Thursday, October 13, 2011

Kinds of Blue

I was very excited this morning to find a package on my doorstep with this book in it.


It's an anthology of comics about depression put together by various artists. Many of the comics are put together by Karen Beilharz, who also heads up the project. I found out about it through facebook, when it was a project searching for public funding on the site Pozible. I had a look at some of the comics and really liked the honesty of them, and decided to donate to help get it off the ground.

The cover art is so beautiful and tangible, it makes you want to put your hands on it straight away! All of the graphics are awesome, but I especially like how easy it is to relate to the ideas put forward in the comics. I've never had depression, but have been close friends with many people who have. I know that it's a sucky disease that takes away your energy and ability to think straight and sleep properly and that sometimes it can be very hard to express how you are feeling or even want to do that with other people.

Beilharz says, 'The pieces in this collection are the product of some of our (Karen and her husband Ben) experiences and the experiences of some of my friends who have suffered similarly. Certain aspects of living with depression ... have not been covered here because we could not write about such things authentically. But instead of comprehensiveness, we have aimed for truthfulness - in what depression looks like, what depression feels like, and the small gestures, strategies and people that sometimes help.' (Introduction).

If that sounds like something you might want to read then head to this website where you can read the comics at no charge: http://hivemindedness.com/kindsofblue

1 comment:

  1. Or like their facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Kinds-of-Blue/223604047658972

    ReplyDelete