Different Strokes for Different Folks -a Graphic Comic About Having a Stroke -by Peter c Marshall

 In 2021 I had a stroke.  When I returned home after a month of hospital and rehab I spent time establishing exercise routines and resting.  After a few months of home recuperating, I set aside my pastels and paints to work on a graphic comic regarding my journey of rehab.  The comic will be in parts: the time in hospital and rehab, time at home, exercises to see me through.  During the months since the stroke and between bouts of procrastination and exercise I worked on the first part of the comic.  And the months flew by and this project has become my creative output.

During the months of working on the comic I did research, manuscript work, drawings, redrawings and colouring in Procreate (an app I received when myf wife bought me an iPad during my hospital stay), page assembling in Comiclife2 then 3 for iPad, more reviews, re-cartoonings, rewrites, etc.  Sometimes a cartoon took a day; sometimes 2 or three.  Somedays I worked; somedays I did not. Then I would reread and re-alter, time and time again. I produced 4 -6 cartoons per page and I have completed 32 pages at present.  Amazing the time it has taken me.

Some of the cartoons and pages are amusing; some are just musings.  However, working on the comic has been part of my rehabilitation Journey -and the Journey will continue with the next phase of the comic.

The graphic comic, "Different Strokes for DifferentFolks," has been somewhat cathartic for me and has made me more aware of me. The more I worked on the comic the more I became aware of a "Stroke" and the aftermath of such an event.  I realized I can't take the event back and I can never fully recover -I can only move forward and control whatever I can.  

Soon I will have someone else read it and then I may revise the comic yet again.

Here is the first page -the recognition of a stroke. 

In the morning my wife and I had gone for a walk -me along the riverbank by our home.  Later after dinner I was sitting watching tv when a tingling began along my left arm.  When I tried standing up things did not work well and when I went to walk I wobbled against the walls.  I checked the symptoms on the internet and I was not amused.  We live in a rural community, so, my wife called our son to come to take me to emergency at the hospital in the nearby town.  And so, my journey began.