Jackie Feller – “Together We’re Unstoppable”:
The most profound of these adult themes for me was that of mental illness. I struggled to think of any comics that have dealt with the subject at all, much less in such an unflinching and mature manner. In an industry that so often uses metaphor to tackle heavy subjects- a literal transformation into a monster to represent anger issues being a prime example- I was both shocked and relieved to see mental illness presented so directly. There’s no metaphor here, something that’s true of the rest of the book as well. Masturbation represents masturbation, sexuality is just sexuality, and mental illness is right there on the page, unfiltered. This isn’t a subtle commentary hidden behind more bombastic fare, nor is it an over-the-top caricature of “madness.” It’s a simple, messy, human thing that affects these characters in a very real way. At times slightly uncomfortable to read, the struggle of dealing with mental illness is presented to us as the complex thing that it is, and it is a very necessary story to tell.