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Part A - Early Life

Clem Martini was born in Calgary and in a small town Bowness, Alberta, on August 25th,1956. His father, Damien Martini, was an accountant and his mother, Catherine Martini, was a school board trustee.

Growing up, he enjoyed reading, animals and playing outdoors. At a young age, Clem and his siblings didn’t have a lot of money so what they did for fun was go camping or hiking. In terms of what Clem wanted to do as a kid, he always wanted to write but never knew where to start. Instead, Clem decided he might work in a zoo since he liked animals. A turning point in Clem’s life was when he began writing short fiction in high school. With the start of his writing career, he won several awards, he competed in some writing competitions in high school. From the awards that Clem was winning and the encouragement from his English teachers, he decided to try playwriting.

Although his writing career was going well, his life at home wasn’t. His brother, Ben Martini, was diagnosed with Schizophrenia. Clem and his family had no idea how to cope with their family member who had a mental illness. None of them knew how to support Ben properly and really took a negative effect on the whole family upon the discovery of the diagnosis.

Family members reacted to the diagnosis differently and the family drifted apart because they were unsure of how to deal with it.  With everyone drifting apart and Clem taking a vacation to Europe, the unfortunate event of Ben losing the battle to schizophrenia. Ben had died by suicide because of his schizophrenia. The family was grieving and as Clem puts it into his own words, “His sudden departure sucked the air out of me.” ( Martini, 2010 March 10th, p. 49 )

In this period of Clem’s life, his family was grieving and turned to work to distract them from the tragic event of Ben’s passing. This is when Clem attended the University of Calgary to get his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Playwriting. Clem received his Bachelors in 1980 and became the first graduate in playwriting at the NATIONAL THEATRE SCHOOL in Montreal. ( Roe, 2013 April 22 ). Clem continued to write despite the tragedy.

As for the early life of Olivier Martini, there is not too much information disclosing his early life. When it came to Olivier, he also camped and hiked alongside his siblings. Olivier was also born in the same town of Bowness, Alberta. His life changed when he was diagnosed with Schizophrenia in 1981 ( Medley, 2010 April 12th). He had lost his job and developed depression because of his mental condition. As Clem Martini says when it comes to having a job, “Society places tremendous importance on employability and now, instead of worthy citizen, you find you’ve morphed into a jobless, titleless nobody. You feel terrible-but worse things are in store.”( Martini, 2010 March 10th, p. 137 ). People dismissed him because of his schizophrenia which wasn’t helping his mental state either and people either feared or shunned him. Overtime, things got better with the support of family everytime he came home. His family may not have known what to do or how to cheer up up, but the family being there for Olivier was enough for him to keep going. Eventually, Olivier took an interest in visual arts in a group.

He started to grow more of a passion for visual arts and later attended Alberta College of Arts, he became an illustrator and some of his work has been featured in the Marion McGrath Gallery. 

Links to sources : 

Olivier Martini. (n.d.).

Retrieved from https://thinairwinnipeg.ca/writers/olivier-martini/

Roe, A. F. (2013, April 22). Clem Martini. Historica Canada

Retrieved July 29, 2018, from https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/clem-martini/

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Part A - Adult Life

           In Clem Martini’s adult life, he continued to cope with his brother, Olivier Martini’s schizophrenia. The Martini family was trying to cope with this and were scared for Olivier because he might end up like their previous brother, Ben. While the family was coping with this discovery, Clem continued to write his stories and plays. After graduating from the University of Calgary, his career moved to teaching drama and playwriting. He taught playwriting and drama at Wood’s Homes, a residential treatment centre for troubled youth (Roe, 2013 April 22). Clem would continue to work there for the next fifteen years of his life and get inspired by the young people. The stories he heard from the youth with their odd families and how they felt trapped in criminal life styles influenced Clem’s writing. From then on at that point of his life, he would continue to write and get inspired by numerous events for example how his family coped with his brother’s schizophrenia to other events like a radio interview inspiring him to write another story called, The Life history of the African Elephant (1989). Clem would continue writing and teaching about writing because he loved writing.

           Despite his work career going well, his parents divorced due to the guilt that was occuring with their son, Olivier with his schizophrenia. The relationship between the two was going to end because of guilt, grief and shame that has built up for a long time. What didn’t help was ther father eventually passed away at end of June. The book “Bitter Medicine” doesn’t state the date of it but what did happen was the family, especially Olivier found his dead father from a heart attack and stroke. 

            Throughout the hardships Clem went through, he came out stronger and cared for Olivier. Clem eventually met Cheryl Foggo who was also a writer and the two would get married September 22nd, 1984. The two would then have two children, Chandra and Miranda. Everything was going well in Clem’s life.

           In Clem’s present-day life, he continues to teach play writing at the University of Calgary. His teaching style as a professor when teaching playwriting to his students are how the truth is essential when writing, there are no rules in writing a novel or a play and believes that there are no short cuts when it comes to writing.  He continues to attend events and festivals despite being a professor.

New book this year, The Comedian by Clem Martini. 

           Some of the present work Clem worked is called, “The Comedian”on February of 2018. Clem hasn’t stopped writing and he hasn’t stopped writing with his brother Olivier Martini. The two of them worked together on a new graphic memoir called, “The Unravelling: How Our Caregiving”. Olivier martini illustrated again alongside with Clem Martini and this was released on September 12th2017. This book is about how the Martini family’s journey with mental illness. To the two brothers, Ben and Olivier dealing with schizophrenia to their mother, Catherine who was dealing with dementia.

Book cover for their new graphic novel, The Unravelling: How our caregiving safert net came unstrung and we were left grasping at threads, struggling to plait a new one. 

             Speaking of Olivier Martini, there isn’t as much information compared to Clem Martini when it comes to Olivier’s present life. Olivier Martini has his art work posted on Alberta views the magazine for engaged citizens for a part of the Canadian Mental Health’s Copernicus Project (Martini). He got his artwork displayed at the Marion McGrath Gallery and continues to illustrate as an illustrator. Even though Clem continues to go to writing festivals or compete in writing competitions, Olivier comes along like for their project on “The Unravelling: How Our Caregiving”. They have an event at the Sunshine Coast Festival of the Written Arts for their book on the 16th– 19ththis month. 

Link to Sources:

"Martini, Clement M. 1956-." Contemporary Authors. . Encyclopedia.com. 1 Aug. 2018 Retrieved from https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/martini-clement-m-1956

The Unravelling. (2018, July 03). Freehand Books Retrieved from http://www.freehand-books.com/books/the-unravelling

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Part A - Historical Context of their Growing up

           There’s a long history of mental health stigma since the beginning of time. People who were mentally ill were shunned and were outcasts to society. Why were mentally ill people shunned in the time of the 1970’s? Well, back before the 19thcentury, mentally ill people were viewed as lunatics. It didn’t help when a famous American sociologist, Erwin Goffman, started a mental health stigma stating, “There is no country, society or culture where people with mental illness have the same societal value as people without a mental illness” (Rössler, W. 2016. p.1250).  This was one of the many reasons why stigma started. It didn’t help that society in the past, before the 1970s, Mentally ill people were thrown into jail or shunned because of their mental health and because they were different than others who don’t have mental illness. It was hard for society to view mental illness in a non-judgemental way because people were scared of how their behaviour, especially those living with schizophrenia. This was a new dilemma, mental illness being a mystery and a disorder no one knew how to cure.

           With the coming of a new disorder, it would come with stereotypes in the stigma. It was alright if people had experienced depression because depression didn’t have a bad reputation compared to schizophrenia or any other known mental illness. The mental illness schizophrenia has a bad reputation even to this present day. But why is that? Besides the media shedding negative light on mental illness, it is because the symptoms often lead to odd behavior, and it is unpredictable how the individual with schizophrenia may act. Some examples are when individuals with schizophrenia hear voices or they exhibit violent behaviour, which can scare people. In addition, for some reason, the social distance between people who have schizophrenia and society  has increased in the 21stCentury compared to the past. There are no clear answers for why this is happening and it’s a shame to shun someone who had no choice in having this mental illness. A survey was taken for people’s opinion on people with schizophrenia, “about ¾ of the population have a negative attitude towards drug dependency and about 2/3 towards alcohol dependency and schizophrenia, whereas depression finds more sympathy, presumably because more people are familiar with it” (Rössler, W. 2016. p.1251).  

           Along with this comes with the stigma from the community, health professionals and individuals who struggle with schizophrenia. Even though health professionals are supposed to stay neutral with different health cases for different patients, health professionals have stronger negative ethics in relation to people with mental illnesses compared to the mentally healthy population. “Nordt et al interviewed mental health professionals and members of the public about their attitudes towards persons with or without psychiatric symptoms, such as depression or schizophrenia. All interviewed persons showed less desire for social contact with [these people].” (Rössler, W. 2016. p.1251). With more research, it supports that psychiatrists have a strong stigma against schizophrenia. There is so much more supporting evidence of this that no wonder in “Bitter Medicine”, people dismissed Olivier Martini for his schizophrenia. No matter how well Olivier behaved, because of his mental illness, it defined him as a person. It didn’t help with all the stereotypes and quick judgement of schizophrenia that it influenced how people would talk about or judge Olivier. The problem of the stigma was already too big at that point in 1970’s and the people in the past weren’t as open minded about metal illness compared to now.

           A point I’d like to touch on is besides the stigma revolving around the community and medical field, there was self-stigma and family stigma. These were other issues that only people with mental health would experience. When it came to family stigma, it was normal for what the Martini family was going through. It was normal for how the Martini was taking the whole diagnosis and their process of coping with Ben and Olivier’s schizophrenia. It couldn’t be helped that they were feeling guilty for what Olivier and Ben went through.

          Furthermore, there was self-stigma. Self-stigma is when the individual with the mental illness bottles their feelings about the stigma on the mental illness inside. They may have lower self-esteem or lose faith in themselves just like Olivier feels in the book, “Bitter Medicine.” People who experience self-stigma can even have an episode before they are diagnosed. It was a similar experience to Olivier when he was experiencing a few symptoms of schizophrenia. His transition from experiencing the symptoms to being diagnosed is a part of the episode. It is normal for Olivier to feel depressed or even deny the mental illness.

           The issue with mental illness doesn’t get any better compared to the long history of how medical professionals dealt with mentally ill people or how people perceived mentally ill people.  It was trial and error before the 19thcentury. Health professionals didn’t know how to deal with mentally ill people so the old procedures were to cure these people with shock therapy or ice baths for patients until they passed out. There were even blood practices in hopes that it would drain the mental illness out of the person. All these procedures led to many deaths and no one knew how to heal mentally ill people. Asylums were then created for the purpose of mentally ill people. Once asylums were created, some stigma was lifted off of the mentally ill people because there was some hope and places for the patients to stay. That being said, the stigma was still a big problem regardless if there was some hope.

         Eventually surgery became an option to rid of the mental illness that ailed the patients. It was the start of lobotomy. Lobotomy is a type of a surgery when a surgeon creates a cut in the prefrontal cortex or in easier terms, the front of the brain. Then the surgeon would cut the connections in the front of the brain in hopes of taking away the mental illness patients struggled with. When lobotomy seemed to work, it was a popular procedure although quite time consuming until they created a quicker solution called trans-orbital lobotomy. It was a faster version of lobotomy that involved a device like a pencil into the patient’s eye and tapping lightly with a hammer to similarly cut the connection of the front of the brain. This was the darkest method of curing mental illness because although this method was popular too, it wasn’t guaranteed the patient would survive (Leupo, K. (2013). Most patients who did this procedure either died, or needed lifelong care from the doctor because of this dangerous procedure. Many people went through with the quicker solutions and numerous people didn’t survive the procedure. This is one of the worst procedures in curing mental illness in mental illness history.

Doctors and medical professionals didn’t know the right solution still until drug therapy broke through. Considering the history of these past treatments, people in the health field created new anti-psychotic drugs like Thorazine and more. They had created drugs before in the past to try and help patients cope with their mental illness but this time, they got better. Things were looking up for patients because it was working a lot better compared to the other treatments. Prior to drug therapy breaking through, there were overcrowding in numerous asylums all over the country. Overcrowding occurred since there were many mentally ill people and there was still no solution at the time for resolving the mental state of these patients. Finally, they came with the breakthrough of drug therapy that was better than ever.

Due to drug therapy really helping, asylums weren’t needed as much nor mental hospitals. The decline of patients was needed in hospitals or psychiatric wards. This is where Olivier’s issue comes into play. From the breakthrough of drug therapy, the government’s budget on mental hospitals or psychiatric wards weren’t needed as much. Therefore, it made sense why there wasn’t as many available places for patients like Olivier Martini. The budget cuts of mental hospitals and more made it hard for Olivier’s mental illness to be cared for. From the lack of budget to no mental hospitals made patients very limited into what they could get help for. Patients including Olivier had limited resources and places they could stay. The space that was limited in hospitals for individuals like Olivier and on top of the stigma with health professionals as mentioned prior, this was a tough time period for mentally ill people.

Overall, Olivier and Clem’s mental health journey was hard considering the circumstances. The stigma that lingered from the past that carried onto the 1970’s, people still feared mental illness especially schizophrenia due to its bad reputation. On top of the bad reputation, society didn’t accept mental illness to well and health professionals had a worse opinion of mentally ill, especially individuals with schizophrenia. What didn’t help either was how mental illness was being treated because no one knew how to cure it in the first place. To conclude, this was a hard period in time for mentally ill people like Olivier and were quite limited in resources for medical attention for people who struggled with mental illness.

Link to Sources:

Frankenburg, F. (1982, March 12). The 1978 Ontario Mental Health Act in Historical Context. HSTC Bulletin, 6(3), 172 – 177.

Retrieved from doi:10.7202/800144ar

Leupo, K. (2013). The History of Mental Illness. Kathi’s Mental Health Review

Retrieved from http://toddlertime.com/advocacy/hospitals/Asylum/history-asylum.htm

Rössler, W. (2016). The stigma of mental disorders: A millennia‐long history of social exclusion and prejudices. EMBO Reports, 17(9), 1250–1253. http://doi.org/10.15252/embr.201643041

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Part A - Influences

Clem Martini was originally a playwright whose love for playwriting began in high school under the encouragement of his English teacher at Bowness High School in Alberta. After receiving his Bachelor of Fine Arts in playwriting at the University of Calgary in 1980, he went on to study at the National Theatre School in Montreal and became the program’s first graduate in 1982.

While Martini taught drama and playwriting at Wood’s Homes, a residential school and treatment centre for troubled youth in Calgary, he developed a writing style that featured conflicted young characters trying to make sense of their lives and their identities. The youth that Martini met in his fifteen years at the treatment centre were often marginalized members of society, and have lived lives that were often entangled with criminal activity. His writing in plays and novels often explores the relationships of these troubled characters in juxtaposition against the society that has institutionalized them. His writing often chooses the side of the “underdog”, and explores the voices his troubled characters make under the strain of society as seen in Illegal Entry, where these criminalized teenagers break into a house, and must face the reality of potentially being caught in the act, forcing them to contemplate their own choices and actions. Turn Around is another novel by Martini that follows the life of a young person who goes to court to officially divorce her abusive mother.

Clem Martini writes from a conflict theorist’s perspective, as seen in the graphic novel Bitter Medicine: A Graphic Memoir of Mental Illness. Martini examines his own life and family troubles as he copes with two schizophrenia diagnoses in his family, what that meant for their lives, and how people with mental illness often suffer the consequences of a health care system that does not support the programs that help these psychiatric patients or their families.

Martini’s writing style was influenced also in form by his studies of the great playwrights of Ancient Rome, such as Ennius, Pacuvius, and Accius, which explains his stoic style of writing in many of his novels. The Roman comic dramatists, namely Plautus and Terrence were also heavy influences on Martini’s style of writing, which exemplifies his use of dialogue and wit in his plays to incapsulate his audience. A truly well versed and fantastic storyteller.

Links to sources:

Volmers, E. (2018). Author Clem Martini shows the power of ancient comedy with new novel. Retrieved from: https://calgaryherald.com/entertainment/books/author-clem-martini-unravels-the-power-of-ancient-comedy-with-new-novel

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Part A - Works and Awards

         There was a lot of work Clem Martini. Although, there were many works too that Olivier Martini worked together with Olivier. There were limited details on the work of Olivier Martini. In addition, there is a wide range to playwriting work to plays and books he wrote. Also some dates weren’t found for some play written titles and they are old titles before his other famous books or famous written pieces.

Clem Martini Books:

-      ( 1995 ) Something Like a Drug: An Unauthorized Oral History of Theatresports

-      ( 1998 ) The Field

-      ( 2000 ) Turnaround

-      ( 2004 – 2006 ) The Crow Chronicles

-      ( 2004 ) The Mob

-      ( 2005 ) The Plague

-      ( 2006 ) The Judgement

-      ( 2007 ) Four by Four by Four

-      ( 2010 ) Too Late

-      ( 2010 ) Bitter Medicine: A Graphic Memoir of Mental Illness

-      ( 2012 ) Martini with a Twist: 5 Plays

-      ( 2013 ) One Hundred Stories for One Hundred Years

-      ( 2015 ) Upside Down: A Family’s Journey Through Mental Illness

-      ( 2017 ) The Unravelling: How our caregiving safety net came unstrung and we were left grasping at threads, struggling to plait a new one

-      ( 2018 ) The Comedian

Clem Martini Books about Playwriting:

-      ( 2006 ) The Blunt Playwright: An Introduction to Playwriting

-      ( 2009 ) The Playwright: What the First dramatists have to say to contemporary playwrights

-      ( 2014 ) The Ancient Comedians: and what they have to say to contemporary playwrights  

Clem Martini Writing – For Stage:

-      Control

-      The Invention of Music

-      Mouse

-      The Field

-      Swimmers

-      Tag

-      The Mermaids Three Wisdoms (Adapted )

-      Making Friends Influencing People

-      ( 1988 ) The Color of Coal

-      ( 1989 ) The Life History of The African

-      ( 1990 ) Nobody of Consequence

-      ( 1995 ) Exit Othello

-      ( 1997 ) Selling Mr. Rushdie

-      ( 1997 ) Borrow Me

-      ( 1999 ) Turnaround ( co-written with Cheryl Foggo )

-      ( 1999 ) Illegal Entry

-      ( 2000 ) A three martini lunch

-      ( 2004 ) The Replacement

-      ( 2005 ) Afterlife

-      ( 2005 ) The Field Mouse Collection

-      ( 2005 ) The Secret Life of the Octopus

-      ( 2008 ) Conversations with My Neighbour’s Pitbull

-      ( 2008 ) House of Glass

-      ( 2008 ) Up on The Roof

-      ( 2010 ) Bitter Medicine

-      ( 2012 ) Martini with a Twist

-      ( 2012 ) The Devil We Know ( co-written with Cheryl Foggo )

-      ( 2013 ) Jeopardy

-      ( 2017 ) What Brought Us Here ( opera written with composer Arthur Bachman )

Clem Martini Awards:

-       ( 2015 ) ATB Healing Through the Arts Award

-       ( 2014 ) Pierre Berton House, Writer-In-Residence, Writers' Trust of Canada

-       ( 2013 ) Faculty Association Community Service Award

-       ( 2012 ) University of Calgary Common Reading Program Selection, "Bitter Medicine"

-       ( 2011 ) Calgary Book Award for "Bitter Medicine"

-       ( 2011 ) Short listed, Alberta's Favorite Book Award for "Bitter Medicine"

-       ( 2006 ) Short listed, smiThe Red Maple Award for Children's Literature for "The Plague"

-       ( 2005 ) Killam Fellowship recipient, research to develop a text on playwriting

-       ( 2005 ) Short listed, The Red Maple Award for Children's Literature for "The Mob"

-       ( 2005 ) Short listed, The Willow Award for Children's Literature for "The Mob"

-       ( 2005 ) Award of excellence, Writers Guild of Alberta 2005, Killam Foundation resident fellow

-       ( 2005 ) Nomination for the Canadian Library Association Book of the Year Award for Children for "The Mob"

-       ( 2003 ) Television and Screen Institute for Screenwriters, Writing for Young People Award, "The Sitter"

-       ( 2003 ) Short listed for The Betty Mitchell Award for Best New Play, "The Replacement"

-       ( 2002 ) Award of excellence, Writers Guild of Alberta 2002, A Three Martini Lunch

-       ( 2001 ) Short listed for the Governor Generals Literary Award, "A Three Martini Lunch"

-       ( 2001 ) Gwen Pharis Ringwood Award, "A Three Martini Lunch"

-       ( 2001 ) Festival of Ten, Winner, SUNY Brockport University, NY, "Guppies"

-       ( 2000 ) Gwen Pharis Ringwood Award, "Illegal Entry"

-       ( 2000 ) University of Calgary Songwriting Competition, "Take Me There"

-       ( 2000 ) Award of excellence, Writers Guild of Alberta 2000, for Illegal Entry

-       ( 1999 ) Praxis Screenwriting Competition Award Winner, "Before Christmas and After"

-       ( 1995 ) Gwen Pharis Ringwood Award, "Nobody of Consequence"

Olivier Martini Works:

-      His artwork like sketches, painting, and prints displayed at the Mario McGrath Gallery

-      Published in Alberta Views Magazine

-      His art work was included in the Canadian Mental Health’s Copernicus Project

Olivier Martini awards:

-      Calgary Book Award-winning Bitter Medicine: A Graphic Memoir of Mental Illness

-       ( 2010 ) Won, City of Calgary W.O. Mitchell Book Prize

-       ( 2011 ) Won, Alberta Trade Non-Fiction Book of the Year

-       ( 2011 ) Finalist, Alberta Readers’ Choice Award

-       ( 2011 ) Finalist, Wilfrid Eggleston Award for Non-Fiction

-       ( 2012 ) Chosen, University of Calgary Common Reading Program

Link to sources:

Awards. (2018, May 02). Retrieved August 2, 2018, from http://www.freehand-books.com/about/awards

The City of Calgary Announces Shortlist Authors for W.O. Mitchell Book Prize. (2018, April 09).  Calgary

Retrieved August 1, 2018, from https://newsroom.calgary.ca/the-city-of-calgary-announces-shortlist-authors-for-wo-mitchell-book-prize-2018/

Martini, C. (2015). Awards, Launches & Productions. Retrieved August 1, 2018, from http://people.ucalgary.ca/~martini/awards-launches-productions.html

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Part A - Clem Martini’s Career

Clem Martini kicked off his writing career in high school when his English teacher encouraged him to enter one of his short stories into a writing contest. Martini won, and this success started a lifelong career in writing short stories, novels, plays, screenplays, drama and teaching.

Martini pursued higher education at two different institutes, he received a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts in Playwriting at the University of Calgary in 1980, and was the first graduate of playwriting at the National Theatre School in Montreal. After graduation, Martini went on to teach drama and playwriting to troubled youths at an organization called Wood Homes that ran several different programs for at risk youth. He now is the head of the department of Drama at the first school he went to: the University of Calgary.

Clem Martini has received and been nominated for many prestigious awards throughout his career, he is a three time winner of the Alberta Writer’s Guild Drama prize, and has also won the W.O Mitchell award. Martini was nominated for the Governor General’s Literary award in Drama for his book: “A Three Martini Lunch” alongside 3 of his original texts on playwriting. Clem Martini founded the Playwright’s Guild of Canada, of which he was formerly the president.

A Three Martini Lunch by Clem Martini 

<people.ucalgary.ca/~martini/>

<www.annickpress.com/author?Clem_Martini>

<https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/Clem-Martini/>

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Part A - Olivier Martini’s Career

Olivier Martini studied at the Alberta College of Art, and he now lives and works as a visual artist in Calgary, Alberta. Olivier’s drawings, prints and paintings have been featured in the Marion McGrath Gallery as well as Studio Three Gallery. His artwork has also been published in the Alberta Views magazine. Some of Olivier’s works were featured as part of the Canadian Mental Health’s Copernicus project.

With his younger brother,Clem Martini, a successful playwright and nationally acclaimed author, they collaborated on their first book Bitter Medicine. Clem says that he’s always liked Olivier’s drawings and publishing a book together would give his brother’s work exposure, which would hopefully lead to more artistic opportunities in the future. Their collaborative graphic memoir Bitter Medicine earned them a W.O. Mitchell book prize, and their second collaborative graphic memoir, The Unravelling, was a finalist for the same prize.

The Unravelling is a continuation of the story of the Martini family’s struggle with mental illness and the broken Canadian mental health care system. Chronicling the care-taking and care-giving dynamic of the family, and the hardships they faced when Martini’s mother and care-taker is diagnosed with dementia. Olivier was diagnosed with Schizophrenia when he was 26 years of age shortly after his younger brother took his life because of the same disease. Olivier’s published art work addresses his mental illness, the ups and downs of life, including ever-changing family dynamics, and visual journaling of his experience within the Canadian mental healthcare system.

Illustrated portrait of Clem Martini (left) and Olivier Martini (right) by Olivier Martini. 

https://thinairwinnipeg.ca/writers/olivier-martini/

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Part A - Interviews

           There’s limited resources when it comes to interviews of Clem Martini and Olivier Martini. There were some links to a podcast interview for example but some pages on their interviews have been deleted. The existing interviews would be through articles. Otherwise, there are videos talking about the latest book Olivier and Clem wrote together called, “The Unravelling”.

           In the first interview with ucalgary, Casey Blais interviews the two brothers. This interview takes place around when Bitter Medicine has already been released. We as the audience get a perspective on how Olivier and Clem reason for making this book. Creating this graphic memoir was a challenge a form of activism on their part (Blais, 2012 August 2 ). With schizophrenia having such a big stigma, the two brothers wanted to reduce that and make it aware to people. They wanted to let society know their personal struggle with schizophrenia and be more understanding to schizophrenia.

           Speaking of the graphic memoir, the reason why this story was a challenge to make is because of the events that occurred in the book and how personal it was to them. To explaining about losing Ben to schizophrenia to their parents’ getting a divorce and their father’s death was really difficult. For the two brothers having to go back into their memoir to edit it out was difficult. Despite the hardship of making this memoir, they did their best editing the story so readers would understand where the two brothers were coming from with their journey with schizophrenia.

           Overall, you really get to see how the Clem and Olivier were through their responses. Clem spoke more on the behalf of him and Olivier. On the other hand, Olivier probably didn’t speak as much due to his schizophrenia

            Moving onto the second interview, from the Edmonton Journal. The person interviewing the Olivier and Clem is Eric Volmers. The three of them referenced the previous interview with ucalgary. This interview and the other interview speak up on similar points. The similar points that were discussed in this interview was their purpose for making this book and their process of making this graphic memoir.

            The different points that stood out to me was Clem’s view on mental health. His perspective on mental health was how it doesn’t get the recognition it deserves. Due to the revolving stigma still around, mental illness and the big one being schizophrenia, and how the mental health care system hasn’t changed too much. In addition, we get to hear Olivier speak up more in the interview compared to the previous one.

            Olivier touches base on how he was afraid he may become a bottle picker if he didn’t find a job when mentioning how he grew up with his schizophrenia. The topic about finding a job was referenced to their graphic memoir. Another response we get from Olivier is about his feelings about the book after its been released. Since Olivier knows how much attention and success is behind this book, he still afraid of people being judgemental of his and Clem’s story. Regardless of how great the book may be, he can’t help but feel afraid of people’s judgement. On a positive note, Olivier wanted to tell this story because this was the story that needed to be told to spread awareness about mental health.

Link to interviews: 

Blais, Casey. “Q & A With Clem and Olivier.” Sound Sensitivity | Welcome to the University of Calgary, UToday, 2 Aug. 2012

Retrieved from www.ucalgary.ca/news/utoday/august2-2012/conversation

Volmers, Eric. “The Art of Struggle.” PressReader.com - Connecting People Through News, Edmonton Journal, 2 Apr. 2010,

Retrieved from www.pressreader.com/canada/edmonton-journal/20100402/283674000890012

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Part A - Reception and Reviews

            From the Quill & Quire review, “Bitter Medicine” got a great review. The reviewer, Stacey May Fowles made some good points about the book and how amazing this graphic memoir is. With the story of Bitter Medicine, the elements that helped make this graphic memoir so good was the writing, illustration and the connection between the authors and audience.

           The way Clem described the personal events that occurred in Bitter Medicine were heavy topics yet it was a story that needed to be told. With the on-going stigma of mental illness and especially with schizophrenia, it helped the way Clem narrated the story. As Fowles pointed out, he narrated the story that empathizes with Olivier who has schizophrenia and made the audience understand the struggles he went through (Fowles 2010, February 22). Some examples are the delusion that confused Olivier with reality to finding the right drugs for him because it wasn’t guaranteed for a while in the book that they would find the drugs that were needed. From trial and error, for a while Olivier couldn’t get the drugs he needed and there wasn’t a lot of hope considering the medical system then. Being able to empathize with the Martini’s was one of the main points that made this graphic memoir despite the hardships that were told and very personal events that occurred.

           On the topic of empathizing with the audience, he made a great connection with the readers. As the readers understand the situation of the Martini’s, Fowles adds another good point in how when Clem describes his situation in the graphic memoir, it’s as if Clem was confiding with the readers. It was as if we were Clem’s friend’s and hearing him vent to us. This is the kind of connection that made us want to understand and open our minds to other mentally ill people even if Clem personally didn’t experience it.

           Furthermore, in both interviews of Quill & Quire and in the Malahat review, they both point out how the illustrations of Olivier helped get an understanding of schizophrenia. Although we cannot directly understand the perspective of what Olivier is going through with schizophrenia, his illustrations helped open the view of readers. Being able to see this new perspective also helps open the perspective of what it’s like to have schizophrenia. This other connection with drawings also helped being the selling point in Bitter Medicine.

           Overall, the connection between the audience and authors was what made this book so amazing. Even though there were some tough and very personal parts to read through like Clem’s father passing away or the episodes that Olivier had to struggle through, it made this story more inspiring. Olivier and Clem made a great graphic memoir by connecting to their readers and empathizing with their struggles to make an inspirational story.  

Link to Sources:

Fowles. S Bitter Medicine: A Graphic Memoir of Mental Illness. (2010, February 22). Quill & Quire

Retrieved August 2, 2018, from https://quillandquire.com/review/bitter-medicine-a-graphic-memoir-of-mental-illness/

Rushton, C. (2010). Nonfiction Review.

Retrieved from http://www.malahatreview.ca/reviews/173reviews_rushton.html

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Part A - Media Appearances

Clem and Oliver have made multiple appearances in media, as shown in the links below.

https://calgaryherald.com/entertainment/books/new-graphic-novel-depicts-ones-familys-unravelling

https://calgary.ctvnews.ca/real-youth-delivers-bitter-medicine-1.946973

http://www.windsorstar.com/life/Brothers+turn+year+struggle+with+schizophrenia+into/2636345/story.html

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Part B - Plot

 Clem begins the memoir by introducing himself and his family, including his parents and his three brothers Nic, Olivier, and Ben. Nic is the oldest, followed by Olivier, then Clem, and lastly Ben is the youngest. Clem goes on to say that he thought he could predict how his life and the lives of his brothers would map out based on their personalities and interests.

After graduating high school, Ben begins to act strangely and his behaviour shifts. He would stay in his room, sleep excessively, and started to pick arguments. Clem eventually decides it’s time to figure out what’s going on with Ben and confronts him calmly, Ben tells Clem that he had been visited by someone from another world. Clem suggests that Ben should go for a psychiatric assessment at the hospital, but Ben refuses. At one point, he jumps out of a moving car as his mother tries driving him to a psychiatric appointment. Months later, Ben and Liv get into an argument that eventually becomes a fist fight by the train tracks. The next day their mother calls the police and Ben is taken to the hospital against his will. The ordeal is followed by Ben trying to escape multiple times, until his medication is adjusted and he is diagnosed with schizophrenia. Clem continues to visit Ben at the hospital and eventually decides to go on a trip to Europe, and Ben is released from the hospital in the meantime while continuing medication and therapy. While on vacation, Clem receives unexpected news from his mother - Ben has passed away. He had died by suicide. It turned out that he disappeared one day and purchased a gun which he used to kill himself in the basement of their home. Clem describes his family’s reactions to Ben’s death, as they dealt with feeling like they failed.

Later on, Olivier begins to show signs of feeling paranoid and he feels like he is constantly being followed. Clem urges Olivier to seek assistance, and Olivier eventually agreed to go to the hospital after a suicide attempt at a nearby river. Clem goes on to describe psychiatric wards and brings up how he feels like he is in the way during the whole process of taking someone for a psychiatric assessment. Olivier is released from the hospital fairly quickly, and ends up going back based on Clem’s suggestion. He spends months in the hospital before he is released again. In the meantime, Clem’s parents go through a divorce which takes a particularly heavy toll on his father. This leads to his father and Olivier going on hikes together, as he doesn’t want to lose Olivier in the case of a relapse. Olivier was put on prescription drugs which had to be taken a particular way in order to avoid interactions with his other medications. Nic decides to take Olivier on a camping trip with him, which proves disastrous as Olivier’s hallucinations became more intense. This results in Nic taking Olivier directly to the hospital and back to the psychiatric ward again. He is released again after having his medications adjusted. Olivier and Clem would keep in contact by sending each other letters in the mail. Olivier starts job hunting and finds work as a night-duty guard, but quits after a while due to his worsening mental condition. Shortly after, the brothers’ father passes away from a heart attack, causing Olivier to relapse and making Clem realize the nature of mental disorders and how fragile the control is over these illnesses.

Olivier searches for employment again but his condition gets in the way, making him more depressed. Clem goes on to discuss the effects Olivier’s medication has on his life, both positive and negative. Olivier’s medications come with severe side effects, so he is switched from medication to medication. Eventually, Olivier is diagnosed with diabetes. A new medication called Clozapine is recommended to him, but he has to shed thirty pounds before he is able to take it. He begins to watch his diet and exercise and loses enough weight that he can start the new medicine, which proves to be useful for regulating his mood.

Clem finishes off by discussing the maps he had thought out of his brothers’ lives from the beginning of the book, and realizes the flaws in them. He mentions that Olivier is no longer the same person he was when he was younger, but his illness has made him more resilient. Clem and his family experience many hardships, and they learned a lot about each other in the process.

Tablets illustration by Olivier Martini

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Brothers and co-authors Clem Martini (left), and Olivier Martini (right).

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A stylized  portrait  by Olivier Martini. 

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Author, Playwright, and head of the Department of Drama at the University of Calgary, Clem Martini.

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A comic sequence by Olivier Martini featured in the graphic memoir Bitter Medicine.

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Front covers of threeof Clem Martin’s plays: The Plague, The Judgement, and The Mob.

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Front cover of “The Blunt Playwright” by Clem Martini.