Madison Clell is a Portland-based writer and artist who lives with a condition known as Dissociative Identity Disorder (more commonly referred to as Multiple Personality Disorder). She has published ten issues of an autobiographical comics series titled Cuckoo.

Though the comic has a limited print run—a couple thousand copies an issue at most—it has received an unusual amount of attention and praise.

• Andrew Vachss, an attorney whose only clients are children and the author of more than a dozen crime-fiction novels, says, "Cuckoo is an amazing, evocative work."

• Wired magazine reviewed Cuckoo, writing "Clell writes and draws from the gut, spilling intimate stories and stark, raw artwork on every page."

Madison’s goal with Cuckoo is to shed some light on living with multiple personality disorder. "If all you know about multiple personality disorder is from Sybil and Three Faces of Eve, you probably don’t have a very human picture of the condition," said Madison. "That’s why I write Cuckoo, to show the what, how, where, why, and who of living as a multiple. The comics are true stories ranging from the serious to the very silly–for example, how does one deal with an alternate personality who only speaks Italian? How is it possible to balance a checkbook when multiple bank accounts keep mysteriously opening and closing? I present the material in an entertaining fashion so that people want to read it—it’s a Trojan horse."

From author/illustrator Madison Clell:

Cuckoo started out as an elaborate sci-fi/fantasy world, generated inside my seven-year-old mind and taking form as obsessive games and daydreams. Over the years this fantasy developed an extensive plot and cast of characters, some of whom seemed so tangible I believed they were real people. Every year I vowed to record this world in "The Epic Novel"—having no idea how to begin such a project, of course! From age seven onwards I made many attempts at the novel, but always after either one page, or three, or twenty, I quit, feeling frustrated and correctly assuming that my writing stank! When my best friend introduced me to comic books, I decided to change "The Epic Novel" into "The Epic Graphic Novel." I had no idea how to draw comics, but blindly hoped if I read enough comic books and still slacked off learning visual skills, this art form would be mastered though osmosis.

Thirteen years later, "The Epic Graphic Novel" by then engraved in the far reaches of my skull, I entered therapy for hallucinations, flashbacks, lost time, and speaking in strange voices. After a year of intensive therapy and the usual denial over the diagnosis of Dissociative Identity Disorder, a lightning bolt struck. My "Epic Graphic Novel," my "fantasy world," wasn't make-believe at all! It was a gigantic metaphor for my fragmented, dissociated mind, complete with alters cast as "fantasy characters" and worlds where the power to erase the lives and memories of other people was considered the ultimate weapon. After thirteen years of compulsive make-believe, the Fantasy turned out to be REAL!

Cuckoo is the real-life "Epic Graphic Novel." Many wonderful people have stuck their necks out for this project, and I've met and corresponded with numerous multiples and "singleton" readers around the world. As a result of years in therapy, and creating these comics, I am now almost integrated.

My tremendous thanks go to all who have helped, all who have reached out and written me, and everyone who has shown an interest in Cuckoo. Your participation has been and will continue to be appreciated far more than you know.

Cuckoo will continue to be published until "The Epic Story" is finished.