My Brain Hurts is a series of ten comics written and drawn by Liz Baillie

Liz Baillie

Liz Baillie is an American cartoonist and illustrator. She graduated from the School of Visual Arts in 2002, with a major in cartooning. Her work includes the ten-issue mini series My Brain Hurts and the internet comic, since collected into a trade, Freewheel...

 and published in 2007 by Microcosm Publishing

Microcosm Publishing

Microcosm Publishing is an independent publisher and distributor based in Portland, Oregon and Leavenworth, Kansas. They distribute ideas through zines, books, pamphlets, stickers, buttons, patches, t-shirts, posters, videos, and more. They publish zine and book works by others in the hopes that it...

. It followed the lives of several queer

Queer

Queer is an umbrella term for sexual minorities that are not heterosexual, heteronormative, or gender-binary. In the context of Western identity politics the term also acts as a label setting queer-identifying people apart from discourse, ideologies, and lifestyles that typify mainstream LGBT ...

 teenage punks living in New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

. It was notable for its overt politics (for example, a sticker shown on the cover of My Brain Hurts: Volume One reads 'STOP BUSH') and for its frank depiction of teenage sex

Sex

In biology, sex is a process of combining and mixing genetic traits, often resulting in the specialization of organisms into a male or female variety . Sexual reproduction involves combining specialized cells to form offspring that inherit traits from both parents...

, drinking and drug abuse

Drug abuse

Substance abuse, also known as drug abuse, refers to a maladaptive pattern of use of a substance that is not considered dependent. The term "drug abuse" does not exclude dependency, but is otherwise used in a similar manner in nonmedical contexts...

. It also referenced many punk and queercore

Queercore

Queercore is a cultural and social movement that began in the mid-1980s as an offshoot of punk. It is distinguished by being discontent with society in general and its rejection of the disapproval of the gay, bisexual, and lesbian communities and their "oppressive agenda"...

 bands less known to mainstream audiences, such as Crass

Crass

Crass are an English punk rock band that was formed in 1977, which promoted anarchism as a political ideology, way of living, and as a resistance movement. Crass popularised the seminal anarcho-punk movement of the punk subculture, and advocated direct action, animal rights, and environmentalism...

, Limp Wrist

Limp Wrist

Limp Wrist is an American hardcore punk band featuring members of Los Crudos, Hail Mary, Devoid of Faith, and Kill the Man Who Questions. Playing short, fast hardcore punk-styled music, the band touches upon themes concerning the LGBT community in their live performances and lyrics. They identify...

, The Haggard and Team Dresch

Team Dresch

Team Dresch is an American punk band from Portland, Oregon, originally formed in Olympia, Washington, which was initially active from 1993 until 1998. The band made a significant impression on the do-it-yourself movement queercore, which gave voice through zines and music to the passions and...

. The series was collected into two trade paperbacks.

Characters

• Kate Callahan: The main protagonist of the story, thirteen year old Kate begins to question her sexuality early on, and through the series comes to accept it.
• Joseph Augustus 'Joey' Kaiser Jr.: Kate's best friend, Joey attempts to teach Kate to embrace her sexuality , as he has his. He is promiscuous and drinks heavily.
• Verona: An older teenager known for her promiscuity. It is Verona's kiss during a drunken game of spin the bottle that causes Kate to question her sexuality. She and Kate enter into a casual relationship following this kiss, but it ends when Verona kisses an man at a gig.
• Desdemona 'Desi' Machado: A girl who attends the same Gay-Straight Alliance meeting as Kate. The two hit it off and become girlfriends, but split up when Desi's religion and reluctance to sleep with Kate get between them..
• Nate: A skinhead
  Skinhead
  A skinhead is a member of a subculture that originated among working class youths in the United Kingdom in the 1960s, and then spread to other parts of the world. Named for their close-cropped or shaven heads, the first skinheads were greatly influenced by West Indian rude boys and British mods,...
  
   with anger management issues who takes a shine to Kate. After she rejects him and Joey blows him a kiss
  Kiss
  A kiss is the act of pressing one's lips against the lips or other body parts of another person or of an object. Cultural connotations of kissing vary widely. Depending on the culture and context, a kiss can express sentiments of love, passion, affection, respect, greeting, friendship, and good...
  
  , a group of his friends beat Joey so badly that he ends up in a coma. He gets help for his anger issues but is reluctant to turn himself in to the police to clear Joey's father's name of beating his son. Eventually he does, and becomes something of a reformed character.
• Joseph Augustus Kaiser Sr.: Joey's father. Although he is initially very intolerant of Joey's sexuality, and resorts on one occasion to violence towards him, he cares deeply for his son and is appalled at the suggestion that he beats Joey.

Collected Editions

• My Brain Hurts: Volume One: Collects issues 1-5. Thirteen year old Kate begins to question her sexuality after a drunken kiss with Verona at a party. She begins a tentative relationship with her, but this ends when she catches Verona kissing an older man at a gig. She dumps her and later meets Desi at a Gay-Straight Alliance at school. The two of them begin a relationship and Kate comes out to her mother, who is very accepting. Joey comes out to his father, who gives him a black eye and, when Joey attempts to steal his wallet, injures his arm
  Arm
  In human anatomy, the arm is the part of the upper limb between the shoulder and the elbow joints. In other animals, the term arm can also be used for analogous structures, such as one of the paired forelimbs of a four-legged animal or the arms of cephalopods...
  
  . Joey lives rough for a while, before making an uneasy peace with his father and moving back home. He is then beaten by a group of skinhead
  Skinhead
  A skinhead is a member of a subculture that originated among working class youths in the United Kingdom in the 1960s, and then spread to other parts of the world. Named for their close-cropped or shaven heads, the first skinheads were greatly influenced by West Indian rude boys and British mods,...
  
   youths and falls into a coma
  Coma
  In medicine, a coma is a state of unconsciousness, lasting more than 6 hours in which a person cannot be awakened, fails to respond normally to painful stimuli, light or sound, lacks a normal sleep-wake cycle and does not initiate voluntary actions. A person in a state of coma is described as...
  
   whilst giving an interview for an exclusive Catholic
  Catholic
  The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
  
  school. At the end of the volume, he is just beginning to awaken from it.
• My Brain Hurts: Volume Two: Collects issues 6-10. The series concludes. Kate and Desi argue over religion and Desi's reluctance to sleep with Kate, eventually breaking up. Joey leaves home permanently and ends up a barman.