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Post-Concussion Comics

12/19/2016

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My post-partum depression comic
I've been looking through my 2016 work files, and I found this comic strip I wrote back in May.

I'd had big plans for my fifth year as an exhibitor at the Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo. I'd even written a comic strip that I thought would raise some eyebrows: a piece about my struggle with post-partum depression that I submitted to the Expo's annual Artbook.

Mental illness doesn't usually come up as a subject in the splashy, family-friendly Artbook, and I was looking forward to talkiing with Expo attendees about what made me choose that particular subject for that particular publication.

But none of that happened. Instead, after a long day, I closed the trunk of my mom's car - but I didn't notice that the trunk of her car sticks out about a foot further than the  trunk of my car. The trunk came down on my head, and I ended up with a mild concussion. I missed the Expo and most of the other stuff I had planned over the next few months. After about a month, though, I was able to write and draw, and since I was getting pretty bored of lying in bed with my eyes closed, I wrote this comic. Later, on one of the first days I risked venturing back into society, I brought this comic along to Calgary's first annual Panel One Comic Creators Fest in June.

When I read it now, I think:
1. Hm, that just goes to show what kind of a weird, rambly headspace I was in, when I wrote all that stuff.
2. Man, I should have been lying in the dark with my eyes closed, instead of writing that ridiculous comic!

Anyway, I just realized that somehow this comic never got posted. So, for all you readers who are interested in comics about concussions, and/or how I spent my summer vacation, here's my post-concussion comic.
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By the way, in case you're wondering: I think I was pretty lucky, as far as concussions go. I've heard a lot of people describing symptoms that persist for months and years after a bump on the head. In my case, things are definitely different than they were before, even now, eight months later. I get headaches I never used to - but they're not that bad. The good news is, concussions are being studied and treated with greater care than ever before, and so it seems hopeful that future sufferers may have better prospects for recovery.
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    sam hester

    I am a graphic recorder based in Calgary. I like local stories. I write comics when I have free time. And I leave eraser shavings everywhere I go.

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