Ways I Avoid My Depression

J. Bradley

3 Questions for J. Bradley

What was your process for creating this piece?

When I'm down mentally or emotionally, I create. I've written entire novels and poetry collections to process how I'm feeling. I was feeling particularly low that day and decided to create a comic strip about it. My creative style is "fuck around and find out."

What is the significance of the genre you chose for this work?

I love non-fiction comics, particularly the work of Lynda Barry, Gabrielle Bell, and Keiler Roberts. The comic strip itself isn't known for being used as a vehicle of non-fiction. It's usually something funny or moves a long form narrative forward. I only had three panels to tell the story so I had to pick which images and words would make the most impact.

What is the significance of this work to you?

It's my second comic published by a magazine. It pushes me to keep going, keep making comics.

J. Bradley is a writer based out of Orlando, FL. He is the author of the graphic poetry collection, The Bones of Us (YesYes Books, 2014), with art by Adam Scott Mazer. His chapbook, Neil, won Five [Quarterly]'s 2015 e-Chapbook Contest for Fiction. He is a MFA in Creative Writing candidate at Lindenwood University. J. Bradley runs the Central Florida-based reading series/chapbook publisher There Will Be Words and lives at jbradleywrites.com.