Brittle Joints: Comics About Living With A Rare Disability

My name is Maria Sweeney. I was born in Moldova and currently I am living in New Jersey. I am a freelance illustrator and comics artist. I graduated magma cum laude from Moore College of Art and Design with a BFA in Illustration. My comic series "Brittle Joints" won a Massachusetts Independent Comics Expo Mini-Grant in 2018.

I have worked extensively in digital, oils, watercolors, and other traditional mediums. Aside from illustrating my current project, In A Rut Comics, I write and self-publish comics relating to my own experience of navigating the world with a rare disability.

When I'm not reading or skething comics, I love snuggling with my tiny dog named Bambi.

More info: inarutcomics.bigcartel.com

Brittle Joints is a collection of stories based on my experience as a person living with a very rare disability. Autobiographical vignettes demonstrate the sometimes uncomfortable, and often unspoken aspects of a disability, as well as the “good days” that gave me the most autonomy and independence. Short stories include topics about navigating relationships, social struggles, transportation, lack of accessibility and commonly misunderstood elements of disability culture. Other stories seek to capture the mental strains that accompanies living with a physically restricting disability. Brittle Joints is an effort to shed light on disabled representation in literature and comics alike