I’m Tyler Page, a cartoonist and educator based in Minneapolis. My entry into Graphic Medicine came via cartooning about my experiences of growing up with ADHD. I started doing that because my first child had started exhibiting some of the signs I had as a kid and I realized that despite having grown up with and been treated for ADHD, I knew very little about it from the clinical, practical, or scientific side. Doing that work showed me what a great medium comics were for this sort of material. That work resulted first in RAISED ON RITALIN (dementian comics, 2016) and then BUTTON PUSHER (First Second, 2022).
In pondering a follow-up to BUTTON PUSHER I knew I wanted to address another formative issue from my childhood that was tied to my ADHD: my struggles with weight and body image, especially because it’s not something talked about often as it relates to boys or men. Part of that struggle was social: I experienced bullying and teasing because of my size and shape. And as a parent I started witnessing teasing and bullying from that perspective. I saw what my kids experienced and just generally what other kids were inflicting on each other. It made me reflect a lot on the experiences I had because I was bullied and teased but I also participated in teasing other kids. At that young age the fact that I was teased and bullied and it made me feel bad didn’t register with me because, like most kids, I was more interested in fitting in, in being part of a group. It was with all of these thoughts, perspectives, and memories in mind that I started writing EXTRA LARGE. It will be available on March 11 but you can pre-order now. Here are a few sample pages.
