Pain proxies, migraine and invisible disability in Renée French’s H Day

Renée French contributes to the growing subgenre of comics about medical issues and disability in her wordless text, H Day. Working with an invisible impairment, migraine, as her subject, French creates separate points of view, connecting them with overlapping imagery and externalizing focalization. Using a traditional iconography of dogs as pain proxies, the work also contributes significantly to larger discussions about agency in the identity politics of invisible disability.