• Home
  • About
    ▼
    • What is Graphic Medicine?
    • Graphic Medicine International Collective
      ▼
      • GMIC Board Resources
    • Website Team
    • Related Sites
      ▼
      • Medicina Grafica
      • Japanese Graphic Medicine Association
      • Graphic Medicine Italia
      • Pathographics
  • Latest
    ▼
    • News
    • The Graphic Medicine Award
    • The Drawing Together Archive
    • Frontline Workers Comics Project
    • Spotlight Archive
  • Reviews
    ▼
    • All
    • Editor’s Picks
    • Graphic Novels
    • Educational
    • Manga
    • Write A Review!
  • Conferences
    ▼
    • 2023 Toronto Conference
    • 2022 Chicago Conference
    • 2021 UnConvention (Virtual) Conference
    • 2020 Toronto Conference
    • 2019 Brighton Conference
    • 2018 Vermont Conference
    • 2017 Seattle Conference
      ▼
      • Home
      • Program
      • Registration (NOW CLOSED)
      • Lodging in Seattle
      • 2017 Seattle Conference Sponsors
      • Call for Art
      • Press/Media Inquiries
    • 2016 Dundee Conference
    • 2015 Riverside Conference
    • 2014 Baltimore Conference
      ▼
      • Home
      • Program 2014
        ▼
        • Program 2014
        • Keynote Speakers 2014
        • Marketplace 2014
        • Juried Exhibit 2014
        • Call for Papers 2014 (closed)
      • Accommodation & Travel 2014
        ▼
        • Accommodation & Travel 2014
        • Additional hotel suggestions
      • Sponsors 2014
      • Baltimore Restaurants & Attractions
      • FAQs 2014
      • Registration 2014 (closed)
    • 2013 Brighton Conference
    • 2012 Toronto Conference
    • 2011 Chicago Conference
    • 2010 London Conference
  • MultiMedia
    ▼
    • Podcasts
    • A Graphic Medicine Conversation with Sam Hester
    • Graphic Medicine Video Archive
    • Graphic Medicine Exhibits
  • Resources
    ▼
    • The Peter James Burns Scholarship Fund
    • Essential Graphic Medicine: An Annotated Bibliography
    • COVID-19 Comics
    • Reproductive Freedom Comics
    • Frontline Workers Comics Project
    • The Drawing Together Archive
    • National Library of Medicine Graphic Medicine Exhibit
    • Liaison Program
    • Publishers
    • RESEARCH
    • TEACHING
    • GRAPHIC MEDICINE CONFAB ARCHIVE
  • Merch/Support
    ▼
    • Bookshop Store
    • 2021 Un-Convention MERCH
    • 2022 Conference Merch
    • RedBubble Store
    • DONATE
  • Contact
    ▼
    • Contact Form/Email
    • Social Media
Graphic Medicine
  • Home
  • About
    • What is Graphic Medicine?
    • Graphic Medicine International Collective
      • GMIC Board Resources
    • Website Team
    • Related Sites
      • Medicina Grafica
      • Japanese Graphic Medicine Association
      • Graphic Medicine Italia
      • Pathographics
  • Latest
    • News
    • The Graphic Medicine Award
    • The Drawing Together Archive
    • Frontline Workers Comics Project
    • Spotlight Archive
  • Reviews
    • All
    • Editor’s Picks
    • Graphic Novels
    • Educational
    • Manga
    • Write A Review!
  • Conferences
    • 2023 Toronto Conference
    • 2022 Chicago Conference
    • 2021 UnConvention (Virtual) Conference
    • 2020 Toronto Conference
    • 2019 Brighton Conference
    • 2018 Vermont Conference
    • 2017 Seattle Conference
      • Home
      • Program
      • Registration (NOW CLOSED)
      • Lodging in Seattle
      • 2017 Seattle Conference Sponsors
      • Call for Art
      • Press/Media Inquiries
    • 2016 Dundee Conference
    • 2015 Riverside Conference
    • 2014 Baltimore Conference
      • Home
      • Program 2014
        • Program 2014
        • Keynote Speakers 2014
        • Marketplace 2014
        • Juried Exhibit 2014
        • Call for Papers 2014 (closed)
      • Accommodation & Travel 2014
        • Accommodation & Travel 2014
        • Additional hotel suggestions
      • Sponsors 2014
      • Baltimore Restaurants & Attractions
      • FAQs 2014
      • Registration 2014 (closed)
    • 2013 Brighton Conference
    • 2012 Toronto Conference
    • 2011 Chicago Conference
    • 2010 London Conference
  • MultiMedia
    • Podcasts
    • A Graphic Medicine Conversation with Sam Hester
    • Graphic Medicine Video Archive
    • Graphic Medicine Exhibits
  • Resources
    • The Peter James Burns Scholarship Fund
    • Essential Graphic Medicine: An Annotated Bibliography
    • COVID-19 Comics
    • Reproductive Freedom Comics
    • Frontline Workers Comics Project
    • The Drawing Together Archive
    • National Library of Medicine Graphic Medicine Exhibit
    • Liaison Program
    • Publishers
    • RESEARCH
    • TEACHING
    • GRAPHIC MEDICINE CONFAB ARCHIVE
  • Merch/Support
    • Bookshop Store
    • 2021 Un-Convention MERCH
    • 2022 Conference Merch
    • RedBubble Store
    • DONATE
  • Contact
    • Contact Form/Email
    • Social Media
Home / Comic Reviews / Educational / Diabetes is After Your Dick!

Diabetes is After Your Dick!

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest

Author: Cathy Leamy

Format: paperback and online

Pages: 13

Publish Date: July 2012

Publisher: self-published

Where to buy: http://www.metrokitty.com/comics/webcomics/diabdick/

Author website: http://www.metrokitty.com

Review

Cathy Leamy (Metrokitty) has put her comic “Diabetes is After Your Dick” online. It is also available for purchase from her site. Leamy presented on this patient education comic at the 2012 Toronto Comics & Medicine conference. The podcast of her talk is here.

Guest review by Sumin Kim, student in the “Comics Narratives: Illness, Disability, & Recovery” course, Art Therapy Program,  School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

I chose to review the comic “Diabetes is after your dick!” among a bunch of books because the title was so fascinating to me. Diabetes, relating to dick? How interesting!

It is really interesting the way the author explains diabetes in a different way. The author shows how people usually think about having diabetes: three characters in the comic say if sight is getting worse due to diabetes, we can do laser surgery. We can get a stroke even if we do not have diabetes. Also, one of the character says if I lose the foot, I can dress up as a pegleg Pirate for future Halloweens. However, the characters start to pay attention to the danger of diabetes when the author says diabetes also effects their genitals. This works so well to grab people’s attention. We are so familiar with “diabetes”, and everyone thinks they already know too much about it. For example, when we eat too much sugar, it causes one kind of diabetes. In order to give fuel to cells, which help us to digest, insulin is needed. Diabetes means insulin is not available from the pancreas.

When the question, “Then, what is the Insulin?” pops in my head, the author describes it as a delivery guy with cute characters. The delivery guy says that “CELLS ARE HIS CUSTOMERS!”. Thanks to this easy-explanation, I could not get lost my thoughts. In fact, when the author explains the progress of digestion, I almost lost my attention. The reasons are not only the huge amount of words but also the fact that the author hand-wrote them. Even though the hand-writing is visually appealing, it is more difficult to read. If she used traditional fonts, the information would be more easy to access to understand the information she wants to convey.

Furthermore, the author explains about how diabetes gets started. When the customers, which means the cells, do not receive packages from the delivery guy, which is Insulin, the delivery guy just puts the fuel in front of the door of the cells. These packages start to stack on each other, and this becomes a mess in the road, which represents the blood vessels. The author explains how diabetes is caused with ease by using comics. This is a really good case of taking advantage of the comics method. Since people normally find it difficult to understand the process of diabetes via academic books, the author uses drawings to make it easier to understand for viewers.

After the author explains the reason that causes diabetes, she starts to prove why diabetes effects erections. As the blood vessels blocks cells from going though, they can not go to the penis to make it stiff.

I love the next scene. The people who used to underestimate diabetes become active toward preventing it. The solution is keep moving and keep reducing drinks and sugar. After that, a character among them, pretends to die because he already has diabetes. However, the author says it is never too late to fix it. He recommends those patients try to change their routines and see doctors.

I love how the author uses the narrative to convey important information about diabetes that people easily can get. She chooses an interesting topic, erections, and makes people pay attention. After, she describes the issue for viewers to understand easily and make information accessible.

 

Comments

  1. John John says

    Jul. 24, 2014 at 9:56 pm

    So what do you do if it got your dick? How do you get it back?

    Reply

Leave a Comment Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

About Graphic Medicine

Graphic Medicine is a site that explores the interaction between the medium of comics and the discourse of healthcare. We are a community of academics, health carers, authors, artists, and fans of comics and medicine. The site is maintained by an editorial team under the direction of the Graphic Medicine International Collective.

Subscribe to Graphic Medicine

Join our email list to keep up with the latest Graphic Medicine news!
  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Visit Our Sister Site for Spanish Readers

Visit Our Sister Site for Japanese Readers

Visit Our Sister Site for Italian Readers

Visit the Pathographics Project

© 2007 - 2023 Graphic Medicine International Collective

WordPress Developer