Now, she’s part of the club - but is that a requirement? More significantly, will treating the condition reduce her creativity? (In contrast, her therapist takes the position that not medicating may, at the extreme, risk her life, since the suicide rate is high among sufferers.) How can she find a new way to live that considers her disorder without disrupting what she likes about herself? These were the questions I found fascinating to explore. Given her profession, much of Forney’s concerns revolve around the popular conception that artists are crazy.

The excitement she feels at transforming herself is the first indicator of a manic period, and soon she (and we) are reviewing the psychiatric criteria behind her bipolar diagnosis. Already, we’re being set up to realize key characteristics of her personality: love of art, visual thinking, excitability, seeking change, and living life large in ways that might scare other people. Marbles opens with a particularly revelatory, life-changing moment for Forney, as she gets the first stage of a full-back tattoo.

Like the previous book, it’s alternately touching, informative, entertaining, and at times, unbelievable. Marbles takes a different autobiographical turn, capturing her struggles with a diagnosis of bipolar disorder and the resulting concerns over what it means for her as an artist. Ellen Forney first came to my attention with Monkey Food, her collection of comics about growing up in the wacky 70s.

Marbles mania