HOAX by Ravi Thornton at MancsterCon

I spent the weekend at Mancstercon listening to Ravi Thornton talking about her work.

Hoax tells the story of Ravi Thornton’s brother Roabbi - or Rob as he was called, who was affected by schizophrenia. The title is borrowed from a poem titled HOAX written by her brother. In her words it attempts to capture her brother’s landscapes of struggle through illness the an ultimate release. HOAX attempts to bring about empathy about mental health issues. 

Described as A social enterprise that aims to inspire empathy and understanding around social issues through collaborative cross media storytelling. The graphic novel sees Collaboration with artists such as Bryan Talbot, Rian Hughes, Hannah Merry, Mark Stafford to name a few. Keen to champion the work of newcomers Ravi has got them to collaborate with well-known artists. HOAX also sees academic inputs from Professor Mark Green. 

  

HOAX  is a cross media project which involves using a single narrative and using it in many forms such as drama, dance or film.  A  dramatised  version of and been shown at the Royal Exchange at Manchester. 

From my limited knowledge about comic books I have never seen comics portray mental illness positively and certainly not through a survivors point of view. Mental illness is almost always ugly and tied up with the idea of criminality. Schizopherina even amongst mental health is seen as ‘a complete breakdown of the individual’. There is a sense of unease about acknowledging personal suffering through an easy diagnosis which labels an individual but does very little in proving comfort.

Ravi’s work tells an important story from her brother’s point of view addressing his experience of the world as opposed to an easy idea of what mental illness is. It delves into what would be too messy a narrative to tell clinically.

In a world where popular media provides non representative narratives her work provides an alternative way of looking at issues we have only seen through stigmatising eyes.

If you want to find out more about Ravi Thornton's work or Mancstercon here are some helpful links -

To buy the graphic novel click here. Money from the sales will help support mental health charities SANE and Manchester Mind.

This is a link to the songs HOAX My Lonely Heart composed and performed by Minute Taker

MancsterCon is a voluntarily run organisation dedicated to bringing together the best of the independent sequential art scene in the North West.