Something Terrible - Autobiographical Comic by Mayday Trippe
Mayday Trippe's autobiographical comic about childhood trauma, survival, and the healing power of superhero stories. Named one of 2013's best comics by Wired.
đź“– Iron Circus Comics • Started 2013
There are comics that entertain you, and then there are comics that save your life. Mayday Trippe’s Something Terrible is firmly in the second category—a slim, 18-page autobiographical masterpiece that uses the language of superhero comics to tell a story of unimaginable trauma and the slow, hard-won journey toward healing.
The story unfolds in muted black-and-white panels washed with a cold blue-gray tint. A young boy, Trippe’s childhood self, struggles under the weight of a terrible secret. The art is stark and minimal—wide panels, silent sequences, every image carefully chosen to convey the loneliness and fear of living with trauma. There’s no graphic depiction of the abuse itself; Trippe trusts the reader to understand through implication, through the spaces between panels, through the way a child’s world shrinks to the size of a single room.
But then, in a sequence that has moved thousands of readers to tears, the comic transforms. The boy steps through darkness and into a breathtaking two-page spread in full color: a world where Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, He-Man, the Rocketeer, Indiana Jones, and countless other heroes stand waiting. Batman places a hand on the boy’s shoulder and says the words Trippe needed to hear: “You’ll be safe here.”
The afterword fills in the facts Trippe’s spare visuals could only imply—the assault by an older teenager, the threat of a gun, the years of silence, and the crushing fear of the “cycle of abuse” theory that haunted them into adulthood. But the comic’s true power lies in its message: that the statistics don’t support that fear, that survivors can and do break the cycle, and that fictional heroes can provide real, life-saving comfort.
Published initially as a webcomic and later picked up for wider distribution by Iron Circus Comics, Something Terrible earned unanimous critical acclaim. Wired named it one of the Best Comics of 2013, and Comics Alliance praised it as a story that “can be read in a handful of minutes but will stay with you for weeks, if not forever.”
Perfect for readers of Alison Bechdel, Chris Ware, and anyone who understands that sometimes the most powerful heroes don’t wear capes—they draw them.
