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I Am Not These Feet

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Thanks to Adam Cadwell, who put me onto Kaisa’s work. He met her at a comics convention and didn’t realise she didn’t have (flesh and blood) feet until she pointed out that what she stood on were hi-tec prosthetics. Kaisa was born with deformed feet that caused her discomfort and made walking distances problematic.  As she got older, arthritis set in, requiring painkillers and orthopedic shoes. After meeting a prosthetist and a number of amputees, Kaisa decided to get both her feet amputated. If that sounds like a radical move to you, it seems that her doctor was of a… Read More

The Long Road Home: One Step at a Time

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I read this some time ago, in almost total ignorance of the context of ‘BD’s story within Gary Trudeau’s long running Doonesbury strip. Indeed, I read it in almost total ignorance of Gary Trudeau’s views and vast body of work, as well as the significance of Senator John McCain’s foreword. On top of this, I now realise, I read it in ignorance of the development and background of the DSM4 catagory of PTSD and it’s relavance to stories about soldiers returning from war. I was wondering what to say about it but couldn’t get it straight in my head. So,… Read More

Acme Novelty Library 18

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Chris Ware does melancholy very, very well. I could read any of his many works and find themes of depression, alienation and anxiety within them. I have picked this one because it also deals specifically with disability. An unnamed girl, refered to as “Nanna” whilst working as a nanny for a middle class family, has suffered a below knee amputation after a road traffic accident in her teens. Her story was actually introduced to readers as one of Ware’s “buildings stories” in Acme Novelty Library 16. This volume covers her lonely life after leaving art school. Her self esteem is very… Read More

Amputee Love

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This underground comic, about a female amputee and her lovers is featured in Paul Gravett’s book The Leather Nun and other incredibly strange comics and was displayed as part of Comica 2008 in the concourse gallery at the ICA in London. It is hard to get hold of, but a friend of mine, Roz, who deals in rare books and maps tracked one down and delivered it to me in a plain brown envelope! This little comic raises so many issues I hardly dare say anything about it for fear of committing some grievous faux pas and getting shouted at by… Read More