Author: Debra Tasevski

When do you grow up?  I’ve often asked myself that question.  Is it 18 that I became an adult?  I don’t know but I don’t think so.  Sure, I’d like to believe that over the years, I’ve become more “responsible”, but apart from that, is there much difference from me then, as a kid, to me now, as an adult “kid”?

When I was a kid, I loved comics.  The reason I loved them is that they took me to another place, like perhaps novels do for those who read them.  For me, I equally loved the pictures, the art – so it was a natural fit.  And, what started as a hobby quickly became a bit of an obsession I must admit.  All the $20 a week working seven mornings I’d make being a paperboy, I spent on comics.  I remember I’d place my orders with Minotaur Books in Melbourne city, and mum would collect my stash during her hurried lunch break.  I’d rush to greet her when she got home.  My eyes would grow wide and gleaming as she took out that familiar brown paper bag out of her larger shopping bag.  And I’d stare at that book in awe.  Sometimes reading it, other times fanatically placing it straight into a transparent plastic bag, storing it in mint condition, as every true collector would appreciate.

I progressed to making my own comics at school.  I still remember being in primary school and selling a few to a friend.  Man, to be paid for producing something I loved doing – that felt really nice.  But it was hard work, and it took a lot of time to produce a comic.  Now, being a junior publisher myself, gave me an increasing respect for the comics I read.

Moving along, I can’t remember exactly when, but I had a peak experience as a child.  In my heyday as a comic enthusiast, I remember reading a particular comic, I believe it to be Spawn, by Todd McFarlane and I loved that art in particular so much that I flipped to the back of the comic, looked up where it was produced in America and penned a letter to the artist, stating exactly that.  That I was from Australia and just how much I loved his work.  Heart beating, I placed the letter in the post box.  Over six months passed and nothing happened, except school.  And then one day, something did happen – I got a letter from America, it was from Todd McFarlane.  He thanked me, and within his package, he sent me some bits of acetate containing rough sketches of his work – indeed, his comic in progress.  As simple as it was, this was one of the most affirming moments of my life.

Fast forward to today, we have a medical company and we’re launching a comic.  Why?  Well simply, because it merges these passions, indeed it gives me the impetus to write this article at 3:40am – so there must be something to it.  Comic characters can be influential.  People love a good hero.  Realising this, I reflected on medical marketing to date, which I have largely found to be either boring or scary or a combination of the two in variable measure.  So, a couple of years ago, I mused upon making posters for kids in the waiting room with a character – Dr Atticus.  It was a mission to believe that kids might be so entertained by the content that they would look up at the poster and actually ask questions about the comic panel, with sufficient curiosity that they would remember the message.  And that that message would help them make healthier choices in their life.  One of my favourite villains still in gestation was “Colossal Roly Poly”, the bad cholesterol.  I guess you could say, Dratticus creamed him!

Over the years, we’ve continued to expand on that thought and water it, and it has grown to reach this point.  Dr Atticus, has become Dratticus and Dratticus is about to be set free onto the real world.  Dratticus is a digital comic, printed comic and indeed real-life doctor superhero that you may actually find walking the streets of Melbourne.  And somewhere there, is a positive health message.  One of hope.

I’d like to thank all the people who have been involved in allowing me to bring this retained childhood passion to the real adult world as it is.  There are many, including my dear wife Nathalie who somehow puts up with living with six kids!

As part of our mission here, we have created a little shop called Dratticus Labs in Melbourne, where we’ll be stocking independent comics, producing Diamond Kind – our video/podcast series focusing on kindness under pressure and selling our healthy energy drink, e15 (that’s another story for another day!). Dratticus Labs then is a realm for the fusion of art, medicine and technology. It’s good to be able to support independent artists since, once again, it really does take great effort, commitment and time to produce a unique comic on a small scale and it can be considerably lonely on that path as life heckles you, sometimes daily, to relinquish creative risk.

And if it so happens then, that the whole affair – Dratticus – inspires a “kid” or two along the way, no matter their age, gives them reason to “have a go”, to dream, the permission to be themselves and the inspiration to be healthy, well then, it’s worth it.

I was brought up in a busy, “spirited” family, where education and hard work was promoted to be the sure-fire way to “success”, the definition of that itself, not quite being so clear to me then. Being born in one of the poorest places in the world at the time, I can fully appreciate how this family ethos could have emerged.

In Australia, our backdoor was a typical, middle suburban type. A mission brown hollow, at a stretch semi-solid core with a textured opaque windowpane in the top half. But that’s where the resemblance to any typical backdoor ended. On its window there was a sticker. Bold black text, fluorescent background, it read – “If it is to be, it is up to me”. And every day, whether you liked it or not, before school, after school, anytime you crossed that way, you subconsciously absorbed that very mantra.

Self-belief. It’s a powerful thing.

Now the next question is, if “what” is to be? What do you want to make happen? I reckon I saw that sign too much, and a spirit of challenging the status quo, wherever I looked, beset me. I don’t even think I choose such a disposition as much as it feels like it became mine to own. I can’t help but want to change things where I see things that could benefit from change. If it is to be, it is up to me.

On a given day though, all of that has led me to simply think so much. Being a “doer” led me to want to do so much – to change things for the “better”, at least as far as my values can ascribe.

Yet like many people, I too seek to reconcile this with “the simple life”. I wish I could be “satisfied” with thinking less and doing less. I truly sometimes wish I could. That would give me more time to focus on things that are close to me, like my family, indeed. I love my family.

How do I do both?

And so, torn between these things, I feel pressure. Immense pressure sometimes. I feel pressure to be the best husband, the best father, the best son, the best doctor, the best leader, the best everything – I can be. If it is to be, it is up to me. That’s a personal mission, and pressure is the landscape it is set in.

Now from my writings so far and perhaps my life played out so far, it may become apparent that I don’t mind the pressure. In fact, I can say that I relish it. And the reason I relish it is because I believe in the quote, “Pressure makes diamonds”. Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing macho about this, rather just that through pressure, I’m forced to make important decisions, and I find challenge and purpose in that – having to make choices. Through pressure, I discover things about myself and the world around me. In the moment.

Getting back to basics though, I reflect on family violence, and consider how much of that “pressure” associated with being “busy” that I’m a part of, contributes to the problem. Pressure brings the best and worst out of people. Family violence could be the worst. In the heat of a moment of pressure, we say things, we do things, that we may not mean to. That we later regret. And it’s not limited at all to our family. It may be at work, on the road, in the supermarket. Pressure can drive us to be aggressive and abusive.

Now, whilst I don’t mind pressure (pressure makes diamonds), I have always lamented at any times I myself have been aggressive as a consequence. Always.

The flip side is that during moments of great pressure, adrenaline often naturally flowing, when I’ve overcome any impulse to be aggressive, and made it through to the “other side”, and treated the world around me with gentleness and understanding, I’ve felt a sensation of calmness and mastery that sometimes made me literally shiver. I considered, metaphorically, that the pressure had made me the ultimate diamond. A kind diamond. That I had in fact become “Diamond Kind”.

I don’t know if I’m alone in my thinking. But I know that there is a lot of pressure out there, sometimes self-imposed, sometimes not. And I know that there’s a lot of aggression that comes out of that pressure. May I say, not just for men, rather – for anyone who is under pressure.
And so, I’d welcome anyone who has become a diamond under pressure, dare to be the sharpest diamond of all, cut through aggression, and emerge – Diamond Kind.

And that brings us to our critical junction. We are about to embark on a movement, interviewing anyone, man or woman, young or old, who can relate a moment in their life, that they were under pressure and chose to be Diamond Kind. So, if you know of anyone who fits the bill, who you believe is Diamond Kind – please email me – fgomes@atticushealth.com.au. We’d truly love to speak to them and share their moment.