• 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 / Neurocomic

Neurocomic

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest

Author: Matteo Farinella and Hana Roš

Format: hardcover

Pages: 136

Publish Date: 2013

Publisher: NoBrow

Where to buy: http://www.amazon.com/Neurocomic-Hana-Ros

Author website: http://www.neurocomic.org

Review

Neurocomic

 

 

guest review by  KuangHua Guo, MD/PhD candidate, Northwestern University, Chicago

Neurocomic by Matteo Farinella and Hana Ros plays out like a tug-of-war between storytelling and a neuroscience lecture. Farinella and Ros chose to cover far too much ground in the realm of neuroscience and left themselves with not enough panels to explain the science or to tell a story.

Here are the points they won:

  1. Explaining the brain through the history of neuroscience research: Taking the reader through the seminal discoveries that clarified the structure and function of the brain is a good way to help the reader understand something so complex.
  2. Beautiful analogies: The analogies that the authors chose to represent different concepts, such as trees for neurons, were both intuitive and beautifully drawn. The analogies made it possible condense very complex concepts into just a few panels.
  3. Accurate representations of neural structures.
  4. Accurate explanations of many fundamental concepts in neuroscience.
  5. Imagination: Many of the scenes inside the neuron are very interesting and helps create an “Alice in Wonderland” type of world that the reader can spend hours exploring with his or her imagination.

These are the points they missed:

  1. No character development: Many characters simply disappear after a few panels. They don’t really add to the explanation of the science, besides allowing the reader to associate a scientist’s name to some neuroscience concept. The main character is completely unfazed by all the science he is learning. It makes the reader wonder why he or she should really care about learning the science.
  2. No plot development: The main character gets dragged through a whirlwind ride through the brain, yet nothing happens. He ends up at the exact same point he started, asking the pretty girl out on a date.
  3. Jarring transitions: Panels of science are suddenly intersected by the main character’s exploits, giving the reader no time to digest the science.
  4. Shallow exploration of the science: Many of the neuroscience concepts were only touched on briefly and missed some very important details.

Overall, Farinella and Ros made a well thought out effort at explaining the brain. However, they bit off much more than they could chew in 136 pages. It would be interesting to see what they can achieve in a serialized comic where they can take time to explore each neuroscience concept in detail.

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