Hardcore Anxiety: A Graphic Guide to Punk Rock and Mental Health

by Reid Chancellor

Overview

Punk rock and mental health have been intertwined since the very beginning. Nervous breakdowns, anxiety, seeking acceptance, attempting to overcome internalized demons, and reacting to harmful and oppressive systems—punk rock embodies and emboldens all our feelings and experiences, positive and negative. Hardcore Anxiety charts and tracks punk movements from the 70s till today, from small towns to stadiums, from the struggles in our heads to the people actively harming us in our communities. Told from the point of view of a young man discovering punk and working through mental illness in Evansville, Indiana, this stunning nonfiction graphic novel gives punks the most important advice of all: "You aren't alone. You're going to make it through alive."

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781621067672
Publisher:	Microcosm Publishing
Publication date:	09/10/2019
Series:	Comix Journalism Series
Pages:	192
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Reid Chancellor is an artist, writer, and musician from Evansville, Indiana. You can follow his work on all social media platforms @reidchancellor. He currently lives in north-western Kentucky with his wife Kristan and two cats Buffy and Willow.

Editorial Reviews

07/22/2019

A throwback to alternative comics of the 1990s, this self-conscious autobiographical narrative positions Chancellor’s depression as a lens to examine how punk rock bands used their music to express their own members’ mental health struggles. Reid is looking for a place to belong in the early 2000s, but even as he becomes entrenched in the hardcore punk scene, he feels like an imposter. Reid’s desperate need to fit in is not definitively unpacked; he reveals that he “was dealing with a lot of self esteem issues,” and, as he gets older, reports his disordered mood “was beginning to take over” as he descends into self-harm. Profiles of bands, including Black Flag, the Clash, and the Ramones, are interspersed into his story but lack organization. Punk’s do-it-yourself ethos is fully realized in the black-and-white art, which has a rough immediacy but sometimes sinks into sloppiness. The subtitle is perhaps misleading; this very personal work is not a “guide” so much as a raw, intimate glimpse into one punk fan’s troubled mind. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

[Review Quote] "A throwback to alternative comics of the 1990s, this self-conscious autobiographical narrative positions Chancellor’s depression as a lens to examine how punk rock bands used their music to express their own members’ mental health struggles." - Publisher's Weekly

[Review Quote] "“Reid Chancellor’s book is an eye-catching nonfiction graphic novel told from the point of view of a young man discovering punk and working through mental illness in America’s Midwest, Evansville, IN. It gives punks the most important advice of all: “You aren’t alone. You’re going to make it through alive.”" - Music Connection

[Review Quote] ""As well as giving an open and fascinating insight into his own life experience through punk and hard-core; throughout Hardcore Anxiety, Reid eloquently and briefly summarises the fascinating wider impact of punk and hard-core – especially on mental health."

Read more here:" - Michael Barron for XS Noise

From the Publisher