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. The tense and interrogative relationship between word and image that characterizes the comics genre makes possible David Small’s ironic articulation of sickness as a wordless language. Indeed, the growing catalog of illness autographies attests to the effectiveness of comics in giving individuals the means to express openly and candidly the otherwise silencing and stigmatizing experience of illness. What makes Stitches notable among illness autographies, however, is that it stews in its silence, making the quiet… Read More
MK Czerwiec on Taking Turns: A Medical Tragicomic
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. “TAKING TURNS: AIDS, Oral History & Comics” describes the motivation, process, and challenges of creating a graphic memoir on the subject of AIDS care that incorporates oral and lived history. MK Czerwiec (pronounced sir-wick) is a registered nurse who has been making comics under the pseudonym Comic Nurse since 2000. She has an MA in Medical Humanities & Bioethics and assisted in organizing the June 2011 Comics & Medicine conference in Chicago. She is currently… Read More
Muna Al-Jawad: Using Comics to Explore the Stigma of Being a Geriatrician
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. “I hesitate to introduce myself as a geriatrician. It upsets me to admit this, but it’s true. Although I feel proud of my work and my choice of specialty, I’m slightly embarrassed about announcing it, maybe people won’t respect me as much as say, a cardiologist.” Dr Muna Al-Jawad works as a Consultant Geriatrician at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton. She started drawing comics about 2 years ago. She sees comics as a… Read More
Nye Wright: Things to Do in a Retirement Home Trailer Park When You Are 29 and Unemployed.
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. Nye Wright: Things to Do in a Retirement Home Trailer Park When You Are 29 and Unemployed. “Stigma, Medicine and Community – Comics as a medium of addressing and uniting these three disparate themes.” Aneurin Wright, the author of Things to do in a Retirement Home Trailer Park…When You’re 29 and Unemployed, a forthcoming graphic novel from Myriad Editions, discusses how comics is the perfect medium for addressing three common themes of modern palliative care…. Read More
Simon Moreton on Rethinking the Comics ‘Community’
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. “Making is a social practice.” – Moreton Simon Moreton is a cartoonist, writer and academic geographer based in Bristol. Simon runs Better, Drawn, a blog where people can share stories about experience of long-term mental or physical illnesses in the form of comics. According to Simon, “The aim of this exploratory paper is to unpack a) how the collective constitution of stigma around physical and mental illness unfolds and b) how comics communities can be mobilised… Read More
Brick and Theo Stickley: Depresso or, How I learned to Stop Worrying and Embrace Being Bonkers
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. The stigma surrounding mental health problems continues to be debilitating and destructive. This presentation (performance) aims to challenge negative and stereotypical attitudes through the narrative of the two presenters: one the cartoonist who authored Depresso and the other a mental health academic. There are few books about mental health written in the cartoon genre; Depresso is one of them. The protagonist, Tom Freeman has what might be described as “a breakdown” and the book is… Read More
Nicola Streeten: The Stigma of Mourning for Too Long
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. Nicola Streeten has been working as an illustrator for 15 years. Her first graphic novel, Billy, Me & You, has been published in the UK by Myriad Editions. It first appeared in serialised form in Liquorice Magazine. She is in the final stage of a Master of Research in Art, Architecture and Design degree at The University of Lincoln, her research area is gender and the graphic novel. Nicola is co-director of Laydeez do Comics,… Read More
Katie Green, Lighter than My Shadow
Katie Green speaks on some of the common misconceptions surrounding eating disorders and sexual abuse, drawing on examples from her graphic-memoir-in- progress. Katie’s talk is followed by a Q&A with Andrew Godfrey. Katie Green is a freelance illustrator based in Bristol. She self-publishes a regular zine, the Green Bean, and is currently working on her first graphic novel. Lighter Than My Shadow, a graphic memoir of eating disorders, sexual abuse and recovery, will be published by Jonathan Cape in Autumn 2013. katie@katiegreen.co.uk www.katiegreen.co.uk
Karrie Fransman and The House That Groaned
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. Karrie Fransman is a comic creator who lives in London. Her autobiographical comic strips have been published in The Guardian. Her comic serial, “The Night I Lost My Love” ran in The Times. Her new book, The House That Groaned is available from Square Peg. You can watch a fun video about the book here. You can see more of Karrie’s work at www.karriefransman.com
Andrew Godfrey, Breaking down the poster child syndrome: Autobiographical comics about living with cystic fibrosis
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. “There are people who may think that graphic memoirs about death, disease, and mental health problems…are nothing but depressing affairs. But for me, these memoirs are filled with laughter and hope and paint a much more fully formed picture of what its like to live with illness, better than any poster child can hope to portray. They remind us that even those who are meant to be unemotional, unbiased, and strong, such as doctors, are… Read More