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One cliché I’ve done my best to stay away from while writing about Erin’s illness is the common, Hollywood perception of mental illness as something that can be “beaten,” if the sufferer has enough willpower. I’m as guilty as any of romanticizing a fairly grim topic, but I’ve never liked the way fiction tends to present mental illness as a character flaw. Only a complete shitrag would tell a blind person to “suck it up and learn to see,” yet telling someone with clinical depression to “get over it” isn’t considered grounds for a punch in the tits, which is infuriating.
So, my point is, when Erin tells Erin to “stop whining” and stop feeling sorry for herself, that’s specific to her character and her view or herself. It isn’t a commentary on mental illness in general, and it certainly isn’t a condemnation of sufferers who don’t put on a happy face for other people’s benefit.
In other news, I wrote my first professional review last week. Henry and I are currently working on a second short comic in the vein of Blue Rose of Illium, and we’re on the verge of launching another webcomic on our own site. I’ll talk about those projects later on.
