lawrence Weschler, author of Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder "Relatively Indolent is a work of tremendous courage, talent and zeal, that turns the most difficult experience life can offer into a beautiful, evocative, and even humorous journal that anyone with cancer or without can understand. It cements my faith that in times of pain, not only is art the best answer, it's the only answer." -Paul Hoffman, bestselling author of The Man Who Loved Only Numbers From October 3 to November 28, 2012, Matt Freedman underwent radiation and chemotherapy at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, for treatment of Adenoid Cystic Carcinoma, a rare cancer that had spread from his tongue to his neck to his lungs by the time it was discovered. This is the journal he kept during that time, his 35-day course of treatment.

Each year, approximately 1.5 million people in the United States and Canada are diagnosed with cancer. This is one family's story. When Brian Fies's mother was diagnosed with metastatic lung cancer, he and his two sisters struggled with the effects of her illness and her ongoing recovery from treatment. Brian processed the experience in his journal, which took the form of words and pictures. The story that came to be known as Mom's Cancer first gained notice on the internet. It was posted anonymously, with the intention of sharing information and insights gained from his family's experience. Word of Brain's website spread, until it found its way to Abrams and, ultimately, a book contract. Since then his story has been nominated for the comic book industry's highest honour; an Eisner Award for Best Digital Comic, which is a category that was created with his work in mind.

It was they year of Desert Storm that Harvey Pekar and his wife, Joyce Brabner, discovered Harvey had cancer. Pekar, a man who has made a profession of chronicling the Kafkaesque absurdities of an ordinary life (if any life is ordinary) suddenly found himself incapacitated. But he had a better-than-average chance to beat cancer and he took it -- kicking, screaming, and complaining all the way. Pekar and Brabner draw on this and other trials to paint a portrait of a man beset with fears real and imagined -- who survives.

Aneurin (Nye) Wright hasn't been on good terms with his father for a long time. When he receives a call on his birthday from his father, Neil, he isn't quite sure how to react. Neil has been diagnosed with emphysema and is "certified for hospice," a six-month death sentence. He needs help. Newly unemployed, Nye is free to move into the trailer park where his father lives and assume the role of caregiver. Neither Nye nor Neil is particularly enthralled by the situation. Things to Do in a Retirement Home Trailer Park documents Nye's reconciliation with his father as he cares for him in hospice. Their daily schedule of pill counting and medical checks unfolds in an extraordinary world where the protagonist is a minotaur and his father a rhinoceros, social workers are sea turtles, and mobile homes move atop gigantic elephants. Curious neighbors and medical and social care workers--whether man or beast--become their friends, and the family comes together once more. Nye and his father become more intimate as they reveal more and more of their emotions to each other. As the old man battles against emphysema, his shortness of breath becomes more evident until his speech bubbles, previously charged with pithy comment, are mostly filled with pauses. Graphic artist Aneurin Wright's unforgettable debut is a universal tale of love and loss told in a wholly original way.

On Mother's Day 2001, Henny Beaumont gave birth to her third daughter, Beth. For the first four hours of Beth's life, she seemed no different from Henny's two other little girls. But when the doctor told Henny and her husband that their daughter might have Down syndrome, Henny thought that her life was over. How would she be able to look after this baby, who required corrective heart surgery and an overwhelming amount of care, and manage her other two children at the same time? Why did she hold such intense feelings of disappointment, resentment, and sadness toward this weak and vulnerable baby? Henny wondered if she would even be able to love her daughter. And if Henny couldn't trust her own feelings about Beth, how could she expect other people to overcome their prejudices and ignorance about Beth's condition? Hole in the Heart is a moving and refreshingly honest look at raising a child with special needs. Henny doesn't shy away from the complicated emotions and challenges that affected her and her family. But her story also shows that fear can be the greatest of these challenges--and the most rewarding to overcome. Henny and Beth's journey speaks not only to parents of children with special needs and the medical and care professionals they interact with, but to all parents who wonder whether their child is loved enough and is reaching his or her potential. A raw, visually gripping memoir, Hole in the Heart shows how Down syndrome is only one piece of a family's story.

#1 New York Times Bestseller In her first memoir, Roz Chast brings her signature wit to the topic of aging parents. Spanning the last several years of their lives and told through four-color cartoons, family photos, and documents, and a narrative as rife with laughs as it is with tears, Chast's memoir is both comfort and comic relief for anyone experiencing the life-altering loss of elderly parents. When it came to her elderly mother and father, Roz held to the practices of denial, avoidance, and distraction. But when Elizabeth Chast climbed a ladder to locate an old souvenir from the "crazy closet"-with predictable results-the tools that had served Roz well through her parents' seventies, eighties, and into their early nineties could no longer be deployed. While the particulars are Chast-ian in their idiosyncrasies-an anxious father who had relied heavily on his wife for stability as he slipped into dementia and a former assistant principal mother whose overbearing personality had sidelined Roz for decades-the themes are universal: adult children accepting a parental role; aging and unstable parents leaving a family home for an institution; dealing with uncomfortable physical intimacies; managing logistics; and hiring strangers to provide the most personal care. An amazing portrait of two lives at their end and an only child coping as best she can, Can't We Talk about Something More Pleasant will show the full range of Roz Chast's talent as cartoonist and storyteller.

In her graphic memoirs, New York Times-best selling cartoonist Lucy Knisley paints a warts-and-all portrait of contemporary, twentysomething womanhood, like writer Lena Dunham (Girls). In the next installment of her graphic travelogue series, Displacement, Knisley volunteers to watch over her ailing grandparents on a cruise. (The bookâe(tm)s watercolors evoke the ocean that surrounds them.) In a book that is part graphic memoir, part travelogue, and part family history, Knisley not only tries to connect with her grandparents, but to reconcile their younger and older selves. She is aided in her quest by her grandfatherâe(tm)s WWII memoir, which is excerpted. Readers will identify with Knisleyâe(tm)s frustration, her fears, her compassion, and her attempts to come to terms with mortality, as she copes with the stress of travel complicated by her grandparentsâe(tm) frailty.

Yukie Sakai is a sprightly young home health aide eager to help her elderly clients. But what seems like a straightforward job quickly turns into a series of increasingly surreal and bizarre adventures that put Yukie's wits to the test! Cartoonist Kago, who is well known for combining a more traditional manga style with hyper realistic illustration technique, an experimental visual storytelling approach, and outrageously sexual and scatological subject matter, has single-handedly created his own genre: 'fashionable paranoia.'

A graphic memoir of eating disorders, abuse andrecovery. 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 behavior might soon shade into something sinister, something deadly. One day you can find yourself being told you have two weeks to live. 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 weak, and an inspiration to anybody who believes in the human power to endure towards happiness.

As a young artist living in Portland, Lacy Davis's eating disorder began with the germ of an idea: a seed of a thought that told her she just wasn't good enough. And like ink in water, that idea spread until it reached every corner of her being. This is the true story of Lacy's journey into the self-destructive world of multiple eating disorders. It starts with a young and positive Lacy, trying to grapple with our culture's body-image obsession and stay true to her riot grrrl roots. And while she initially succeeds in overcoming a nagging rumination about her body, a breakup with a recovering addict starts her on a collision course with anorexia, health food obsession, and compulsive exercise addiction. At the request of her last real friend, she starts going to a twelve-step Overeaters Anonymous course, only to find that it conflicts with her punk feminist ideology. Blending bold humor, a healthy dose of self-deprecation, vulnerability, literary storytelling, and dynamic and provocative artwork by illustrator Jim Kettner, Ink in Water is an unflinching, brutally honest look into the author's mind: how she learned to take control of her damaging thoughts, redirect her perfectionism from self-destructive behaviors into writing and art, and how she committed herself to a life of health, strength, and nourishment.

"Every day, meal by meal, millions of people suffer from eating disorders. I am one of them." Nadia Shivack was fourteen years old when she met Ed, her eating disorder. Sometimes like an alien in her body, sometimes like a lover, Ed was unpredictable and exciting, but ultimately always dangerous and destructive. At an inpatient unit unit of a hospital where she was taken for treatment, Nadia wrote and drew on napkins after meals in order to keep the food in and calm the outrageous voices in her head. These pictures, together with others drawn on notebook paper and a variety of other surfaces, tell an unflinchingly honest story of a woman's lifelong battle with anorexia and bulimia. Raw, brave, and brilliant, Nadia's journey takes readers to the intimate corners of these misunderstood diseases. You will never think about eating disorders in the same way again.

Winner of the RenU Goscinny Prize! With Lucille, Ludovic Debeurme takes on the difficult world of adolescence, following the life of a young anorexic woman and the difficult relationships she has with others, who have significant problems of their own. Influenced by psychoanalysis and the exploration of dreams, Debeurme explores life and fantasies with elegant clean graphics and a profound love of the games of childhood.

In Tyranny, brisk, spare text and illustrations that deal head-on with anorexia propel the reader along on Anna’s journey as she falls prey to the eating disorder, personified as her tormentor, Tyranny. The novel starts with a single question: “How did I get here?” The answer lies in the pages that follow, and it’s far from simple. Pressured by media, friends, the workplace, personal relationships, and fashion trends, Anna descends into a seemingly unending cycle of misery. And whenever she tries to climb out of the abyss, her own personal demon, Tyranny, is there to push her back in. The contest seems uneven, and it might be except for one thing: Anna’s strength of character has given rise to her deadly enemy. Ironically, it is that same strength of character that has the ultimate power to save her from the ravages of Tyranny. Brilliantly and realistically presented, Tyranny is a must-read for anyone looking for a better understanding of eating disorders and for everyone looking for a compelling page-turner that is truly a story of triumph and hope.

Part poignant cancer memoir and part humorous reflection on a motherless life, this debut graphic novel is extraordinarily comforting and engaging. Part poignant cancer memoir and part humorous reflection on a motherless life, this debut graphic novel is extraordinarily comforting and engaging. From before her mother's first oncology appointment through the stages of her cancer to the funeral, sitting shiva, and afterward, when she must try to make sense of her life as a motherless daughter, Tyler Feder tells her story in this graphic novel that is full of piercing--but also often funny--details. She shares the important post-death firsts, such as celebrating holidays without her mom, the utter despair of cleaning out her mom's closet, ending old traditions and starting new ones, and the sting of having the "I've got to tell Mom about this" instinct and not being able to act on it. This memoir, bracingly candid and sweetly humorous, is for anyone struggling with loss who just wants someone to get it.

When Kristen Radtke was in college, the sudden death of a beloved uncle and the sight of an abandoned mining town after his funeral marked the beginning moments of a lifelong fascination with ruins and with people and places left behind. Over time, this fascination deepened until it triggered a journey around the world in search of ruined places. Now, in this genre-smashing graphic memoir, she leads us through deserted cities in the American Midwest, an Icelandic town buried in volcanic ash, islands in the Philippines, New York City, and the delicate passageways of the human heart. Along the way, we learn about her family and a rare genetic heart disease that has been passed down through generations, and revisit tragic events in America's past. A narrative that is at once narrative and factual, historical and personal, Radtke's stunning illustrations and piercing text never shy away from the big questions: Why are we here, and what will we leave behind?

With his clean, distinctive art style and poignant storytelling, up-and-coming indie comics sensation Paul Hornschemeier has earned comparisons to and accolades from today's top graphic novelists. Mother, Come Home is Hornschemeier's graphic novel debut-the quietly stunning tale of a father and son struggling, by varying degrees of escapism and fantasy, to come to terms with the death of the family's mother. The story seamlessly weaves through the surreal and the painfully factual, guided by the careful, somber colors and inventive pacing unique to Hornschmeier's storytelling.

Assembled from work done in Anders Nilsen's sketchbooks over the course of the year following the death of his fiancee in 2005, The End is a collection of short strips about loss, paralysis, waiting, and transformation. It is a concept album in different styles, a meditation on paying attention, an abstracted autobiography and a travelogue, reflecting the progress of his struggle to reconcile the great upheaval of a death, and finding a new life on the other side. The book blends Nilsen's disparate styles, from the iconic simplicity and collaged drawings of his Monologues for the Coming Plague to the finely rendered Big Questions.

Milo is twelve. The summer after his parents were involved in a fatal accident, Milo's struggle with grief threatens to overwhelm him. He sees death everywhere. When a missing girl is found drowned, Milo thinks that seeing her will finally lift the veil of the great unknown. A moving parable in comic form, this unflinching coming-of-age story is the American debut of one of Europe's finest young cartoonists. Bianca Bagnarelli was born in Milan, Italy. She is a graphic author and small press publisher. In 2010 Bagnarelli founded Delebile, which releases short comics by young artists.

In words and drawings both candid and human, Stan Mack follows his eighteen-year relationship with Janet Bode, a lighthearted fling that beat the odds to become an enduring love affair. The only thing they couldn't beat was cancer. As Janet and Stan confront the jagged terrain of cancer, then navigate the twilight of terminal illness, two portraits emerge: of a woman who faced her cancer the same way she lived her life, with guts and charm; and of the man who held her close and shared her struggle. For anyone who can't resist a beautifully told love story, for anyone who is touched by someone suffering from serious illness and looking for emotional and practical guidance, and for anyone who appreciates a life lived to the fullest, Janet & Me will resonate long after the last page is turned.

Nicola Streeten's little boy, Billy, was two years old when he died following heart surgery for problems diagnosed only 10 days earlier. 13 years later, able to finally revisit a diary written at the time, Streeten began translating her notes into a graphic novel. The result, a gut-wrenchingly sad retrospective reflection from a 'healed' perspective, is an unforgettable portrayal of human responses to trauma.

Madame...Sir...May we come in?' This was the prelude to some dreadful news in the Germonprez household. No parent should ever have to bury a child, especially not after a suicide. The chalk outline on the pavement is a constant reminder - even when it is no longer there. Linthout draws an almost tangible pain with his immediate, rudimentary art and strong script - combined with his own personal experience.'

You won't have to worry about going broke if you get sick.   We will start to bring the costs of health care under control.   And we will do all this while reducing the federal deficit.   That is the promise of the Affordable Care Act. But from the moment President Obama signed the bill into law in 2010, a steady and mounting avalanche of misinformation about the ACA has left a growing majority of Americans confused about what it is, why it's necessary, and how it works. If you're one of them, buy this book. From how to tame the twin threats of rising costs and the increasing number of uninsured to why an insurance mandate is good for your health, Health Care Reform dispels false fears by arming you with facts.

"Last year, he got our attention for his disturbingly brilliant graphic novel Monsters. . . . Gabby Schulz has gone on to create a similarly unnerving web comic series titled Sick."--Flavorwire The author of the perennial classic,Monsters(written as Ken Dahl), Gabby Schulz returns with a new graphic novel, Sick, which Hicksville author Dylan Horrocks calls "a punch in the face and well worth reading." Like Monsters, Sick focuses on health and social policy, this time expanding from the subject of STDs and their stigma to the larger, hot-button issue of national healthcare. Severely ill, uninsured, alone, and confined to his bed for weeks, Schulz was left searching--only to find himself. Sick documents his discovery in gory, glorious, water-colored detail, finally completed and collected here for the first time in a beautiful, album-sized hardcover edition. Since Monsters, Schulz has produced a host of online comics including SEXISM, a viral sensation written up everywhere from the Stranger to Scientific American. The web-serialized Sick was an Ignatz Award nominee for Outstanding Online Comic. His work has appeared on narrative.ly and BuzzFeed and in Arthur magazine. Gabby Schulz, sometimes known as Ken Dahl, grew up in Honolulu, Hawaii. His graphic novel, Monsters won two Ignatz Awards, was an Eisner Award nominee, and was a Best American Comics selection. His other works include the collection Welcome to the Dahl House and the web comic Sick, an Ignatz Award nominee for Outstanding Online Comic. Schulz currently resides in Chicago, Illinois.

Meet Dr. Iwan James: cyclist, doctor, would-be lover, former heavy metal fan, and, above all, human being. Weighed down by his responsibilities--from diagnosing personality disorders to deciding who can hold a gun license--he doubts his ability to make decisions about the lives of others when he may need more than a little help himself. Cartoonist and doctor Ian Williams introduces us to Iwan's troubled life as all humanity, it seems, passes through his surgery doors.

In 1994, at the height of the AIDS epidemic in the United States, MK Czerwiec took her first nursing job, at Illinois Masonic Medical Center in Chicago, as part of the caregiving staff of HIV/AIDS Care Unit 371. Taking Turns pulls back the curtain on life in the ward. A shining example of excellence in the treatment and care of patients, Unit 371 was a community for thousands of patients and families affected by HIV and AIDS and the people who cared for them. This graphic novel combines Czerwiec's memories with the oral histories of patients, family members, and staff. It depicts life and death in the ward, the ways the unit affected and informed those who passed through it, and how many look back on their time there today. Czerwiec joined Unit 371 at a pivotal time in the history of AIDS: deaths from the syndrome in the Midwest peaked in 1995 and then dropped drastically in the following years, with the release of antiretroviral protease inhibitors. This positive turn of events led to a decline in patient populations and, ultimately, to the closure of Unit 371. Czerwiec's restrained, inviting drawing style and carefully considered narrative examine individual, institutional, and community responses to the AIDS epidemic--as well as the role that art can play in the grieving process. Deeply personal yet made up of many voices, this history of daily life in a unique AIDS care unit is an open, honest look at suffering, grief, and hope among a community of medical professionals and patients at the heart of the epidemic.

Marcus Johnson has just been named star quarterback for the Marina High School Pirates. Former quarterback Brad Timmerman will do anything to depose this new rival and regain his position and popularity--including setting up Marcus with Maria Cruz, who is HIV positive. As secrets are exposed, this encounter will shake the halls of Marina High and change the lives of these students forever. AIDS in the End Zone approaches HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention through a compelling narrative with high school drama, the dangers of high-risk behaviors, and the benefits of public health resources. The graphic novella is the result of an innovative collaboration between editors Kendra S. Albright and Karen W. Gavigan, illustrator Sarah Petrulis, and the authors--students at the South Carolina Department of Juvenile Justice (SCDJJ). Albright and Gavigan began this project in response to research indicating that the graphic novel format is a highly successful educational tool for motivating young adults to read. They chose HIV/AIDS as their topic because South Carolina ranks eighth in the nation for new HIV cases, while the capital city of Columbia ranks sixth nationally among metropolitan areas. By working with teen students at the SCDJJ, Albright and Gavigan were able to develop characters, a storyline, setting, and dialog as a collaborative project--engaging the students in the public health subject matter as well as in the creative process. This project was funded in part by a grant from the Association for Library and Information Science Education.

Winner of the 2015 Lambda Literary Award for Best LGBT Graphic Novel A Village Voice Best Graphic Novel of 2014 The renowned graphic-book author Joyce Brabner's Second Avenue Caper is the true story of a tight-knit group of artists and activists living in New York City in the early 1980s who found themselves on the front lines in the fight against AIDS. Struggling to understand the disease and how they could help, they made a deal with a bona fide goodfella, donned masterful disguises, piled into an "A-Team" van, and set off for the border, determined to save their bedridden friends by smuggling an experimental drug into the United States from Mexico. With their community in crisis and the world turned against them, this impassioned gang of misfits never gave up hope as they searched for ways to raise awareness and beat the plague. Fast-paced, poignant, and beautifully illustrated by the award-winning illustrator Mark Zingarelli, Second Avenue Caper is a heartfelt tribute to the generation that faced down AIDS.

From one of Europe’s most celebrated young comics artists, a deeply personal story that will resonate with all of us who have chosen to love in the face of great challenges One summer night at a house party, Fred met Cati. Though they barely spoke, he vividly remembered her gracefulness and abandon. They meet again years later, and this time their connection is instantaneous. But when things become serious, a nervous Cati tells him that she and her three-year-old son are both HIV positive. With great beauty and economy, Peeters traces the development of their intimacy and their revelatory relationship with a doctor whose affection and frankness allow them to fully realize their passionate connection. Then Cati’s son gets sick, bringing Fred face to face with death. It forces him to question the meaning of life, illness, and love -- until a Socratic dialogue with a mammoth helps him recognize that living with illness is also a gift; it has freed him to savor his life with Cati. Like the best graphic memoirs, Blue Pills puts a daunting subject into artistic and human terms in a way that is refreshingly honest and profoundly accessible. A brave and unsentimental romance, Blue Pills will resonate with anyone whose love has faced great obstacles and triumphed.

Strip AIDS U.s.a.: A Collection of Cartoon Art to Benefit People with AIDS was published in 1988 by Last Gasp. It was created by three of the "last underground cartoonists" of the time.

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.

A story without words. A picture of everyday survival. It's getting dark early... The first book from Hannah Bradshaw, Dark Early is an artist's portrayal of depression, the allure of self-destruction, and the ability to recreate one's identity.

Psychiatric Tales draws on Darryl Cunningham's time working in a psychiatric ward to give a reasoned and sympathetic look into the world of mental illness. In each chapter, Cunningham explores a different mental health problem, using evocative imagery to describe the experience of mental illness, both from the point of view of those beset by illness and their friends and relatives. As Cunningham reveals this human experience, he also shows how society's perceptions of and reactions to mental illness perpetuate needless stigma, for example, the myth that schizophrenic people are more likely to commit crimes than non-schizophrenic people.Psychiatric Tales is a groundbreaking graphic work; it deftly demythologizes and destigmatizes the disorders that 26.2 percent of American adults live with every day. Concluding with a reflection on how mental illness has affected his own life, Darryl Cunningham'sPsychiatric Tales is a moving, engaging examination of what is, at its root, the human condition. Darryl Cunningham is the creator of the Web comicsSuper-Sam andJohn-of-the-Night andThe Streets of San Diablo. He is a prolific cartoonist, sculptor, and photographer, and lives in Leeds, England. This is his first book.

"The road to god knows..." is the story of Marie, a teenage girl coming to grips with her Mom's schizophrenia. There's no handbook, no guide to help her deal with what life throws at her. As a result, she's struggling to grow up fast; wrestling with poverty, loneliness, and her Mom's illness every step of the way. Betty, Marie's Mom, can't help; she's living with an illness that's slowly getting worse and increasingly frightening, and she just doesn't have the resources left over at the end of the day to help Marie. With her Mom absorbed in her own problems, Marie is essentially alone while she learns to deal with the chaos in her young life. Marie's youth makes it that much harder for her to cope as a teenager, she just doesn't have the life experience to feel confident about her decisions. At the start of the story, we see a scared young girl, uncertain and overwhelmed, but as Betty collapses into a full nervous breakdown, Marie is forced to examine herself and her life and come to a decision: does she continue to be a child, reacting to what¿s happening around her? Or does she take control of her life, come what may?

The Next Day is a ground-breaking graphic novel, constructed from interviews with survivors of near-fatal suicide attempts. In this poetic and profound philosophical exploration, illustrated by acclaimed small-press legend John Porcellino ("A master at miniature poignance," Entertainment Weekly), four diverse participants each answer the same key questions about life, the decision to end it, and what comes after...The Next Day is being simultaneously developed and released as a separate interactive animated on-line experience, co-produced by the prestigious National Film Board of Canada (recipient of 70 Academy Award nominations). It is an exciting new hybrid of documentary film, animation, comic book and interactive storytelling to release in May 2011.Praise for John Porcellino:"Porcellino creates some of the most thoughtful, intelligent, sympathetic & beautiful comix in America" (TIME)"A master at miniature poignance." (Entertainment Weekly)Praise for The Next Day:"The Next Day project doesn?t sugarcoat the difficulties required to face and overcome to get to those years; instead, it shows that others -- who may be very much like you -- have managed to get there." (School Library Journal's Adult Books 4 Teens blog)"As a rule, Open Book doesn?t post reviews or recommendations, but I am going to break that rule. If you are someone who is prone to moodiness, if you sometimes feel like life has kicked your ass so hard there?s no possible way you could ever recuperate, if you?ve ever felt so profoundly alone that, even for a moment, you questioned your own tangible existence -- in other words, if you're a human being -- I urge you to buy a copy of The Next Day. It is a sublimely beautiful, haunting and viscerally moving book." (Open Book Toronto)"The Next Day is intimate and accessible; it is compassionate, but unsentimental: the authors wisely don't try to suggest that everything will somehow be better in the morning. Most importantly, it may help those afflicted by mental illness realize they're not alone." (Quill and Quire)

Twenty-eight-year-old Nao Brown, who's hafu (half Japanese, half English), is not well. She's suffering from obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and fighting violent urges to harm other people. But that's not who she really wants to be. Nao has dreams. She wants to quiet her unruly mind; she wants to get her design and illustration career off the ground; and she wants to find love, perfect love. Nao's life continues to seesaw. Her boyfriend dumps her; a toy deal falls through. But she also meets Gregory, an interesting washing-machine repairman, and Ray, an art teacher at the Buddhist Center. She begins to draw and meditate to ease her mind and open her heart--and in doing so comes to a big realization: Life isn't black-and-white after all . . . it's much more like brown. Praise for The Nao of Brown: "Lushly rendered, passionately digressive" --The New York Times "Dillon turns in a narrative tour de force, featuring a script that works in perfect concert with almost cinematic art reminiscent of Milo Manara, but with far more expressive characters. A triumph of comics for grownups, this is a must-read." --Publishers Weekly, starred review "The art in The Nao of Brown is absolutely gorgeous . . . An intense story about a young woman who fights as hard to get out of her own head as some superheroes fight to save the world." --The Onion's A.V. Club "This was the best read I have had in a long time." --Scott Stantis, cartoonist for the Chicago Tribune "Dillon makes his grand return in what can only be described as a visual spectacle." --The Beat "Amazing artwork; a truly novelistic piece of storytelling, full of wisdom and compassion; and a book which is a beautiful artifact, a treat for those of a bibliophilic inclination." --Comic Book Resources "The battles are internal, but no less monumental for all of that. Such inner wars made Sandman a classic, and I have no doubt that Dillon's graphic novel will likewise be regarded as a seminal work in comic art." --The Houston Press Art Attack blog "Psychologically complex and surprising." --Paste Magazine "It's a masterpiece, and I really can't recommend it enough." --Comic Book Resources "Penciled and watercolored by hand, the pages glow with a lush realism, even in their darkest moments. The ever present motif of red can either anchor or engulf the reader, but always provides a vibrant glimpse into Nao's life." --Asian Fortune News  

At age 8 in 1985, Tyler was among the first generation of kids diagnosed with ADD and prescribed Ritalin. He would go on to take it almost every day for 8 years until it seemed like he had outgrown his ADD. He didn't give it much thought until many years later when he started having trouble again, and more importantly, started a family. What happens if his kids have the same problems at school he did? Would he give them medication like his parents had given him? Would it help? Did it help him? 'Raised on Ritalin' uses Tyler's firsthand experience of growing up with ADD and being treated with Ritalin (including his own medical records) to look at the disorder and the world surrounding it from many angles (personal, historical, scientific). This is a chance for readers to experience what it is like to be diagnosed and treated for ADD and ADHD and all of the questions and issues that can raise.

Not to worry, a book on anxiety is finally here! A clever antidote to everyday angst, this illustrated book captures universal truths and comforting revelations about being human. Artist Catherine Lepage uses her wry humour to help us see that thinly sliced and illustrated, emotions are much easier to digest.

In 1996 the artist Bobby Baker was diagnosed as having borderline personality disorder. Her subsequent struggle to overcome severe mental and later physical illness lasted for 11 years, and was unknown to anyone outside her close family, friends and colleagues. The 158 drawings and watercolours in this book, selected by Bobby from the hundreds more that she created daily as a private way of coming to terms with her experience, are an astonishing record of her slow and harrowing journey to eventual recovery. Moving, startling, shocking and hilarious in turn, these diary drawings reveal the stark realities of living with mental illness and of society's lack of understanding. With an introductory essay by Marina Warner, and essays by Bobby and by her daughter Dora Whittuck, a qualified clinical psychologist, this book is a rich and rewarding visual experience and a fascinating insight into the interplay between art, mental health and society.

How do you know if you're on the verge of a nervous breakdown? For seventeen-year-old Stacy Black, it all begins with the smashing of a window. After putting her fist through the glass, she checks into a mental hospital. Stacy hates it there but despite herself slowly realizes she has to face the reasons for her depression to stop from self-destructing. Based on the author's experiences,How I Made it to Eighteen is a frank portrait of what it's like to struggle with self-esteem, body image issues, drug addiction, and anxiety. How I Made It to Eighteen is a 2011 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year.

In the tradition of the acclaimed graphic memoirs Fun Home and Persepolis, Phoebe Potts's Good Eggs is a funny, insightful, and deeply moving book about learning to appreciate what we have...even when we can't seem to get what we want. In Good Eggs, Phoebe's quest to conceive a baby forces her to come to terms with her lapsed Judaism, her aspirations as an artist, her neurotic family, and her depression--happily, all with the support of her true loving husband. Potts's clever, charming, and wonderfully detailed graphic novel evokes the intimacy of Alison Bechdel and the humor of New Yorker cartoonist Roz Chast.

First pregnancy can be a fraught, uncomfortable experience for any woman, but for resolutely butch lesbian Teek Thomasson, it is exceptionally challenging: Teek identifies as a masculine woman in a world bent on associating pregnancy with a cult of uber-femininity. Teek wonders, "Can butches even get pregnant?" Of course, as she and her pragmatic femme girlfriend Vee discover, they can. But what happens when they do? Written and illustrated by A.K. Summers, and based on her own pregnancy,Pregnant Butch strives to depict this increasingly common, but still underrepresented experience of queer pregnancy with humor and complexity--from the question of whether suspenders count as legitimate maternity wear to the strains created by different views of pregnancy within a couple and finally to a culturally critical and compassionate interrogation of gender in pregnancy. Offering smart, ambitious art, this graphic memoir is a must-read for would-be pregnant butches and anyone interested in the intersection of birth and gender, as well as a perfect queer baby shower gift and conversation starter for those who always assumed they "got" being pregnant.

A visually gripping graphic memoir, this book delivers the gritty details of a mother, a newborn, and a five-month stay in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). A routine prenatal exam reveals a dangerous problem and the first-time parents find themselves thrust into a world of close calls, sleepless nights, and psychological crisis. Surrounded by disagreements, deaths, extended family tensions, and questions of faith, the mother struggles to maintain a positive frame of mind. Against the antiseptic, mechanical reality of the NICU, the dedicated health professionals are drawn as sympathetic and wry animal characters. Doctor Eyes and Nurse Gentlehands are two of the care providers that do all they can to take care of Baby Asa. At times the parents battle feelings of helplessness but their determination, insight, bravery, and connection ultimately helps keep their little one alive.

Not Funny Ha-Ha is a bold, slightly wry graphic novel illustrating the lives of two young women from different cultural, family, and financial backgrounds who go through two different abortions (medical and surgical). It follows them through the process of choosing a clinic, reaching out to friends, partners, and/or family, and eventually the procedure(s) itself. It simply shows what happens when a woman goes through it, no questions asked. Despite the fact that so many women and girls have abortions every day, in every city, all around us, it can be a lonely experience. Not Funny Ha-Ha is a little bit technical, a little bit moving, and often funny, in a format uniquely suited to communicate. The book is meant to be a non-judgmental, comforting, even humorous look at what a woman can go through during an abortion. Although the subject matter is heavy, the illustrations are light. The author takes a step back from putting forth any personal opinion whatsoever, simply laying out the events and possible emotional repercussions that could, and often do occur.

In the 1970s, best friends Polly and April collect hazy knowledge about the "facts of life"--sex, reproduction, and gender norms--through the gossip of older girls, magazines and books, and the everyday behavior of their families and teachers. What they learn reinforces their assumption that they will grow up to become mothers. As the years pass, they each choose paths that they believe will enable them to "have it all." April's dreams of motherhood come true before too long, but as Polly enthusiastically builds a career, her desire and hope to start a family become less firmly ingrained. Her struggles with chronic illness also have an effect on her choices and relationships, and she wonders whether motherhood will be in the cards for her at all. Soon she meets Jack, and together they start a fraught journey, first debating whether parenthood is right for them and then facing the heartbreak of repeated miscarriages and the effects of illness on their ability to have a child. Through it all, Polly is forced to reexamine what family can mean in a society that so often associates family--and womanhood--with children. Beautifully drawn and poignantly honest, The Facts of Life is a funny, sometimes painful graphic memoir that explores what it takes to be a woman, a partner, and a mother . . . or not.

A deeply moving tragicomic graphic memoir about a single woman's efforts to conceive in her forties.A few months after Myriam Steinberg turned forty, she decided she couldn't wait any longer to become a mother. She made the difficult decision to begin the process of conceiving a child without a partner. With her family and friends to support her, she picked a sperm donor and was on her way.But Myriam's journey was far from straightforward. She experienced the soaring highs and devastating lows of becoming pregnant and then losing her babies. She grappled with the best decision to make when choosing donors or opting for a medical procedure. She experienced first-hand the silences, loneliness, and taboos that come with experiences of fetal loss. Unafraid to publicize her experiences, though, she found that, in return, friends and strangers alike started sharing their own fertility stories with her. Although the lack of understanding and language around fetal loss and grief often made it very hard to navigate everyday life, she nonetheless found solace in the community around her who rallied to support her through her journey.Through it all, Myriam remained hopeful and here she unflinchingly shares her story with wry humour, honesty, and courage. Beautifully illustrated by Christache, Catalogue Baby is one woman's story of tragedy and beating the odds, and is a resource for all women and couples who are trying to conceive. Catalogue Baby is a compassionate portrait of fertility and infertility that hasn't been seen before.

"If you work hard enough, if you want it enough, if you're smart and talented and "good enough," you can do anything. Except get pregnant. Her whole life, Lucy Knisley wanted to be a mother. But when it was finally the perfect time, conceiving turned out to be harder than anything she'd ever attempted. Fertility problems were followed by miscarriages, and her eventual successful pregnancy plagued by health issues, up to a dramatic, near-death experience during labor and delivery. This moving, hilarious, and surprisingly informative memoir not only follows Lucy's personal transition into motherhood but also illustrates the history and science of reproductive health from all angles, including curious facts and inspiring (and notorious) figures in medicine and midwifery.

As teenagers today navigate increasingly fluid identities and choices, there is a demand for an accessible, interactive tool to help share knowledge about sex and sexual health; one that demystifies the facts and speaks frankly about experiences whose lessons often fall into the grey areas. Since 2008, Miller and Bley have held an open call for young people to create comics that address a variety of topics involved with sex education. We have since produced several issues of a sex-ed comic calledNot Your Mother's Meatloaf. The work is chosen from a vastly varied group of submissions and attempts to challenge hetero and gender normative practices in sex education. The comics address topics like body image, safer sex, consent, and relationships, from positions that have historically been left out of sex education. These graphically illustrated personal narratives address different themes, such as "Firsts," "Bodies," "Health," "Age," and "Endings." The book will bring together the best of the material from theNot Your Mother's Meatloaf comics, along with new graphic stories and writing by the editors providing personal and sociological background.

'Queer: A Graphic History Could Totally Change the Way You Think About Sex and Gender' Vice Activist-academic Meg-John Barker and cartoonist Julia Scheele illuminate the histories of queer thought and LGBTQ+ action in this groundbreaking non-fiction graphic novel. From identity politics and gender roles to privilege and exclusion, Queer explores how we came to view sex, gender and sexuality in the ways that we do; how these ideas gettangled up with our culture and our understanding of biology, psychology and sexology; and how these views have been disputed and challenged. Along the way we look at key landmarks which shift our perspective of what's 'normal' - Alfred Kinsey's view of sexuality as a spectrum, Judith Butler's view of gendered behaviour as a performance, the play Wicked, or moments in Casino Royale when we're invited to view James Bond with the kind of desiring gaze usually directed at female bodies in mainstream media. Presented in a brilliantly engaging and witty style, this is a unique portrait of the universe of queer thinking.

Gabby Schulz, otherwise known as Ken Dahl, cemented his status among the best cartoonists of his generation with Monsters. The multiple Ignatz Award–winning and Eisner Award–nominated graphic novel returns to print in a larger format with a deluxe, stitched binding. Part autobiography, part deranged educational film strip, Monsters is a brutally honest, frankly hilarious account of life with herpes.

Is what I'm feeling normal? Is what my body is doing normal? Am I normal? How do I know what are the right choices to make? How do I know how to behave? How do I fix it when I make a mistake? Let's talk about it. An inclusive, accessible and honest graphic novel guide to growing up, from gender and sexuality to consent and safe sex. Perfect reading for Pride Month and for any teen starting to ask...Is what I'm feeling normal? Is what my body is doing normal? Am I normal? How do I know what are the right choices to make? How do I fix it when I make a mistake? Let's talk about it. Growing up is complicated. How do you find the answers to all the questions you have about yourself, about your identity, and about your body? Let's Talk About It provides a comprehensive, thoughtful, well-researched graphic novel guide to everything you need to know but might not know how to talk about. Covering relationships, friendships, gender, sexuality, anatomy, body image, safe sex, sexting, jealousy, rejection, sex education, and more, this is the go-to handbook for every teen navigating adolescence, and the first in graphic novel form.

Answering questions such as 'how can I change my pain experience?', 'what is pain?', and 'how do nerves work?', this short research-based graphic book reveals just how strange pain is and explains how understanding it is often the key to relieving its effects. Studies show that understanding how pain is created and maintained by the nervous system can significantly lessen the pain you experience. The narrator in this original, gently humorous book explains pain in an easy-to-understand, engaging graphic format and reveals how to change the mind's habits to transform pain.

What is trauma? How does it change the way our brains work? And how can we overcome it? When something traumatic happens to us, we dissociate and our bodies shut down their normal processes. This unique comic explains the strange nature of trauma and how it confuses the brain and affects the body. With wonderful artwork, cat and mouse metaphors, essential scientific facts, and a healthy dose of wit, the narrator reveals how trauma resolution involves changing the body's physiology and describes techniques that can achieve this, including Trauma Releasing Exercises that allow the body to shake away tension, safely releasing deep muscular patterns of stress and trauma.

Mild-mannered Myriam is diagnosed with macular degeneration in her right eye, but that doesn't explain the strange things she's been seeing: children in bright red helmets dancing on the doctor's ceiling, exotic vines growing from her television set, and thousands of colored castles forming patterns on her kitchen walls. Her husband Fred is certain that Myriam's visions are a bunch of nonsense, and her family dismisses her odd observations as the results of old age and an addled mind. So when Myriam begins to notice something "off" about the house next door, she has only her own instincts to trust: can she tell the difference between a trick of the eyes and a real crime? The surreal lives side by side with the everyday in this graphic novel about life with Charles Bonnet syndrome, a condition in which a person with partial or severe blindness has complex, often bizarre hallucinations. Gareth Brookes's rich, artistic crayon drawings pull the reader into Myriam's vibrant and unnerving world, showing the frustration and fear that arise as a result of this unique condition--and the moments of unexpected beauty.

On a road outside Fallujah, an RPG blows apart a Humvee and upends the life of a former football star. As a medevac chopper swoops down, the wounded Guardsman hears "Not your time, bro. Not today," and his remarkable healing journey begins. Thousands of U.S. soldiers have suffered grievous wounds in Iraq, but only one of them is a Doonesbury character. The Long Road Home: One Step at a Time chronicles seven months of cutting-edge cartooning, during which B.D.-and readers of the strip-got an up-close schooling in a kind of personal transformation no one seeks. Deprived not only of leg but also his ubiquitous trademark helmet, B.D. survives first-response Baghdad triage, evacuation to Landstuhl's surgeon-rich environment, and visits by innumerable morale-boosting celebs, both red and blue in hue. He's awed in turn by morphine, take-no-guff nurses, his fellow amps, and his family, including the daughter who hand-delivers succor, one aspirin at a time. Transferred stateside to Walter Reed's Ward 57, B.D. is inspired by the wisdom of physiatrists, warmed by the dedicated ministrations of real-life fellow-amp heroes like Jim the Milkshake Man, and dazzled by high-tech prostheses that cost more than luxury cars. He's annoyed by his own bouts with self-pity, by the bedside awkwardness of friends more comfortable regarding his stump from e-mail distance, and by Zonk's unwavering commitment to supplementing his care with organic meds. As their journey continues, B.D. and Boopsie are cared for by Fisher House, a home-next-door-to-the-hospital for families whose lives revolve around therapy. B.D. finds himself painfully engaged in building his future, one sadistically difficult physical therapy session at a time. "To Lash, Helga, and the Marquis!" toast the band of differently limbed brethren, raising their glasses to their PT masters as they prepare for reentry into the ambulatory world. From rebuilding tissue to rebuilding social skills to rebuilding lives, B.D's inspiring, insightful, and darkly humorous story confirms that it can take a village, or at least a ward, to raise a soldier when he's gone down. "Thank you for getting blown up," offers one of B.D.'s visiting players. Replies the coach, "Just doing my job."

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.

Hailed by The Comics Journal as one of Europe’s most important and innovative comics artists, David B. has created a masterpiece in Epileptic, his stunning and emotionally resonant autobiography about growing up with an epileptic brother. Epileptic gathers together and makes available in English for the first time all six volumes of the internationally acclaimed graphic work. David B. was born Pierre-François Beauchard in a small town near Orléans, France. He spent an idyllic early childhood playing with the neighborhood kids and, along with his older brother, Jean-Christophe, ganging up on his little sister, Florence. But their lives changed abruptly when Jean-Christophe was struck with epilepsy at age eleven. In search of a cure, their parents dragged the family to acupuncturists and magnetic therapists, to mediums and macrobiotic communes. But every new cure ended in disappointment as Jean-Christophe, after brief periods of remission, would only get worse. Angry at his brother for abandoning him and at all the quacks who offered them false hope, Pierre-François learned to cope by drawing fantastically elaborate battle scenes, creating images that provide a fascinating window into his interior life. An honest and horrifying portrait of the disease and of the pain and fear it sowed in the family, Epileptic is also a moving depiction of one family’s intricate history. Through flashbacks, we are introduced to the stories of Pierre-François’s grandparents and we relive his grandfathers’ experiences in both World Wars. We follow Pierre-François through his childhood, adolescence, and adulthood, all the while charting his complicated relationship with his brother and Jean-Christophe”s losing battle with epilepsy. Illustrated with beautiful and striking black-and-white images, Epileptic is as astonishing, intimate, and heartbreaking as the best literary memoir.

While on her honeymoon, Joy Spencer was taken ill with a violent gastrointestinal episode. Her symptoms persisted long after she returned home, and she was eventually diagnosed with Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS). Chronically Me: Flushing Out My Life and Times With IBS, A Memoir in Comics, is the story of a woman struggling to live her life and find a cure, or at least some relief from this chronic and decades-long illness. Spencer puts this chronicle of her life with IBS in focus the best way she knows how - with cartoons.Through her wry look at clueless friends and relatives, at doctors with no answers and at treatments with no cures, Spencer hopes that others going through similar circumstances will find some recognition and a little laughter. This honest and funny memoir provides comic relief and comfort for anyone experiencing the frustrations of IBS, or other chronic illnesses.

Funny Misshapen Body is the story of Jeffrey Brown's evolution as a cartoonist, from his youthful obsession with superhero comics to his disillusionment with fine art at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Drawn with Brown's scratchy, spare, trademark style, Funny Misshapen Body resonates with true-to-life observations on love, fear, and ambition. Through his bare bones graphic style, he reveals his most embarrassing personal moments in raw, intimate detail -- including how he survived high school, binge drinking, mild drug experimentation, doomed friendships, and being diagnosed with Crohn's disease. Ultimately coming to terms with his art and identity, Brown describes the ups and downs of his adolescence with understated simplicity, dark humor, and charm.

Three autobiographical graphic novels. The stories in this collection contain Julia Wertz's signature acerbic wit, ribald humor, and keen eye for the everyday, but they also find the cartoonist delving more deeply into the personal. "Industry" catalogues 25 years of alternately terrible and terrific jobs. "A Strange and Curious Place" is a love letter to Wertz's hometown library. "The Infinite Wait,'" chronicles Wertz's move from her small hometown to San Francisco, her diagnosis with an incurable, auto-immune disease and her subsequent discovery of comics and comic making. Wertz details her struggles with Lupus a chronic disease that has 1.5 to 2 million patients in the United States alone. Wertz's honest portrayal of the disease and her diagnosis will appeal to those familiar with it, but also to anyone interested and inspired by an individual learning to deal with an illness and finding her life's work in the process