Hyperbole and a Half is one of my all-time favorite webcomics.
To paint a little context for those who don't immediately recognize the name, this is where the /allthethings "ALL THE THINGS!" meme comes from ("CLEAN ALL THE THINGS!" appeared in This is Why I'll Never be an Adult in June 2010). The webcomic appears to have naturally evolved out of author Allie Brosh's more or less initially typical 2009 blog after increasingly turning to MS Paint for crude yet vibrant and often hilarious support for her textual posts.
Apart from hilarious, her comics are strikingly sincere and widely relatable. Unsurprisingly, they caught on. Awesomeness ensued, such as Dogs Don't Understand Basic Concepts Like Moving, Spiders are Scary. It's Okay to be Afraid of Them, The Year Kenny Loggins Ruined Christmas, Boyfriend Doesn't Have Ebola. Probably. [a.k.a. A Better Pain Scale], and many, many more.
Then about a year and a half ago, the popular webcomic-slash-blog's posts abruptly stopped.
But in early May, the 18 month posting hiatus ended with a brief Pre-Post Transition Post, priming readers for the comic that would come the next day:
Well, if you didn't have serious respect for Brosh before, it's certainly hard not to now.
Why? First, she stood up in front of the whole internet and stated she's been struggling for nearly two years with a mental illness that is both highly stigmatized and socially taboo, despite being stupidly common. That's basically looking the feeling of vulnerability in the eye and telling it to shove it.
Second, she not only elected to share her experience, unfiltered, but she demonstrated the ability to execute on that technically; she walks the reader through the irrational complexities of her experience in a completely approachable way. That, in my book, is impressive as hell.
SUMMARY / TL;DR
To paint a little context for those who don't immediately recognize the name, this is where the /allthethings "ALL THE THINGS!" meme comes from ("CLEAN ALL THE THINGS!" appeared in This is Why I'll Never be an Adult in June 2010). The webcomic appears to have naturally evolved out of author Allie Brosh's more or less initially typical 2009 blog after increasingly turning to MS Paint for crude yet vibrant and often hilarious support for her textual posts.
Apart from hilarious, her comics are strikingly sincere and widely relatable. Unsurprisingly, they caught on. Awesomeness ensued, such as Dogs Don't Understand Basic Concepts Like Moving, Spiders are Scary. It's Okay to be Afraid of Them, The Year Kenny Loggins Ruined Christmas, Boyfriend Doesn't Have Ebola. Probably. [a.k.a. A Better Pain Scale], and many, many more.
Then about a year and a half ago, the popular webcomic-slash-blog's posts abruptly stopped.
But in early May, the 18 month posting hiatus ended with a brief Pre-Post Transition Post, priming readers for the comic that would come the next day:
And the comic that followed may be the most spot-on, "real" depiction of depression I have ever seen. It's titled Depression Part Two. Note her last post in 2011, Adventures in Depression, explored the same topic, but to a much lighter degree.
Well, if you didn't have serious respect for Brosh before, it's certainly hard not to now.
Why? First, she stood up in front of the whole internet and stated she's been struggling for nearly two years with a mental illness that is both highly stigmatized and socially taboo, despite being stupidly common. That's basically looking the feeling of vulnerability in the eye and telling it to shove it.
Second, she not only elected to share her experience, unfiltered, but she demonstrated the ability to execute on that technically; she walks the reader through the irrational complexities of her experience in a completely approachable way. That, in my book, is impressive as hell.
SUMMARY / TL;DR
- Hyperbole and a Half is an AWESOME webcomic-blog-thinger by the talented Allie Brosh. If you aren't familiar with it, get familiar. You're welcome.
- Brosh stopped posting suddenly in October 2011. This made a lot of people on the internet very sad (myself included).
- IT'S BACK NOW!! YAY.
- Her revival comic provides a remarkably raw and phenomenally approachable description of what it's like to struggle with clinical depression. It's titled Depression Part Two and you should go read it. Major kudos and respect to Brosh.