Graphic Medicine – serie

This inaugural volume in the Graphic Medicine series establishes the principles of graphic medicine and begins to map the field. The volume combines scholarly essays by members of the editorial team with previously unpublished visual narratives by Ian Williams and MK Czerwiec, and it includes arresting visual work from a wide range of graphic medicine practitioners. The book’s first section, featuring essays by Scott Smith and Susan Squier, argues that as a new area of scholarship, research on graphic medicine has the potential to challenge the conventional boundaries of academic disciplines, raise questions about their foundations, and reinvigorate literary scholarship—and the notion of the literary text—for a broader audience. The second section, incorporating essays by Michael Green and Kimberly Myers, demonstrates that graphic medicine narratives can engage members of the health professions with literary and visual representations and symbolic practices that offer patients, family members, physicians, and other caregivers new ways to experience and work with the complex challenges of the medical experience. The final section, by Ian Williams and MK Czerwiec, focuses on the practice of creating graphic narratives, iconography, drawing as a social practice, and the nature of comics as visual rhetoric. A conclusion (in comics form) testifies to the diverse and growing graphic medicine community. Two valuable bibliographies guide readers to comics and scholarly works relevant to the field.

“Alice was always beautiful—Armenian immigrant beautiful, with thick, curly black hair, olive skin, and big dark eyes,” writes Dana Walrath. Alice also has Alzheimer’s, and while she can remember all the songs from The Music Man, she can no longer attend to the basics of caring for herself. Alice moves to live with her daughter, Dana, in Vermont, and the story begins. Aliceheimer’s is a series of illustrated vignettes, daily glimpses into their world with Alzheimer’s. Walrath’s time with her mother was marked by humor and clarity: “With a community of help that included pirates, good neighbors, a cast of characters from space-time travel, and my dead father hovering in the branches of the maple trees that surround our Vermont farmhouse, Aliceheimer’s let us write our own story daily—a story that, in turn, helps rewrite the dominant medical narrative of aging.” In drawing Alice, Walrath literally enrobes her with cut-up pages from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. She weaves elements from Lewis Carroll’s classic throughout her text, using evocative phrases from the novel to introduce the vignettes, such as “Disappearing Alice,” “Missing Pieces,” “Falling Slowly,” “Curiouser and Curiouser,” and “A Mad Tea Party.” Walrath writes that creating this book allowed her not only to process her grief over her mother’s dementia, but also “to remember the magic laughter of that time.” Graphic medicine, she writes, “lets us better understand those who are hurting, feel their stories, and redraw and renegotiate those social boundaries. Most of all, it gives us a way to heal and to fly over the world as Alice does.” In the end, Aliceheimer’s is indeed strangely and utterly uplifting.

The zombie craze has infected popular culture with the intensity of a viral outbreak, propagating itself through text, television, film, video games, and many other forms of media. As a metaphor, zombies may represent political notions, such as the return of the repressed violence of colonialism, or the embodiment of a culture obsessed with consumerism. Increasingly, they are understood and depicted as a medicalized phenomenon: creatures transformed by disease into a threatening vector of contagion.The Walking Med brings together scholars from across the disciplines of cultural studies, medical education, medical anthropology, and art history to explore what new meanings the zombie might convey in this context. These scholars consider a range of forms—from comics disseminated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to graphic novels and television shows such as The Walking Dead—to show how interrogations of the zombie metaphor can reveal new perspectives within the medical humanities. An unprecedented forum for dialogue between cultural studies of zombies and graphic medicine, The Walking Med is an invaluable contribution to both areas of study, as well as a potent commentary on one of popular culture’s most invasive and haunting figures.In addition to the editors, the contributors are Tully Barnett, Gerry Canavan, Daniel George, Michael Green, Ben Kooyman, Sarah Juliet Lauro, Juliet McMullin, Kari Nixon, Steven Schlozman, Dan Smith, and Darryl Wilkinson.

The zombie craze has infected popular culture with the intensity of a viral outbreak, propagating itself through text, television, film, video games, and many other forms of media. As a metaphor, zombies may represent political notions, such as the return of the repressed violence of colonialism, or the embodiment of a culture obsessed with consumerism. Increasingly, they are understood and depicted as a medicalized phenomenon: creatures transformed by disease into a threatening vector of contagion.The Walking Med brings together scholars from across the disciplines of cultural studies, medical education, medical anthropology, and art history to explore what new meanings the zombie might convey in this context. These scholars consider a range of forms—from comics disseminated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to graphic novels and television shows such as The Walking Dead—to show how interrogations of the zombie metaphor can reveal new perspectives within the medical humanities. An unprecedented forum for dialogue between cultural studies of zombies and graphic medicine, The Walking Med is an invaluable contribution to both areas of study, as well as a potent commentary on one of popular culture’s most invasive and haunting figures.In addition to the editors, the contributors are Tully Barnett, Gerry Canavan, Daniel George, Michael Green, Ben Kooyman, Sarah Juliet Lauro, Juliet McMullin, Kari Nixon, Steven Schlozman, Dan Smith, and Darryl Wilkinson.

In this meditative, heartbreaking, and unexpectedly comforting book, artist and essayist Judith Margolis tells the story of her mother’s illness, decline, and death through thoughtfully written vignettes, poignant drawings, and poetic, prayerful affirmations.As her mother fights a series of health crises and faces the end of her life, Margolis documents her anxious concern and her father’s turmoil while juggling responsibilities and her own distress. The resulting narrative, told with quiet intensity and candor, bears witness to contentious deliberations over medical decisions, the difficulties of patient care, and the complicated dynamics of family. In this book, designed to imitate a traditional Jewish prayer book, Margolis reminds herself and others caring for a dying parent to “pray”—pray for clarity, pray to stay centered, pray to forgive oneself—as a way of acknowledging and embodying the turbulent emotions involved. Both the form of the book and Margolis’s rendering of the traditions involved in a family death ground Life Support firmly in the Jewish experience, providing a spiritual layer to this honest, realistic narrative that all readers will find inspiring and relevant.Life Support: Invitation to Prayer is a unique testimony to the power of creative response to infirmity and careful documentation during times of personal loss, as well as a loving tribute to family, spirituality, and grief.

Superhero comics reckon with issues of corporeal control. And while they commonly deal in characters of exceptional or superhuman ability, they have also shown an increasing attention and sensitivity to diverse forms of disability, both physical and cognitive. The essays in this collection reveal how the superhero genre, in fusing fantasy with realism, provides a visual forum for engaging with issues of disability and intersectional identity (race, ethnicity, class, gender, and sexuality) and helps to imagine different ways of being in the world.Working from the premise that the theoretical mode of the uncanny, with its interest in what is simultaneously known and unknown, ordinary and extraordinary, opens new ways to think about categories and markers of identity, Uncanny Bodies explores how continuums of ability in superhero comics can reflect, resist, or reevaluate broader cultural conceptions about disability. The chapters focus on lesser-known characters—such as Echo, Omega the Unknown, and the Silver Scorpion—as well as the famous Barbara Gordon and the protagonist of the acclaimed series Hawkeye, whose superheroic uncanniness provides a counterpoint to constructs of normalcy. Several essays explore how superhero comics can provide a vocabulary and discourse for conceptualizing disability more broadly. Thoughtful and challenging, this eye-opening examination of superhero comics breaks new ground in disability studies and scholarship in popular culture.In addition to the editors, the contributors are Sarah Bowden, Charlie Christie, Sarah Gibbons, Andrew Godfrey-Meers, Marit Hanson, Charles Hatfield, Naja Later, Lauren O’Connor, Daniel J. O'Rourke, Daniel Pinti, Lauranne Poharec, and Deleasa Randall-Griffiths.

Superhero comics reckon with issues of corporeal control. And while they commonly deal in characters of exceptional or superhuman ability, they have also shown an increasing attention and sensitivity to diverse forms of disability, both physical and cognitive. The essays in this collection reveal how the superhero genre, in fusing fantasy with realism, provides a visual forum for engaging with issues of disability and intersectional identity (race, ethnicity, class, gender, and sexuality) and helps to imagine different ways of being in the world.Working from the premise that the theoretical mode of the uncanny, with its interest in what is simultaneously known and unknown, ordinary and extraordinary, opens new ways to think about categories and markers of identity, Uncanny Bodies explores how continuums of ability in superhero comics can reflect, resist, or reevaluate broader cultural conceptions about disability. The chapters focus on lesser-known characters—such as Echo, Omega the Unknown, and the Silver Scorpion—as well as the famous Barbara Gordon and the protagonist of the acclaimed series Hawkeye, whose superheroic uncanniness provides a counterpoint to constructs of normalcy. Several essays explore how superhero comics can provide a vocabulary and discourse for conceptualizing disability more broadly. Thoughtful and challenging, this eye-opening examination of superhero comics breaks new ground in disability studies and scholarship in popular culture.In addition to the editors, the contributors are Sarah Bowden, Charlie Christie, Sarah Gibbons, Andrew Godfrey-Meers, Marit Hanson, Charles Hatfield, Naja Later, Lauren O’Connor, Daniel J. O'Rourke, Daniel Pinti, Lauranne Poharec, and Deleasa Randall-Griffiths.

In this beautifully illustrated graphic novel, now translated into English from Dutch, artist Ephameron chronicles her father’s losing battle with early-onset primary progressive aphasia (PPA)—a rare form of dementia that advanced slowly and left him unable to speak or to coordinate his thoughts and actions. A moving sequence of paper collage illustrations layered under text depicts Ephameron’s father’s decline and her family’s experience of caring for him. Compositional techniques combined with image, rhythm, and narrative work both to convey emotion and to frame illness in its context. Unlike other portrayals of dementia, Ephameron’s does not shy away from portraying the brutality of the disease. Us Two Together is a poetic and melancholic depiction of how dementia slowly disintegrates a body.

Culturally powerful ideas of normalcy and deviation, individual responsibility, and what is medically feasible shape the ways in which we live with illness and disability. The essays in this volume show how illness narratives expressed in a variety of forms—biographical essays, fictional texts, cartoons, graphic novels, and comics—reflect on and grapple with the fact that these human experiences are socially embedded and culturally shaped. Works of fiction addressing the impact of an illness or disability; autobiographies and memoirs exploring an experience of medical treatment; and comics that portray illness or disability from the perspective of patient, family member, or caregiver: all of these narratives forge a specific aesthetic in order to communicate their understanding of the human condition. This collection demonstrates what can emerge when scholars and artists interested in fiction, life-writing, and comics collaborate to explore how various media portray illness, medical treatment, and disability. Rather than stopping at the limits of genre or medium, the essays talk across fields, exploring together how works in these different forms craft narratives and aesthetics to negotiate contention and build community around those experiences and to discover how the knowledge and experiences of illness and disability circulate within the realms of medicine, art, the personal, and the cultural. Ultimately, they demonstrate a common purpose: to examine the ways comics and literary texts build an audience and galvanize not just empathy but also action.In addition to the editors, the contributors to this volume include Einat Avrahami, Maureen Burdock, Elizabeth J. Donaldson, Ariela Freedman, Rieke Jordan, stef lenk, Leah Misemer, Tahneer Oksman, Nina Schmidt, and Helen Spandler.Chapter 7, “Crafting Psychiatric Contention Through Single-Panel Cartoons,” by Helen Spandler, is available as Open Access courtesy of a grant from the Wellcome Trust. A link to the OA version of this chapter is forthcoming.

The Algerian War of Independence (1954–62), also known as the Algerian Revolution, was a messy and vicious conflict between France and the Algerian National Liberation Front. Waged primarily in Algeria, it severely traumatized citizens on both sides of the Mediterranean, and it continues to have a troubled legacy to this day. Inspired by real events, this poignantly narrated and beautifully illustrated graphic novel tells the story of this confrontation through female protagonists.Algériennes follows the investigative efforts of Beatrice, the daughter of a French-Algerian War veteran. Beatrice’s father was never able to talk about what he had experienced during the war. Wanting to know more about this part of her family’s history, Beatrice sets off on a voyage of discovery that eventually leads her to Algiers. Along the way, she meets women who recount their experiences during the war. Saïda was a child who made a harrowing escape with her family to France, only to end up in an internment camp. Djamila was a mujahidate rebel who fought alongside the men and witnessed firsthand the barbarity of war. Bernadette was a French woman who refused to leave Algeria after the conflict ended and was ostracized as a pied-noir. Malika was a terrorist bomber fighting on the side of the resistance. Over the course of the narrative, their stories intersect and complete one another, resulting in a powerful and moving picture of what both women and men lived through during the Algerian Revolution—and a clearer understanding of why these events have been, for so many, nearly impossible to discuss.

Founded in 1956, the French psychiatric clinic La Chesnaie is an open and welcoming facility that houses about one hundred people of all ages. It provides traditional forms of care for people with serious mental illness, but it does so in a uniquely supportive environment where patients and caregivers participate equally in the day-to-day operations of the clinic. The driving force of La Chesnaie is the “Club,” a nonprofit organization serving as a liaison between the clinic and the outside world. It arranges cultural and recreational outings for the patients as well as activities like concerts and exhibitions that bring the public to La Chesnaie. As a result, days at the clinic are quite lively and never routine.Author Aurélien Ducoudray and illustrator Jeff Pourquié immersed themselves for a time in the culture of La Chesnaie. Like everyone there, including the patients, supervisors, and caregivers, they took part in the daily chores of the clinic, cooking and cleaning. They participated in group events and even led a comics workshop to teach the residents about their craft. The Third Population is the engaging, inspiring, and often poignantly funny result of this project. The Third Population is a sensitive and uncompromising portrayal of daily life in this singular psychiatric health facility where patients are encouraged to build human relationships in spite of the difficulties that mental illness can pose. As the supervisors and caregivers take part in the daily activities of their patients, differences are erased and empathic bonds are formed, with the result that sometimes it is difficult to distinguish the patients from the caregivers.

Looking at Trauma: A Tool Kit for Clinicians is an easy-to-use, engaging resource designed to address the challenges health care professionals face in providing much-needed trauma psychoeducation to clients with histories of childhood trauma. Developed by trauma therapists Abby Hershler and Lesley Hughes in collaboration with artist Patricia Nguyen and biomedical communications specialist Shelley Wall, this book presents twelve trauma treatment models accompanied by innovative and engaging comics. The models help clinicians provide practical information about the impacts of trauma to their clients—and support those clients in understanding and managing their distressing symptoms.Topics covered include complex posttraumatic stress disorder, emotion regulation, memory, relationship patterns, and self-care. Each chapter features step-by-step instructions on how to use the treatment models with clients; practical educational tips from experienced clinicians in the field of childhood trauma; interactive trauma education comics; a foundational framework focused on care for the provider; and references for further study.Intended for use in therapeutic, clinical, and classroom settings, this book is a valuable resource for all healthcare workers. In particular, social workers, psychotherapists, spiritual care providers, nurses, occupational therapists, psychologists, primary care physicians, and psychiatrists will find this tool kit indispensable.

Mr. Ito’s children act as his informal translators, but his doctor isn’t sure their translations are accurate or complete. Is Mr. Ito getting the medical information he needs?Ten-year-old Hannah arrives for her checkup with a bruised nose and an irritable father. Medical student Melanie is concerned for Hannah’s safety but wary of making accusations without evidence.Dr. Joshi worries that her patient is putting her husband, who is also Dr. Joshi’s patient, at risk by concealing a sexually transmitted disease. How can she act in the interest of both husband and wife without compromising doctor-patient confidentiality?Using the accessible and richly layered medium of comics, this collection reveals how ethical dilemmas in medical practice play out in real life. Designed for the classroom, Clinical Ethics provides an excellent introduction to medical ethics and presents case studies that will spark meaningful discussions among students and practitioners. The topics covered include patient autonomy, informed consent, unconscious bias, mandated reporting, confidentiality, medical mistakes, surrogate decision-making, and futility. The “Questions for Further Reflection” and “Related Readings” sections provide additional materials for a deeper exploration of the issues.Co-created by experts in clinical medicine, ethics, literature, and comics, Clinical Ethics presents a new way for students and practitioners to engage with fundamental concerns in medical ethics.

Mr. Ito’s children act as his informal translators, but his doctor isn’t sure their translations are accurate or complete. Is Mr. Ito getting the medical information he needs?Ten-year-old Hannah arrives for her checkup with a bruised nose and an irritable father. Medical student Melanie is concerned for Hannah’s safety but wary of making accusations without evidence.Dr. Joshi worries that her patient is putting her husband, who is also Dr. Joshi’s patient, at risk by concealing a sexually transmitted disease. How can she act in the interest of both husband and wife without compromising doctor-patient confidentiality?Using the accessible and richly layered medium of comics, this collection reveals how ethical dilemmas in medical practice play out in real life. Designed for the classroom, Clinical Ethics provides an excellent introduction to medical ethics and presents case studies that will spark meaningful discussions among students and practitioners. The topics covered include patient autonomy, informed consent, unconscious bias, mandated reporting, confidentiality, medical mistakes, surrogate decision-making, and futility. The “Questions for Further Reflection” and “Related Readings” sections provide additional materials for a deeper exploration of the issues.Co-created by experts in clinical medicine, ethics, literature, and comics, Clinical Ethics presents a new way for students and practitioners to engage with fundamental concerns in medical ethics.

As we confront the challenges of emerging diseases, environmental health threats, and gaps in health equity, medical professionals need versatile communication tools that help people make informed decisions and engage them in constructive conversations about the health of their communities. This book illuminates the power of comics to meet that need.Graphic Public Health demonstrates the range and potential of comics to address topics such as immunization promotion, outbreak prevention, gun violence, opioid addiction prevention, and climate change. It features the work of acclaimed cartoonists Ellen Forney, David Lasky, and Roberta Gregory, pieces by up-and-coming artists, and comics that Meredith Li-Vollmer produced as a communications specialist for Seattle’s public health department. More than a collection of cartoons, this book connects comics with fundamentals of health communication and discusses why the form can be uniquely effective for these purposes. Each chapter focuses on the use of graphic public health in the context of four specific goals: health literacy, risk communication, health promotion, and advocacy. Li-Vollmer also includes guidance for practitioners getting started in creating comics for any form of public information, and especially for public health.Practical and purposeful, Graphic Public Health is a clarion call for the current era and an invaluable resource for public health professionals and advocates, scholars of comics and graphic studies, and fans of the graphic medicine genre.

In Show Me Where It Hurts, Monica Chiu argues that graphic pathography—long-form comics by and about subjects who suffer from disease or are impaired—re-vitalizes and re-visions various negatively affected corporeal states through hand-drawn images. By the body and for the body, the medium is subversive and reparative, and it stands in contradistinction to clinical accounts of illness that tend to disembody or objectify the subject.Employing affect theory, spatial theory, vital materialism, and approaches from race and ethnic studies, women and gender studies, disability studies, and comics studies, Chiu provides readings of recently published graphic pathography. Chiu argues that these kinds of subjective graphic stories, by virtue of their narrative and descriptive strengths, provide a form of resistance to the authoritative voice of biomedicine and serve as a tool to foster important change in the face of social and economic inequities when it comes to questions of health and healthcare. Show Me Where It Hurts reads what already has been manifested on the comics page and invites more of what demands expression.Pathbreaking and provocative, this book will appeal to scholars and students of the medical humanities, comics studies, race and ethnic studies, disability studies, and women and gender studies.

In Show Me Where It Hurts, Monica Chiu argues that graphic pathography—long-form comics by and about subjects who suffer from disease or are impaired—re-vitalizes and re-visions various negatively affected corporeal states through hand-drawn images. By the body and for the body, the medium is subversive and reparative, and it stands in contradistinction to clinical accounts of illness that tend to disembody or objectify the subject.Employing affect theory, spatial theory, vital materialism, and approaches from race and ethnic studies, women and gender studies, disability studies, and comics studies, Chiu provides readings of recently published graphic pathography. Chiu argues that these kinds of subjective graphic stories, by virtue of their narrative and descriptive strengths, provide a form of resistance to the authoritative voice of biomedicine and serve as a tool to foster important change in the face of social and economic inequities when it comes to questions of health and healthcare. Show Me Where It Hurts reads what already has been manifested on the comics page and invites more of what demands expression.Pathbreaking and provocative, this book will appeal to scholars and students of the medical humanities, comics studies, race and ethnic studies, disability studies, and women and gender studies.

A Tale of Two Surrogates explores the complicated emotional, medical, legal, and ethical issues surrounding assisted reproduction. Based on more than a decade of ethnographic research conducted by a sociologist and an anthropologist, this book presents, in an accessible graphic novel format, the intertwined stories of two fictional women who decide to become gestational surrogates. It immerses the reader in the worlds of Jenn, from California, and Dana, from Tel Aviv, as they decide to become surrogates and make sense of the process, involve their families, and manage their relationships with the intended parents. The experiences of these composite characters highlight various paths, interpretations, and experiences that are common in surrogacy. Interspersed throughout the narrative are short interludes that depict surrogacy in other countries, putting the stories of Dana and Jenn in a more global context.With a substantial scholarly apparatus, including a discussion guide and suggestions for further reading, this entertaining graphic narrative is an excellent tool for classes in graphic medicine, medical ethics, gender and family studies, and medical anthropology. It also offers valuable perspective to anyone involved in the surrogacy process—not only surrogates and intended parents but also medical providers, lawyers, legislators, and family members.

A Tale of Two Surrogates explores the complicated emotional, medical, legal, and ethical issues surrounding assisted reproduction. Based on more than a decade of ethnographic research conducted by a sociologist and an anthropologist, this book presents, in an accessible graphic novel format, the intertwined stories of two fictional women who decide to become gestational surrogates. It immerses the reader in the worlds of Jenn, from California, and Dana, from Tel Aviv, as they decide to become surrogates and make sense of the process, involve their families, and manage their relationships with the intended parents. The experiences of these composite characters highlight various paths, interpretations, and experiences that are common in surrogacy. Interspersed throughout the narrative are short interludes that depict surrogacy in other countries, putting the stories of Dana and Jenn in a more global context.With a substantial scholarly apparatus, including a discussion guide and suggestions for further reading, this entertaining graphic narrative is an excellent tool for classes in graphic medicine, medical ethics, gender and family studies, and medical anthropology. It also offers valuable perspective to anyone involved in the surrogacy process—not only surrogates and intended parents but also medical providers, lawyers, legislators, and family members.

This book invites readers to explore the field of graphic medicine through a new concept: “keywords/keyimages.” Coined by the editors to reflect the unique combination of words and images in comics, this term offers a fresh way to understand how graphic narratives communicate experiences of health and illness. Rather than defining the field, the book aims to demonstrate its range and complexity, offering a visual and verbal resource that reveals the methods, concepts, and politics shaping graphic medicine today.The collection brings together thirty-six contributions from comics artists, scholars, healthcare professionals, and patients, each focused on a single keyword/keyimage. Organized into five thematic sections—practice, pedagogy, process, personal/autobiographical, and politics—the book guides readers through the formal elements of comics, teaching strategies, creative processes, personal storytelling, and the broader health politics at work in the field. With visual examples alongside critical analysis, the volume encourages a “both/and” approach to reading: seeing words and images as interdependent, working simultaneously and sequentially to convey meaning.Designed as a resource for classroom teaching and independent study, Keywords/Keyimages in Graphic Medicine offers students, scholars, and practitioners a dynamic introduction to the study of health narratives in comics. It invites interdisciplinary exploration while providing practical tools for analyzing, teaching, and creating graphic medicine texts, making it a valuable contribution to courses in comics studies, visual culture, health humanities, and beyond.

This book invites readers to explore the field of graphic medicine through a new concept: “keywords/keyimages.” Coined by the editors to reflect the unique combination of words and images in comics, this term offers a fresh way to understand how graphic narratives communicate experiences of health and illness. Rather than defining the field, the book aims to demonstrate its range and complexity, offering a visual and verbal resource that reveals the methods, concepts, and politics shaping graphic medicine today.The collection brings together thirty-six contributions from comics artists, scholars, healthcare professionals, and patients, each focused on a single keyword/keyimage. Organized into five thematic sections—practice, pedagogy, process, personal/autobiographical, and politics—the book guides readers through the formal elements of comics, teaching strategies, creative processes, personal storytelling, and the broader health politics at work in the field. With visual examples alongside critical analysis, the volume encourages a “both/and” approach to reading: seeing words and images as interdependent, working simultaneously and sequentially to convey meaning.Designed as a resource for classroom teaching and independent study, Keywords/Keyimages in Graphic Medicine offers students, scholars, and practitioners a dynamic introduction to the study of health narratives in comics. It invites interdisciplinary exploration while providing practical tools for analyzing, teaching, and creating graphic medicine texts, making it a valuable contribution to courses in comics studies, visual culture, health humanities, and beyond.