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Photo of Diane DiMassa by Love Alban

Photo of Cristy C. Road by Amos Mac

Diane DiMassa and Cristy C. Road are contributors of the new anthology, Live Through This. Edited by Sabrina Chapadjiev, Live Through This is a collection of original stories, essays, artwork and photography that explore the use of art to survive many of life's lows, traumas and struggles. Both illustrated and contributed real-life personal pieces to the anthology.

Diane DiMassa is best known as the creator of the comic heroine Hothead Paisan, Homicidal Lesbian Terrorist. She recently illustrated a graphic novel written by Daphne Gottlieb called Jokes and the Unconscious, and regularly contributes to anthologies.

Cristy C. Road's works and publications include the punk rock zine, Greenzine; illustrated storybook, Indestructable; a series of illustrated novels based on filmmaker Esther Bell's upcoming film, Flaming Heterosexual Female; and is currently working on Bad Habits, an illustrated love story.

Here are Diane and Cristy...

When did you start getting into illustrated novel work?
Diane: Jokes and the Unconscious is the first one I've done. I had never
really thought about it before; I guess I was too busy doing Hothead.

Well, the first things that fascinated me were my Cat in the Hat books. Then Mad magazine. Graphic novels bore me because they're usually so technically perfect; perfect squares, perfect lettering, flat, empty. I hate it.

Cristy: I got started with writing zines, and that transformed naturally into illustrated novels. the first zine i saw that made me want to do something that involved merging art and writing was called "angrogynous sanity." Then I read Tales of Blarg and Cometbus and those changed my life, too.

Why did you decide to take part in this anthology?
Diane: I tried not to, but Sabrina [Chapadjiev, editor of Live Through This] would simply not go away. I finally relented and read what it was all about. Being a depressive, suicidalmess and former scumbag drug addict, I felt I could get behind it.

Cristy: I wanted to take part in this because the concept it's addressing is incredibly important to me. Stigmas on women artists and self destruction are so horribly one sided because this society taunts pain, or pained people, in the most disgusting way. This book is humanizing artists' experiences.

Cristy, your illustrated essay talks about a battle to not deal with past life experiences that keep emerging. Can you talk more about this? And how art helped/helps your character, and/or you, deal and feel present?
The situation I wrote about involved constantly returning to cocaine as an emotional and mental crutch during both intense periods of depression, and following/coping with trauma.

The depression quells the desire to make art, and cocaine suppresses the desire to care for anything, except whatever exists within the confines of my chemically charged brain. Eventually, once desire and ambition started existing again, art was the only way to cope with the experience -- naturally obtaining that desire to make art is the difficult part. but once it happens, it's worth the crappy comedown that happens after any splurge with stimulants.

Diane, your illustrated essay is set for the most part during your character's therapy session. Can you talk more about what you illustrated? What is the battle you're trying to describe?
The story is true to life. I did start Hothead at the suggestion of a therapist. Learning to direct anger somewhere productive isn't easy and takes a long time, but it's worth it. I didn't even know I was angry so I started at negative ground zero and a half. The battle is always with myself.

How does art help you deal and feel present?
Diane: I have art in me and if I don't do it, it's sitting in there waiting (and wasting). When I participate, I'm using what I have and so I'm alive and charged and things feel right.

What does your art mean to you, and how do you think art helps "the ones who think they are not going to make it"?
Diane: I know that Patti Smith, for one, got me through a lot. Having art available that makes you feel OK, that makes you happy, is no small thing. I was a very lost young person, and it was art and music that made sense.

Creating something and sharing it is important because it could just save someone's sanity. My art means everything to me; I paint every day. I know it's what I'm supposed to be doing, and I never knew what I was supposed to be doing.

Cristy: My art means so many things at different times -- therapy, retreat, a weapon...But what it boils down to is that its my voice, and i just used it when i was a teenager to write zines, and talk shit, and be angry, confused, etc. -- there wasn't a guidebook on how to become an artist. So, if you're making art, then you've made it. You just can't stop, however -- you know, in order to make it further.

What advice do you have for readers looking to get into the illustrated and/or graphic novel genre? Are there particular challenges, female readers especially, should keep in mind?
Diane: The comic/graphic novel world is heavily boy-dominated. Muscles and fighting, tits and ass; all that animae crap...yawn. Forget chain bookstores. Go online to Last Gasp or Fantagraphics, AK Press, etc. There's a lot of great stuff out there. Trina Robbins is a great resource!

Cristy: I honestly have never even been involved with the genre, besides reading some graphic novels and enjoying them. Ive been involved with the literary world, the zine community, and punk rock....And if the graphic novel genre is anything like those things; then itis eternally imperfect and you just have to be the best at what you do, find your niche and your community of artists, and fuck everyone who gets in the way, 'cause everyone gets in the way -- especially men, with financial stature and power.

Diane, how do you feel things have changed since you started working in this field? What did you intend to illustrate when you first introduced HotHead Paisan and what are your intentions now? Have they changed?
I didn't even intend to publish Hothead...it was just journal stuff. I kind of don't really have intentions except to not limit the form of expression. Yes, you could call me a cartoonist, but I don't really think of it that way. Art is emotional (for me) and it dictates to me
what it should look like, what medium it's gonna be. Cartooning worked for what I was doing during Hothead because it's immediate, and funny, and you can do any damn thing you want with a cartoon.

What are some future projects you are working on?
Cristy: My novel, BAD HABITS, which is similar to the piece in Live Through This. It's about coping with an abusive relationship and the destructive routes that that healing entails. It all takes place in NYC. A lot of nightlife, acid trips, and one night stands. It should be out on Soft Skull in the fall. Besides that, I'm always working on new art for things like album covers, skateboards, and book covers.

If you could create an illustrated essay depicting the legacy of President George W. Bush, what would it look like?
Diane: Probably something like the Book of Revelations...
Cristy: GWB will be played by a hunchbacked mutant with no spine.

Is there anything you would like to add?
Live Through This is a classic!

Judy Norsigian is co-founder of the Boston Women's Health Book Collective and co-author of the ground breaking Our Bodies, Ourselves published in 1970. Since its publication, women's groups around the world have developed cultural adaptations of, or other publications inspired by, Our Bodies, Ourselves. Most recently, women's groups in Albania, Russia, South Korea, and Tibet have produced new publications in book and other formats. Judy is also the co-author of Our Bodies, Ourselves: Menopause and most recently, Our Bodies, Ourselves: Pregnancy and Birth. Check out the Our Bodies, Ourselves blog when you can: http://ourbodiesourblog.org/

Judy speaks and writes frequently on a wide range of women's health concerns, including abortion and contraception, sexually transmitted infections, genetics and reproductive technologies, tobacco and women, women and health care reform, and midwifery advocacy.

Here's Judy...

From a recent performance at The Whitney Biennial. Photo by Eduardo Aparicio.

Coco Fusco is a New York-based interdisciplinary artist and writer. She is the author of English is Broken Here: Notes on Cultural Fusion in the Americas, and editor of Corpus Delecti: Performance Art of the Americas, and Only Skin Deep: Changing Visions of the American Self (with Brian Wallis). Her work on military interrogation was selected for the 2008 Whitney Biennial.

"In the guise of a CIA manual, Coco Fusco's provocative A Field Guide for Female Interrogators offers an unflinching look at women's role in the military and at America's use of torture in the War on Terror"-- (from the book's back cover copy).

Here's Coco...

Martha Ma is a food and media educator and producer, community chef and health counselor. She is the host and producer of "The Tasty Life," a bi-weekly television show on Manhattan Public Access channel 57, and the editor of the e-newsletter, "Eater's Digest."

Martha is also executive producer of the Food for Thought Film Festival. If you're in the NYC area this weekend, check out the last weekend of the festival at Cooper Union's Wollman Auditorium, 51 Astor Place at Third Ave. Feature films include King Corn, Black Gold, and Life and Debt. Shorts include The Meatrix I, II and II 1/2 and The True Cost of Food.

Here's Martha...

Sara Fajardo is a staff photographer at the Orlando Sentinel. Her photojournalism journey has taken her to many places, from local places in the States to covering the rise and fall of president Alberto Fujimori in Peru. You can see some of her photos at her website: http://sarafajardo.com/.

She's also the author of a children's nonfiction book, Enrique's Day: From Dawn to Dusk in a Peruvian City.

Here's Sara...

Allison Kilkenny describes herself as "a political humorist, a fancy way of saying writer, who makes shitty world news funny." She is a regular contributor to the Huffington Post, The Beast, Alternet.org's Wiretap Magazine, and Timothy McSweeney's. Her work has appeared on The Nation and SIRIUS radio.

Here's Allison Kilkenny...

Deborah Brenner is the author of Women of the Vine and proprietor of Women of the Vine Cellars. While writing the book, Deborah and winemaker, Signe Zoller met and teamed up in 2006 to launch a first-of-its-kind wine company; bottled and produced by Women of the Vine Cellars.

From 2002-2005, Deborah ran her own marketing and public relations firm, SmallFishBigPond, and worked with such companies as Cinecitta Studios of Rome, Quantel, NBC and CNBC. Prior to that, Ms. Brenner spent over 16 years working in the film, television and the post production industries and was involved in four technology startups.

Here's Deborah...

Miki Fujiwara, aka Urban Envy, is a self-employed visual artist/community activist based in New York City.

Born in Hiroshima, Japan, Miki is known to be one of the original members of the New York Tributary Art Movement. The majority of her work, mostly paintings, has been categorized as "Cultural Surrealism," often said to be in the "tradition of Cynthia Tom and Frida Kahlo."

Urban Envy's works can be seen in local galleries of New York City.

Here's Miki...

Bambi Weavil is founder and CEO of Out Impact, Inc and publisher of its online magazine Out Impact. Based in Wilmington, North Carolina, Bambi spends her days and her nights working to raise money for LGBTQ issues...while also squeezing time to write about pro wrestling and her guilty pleasure, "American Idol."

Here's Bambi...

Joan with Javonn, one of the many babies she helped deliver

Joan Bryson became a midwife in 1991, and between her nursing experience and midwifery practice, she's assisted in more than 1,000 births.

At her private practice in Brooklyn, NY--Community Midwifery--she provides midwifery and health care for women in their teens to post menopausal years, including regular gyn exams, breast exams, primary care screening, preconception counseling, STD screening and prevention and family planning.

She is also an active member of New York City midwives. Here's Joan...