guest post by Natalie Honan Starting medical school, I thought I was entering a field where there was always a right answer: one correct multiple choice option, one specific shape of cell to look for under the microscope, or one certain tried-and-true treatment for most ailments I’d encounter. With lectures focused on basic science, I memorized the protocol for every problem. In the beginning, I didn’t see much of a place for creativity in medical school.  One pandemic, a virtual school year, a handful of major world events, and the first half of my medical training behind me, I was… Read More

guest post by Lenore E. Eklund Once upon a time, expecting parents planned the birth of their daughter just like every other new family. However, circumstances unforeseen around the child’s health lead to a birth unimagined. The reality while having a child in the NICU feels so unbelievable, the way I made sense of our own experience was through retelling our story as a fairytale.  When my daughter, Charlee, was born 2016 she was taken immediately to the NICU. Two weeks prior to her birth, we learned there were some concerns. However, there was no understanding why the conditions were… Read More

The Graphic Medicine International Collective is thrilled by the content and reception of our first online conference! The “UnConvention” as we called it, whose unorthodox theme and form were created in response to the unconventional circumstances in which we are currently living, carried the energy of creative exchange that usually suffuses our annual gathering into 2021 in a different, yet still incredibly inspiring, form. Creators from throughout the world submitted one-minute videos that addressed graphic medicine work in the wide range of our engagements. On Friday, August 13, we began with a half-day session in which we formally introduced the formation of the… Read More

From the closing session of the 2021 Graphic Medicine UnConvention: The 2022 Graphic Medicine Conference will be held in Chicago! Plans are in motion for a terrific hybrid event toward the late middle/end of June. More info to come soon.   Like that new logo? Here’s some early merch!

Sarah Raymond makes comics and learning resources for the educational market. Sometimes she lives in Hamilton, Ontario and other times in a log cabin on Georgian Bay, where she bakes, scribbles comics, bakes some more, and walks Alice the dog. For more art online, visit  https://www.behance.net/sarahraymond4

My name is Alyssa. I go to San Francisco State University, majoring in Japanese with a minor in comic studies. I learned about graphic medicine in one of my classes in comic studies. I became fascinated with it and realized I could make graphic medicine about my experience with suicidal tendencies and ongoing battle with depression.  I wanted to make things to express myself and to reach out to those who might have felt even a little like I did and have them know that they aren’t alone. I’m also painfully shy and awkward, and I find expressing through comics makes… Read More

I’m Charlie Manzano, a student at SF State minoring in comic studies. Melahomos is a comic I wrote this past Spring for a Queer Comics class final. It’s about my experience meeting a fellow young trans person with melanoma during the pandemic, Lex. It shows some of our experiences building a friendship while navigating the medical system and “cancer culture.” It’s about dealing with the ins and outs of navigating facial cancer microaggressions, transphobia in medicine, and a social and medical framework that blames patients for their disease – especially commonly “blameable” cancers, like melanoma. I chose this topic because I… Read More

guest post by Lydia Wysocki, Janice McLaughlin, and Heather Wilson We’re a team of social science researchers (JMcL and LW) and comics creators (HW and LW) who have previously worked with clinical staff to make patient information materials for use in specific clinical contexts (see My MRI!). As a legacy of that work, we wanted to use those experiences to help more people get started with their own creative approaches to patient information. This blog post shares our set of new free resources made with the Great North Children’s Hospital (Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Trust), designed to jumpstart creative approaches… Read More

I’m Melissa Delapp-Ramos, a San Francisco State University student and paraeducator at San Francisco Unified School District. I am studying the Humanities and Comic Studies, but spend most of my time explaining what any of that has to do with working in Special Educaiton.  My favorite part of working as a Paraeducator is managing challenging behaviors from students who were often unable to regulate themselves without support. To do this, I focus on the ‘why’ of the most challenging behaviors I’ve seen. Why does he pee on his desk whenever I ask him to read a book? Why does grandma report… Read More

Working, studying or even navigating the healthcare field can be a rollercoaster on a good day – throw in a global pandemic, and the emotional and physical exhaustion of every community instantly skyrocketed. In this difficult time, it is even more important to understand Compassion Fatigue – also known as the negative cost of caring, when you put a little too much of yourself into caring for others in need, that you lose a part of yourself, along with the ability to feel compassion for others. I created this comic for physiotherapy students during my final year studies – it… Read More