Sunflowers

Put simply, Sunflowers is an amazing comic, an autobiographical account of what it is like to being bipolar. It goes from hypomania to mania to a psychotic episode, telling a frank tale of what could happen and what it feels like. It then gets into how these conditions might be treated and ends with a bunch of resources for getting help. This book is terrifically brave, frank, and revealing, and I found it profoundly moving.

There have been excellent graphic novels that touch on similar areas, including ones by Ellen Forney and Daryl Cunningham, but what I feel sets this one apart is its accessibility. It is relatively short, in the form of  a mini-comic, inexpensive, and easy to share. Even in this day, I know that issues of mental health are often kept secret or not discussed, and the level of candor and honesty here are powerful and potentially very helpful to those in need of assistance. I don't think it's hyperbolic to say that this comic has great potential to save lives.

Sunflowers was created by Keezy Young. They prefer to draw short comics and graphic novels with  horror, supernatural, romance, LGBTQ+, and mental health themes. Their graphic novel work includes the forthcoming queer horror story Hello Sunshine and the award-winning supernatural romance Taproot. They speak about their career in comics in this in-depth interview. If you would like to read an interview specifically about Sunflowers, this one is great.

Sunflowers is a 2025 Eisner Award Nominee for Best Single Issue/One-Shot, and it has received many positive reviews. Chloe Horning wrote, "I appreciated the author’s commitment to depicting both the good and bad aspects of their disorder, while taking care not to romanticize those aspects that may seem appealing to someone on the outside looking in." Andy Oliver summed up, "Undoubtedly one of the finest comics to have come out from Silver Sprocket to date. And that is really saying something."

Sunflowers was published by Silver Sprocket, and they offer a preview and more information about it here. You can also read it for free from their website here. Trigger warning: this book deals with issues of mental health and potential self-harm.

Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo, & Me

Ellen Forney has been drawing comics for decades now, with autobiographical works such as Monkey Food, a more adult, nostalgic collection titled I Love Led Zeppelin, and a collaboration with author Sherman Alexie, the National Book Award-winning YA novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. She has also been a frequent contributor to "Seattle's Only Newspaper," The Stranger. She is a successful, productive artist, and for many years she has dealt with being bi-polar. This book is her personal account of dealing with that condition.

Marbles is funny, dark, troubling, hopeful, informative, and wonderful. Its narrative is powerfully presented in a multifaceted manner. It captures her hopes to be a productive artist and fears that if she seeks treatment she will become less inspired and less capable artistically. She fears that it will also leave her joyless and empty, so in very concrete ways this book explores the stereotype that artists have to be troubled, manic, and crazy people. The story also chronicles her relationships with her family, lovers, friends, and colleagues in intimate and complex ways. There are no easy answers in deciding about medications, treatments, or personal interactions.

Essential in this presentation is Forney's artwork, which combines sequential art and infographics in effective manner. She plays with layouts and format frequently, keeping her work fresh and the readers on  their toes. This book is super-informative but never boringly so and also very personal, with the emotion coming from her pacing and extremely expressive art. Forney captures her manic highs and depressive lows in like manner, and seeing insights from the life of a vital artist whose work I have been following for some while now impressed me greatly.

This graphic novel was included in many best of lists last year, and it has been very well reviewed in some high profile venues. The Los Angeles Times' David Ulin wrote that this book is "more than a survivor's story" and that "The best stuff here collapses the distance between reader and artist, either by stripping away distinguishing details or by opening the story to broader concerns." Entertainment Weekly's Melissa Maerz gave it an A and called it "proof that artists don't have to be tortured to be brilliant." The New York Times' Douglas Wolk was more measured, offering that it is "not exactly focused, but it’s mostly delightful."

Marbles is published by Penguin Books. There is a preview available at Amazon.

The book also has an official page with much information, reviews, and links to mental health resources.

I would recommend this book for more mature readers as it contains some explicit language, nudity, and drug use.