Hardcore Happiness: A Graphic Journey to Find Punk’s Positivity

When you listen and scream along to your favorite punk or hardcore band, does that help your mental health or reinforce your frustrations? Artist Reid Chancellor leads us on a tour through hardcore musicians that have struggled with mental health--and written about it in their songs. In this standalone graphic novel, Chancellor picks up the discussion he began in Hardcore Anxiety, in an engaging narrative that will be deeply relatable to anyone grappling with identity, fear, and loss in the mosh pit. If you’re considering supplementing your headbanging sessions with therapy and medication, or if you just want to read about the music scene you love from a unique angle, Hardcore Happiness can help you find your way. Punk opens the door to speaking out about mental health issues, but it doesn’t always encourage you to walk through the door and get help. Chancellor props that door open with humor and vulnerability, asking the question, ＂Why aren’t there more hardcore songs about seeing your therapist?＂ That’s a song we all might need to hear.

Reid Chancellor is an artist and illustrator from Owensboro, KY. His previous work includes Hardcore Anxiety: A Graphic Guide to Punk Rock and Mental Health(2019) from Microcosm Publishing and Rock and Roll Terrorist (2020) also from Microcosm. He Kickstarted and self published Summer Vacation (2023), his first long-form fiction work. When he is not creating comics he is an established illustrator for gig posters and screen printing. He has been fortunate to work with artists like Descendents, Melvins, and Violent Femmes. As a kid he dreamed of playing music in front of millions of people, now he is perfectly happy reading, writing, and drawing comics with his wife and two cats by his side.