ME/CFS Cartoons

[Chandelier]

I couldn’t find a thread specifically for illustrations and cartoons about ME/CFS.
While some cartoons are fitting the funnier side of life thread, many are showing the bleak reality of living with the disease.
In the hopes of not killing anyone’s mood who clicks on a thread that promises fun, I created this thread.

Starting off with a cartoon by artist and pwME Kornelia Paulsen, illustrating the different severity levels:


More about the artist:

Kornelia Paulsen lives in Alta, Norway.
She is a trained physiotherapist and ill with ME/CFS since 2009.
After two difficult years, she is currently experiencing a little recovery, which gives her the opportunity to draw more often.
She is active in the ME/CFS community and creates illustrations to raise awareness for the disease.

Kornelia Paulsen en - Black Ferk Studio

EN DE Kornelia Paulsen Kornelia Paulsen lives in Alta, Norway. She is a trained physiotherapist and ill with ME/CFS since 2009. After two difficult years, she is currently experiencing a little recovery, which gives her the opportunity to draw more often. She is active in the ME/CFS community...

blackferkstudio.com

 

[forestglip]

There's a series of comics on Phoenix Rising that a user, WantedAlive, commissioned an artist, Rick Menard, to make: https://forums.phoenixrising.me/threads/me-cfs-comic-series.82103/

Here's one:

 

[Mij]

 

[Mij]

We already have a thread here

 

[Trish]

We already have a thread here

That thread is sharing one artist's work.

 

[Trish]

View attachment 33664

Can you add a link to the source?

 

[Mij]

It's a picture that I saved years ago from a friend who has POTS. I don't have a link, sorry.

 

[forestglip]

Can you add a link to the source?

I found the artist with a reverse image search. It's Gemma Correll. Similar cartoon: https://www.gemmacorrell.com/collections/comics/products/pajamas

 

[Mij]

I wore flannel pj's during the winter months to get to my dental appointments. The clinic is located downstairs in my building, but I still had to walk outside in -30 C temperatures for 3 minutes to get there. I just threw my winter coat over my "fancy pj's".

 

[Chandelier]

The artist @pehpunkt.bsky.social has an ongoing series on Bluesky where the same character in the same room expresses how it is to live with ME/CFS.
The series started on April 7th 2024.

I like this latest cartoon for its overwhelming feeling of solitude, especially after yesterday’s solar eclipse which was a non-event for many severe+ pwME.

I might as well be floating in outer space; everything seems so far away.

Spoiler: Image Description

Pencil drawing of a room with two windows. On the left, there is a bed, and on the right, a table with a chair. The chair appears to be floating. Outside, you can see outer space, with the enormous globe of the Earth floating in front of the window.
Above the bed, a limp figure is floating in the air.

 

[Chandelier]

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@waysidescribble
– Spark plugs, fuel level, wiper fluid ... all good. Must be a faulty sensor!​

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[Chandelier]

Wayside Scribbles on Twitter:

– It’s like you’re not even trying anymore.

 

[Chandelier]

The artist @pehpunkt.bsky.social has an ongoing series on Bluesky where the same character in the same room expresses how it is to live with ME/CFS.
The series started on April 7th 2024.

The artist fell sick in 2012.
The translations are my own attempts.

Ich bin unsichtbar

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I‘m invisible

Link

Ich kann am leben anderer kaum noch teilnehmen, alles ist zu anstrengend.

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I can hardly take part in other people’s lives, everything is too exhausting.

Link

selbst für gespräche fehlt mir meist die kraft.

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Even conversations are too demanding most of the time.

Link

so verschwinde ich stück für stück aus der welt.

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And that’s how I slowly fade, bit by bit, from the world

Link