Kickstarting Comics: Stuart Lloyd Gould’s ‘My Nervous Breakdown’
by Richard Bruton
Another great looking Kickstarter for you to get behind right now as Stuart Lloyd Gould dives deep to give us a powerful tale of My Nervous Breakdown…
My Nervous Breakdown is exactly that, as Stuart tells you the tale of his mental health, his breakdown, and a suicide attempt. But it’s also a story of hope, something Stuart wants to tell the world, letting those in a similar position know that there is hope, there is a chance of recovery, and that the darkest days can lead to something better.
Stuart’s story is not so different from many others, something that so many of us will have to face. A once successful business gets hit hard in the financial crash of 2008 and suddenly his world changed, leading, a year later, to a complete failure of body and mind when he suffered a complete nervous breakdown. Worse came when three months later, at his very lowest point, he attempted to take his own life with whisky and pills. Thankfully, for him and for us, it was, as he puts it, “a rather poor attempt and it proved to be my rock bottom!”
Of course, the story doesn’t end there. So many sufferers from depression and mental illness will tell you the same thing as Stuart does, that the recovery is slow and never easy, full of highs and lows. And of course, like so many sufferers, Covid hit Stuart hard.
One thing that did come out of all this was My Nervous Breakdown, something Stuart had been working on between 2009 and 2019. Or, as he puts it:
“I had been scribbling away trying to get my feelings on paper so that I might understand them more. During this process, a few folk would have access to certain passages and it always without fail had a profound effect on them. My family cried and friends were in disbelief! So, with a combination of catharsis and self help, my words became an illustrated art book documenting my journey from suicide to happiness.”
Although it’s Stuart’s story, he’s joined on My Nervous Breakdown by Lee Thacker on art, after they bonded over comics thanks to a love of The Wedding Present (a cracking band, well worth a listen) and their lead singer David Gedge, whose autobiography in comic book format was illustrated by Thacker. During a book launch on tour with the Wedding Present, Lee and Stuart were manning the merch stall and hashed out the deal between themselves to make My Nervous Breakdown a reality.
Also involved with the book are Lee Hiom, responsible for the logo design and the decorative art pieces that adorn the book, and Simon French, as well as artists contributing artwork such as Neil McClements. The Kickstarter is all about getting funds together to pay the artists involved and get the book printed and out to readers.
This tale of a battle with mental illness and depression has nearly reached its target but could do with a push to get it over the finishing line right now. Go pledge your support here.
MY NERVOUS BREAKDOWN – by Stuart Lloyd Gould and Lee Thacker. Campaign finishes on 31 March.
