One Step at a Time

This is the latest Familial Dysautonomia comic - No Tears:  Life With FD.  I took part in writing this one!  I was inspired by a book I got on FD day by Alexia De Gunzberg called Steps of Life:  Exceeding Boundaries.  In the book, Alexia describes in vivid detail the difficulties of having a disability and her journey to overcoming them.  The first part of the book involves getting the courage to cross the street by herself for the first time.  Think about it - many of us cross the street without thinking, but it's a big deal when you have a walker, don't move as fast, and may endanger yourself if you fall.  Alexia is very strong willed and inspiring, and I hope you get the chance to read this great book!

Meanwhile, it's gotten to that point.  Hmm should've put this Daily Misfortune with the Power Rangers blog last week where they actually DO fight a trash monster :)

New Monthly Comic!

I'm excited to share with you a new monthly comic!  Formerly called RLS, or Restless Legs Syndrome, the WED (Willis-Ekbom Disease) Foundation has commissioned me to do a monthly comic!  You may have heard of Restless Legs Syndrome and thought "oh now they're making up diseases" (even people I told about the strip did!).  One of the goals of this comic is to spread the knowledge that this is actually a serious condition that really affects quality of life for a lot of people.  Basically, because people (it mostly affects women) who have WED get intense pain in their legs at night, they need to get up to try to relieve the pain and it causes insomnia.  Having experienced insomnia myself at times, I can relate to the tolls it can take.

A person that's involved with both the WED Foundation and the FD Foundation (that I do the weekly No Tears:  Life With FD strip for) made this connection happen.  And what's extra cool is that the WED Foundation is based in Minnesota!  (Go Midwest!)  I love that I'm now getting work from people I haven't even met in person.  I've heard a lot that American companies are hiring artists from other countries to work for cheap, which bothers me.  I've also heard of some language miscommunication that happens because of this, and the comic turns out ok, but some details are wrong.  But I'm happy to say that my communication has been great over phone and email for this project and another project I did previously.  Don't hire overseas artists - hire mindy indy for your comics to get the best quality of work :)

Here's an FD comic from a few weeks ago:

When they said "the setting is in a mall" I of course had to put one of my favorite stores, Hot Topic, in the background.  And Cinnabon :)  When I was drawing this I wanted a Cinnabon SO BAD!  I kind of got carried away with all the details... there's a lot of stuff in malls!

FD Day

So I've been creating a weekly comic for the Familial Dysautonomia Foundation (which I haven't posted in awhile here, but they always post it on their facebook).  This Sunday is FD Day, a conference for people and families affected by the condition, but it's also open to the public if you're curious!  They'll have a lot of NYU doctors talking about new research, treatments, and other stuff.  I'll be there sketching for the kids in a room with other fun stuff like a magician and balloon animals.

Here are some FD comics to catch up on - No Tears:  Life With FD.

On this comic, the Foundation and I were trying to come up with good places for the group of people to be in - what if the grumpy old man was a bus driver?  No, some FD people have difficulty getting on buses.  What if he was a barber, or at a movie ticket counter?  Those were ok, but I came up with something I encounter regularly:  grumpy people at the checkout lane :)

This was one of my personal favorites :)  Although the FD community online prefers the really sweet ones vs the LOL ones (this one got only like 2,000 "views" as opposed to the usual over 10,000).

Like this is a really sweet one.  People went NUTS over this one!

And people really responded to this one well.  Lots of good comments flying around on the web.

FD catch up

It's hard to find veins in people with FD.  Although I'm sure many people can relate to this strip!  Below is last week's strip too - I was so busy with GNM stuff, no time to post everything:

Usually people with FD may faint if suddenly standing up from laying down and vice-versa. Patients go on a "Tilt Table" - a table that slowly tilts from vertical to horizontal - to measure changes in their system.

Unlike suburbia, bushes are rare in the city.  There are some trees here and there, but unless you're Bugs Bunny, not able to hide behind.

Crisis

When a person with FD is in "crisis," their body loses control of blood pressure, heart rate, and body temperature, among other things.  When talking about drawing this comic with people at the Dysautonomia Foundation, they emphasized the green face because FD people in crisis feel very nauseous.  I suggested also drawing a garbage can next to the bed (like if they needed to throw up).  I learned that people with FD cannot actually vomit because of an operation they all have.  Basically, because they can't swallow normally  (they eat via stomach tube) if they threw up it could get into their lungs be a serious problem, so the operation makes some kind of knot in their intestines (if I'm remembering correctly).  Meeting with the Foundation and asking questions leads to very educational conversations for me and prevents me from making slightly "incorrect" drawings.

Pretty much all of my Daily Misfortunes are like the "crisis" in the first panel of this week's FD comic.  But that's one reason the Foundation wanted me to draw their comics - I can create a somewhat lighter tone to bad situations.