Everything Is Fine, I’ll Just Work Harder: Confessions of a Former Badass

In this introspective graphic memoir debut, biology professor Gormally uses loose lined drawings and a straightforward panel grid to explore a complex topic: trauma. As a self-described “badass,” Gormally is accustomed to pushing toward defined achievements. They run miles every morning, ignoring worsening muscle pain, and spend their days overworking themself in their university lab (“Gotta double down”). But when they receive a social media friend request from the man who assaulted them years ago, it unleashes a tidal wave of flashbacks and panic. Gormally seeks out a new therapist, who suggests EMDR, a treatment that uses rapid eye movement to reprocess traumatic memories. At first, “healing feels like a full-time job,” but over time Gormally learns to let go of self-blame, interrogate homophobia and “meta-shame,” and explore the survival mechanisms they developed during childhood, when they were rejected by their parents after coming out as queer. Gormally’s comics seamlessly employ symbols to break up the simple character drawings, as when blue tidal waves crash onto the black-and-white panel grid when Gormally feels like they’re drowning. Elsewhere, Gormally breaks the fourth wall to remind readers of the nuances that make trauma so difficult to grapple with (“Writing this is hard”). It’s a cathartic deep dive into an all-too-common experience that will appeal to readers of graphic medicine like Our Little Secret and Couch Fiction. (Apr.)