Noe’s Comics Nook: Side Effects

Review

“Let’s just aim for okay. Okay?”

Hannah doesn’t want to be super. She isn’t even asking to be great. She just wants to be well – unfortunately the world doesn’t always want to make that easy, especially when you’re in your first year of college!

Side Effects follows Hannah through her first year of undergrad life, with all the tests and parties and cute girls she could ask for – and the depression and anxiety she didn’t want. Luckily for Hannah though, when she falls into a depression spiral, her roommate is there to help her get to mental health services, where she is prescribed therapy and medication. The therapy is great, but it turns out, those meds can come with some super side-effects! Whether it is gaining weight (and a kind of invulnerability) or horrible headaches (and the ability to zap! things), each new med comes with a mix of good and bad that Hannah (and Dr. Jacobs) have to weigh to determine if it is worth continuing.

While some of the side effects are indeed right out of a superhero story, Side Effects is at its root a work of graphic medicine, using fiction to discuss the very real struggles that depression and anxiety can bring, and the complexity of treatment. Therapy helps, but can surface old traumas and be uncomfortable to keep at. Medication can be expensive, can come with side effects worse than what they are intended to treat, and the switch-offs to find “the right one” can be dangerous to body and mind. And in the midst of all of this, life continues. Whether it is life at its most mundane (going to class, studying, deciding what to eat and when), or at its most intense (finding out a professor is abusing their position to harass a classmate), the illness and medication and therapy is all still there in the background. As my generation would say, “the struggle is real” and all anyone can do is their best – and hopefully not do it alone.

The artwork on display here is a fun blend of tropes you’d expect to find across the medium. You’ve got the superhero effect call-outs (special senses like lightning bolts, whooshes for floating, and so on). There are moments of shy expression, with characters blushing and emoting in the exaggerated ways that make coming of age comics so engaging. And the coloring sets the mood throughout so well. A great example of color at work is on page 33 when Hannah becomes almost too tranquil.

Side Effects is a lively, cute, and relatable coming of age story that invites the reader to imagine a better world, where everyone, sometimes with a little help, can be well.

Content note: this comic does contain depictions of depression, anxiety, and sexual misconduct (professor-to-student, non-graphic).

Elements of Story

Plot: When Hannah has a depressive episode early in her first year of college, she seeks the help of therapy and medication. What follows is a wild ride with side effects of superhero proportions as she seeks to gain control over her mind and find her place in this new phase of life.

Characters: Hannah, Ella, Dr. Jacobs, Jay, Iz, Marcie, Dean Byrne, numerous unnamed friends

Major Settings: College campus, Hannah’s dorm room, Iz’s dorm room, student mental health services, Dr. Jacobs office

Themes: Depression, anxiety, coming-of-age, relationships, psychology/psychiatry

Lesson Plan Idea Using Common Core Standards (CCS) CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.11-12.7 – Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information presented in different media or formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively) as well as in words in order to address a question or solve a problem.

Directions: Side Effects highlights how all medications come with unintended consequences. In Hannah’s case, her medication for anxiety and depression caused what we would consider “superhero” like powers to emerge – telepathy, super strength, and so on. While these effects aren’t likely to show up in real life, the reality is that all medication comes with potential side effects – some innocuous, some painful, and some deadly.

For this assignment, students will stretch their media literacy skills by looking at real life medication advertising and official drug information.

Step 1: Students should choose three prescription medications to evaluate. Provide them with some examples to choose from and encourage them to look at medications that have both brand and generic options available, as the way each are marketed and reported on may be interesting to examine.

Step 2: Students will watch, read, and/or listen to advertising for each medication chosen. Students will record what promises the advertising makes for the medicines and make note of which side effects are specifically called out in the campaign.

Step 3: Students will read the official guidelines for each medication (resources for this: https://www.fda.gov/drugs/information-consumers-and-patients-drugs/find-information-about-drug). Students should record all listed side effects for the medications and note specifics about what each drug is approved for.

Step 4: Students will prepare a 4 to 5-page report detailing their findings on each medication. The report should include observed information and should offer a comparative analysis of what the official information sheets say versus what marketing campaigns say. Highlight any discrepancies and offer opinions on how effective or not they find each campaign.