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Dad\u2019s Not All There Anymore<\/em> by Alex Demetris<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Reviewed by Harriet Earle<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n As an academic, I have a love-hate relationship with Wikipedia<\/em>. I tell my students to steer well clear and never to rely on it for anything but the most cursory glances at a subject. However,\u00a0I will admit that I use it regularly (and, in the website\u2019s defence, the references can often be very helpful). There is absolutely a place in academia \u2013 and in life \u2013 for Wikipedia\u2019s <\/em>accessible and easy synopses. It is likely that, were I to require information on Lewy Body Dementia (LBD), I would soon be typing it into my phone\u2019s app. However, one central thing that is missing from Wikipedia<\/em> is heart. An encyclopaedia is not meant to be an emotional and emotive document; it\u2019s aim is to inform, not to evoke emotion. However, when one is talking about many topics, such as LBD, the basic definition (or even an exhaustive medical definition) does not give any space to the consideration of the experience<\/em> of the condition.<\/p>\n This is where Alex Demetris\u2019 comic Dad\u2019s Not All There Anymore<\/em> comes in. Demetris illustrates his father\u2019s diagnosis and eventual move to a nursing home. Demetris\u2019 book is devastating and heart-warming. He tells the story through the figure of John. When the narrative opens, we are visiting John\u2019s father, Pete, in a nursing home. John speaks gently to two other elderly residents, one of whom is supine on the floor, before meeting his mother, Sue, in his father\u2019s room. The chronology of Pete\u2019s illness is told in flashback; we follow him from diagnosis with Parkinson\u2019s in 2003, to the diagnosis of Lewy Body Dementia in 2007 and the progression of the illness until John barely recognises his father. The personal story is interspersed with carefully worded explanations of the condition, its genesis and development that are pitched perfectly for readers who are not medics. This is the true success of this comic \u2013 that Demetris is able to create a work in which his father\u2019s unique story and the more generic definitions of LBD sit in conversation with each other. We are in no doubt that this is a personal story and that it is the individual nuanced experience of the disease that is the focus, while the medical information exists within the text as an informative touchstone for the non-medic reader.<\/p>\n Demetris\u2019 artwork is both expressive and simple. Plain line drawings with very little excess details are highlighted by shades of yellow-green. In places, there is a flash of red. When Pete starts to hallucinate a small red-haired child, she lurks as a faded red and creepily expressionless figure; she is almost a ghost. In another instance, Pete asks John what he sees in the corner. John sees a rack of coats; Pete sees the bright, terrifying face of a clown, to the horror of the clown-phobic John. In curious contrast to the muted and gentle colouration, the panels themselves are crowded. Each page contains at least 6 closely-packed panels, each one filled with a bustling image, topped with a caption or bubble or both. There is a lot to take in \u2013 both image and text \u2013 and at times the effect can be overwhelming. Where to look? What to read first? I would not wish to suggest that that chaos engendered by the reading experience can come close to mimicking the full horror and disorientation of LBD but it may go some way to mimicking the mental upheaval of supporting a family member.<\/p>\n All comics artists have a style and in that style is a peculiar \u2018something\u2019 that stands out. For Demetris, it is his exquisite use of eyebrows to create expression. In my own research, I have written about the importance of the eye as a frame to govern the emotion of the face within the panel. Demetris\u2019 characters have no eyes, only small representative dots, and so it is for the eyebrows to do the talking. It is impossible to overstate how expressive Demetris\u2019 characters are, a feat that is particularly impressive, given the limited use of detail in their faces. In the visually congested panels, the clearly rendered eyebrows on each face guide the narrative and emphasise the humanity of the characters, in moments of both comedy and tragedy.<\/p>\n Ask most people to name something that terrifies them and they are likely to rank dementia high on that list. I imagine that watching a loved one battle with dementia is equally terrifying. In the carefully rendered faces of John and Sue, there is immeasurable warmth. Indeed, one of the most striking features of the plot of this comic is the seemingly unwavering devotion of both characters to Pete and their tremendous patience with him as the disease progresses. It is one thing to say of a sick family member \u201che doesn\u2019t mean to be trying, he\u2019s not well \u2013 I will not hold it against him\u201d and quite another to live these words and embody them. Demetris is not telling just any story of LBD, he\u2019s telling his father\u2019s<\/em> story. The personal nuances of the story are the central focus of the narrative and the most compelling part of it. Pete was a teacher and regularly admonished his son for using the word \u2018innit\u2019 (\u201cDon\u2019t say \u2018innit\u2019 \u2013 it\u2019s bad English\u201d). At the book\u2019s close, there is a final glimpse of the old Pete and his grammar policing ways (\u201c\u2026 shouldn\u2019t say \u2018innit\u2019\u2026 bad English\u2026\u201d). LBD may have him on his knees but he is still there and it is to this that his family cling. This is the heart; this is what moves this text beyond the crisp, cold definitions offered by Wikipedia<\/em> and other encyclopaedi\u00e6. Instead of receiving the bare facts, the reader receives an insight into the day-to-day experience of the disease and the ravages it brings to bear on the individual and those around them. Demetris has etched out a fine line between text book and autobiography and is walking it with skill, panache and immense heart.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n