Teo Degas' Books & Decks

This is a remarkable honest graphic memoir by graphic artist Ellen Forney. With Marbles we are given a free ticket, no restrictions, to Forney's life. We witness her sexual innuendos, mental states, family and friends relationships, and intellectual queries. We become part of her psychiatric treatment, mood swings, professional work, medication adjustments and side effects, and ways of coping with being a bipolar in the real world.

I found amazing how Forney is able to convey to the non-bipolar reader, or to anybody for that matter, how it felt in her head to be bipolar, which sort of images, mental pressure and mood state she had to endure. She is also brilliant, and very didactic, at translating scientific and pharmaceutical facts into easy to understand images. See, the effects on medications (pp. 182-185) or when are emotions out of control? (p. 15), just to mention two examples.

The illustration style changes depending on what she is narrating: it is vignetted with a predominance of black over white, and a bit chunky in style, when she narrates her visits to the psychiatrist, and some of the events happening in her daily and family life. On the contrary, the style changes dramatically, is freer, more fluid, expressive and creative, less "blocky", with a predominance of white over black, when she moves from the world out there to the world inside her. There also some pages where the text (no image) is the illustration. She also reproduces some of the images from her personal sketch notebook, in which she painted her self-portrait in depressive phases, which are very artistic, and very different from the rest. Forney is truly versatile.

The memoir is not only engaging and entertaining (I read it in a seating), but it is also full of good practical knowledge about bipolar disorder: what bipolar disorder is, different sub-types, treatment and medication applied, the effect on your brain and mood, Cognitive Behavioural Techniques, bibliography, the social stigma among other things.

Perhaps the most interesting part of her journey is related to her query about who she stands as an artist, whether her brilliance is due to the highs of her bipolar disorder, or not. She asks herself, "are bipolar disorder and creativity actually linked?", or "If I take meds to prevent my mood swings, am I choosing to be less creative?", and gives an honest answer - her answer. She examines the lives of man famous bipolar painters and writers to see if there was a connection between their work and their malaise, as well..