depression comix #318

Things were a little negative on the strip lately, and it had been more death-focused than usual, so this strip became a reminder (to me at least) that depression can be manageable, and how understanding is so important. It is pretty common to follow up a strip on suicide with one with a more positive message just to keep my head above water. Usually, a Robin and Wren strip allows me to focus on the positive as their relationship is one of the few that is working in the comic.
There is still a little bit of snap in the comic. Love can’t cure depression. Sometimes this needs to be said. It is still an illness and there are limits to what well-meaning love can do.
Unfortunately, whenever I get strips like this I get reminders that there are very few people as understanding as Wren, and it’s true. Wren is not a real person, she basically exists as an example. A friend of mine, Umi, once told me I should focus on a positive example because the comic was too grim and she was correct. So Wren exists not for depressed people but for non-depressed people who want to know how to act.
This strip is another with a Leonard Cohen nod, maybe the third or fourth in the series. The painting by Wren is one of Cohen’s designs as well as the hummingbird in #316. Occasionally Cohen’s lyrics will slip into the dialogue, like in #162.
After I inked the comic, I remembered that Robin already had a scarf that Wren had made for her nearly a year earlier and I didn’t draw it in. Sorry, Wren. The scarf came back in #323.