In this entertaining, reflective, and insightful talk from his workshop at the 2105 Comics & Medicine conference, doctor and New Yorker staff cartoonist Ben Schwartz tracks the history of doctors, medicine, and health as reflected in the single-panel gag cartoons of the New Yorker Magazine. He also shares reflections from a few fellow New Yorker cartoonists on medicine in comics, and tips for making a gag comic of your own. Keep an eye on your screen, there are over 200 comics in this presentation! If your browser supports Quicktime, you can watch it in the first window below. If it… Read More
Extended Deadline: Call for Graphics: Staying Human During Residency Training, UK edition.
Alan Peterkin’s book, “Staying Human During Residency Training-How To Survive and Thrive After Medical School” (University of Toronto Press) will be going into a sixth edition in the US/Canada and a new, fully revised UK edition next year (co-edited by Alan Bleakley). Alan wants to include some graphic panels about the medical training experience-positive encounters/conflicts and stressors/reflections on the overall experience and is open each chapter with one or two panels or even one provocative illustration. Submissions can be sent to this email = allan.peterkin@utoronto.ca . Folks should indicate that the submitted work is original and that they authorize inclusion in both US/UK versions of… Read More
New Podcast: Joyce Farmer and Paul Gravett in Conversation
“I put something amusing in every two pages.” – Joyce Farmer “Every exit should be special.” – Paul Gravett The last session from our 2012 Comics & Medicine conference in Toronto presents the magnificent Joyce Farmer in conversation with Paul Gravett. They discuss her long career making comics on medical themes, from “Tits & Clits” to “Abortion Eve” to Special Exits. 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 featured image for the podcast is a crayoned self-portrait Joyce did during Michael Green and… Read More
Comics & Representing Shared Experience
Panel 16 from the Toronto Comics & Medicine conference. This panel is moderated by Ian Williams. 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. Mita Mahato (These Frames Are Hiding Places) is an Associate Professor of English at the University of Puget Sound where she teaches courses in contemporary Visual and Cultural Studies. Her scholarship explores the reception of illness stories across several narrative forms, including comics and blogs. She also makes comics and likes cutting things up. She writes of her presentation,… Read More
New Podcast: Comics & Representation
Panel 14 from Toronto features two presenters, Ian Williams and Andrew Godfrey. 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. Ian Williams is a comics artist, physician and writer. He has studied Medicine, Medical Humanities and Fine Art and he originated the website GraphicMedicine.org, coining the term that has been applied to the interaction between the medium of comics and the discourse of healthcare. You can see learn more about his work here. He writes of his presentation, “Radical visions: The iconography of… 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
New Podcast: Comics & Producing Identity
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. This Toronto conference panel is moderated by Ian Williams. Managing difference through graphic cancer narratives, Juliet McMullin, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Riverside A common refrain in cancer disparities research states that while cancer mortality rates have dramatically decreased over the past decade, these gains have not accrued evenly across populations. Yet, there is little surprise in the findings of difference in cancer mortality rates. Cancer has always been about difference; difference in cells, in… Read More
New Podcast: Graphic Fiction
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. This panel from the 2012 Toronto Comics & Medicine conference was moderated by Shelley Wall. First up is Steven Bergson, an administrator in the Research Department of UJA Federation of Greater Toronto and Vice-President of the Ontario chapter of the Association of Jewish Libraries. He also maintains three blogs on the subject of the representation of Jews and Israelis in comix, including this one. Of his presentation, “From Ivanhoe to Rex Mundi: Jews and Medicine in Comic Books, Comic… Read More
New Podcast: Comics & Caregiving
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. Our eleventh panel from Toronto and they just keep getting better and better! I, MK, had the honor of moderating this panel and am quite pleased to revisit and post it here. The first speaker is Michelle N. Huang, a Master’s Student and University Graduate Fellow at The Pennsylvania State University. Her research interests include disability studies, war literature, and cultural studies in the twentieth century. She writes of her paper, The “Good Enough Daughter”… Read More
New Podcast: Comics in Medical Practice
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. On this panel from Toronto, we’ll hear four great speakers. Unfortunately the audio starts slightly into Courtney’s presentation, but one can catch up quite quickly. First up is Courtney Donovan. Courtney is an assistant professor in the Department of Geography and Human Environmental Studies, San Francisco State University. Of her presentation, Visualizing Medical Data Through Graphic Novels, she writes, In more recent years, there has been a burgeoning interest in graphic novels exploring health and medical themes…. Read More