Menopause: a comic treatment

When MK Czerwiec turned fifty, she observed that existing comics about menopause were absolutely inadequate. She writes: ‘Most of them were either single-panel jokes about hot flashes or expressions of this or that symptom of perimenopause as an inconvenience to a husband or a male partner. Instead of feeling seen and empowered, I felt further isolated and belittled.’ She decided to do something about it and invited her comics idols and colleagues who were going through menopause or had already been through it, to make comics about their experiences and how they coped.

The result is a collection of comics that unapologetically depict menopause and all its attendant symptoms from a range of life experiences, ages, gender and sexual identities, ethnicities, and health states. The thread running through the book is ‘the affirmation that, while we can and should laugh at ourselves, no one should be ashamed of menopause’.

The contributors include Lynda Barry, Maureen Burdock, Jennifer Camper, KC Councilor, MK Czerwiec, Leslie Ewing, Joyce Farmer, Ellen Forney, Ann M. Fox, Keet Geniza, Roberta Gregory, Teva Harrison, Rachael House, Leah Jones, Monica Lalanda, Cathy Leamy, Ajuan Mance, Jessica Moran, Mimi Pond, Sharon Rosenzweig, Joyce Schachter, Susan Merrill Squier, Emily Steinberg, Nicola Streeten, A. K. Summers, Kimiko Tobimatsu, Carol Tyler, Shelley L. Wall, and Dana Walrath.