Psychiatric Tales: Eleven Graphic Stories About Mental Illness

Darryl Cunningham worked for a time at a psychiatric ward in England, so he knows whereof he speaks when it comes to portraying mental illness and the effect it has on those who suffer with it. Psychiatric Tales is based on the diary he kept during his time as a health care assistant. However, I must quibble with the subtitle — these aren’t stories so much as essays, points about how society treats psychiatric problems punctuated with case studies. That […]

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Rapunzel’s Revenge

Rapunzel’s Revenge is a twisted take on the fairy tale that sparkles with life, intelligence, wit, adventure, and just plain fun. For the first time, the story of a girl locked in a tower by an evil stepmother and her excessively long hair makes a certain amount of sense. Writers Shannon and Dean Hale give Rapunzel character and motivation — she’s active, making choices, instead of someone bad things are done to. Oh, there’s plenty of that, too, but she […]

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Freddie & Me

A Coming-of-Age (Bohemian) Rhapsody This autobiography is about how Mike Dawson loved the music of Freddie Mercury and moved from the United Kingdom to the United States as a child. As such, I expected Freddie & Me to address in some fashion these topics: Why Queen’s music was so appealing to him How the near-death revelation of Mercury’s homosexuality and his having AIDS affected him The culture clash between England and the U.S. I think those are basic questions most […]

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