Dr. Yemi Sanusi writes fictional stories about the internal workings of the human body so that people can learn more about what goes on in their bodies in a fun way. In 2011 she published a book, Heads and Tales, which focused on malaria. “When a young cell, Bain, is sent by the mother-body to take command of the yet-to-be-born baby Eva, his limited experience makes him unsure of what to expect. Faced with the daily challenges of maintaining a healthy human body, he has a lot more to contend with when intruders like bacteria and malaria agents invade his… Read More
Annals of Internal Medicine: Betty P.
Prof. Michael Green of Penn State Medical School, who edits the Graphic Medicine section of the Annals of Internal Medicine, has contributed his second comic strip to the series. Illustrated by Ray Rieck, Betty P. examines the ethics of cardiopulmonary resuscitation coding in patients with a terminal prognosis. Michael initiated the innovative comics course at the Hershey Medical School, which has proven very popular among students. He is a member of the steering committee of the annual Comics and Medicine conferences. Click on the image or read the strip here.
Iggy and The Inhalers: asthma education through comics
Longtime collaborators in Graphic Medicine, Alex Thomas and Gary Ashwal have had their asthma education comic, Iggy and The Inhalers, printed. Graphic Medicine is eagerly awaiting a copy. In the mean time, the collaborative duo have put the whole thing online here. The website teaches kids with asthma about asthma symptoms, asthma treatment, and asthma medications using comics, videos, and free downloads. Considering he is a board-certified pediatric allergist, and has spent a good deal of his adult life treating sick children, Alex Thomas, MD is a ridiculously good draughtsman. I’m jealous of his drawing skills. Gary and Alex… Read More
George McBean – Where to Draw the Line.
George McBean has been producing work for UNICEF for over 36 years, using his skill in the popularising of scientifically proven health information to produce graphic art to be used in the prevention of disease. He has spoken widely about the use of comics and graphics in health education. It is clear that George was involved in the work that we have, latterly, called Graphic Medicine, for many years, way before this website was launched and it was marvellous to hear from him when he got in touch after reading the recent BBC article. George was kind enough to write the… Read More
Dr Kwak has gone Quackers
Kun Kwak is a F2 doctor in Ophthalmology at Manchester Royal Infirmary. He is writing a comic called Dr Quack about his experiences as a junior doc. He contacted me to find out more about Graphic Medicine and we met up and chatted over a coffee. He hails from Korea and his comics, illustrated by a friend, are rendered in a manwha style. Last week he gave a presentation at the Grand Round in the hospital and blew the judges away, winning first prize. See the report of his presentation here. See Kun’s work on Facebook.
Look Straight Ahead
Elaine Will is a Canadian cartoonist who just completed a graphic novel entitled ‘Look Straight Ahead’ about a teen boy’s struggle with depression/bipolar disorder. You can read it online here, for the time being: http://blog.e2w-illustration.com It’s been getting rave reviews…Kevin Bramer of Optical Sloth said “for a first graphic novel, it’s damn near perfect” and that it was “required reading for anyone who knows someone dealing with mental illness.” It’s also in the current Diamond Previews catalogue. If it gets enough orders, it will be officially released in print form in November. Elaine is also planning another graphic novel that… Read More
Invisible Injury
Thanks to Andrew Godfrey for flagging up this comic about PTSD. Click on the image to follow the link.
Med Comic
Jorge Muniz is the artist/author of “Med”, an educational webcomic for any student in the field of medicine. Short, single panel snippets of information to enable students to remember vital information. He updates the comic at least once a week
Whizzkids United
Dr Lisa El Refaie has set up a collaborative project between Cardiff University’s Centre for Language and Communication Research and South African charity Whizzkids United, to produce a comic book in which teenagers tell their own stories to support HIV/AIDS education. The charity’s main programme involves using football training as a metaphor for how to keep safe from HIV, but they wanted to find new ways of attracting young people to their Health Academy, which offers counselling, HIV tests, and general social and medical support. Together they decided to run a series of comics drawing workshops, so that… Read More
New Podcast: Comics & Medicine in the Mainstream
This is Panel 13 from last summer’s Comics & Medicine conference in Toronto. In this episode we will hear from three speakers in two presentations. Both will address medically-relevant themes as they have appeared in mainstream media comics. Use the Quicktime player above to view images along with the audio. If you don’t have Quicktime, you can listen to the audio-only version below. “Facing” illness: what the “funnies” can teach us about caregiver role, response, and needs Sarah Russe and Judith Kaplan-Weinger An overt focus on the effects of illness is still rare in mainstream syndicated comics. One of the… Read More