Of Comics and Bipolar Disorder - A Conversation with Rachel Lindsay

Rachel Lindsay is a cartoonist based in Vermont and the author of a graphic memoir, RX, that was published in 2018 by Grand Central Publishing. RX explores the powerful interplay of word and image that resists biomedical prescriptivism and espouses the political potential of sharing subjective experiences of living with bipolar disorder through comics. Her comic strip “Rachel Lives Here Now” appears weekly in Seven Days, an alternative newspaper in Vermont. In our conversation with Lindsay, we discuss the pertinent issues surrounding mental health and the role of graphic memoirs in reclaiming the identity of the patient in a hierarchical biomedical system, specifically in the context of her recent memoir, RX.

- Sathyaraj Venkatesan & Sweetha Saji

Sathyaraj Venkatesan & Sweetha Saji: What prompted you to create an autobiographical account of living with bipolar disorder in the comics medium? Were you into comics right from your childhood?

Rachel Lindsay: I drew comics from a young age, mostly comic strips, which I have done throughout my life. When this story presented itself to me, I knew it would be a comic because that stands as my longest and most satisfying way of communicating.

Venkatesan & Saji: How significant are visual metaphors for you in re-creating experiences that transcend literal expressions?

Lindsay: I leaned on visual metaphors a lot in the book in order to help communicate what was going on beneath the surface during my experience. In comics writing, you are always working with the principle of “show versus tell,” negotiating what will be visualized versus written. I felt that it was important to have a very straightforward, unaffected narrator to shepherd the reader through the story, so I used the narration text as a more zoomed-out, hindsight-reflection voice and relied on the visuals to communicate the raw reaction and emotionality in a way that is more easily consumable. The visuals are, literally, the subtext.

Venkatesan and Saji: What choices did you make in presenting yourself in the memoir both visually and verbally? Do you feel that the comic avatar you created is more authentic than a realistic depiction of yourself?

I knew it would be a comic because that stands as my longest and most satisfying way of communicating.