Seeing Guides

Audios provided at the start of each section; they include descriptions of all images.

Creator’s Websites: 1. http://jayhosler.com/index.html;  2. http://www.torywoollcott.com/; 3.  https://www.gbrookes.com/; 4.  http://www.georgiawebber.com/;

Book Reviews by Kevin Wolf with an anonymous volunteer providing the audio version.

As a kid, I remember watching my dad read. I was fascinated. He would take off his glasses and hold the book so close to his face that it almost touched his nose. He’d move the book back and forth as he read. He’d only be reading with his right eye, because he was so cross-eyed that he was blind in his left eye and only the white of that eye was visible. He could only sense light with his left eye. Even with glasses his vision was 20/200.

The audience for a graphic medicine work can be critical to how it’s presented. Is it trying to educate healthcare providers about a treatment or how to better work with their patients? Then it usually shows realistic illustrations and provides resources or endnotes to provide additional tools to learn more about the subject presented. Or might the graphic work be for a patient or caregiver to empathize about living with a disease or disability? In the latter case, the work might be a memoir or work of fiction illustrated with or without realism that reinforces sensitivity to the characters and their medical concerns. And what if that patient’s disability provides a hindrance to communicate with other people in the same circumstances? If the graphic work communicates poorly to the desired audience, it’s not the audiences’ fault, it’s the fault of the communicator. My review here is of four works about difficulty seeing or one’s brain misinterpreting the visible, including macular degeneration (in A Thousand Coloured Castles), dyslexia (in Mirror Mind), blindness as a treatment’s side effect (in Dancing after TEN) or learning how and why many animals can see (in Optical Allusions). My audience here is the sighted and those with vision impairment. As far as I know, there aren’t spoken versions of these graphic works reviewed; but to avoid this review from having the same fault, I’m including an audio version with more detailed descriptions of any illustrations included in this review.

According to Merriam-Webster,[1] “Allusion refers to the act of making an implied or indirect reference to something [while] an Illusion is either a mistaken idea or something that is false or not real but that seems to be true or real.” Keep these words, allusion and illusion, in mind while reading the reviews that give the allusion of being sight-related (Optical Allusions, A Thousand Coloured Castles, and Dancing after TEN) or giving the illusion of being sight-related (Mirror Mind, A Thousand Coloured Castles, and Dancing after TEN). How can a book under review fall into both categories? I’ll use A Thousand Coloured Castles to explain this phenomenon. The protagonist has age-related macular degeneration (or AMD) which alludes to sight loss from the central part of the lens outward. Along with AMD, she has Charles Bonnet syndrome (CBS) which are hallucinations of illusions that aren’t really there.

For each review that follows, I provide a description of any images I show, including the book covers, and provide keywords for any weblinks for the reader to do their own research on a topic, if they want; as well as the link I used which can be clicked on to travel to them. There are six separate audios that go with this review. One for the overall introduction; and one for each of the four books reviewed here; and the last for the endnotes. Now on to the reviews of specific books.

Optical Allusions

Optical Allusions (with an “A”) by Jay Hosler, as the There is No Eye in Team acknowledgement indicates, is meant to be used in the classroom. Hosler states at the beginning of Optical Allusions that this graphic medicine work is a hybrid of comics and traditional text to inspire wonder about our amazing eyes. The humor included is pun-filled and slapstick. Almost every chapter has two parts: a black and white comic storyline with cartoony drawings followed by text with realistic medical-type illustrations to explain the medical aspects of the comic storyline. The back cover of Optical Allusions indicates that this work “was funded in part from the National Science Foundation [2].” Over the course of this book, I learned about evolution, especially of the eyes, the components of the eyes, other critters’ eyes, DNA and eye genes common to virtually all creatures, and visible light and wave theory of light. At an opportune moment, Hosler includes some drawings from his sons, Max and Jack.  I highly recommend this work to educators, students, and the general public, who are interested in learning about the workings of eyes, for its fun storyline and detailed visionary explanations.

Wrinkles

The protagonist is Wrinkles, the Wonder Brain, drawn as a brain with a face, arms, hands, legs and feet. Wrinkles is genderless and works as a lab assistant at the never-defined, fictional GRAEAE Sisters Research Laboratory. The sisters use eyes of eastern newts (native of North America), which can regenerate their lens. The eyes are seen as “new gateways in the mind [page 11].” As this story goes, the Sisters share a single, unique eye among themselves, because without it each is sightless. The Sisters have a boiling cauldron of “distilled imagination … as expansive as all of human thought [page 12]” into which Wrinkles accidentally drops the Sisters’ Eye. According to the Sisters, now the eye can be anywhere in space/time and Wrinkles will have to find it with an extra bag of newt eyes and an improba-bubble (which “creates an improbability bubble [around Wrinkles] to move through eons of time without aging a day, [page 13]”).

Wrinkles is a skeptical character. Before entering the cauldron, Wrinkles is given a bag of newt eyes and told to eat one while thinking of a place and then Wrinkles will travel there. Wrinkles first meets Charles Darwin at a Peanuts’-Lucy-like doctor-is-in stand. Darwin is drawn here the same way Hosler did in an earlier work, Clan Apis, about bees. Clan Apis [3] was previously reviewed in Graphicmedicine’s Medical Mentions I. In Optical Allusions, Darwin tells Wrinkles about the evolution of the eye. In particular, he explains the four needs of natural selection (first, Variation; second, more individuals are born than survive to reproduce; third, those surviving are favored in the environment; and fourth, the advantage can be passed to the next generation.) Time passes quickly … about 365,000 years in the eye’s evolution from “eye spots” sensing light to “complex camera eyes” (page 18).

Wrinkles finds himself doing battle with Comprehensive Yokel-Killing Laser Operated Peeper System (i.e., C.Y.K.L.O.P.S.); a mechanical walking giant eye. Wrinkles is rescued by a cow-boy (that is, a two-legged male cow). The cow-boy with Wrinkles breaks into the CYKLOPS and hides in its blind spot. Even finding the spot labeled! On the way Optical Allusions identifies aspects of the eye, like rod, ganglion cell, bipolar cell all bundled into the optic nerve. And in text we read about the human camera eye parts (such as pupil, cornea, iris, lens, among many other parts). The blind spot being where the bundling leaves the eye for the brain there are no rods, hence the blind spot. Your mind lies to you by filling in what’s missing from your sight. The rods are used nocturnally while the cones are used diurnally. Cow-boy escapes with Wrinkles by clogging the canal of Schlemm increasing the pressure to cause a glaucomic explosion. The explosion metaphorically destroys buildings which were in “the abandoned warehouse district,” says the cow-boy, “The town maintains [this district] for situations just like this” … letting the reader join in on the joke (page 35).

We learn about lightless cave-dwelling evolutionarily, blind animals—with vestigial bits where optic lobes had been—and how that came to occur. The pax-6 Hox gene [4], used to help form the eyes, for almost all creatures great and small. And for depth perception, one needs two nearby eyes.

There’s much toying with imagery—for example, Fun with Mr. Sun chapter shows rudimentary pictures as if drawn by a kid (and they were designed by Hosler’s young sons). We learn about visible light, which is almost the only sun’s radiation that makes it through Earth’s atmosphere. Had much more of the sun’s radiation been able to penetrate the Earth’s atmosphere, then almost nothing would survive. Instead, we have plants making food and oxygen, and warmth helping make a livable planet which supports evolutionary variety. Here we learn about cones (retinal visual receptors at higher light) and rods (vision at low light)[5]. We learn (page 76) yellow is a made-up color in our brain, but actual primary colors are blue, green and red.

Page 91 panels 2 and 3, show the most extreme and hilarious off-panel comic gutter change I’ve ever seen (shown below).

Panel’s 2 & 3 page 91 of Optical Allusions

Between chapters Optical Allusions—using realistic drawings—provides the science behind the chapter topic, including questions For Your Consideration. For example, after the Darwin chapter, “Evolving Eyes” explains how science works, evolution, natural selection, adaptation, mutation, gene pools, and the automatic camera eye. After CYKLOPS’ destruction the anatomy of vision is presented, including how we see pixilated images via our 100 million rods & 200,000 cones which doesn’t take much for our brain to create a smooth, un-pixilated image. While compound eyes, like in insects, are a lot less smooth but occur much more frequently in nature than our “camera eye.” There’s a demonstration to find one’s blind spot. Other technical sections include acquiring traits in various species, DNA as blueprint, visible color-range wavelengths, and other characteristics from the evolutionary tree. These explanations provide an excellent teaching tool, while the comic keeps the story moving along. For example, during the See Quest on a pirate ship crewed by stalk-eyed flies with a woeful tale. The pirate ship was run by Wendy and Frank: one losing their right eye, the other their left; one with a hook for a right-hand, the other the left; and peg for left-leg the other for right. Of course, a medium ridiculously predicts any child of theirs would inherit their accidentally acquired traits (patches/hooks/pegs for eyes/hands/legs)!

At the back of Optical Allusions there’s a bibliography and endnotes on sources. The acknowledgements section—called There is no Eye in Team (pages 122-123)—includes many more puns; e.g., Jay’s wife, Lisa, “has an eye (the left one I think) for good stories” page 122).

Jay Hosler, in addition to other cartoon books, did a TEDx talk (Science Comics Can Save the World [6] on YouTube. If someone is interested, another of Hosler’s books (Evolution: Story of Life on Earth, illustrated by Kevin & Zander Cannon, Hill & Wang, 2011) is awaiting review; if interested please contact us at https://www.graphicmedicine.org/contact/.

Mirror Mind: Growing Up Dyslexic

Dyslexia [7] isn’t a seeing problem, but it manifests that way. It’s a learning disability which leads to difficulty reading, writing, and subsequent spelling. It has no effect on intelligence, vision, or speaking; except for the lack of self-confidence that often occurs when outside pressure belittles those afflicted. The Foreword by Learning Disability Specialist, Paul Levey, PhD indicates that Mirror Mind: Growing Up Dyslexic by Tory Woollcott is from a child’s perspective; and the audience is parents and teachers. “Teachers are often unaware of the power of their words … often … adults with dyslexia … recall in vivid detail the actual harsh, dismissive words that their teachers directed at them … some … internalized and … believes in his or her lack of worth and limited intellect. In other cases, children …prove that they are capable of so much more.” [the book is unpaginated, so page numbers for quotes aren’t provided.] I recommend Mirror Mind, especially for educators and parents to help provide understanding of the maltreatment of and ways to help those with dyslexia.

Victoria “(nickname) Tory” Woollcott’s first graphic non-fiction work, Mirror Mind, is a memoir providing delayed dyslexia diagnosis’, insensitive teachers’, and bullying peers’ effect on her. As she explains, dyslexia is a recessively inherited trait. From the start learning to walk took longer; speech was fine; while her vocabulary was advanced. Tory was put in a French immersion class in her native Canadian city of Toronto. Her translated French words are shown in italics in word balloons. Writing and reading were problematic.

There is some humor in Mirror Mind. For example, Phoque (spelled p.h.o.q.u.e.) in French translates to “seal,” but sounds like it (phonetically) looks in English; and causes trouble when overheard by a teacher.

Called Victoria in her youth, she shows how difficult reading in childhood was for her with this simple illustration of three panels.

Three panels from Mirror Mind

Victoria tried to fake it, but given how her brain interpreted lettering, how could she possibly write or read words? She did become skilled at drawing nouns. Victoria tried to copy other’s spelling, but letter reversals still occurred, and she was punished by teachers for copying! Victoria “felt this hot creeping feeling … like I was being choked.” That feeling is pictured as a black tentacled blob reaching toward her. Her teacher even retests her but doesn’t recognize she can’t spell because words aren’t recognizable to her. Her teacher provides a tutor, but the tutor “… didn’t help me as much as bring attention to the fact I couldn’t read.” When in third grade, her learning disability is named (dyslexia) in Mirror Mind, and that’s when bullying by peers—including some she thought were her friends—starts with many calling her a “retard.” Cruelty piled on and physically fighting back didn’t help. Redirecting their putdowns to others provided some satisfaction. Her few true friends went to other schools and were very supportive. Victoria learned of well-known people with dyslexia [8], including Steven Spielberg, Whoopi Goldberg, and Cher.

Victoria’s parents moved her to a special school but the teacher there was more terrifying and incompetent than her prior one; and now the teacher started calling her “Vicky,” which Victoria didn’t like. Vicky, along with other children with any learning disabilities, were isolated (for example, separate recess and being locked in the closet). Vicky shrunk in on herself. She announces that in writing Mirror Mind she is, for the first time, showing the cruelties she had to endure. And Vicky normalized the indignities and cruelties. Makes me cry! One parent found out and put an end to this teacher’s role, but still not into competent hands.

Victoria’s parents finally intervened to get professional help; including an appropriate assessment and a daily tutor (named Eve). This change happened around third grade. We see how a “b” becomes a “q” when flipped or “d” to “p,” but Victoria/Vicky didn’t see it that way. Finally, a new school and teacher along with Eve who understands dyslexia, finally taught Victoria/Vicky how to read and write. One page especially shows the unravelling of what Victoria/Vicky saw and slowly could translate into “the big dog” … reprogramming her brain. She learned to read in fifth grade; and up to reading level within a year. And in sixth grade named herself Tory as part of a new beginning. Her world opened up “to all these writers … who left shapes behind for me.” There’s much more to Tory than dyslexia, but this graphic memoir stays on that topic, including her clear progress graduating college with “an honour’s degree in Near and Middle Eastern Archaeology.”

As stated in the Afterword, “Dyslexia is a learning disability that affects about 10% of the population. Dyslexia has nothing to do with intelligence, eyesight, hearing, inadequate teaching or inattentive parents. Dyslexia is a difference in the way the brain is formed … that changes the way you learn.” Tory provides some specific advice:

1. Parents and teachers should read aloud
2. Get books on tape
3. Make letters with a variety of media (ink, string, cutouts, etc.)
4. Read with pointer, ruler, paper or other device under each word and line.
5. Dyslexia enhances creativity, especially seeing things others can’t see
6. Read comic books! Pictures help understanding.

At the back of the book is advice from Tory’s parents; and resources including helpful tools (resource center, audio books weblinks) for students from Canada, UK, and USA and World Dyslexic Associations including addresses and weblinks (e.g., https://dyslexiaida.org/[9]).

Also, reviewed at www.graphicmedicine.org was Tory’s book The Brain: The Ultimate Thinking Machine[10] and illustrated by Alex Graudins. The Brain is part of First Second’s Science Comics series.

A Thousand Coloured Castles

Endnote [11] only appears in the audio’s cover description.

 There’s a softness to all imagery which provides a cue that losing sharp visualization is critical to this graphic fictional tale. Gareth Brookes uses wax crayon as the media for A Thousand Coloured Castles with faces remaining featureless, no fine lines, and mirages from the protagonist, Myriam’s, mind to allow the reader to see and feel her macular degeneration and Charles Bonnet syndrome. The United States’ National Institute of health [12] explains “Charles Bonnet syndrome (or CBS) is a disease in which visual hallucinations occur as a result of vision loss. CBS is not thought to be related to psychosis or dementia and people with CBS are aware that their hallucinations are not real.” The publisher’s website indicates Myriam has macular degeneration—which according to UK’s National Health Service [13] “affects the middle part of your vision” and can be “wet” or “dry” happening quickly or slowly, respectively—in her right eye. From the same NHS website, it’s believed there are about 100,000 occurrences of CBS in the UK. Charles Bonnet [14] (“bō nay,” 1720-1792) Swiss philosopher and naturalist found “the secondary impact of eye disease is visual hallucinations … independent from mental illness.” A Thousand Coloured Castles is part of the Graphic Medicine Series [15] published by The Pennsylvania State University Press. I recommend A Thousand Coloured Castles.

Myriam meets with a counselor because she says, “I think I’m going mad! … I see horrible plants … crawling everywhere …” (pages 102-103) and other extraordinary images. She tells the counselor that her optician diagnosed her with macular degeneration, but no explanation is provided for her fantabulous sightings (e.g., seeing multiplying young girls in red motorcycle helmets or unclothed boy next door). The artistry shows word balloons crossing panel gutters to allow Myriam to break an allusion. Fred, her husband, becomes very concerned and their adult child, Claire, has to intervene. But no one truly understands what Myriam sees, they only make their own sense of Myriam … that she’s delusional (“barmy … crazy … who’s going to look after dad … don’t tell anyone … we don’t have money to put you in a home … [pages 125-126])” Her grandson enjoys her illusions. But is it all illusion? Fred, clearly finding something new to him, does research on the internet saying, “… this internet thing is quite something … [page 180]” The internet is a perfect metaphor for a never-ending illusion of words and pictures seemingly bubbling out of nothing, which seems to match the Charles Bonnet syndrome!

Myriam starts keeping notes about what she hallucinates. For example, for two frill-collared persons with ladders on their helmets, Myriam writes “Wednesday June 8^th, Two Soldiers.” (pages 24-25) Her formally-dressed husband, Fred, oblivious to Myriam’s difficulties, speaks of mundane matters; “… People don’t take pride in anything nowadays …” (page 27) He has hearing difficulties, so they have the potential of being a comedic pair, but come across as talking past each other and having elderly frustrations. Fred doesn’t believe Myriam’s sight is hallucinatory for he corrects her allusions to his view. Life for the both of them is topsy turvy. They have specific domestic roles (Myriam buys food and cooks, while Fred stays home, cuts the grass, and complains about the neighbors). Fred—being served a curry dinner—asks, “Have you gone stark raving mad? … We don’t eat curry.” Myriam has trouble sleeping and appears to have after-dark outdoor activities.

Myriam goes for an eye exam, perhaps hoping that’s where her difficulties lie; but helmeted children haunt her and climb through solid ceilings demonstrating that the examination may not resolve her problems. But it does show in her right eye that she has macular degeneration, a blurring in the center of her vision, which she’ll be able to see around the edges just not straight on. “Your other eye is alright for the moment. (page 76)” Myriam nostalgically seeks out photos of her grandfather (“… he ended his days in an asylum …” page 82). Myriam worries about their future as she ages and deteriorates. A Thousand Coloured Castles provides some mentions of environmental issues, including invasive fish species and global warming.

A Thousand Coloured Castles provides one website as a resource for the reader to find additional information about CBS [16] but none for age-related macular degeneration (AMD; though here’s one I found: age-related macular degeneration [17]). Gareth Brookes is also the author of award-winning The Black Project [18].

Dancing after TEN

From just looking at the cover, the reader wouldn’t realize that the word TEN has a double meaning: as a time of day and a pneumonic for Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis [19] it’s a rare skin cell death usually from an allergic reaction to a medication (said-to-be ibuprofen, in this case, but not with certainty) which leads to Vivian’s blindness and later hearing difficulties. This is Vivian’s story with some of her drawings as her sight was fading and Georgia Webber’s illustrations to fill in and provide primary imagery. Webber had her own experience with losing—in her case temporarily and periodically—one of her own near senses,[20] her voice (see our review of Georgia’s award-winning memoir Dumb: Living without a Voice [21]). Before Vivian’s memoir starts, she writes, in part, “I dedicate this book to my eyes. You have gone through so much …” And on that dedication page, the reader finds a photograph of Vivian hugging her guide dog, Catcher.

Vivian Chong’s memoir, Dancing after TEN has abandonment as a major theme; not only from losing partly or completely two of her senses (vision and hearing), but fending for herself during most of her treatments, fleeing relationships, and at times, even ignored by some caregivers. While on vacation Vivian is abandoned in hospital by then boyfriend (Seth), and Seth’s close relatives. While hospitalized in a coma, Vivian’s next of kin had to be found by medical personnel, because no one else provided the information. Fortunately, Vivian is a very independent, strong, and resourceful person who finds her way and expresses her life in many forms. Additional self-expression occurs in talks and a play co-written and directed by Kathleen Rea (who helped get Dancing after TEN off the ground). Beyond writing Dancing after TEN, Vivian adds to her life story by finding activities she enjoys, such as yoga (where she also becomes an instructor), music, dance, and much more. Vivian breaks away from her abandonment through these activities, her strong relationships with her parents, and finding new friends and supportive relationships, such as her guide dog (Catcher). I highly recommend Dancing after TEN.

According to an article by Amanda Oakley and Karthnik Krishnamurthy [22] on the U.S.’s National Institute of Health’s website, TEN (aka, Stevens-Johnson syndrome) is extremely rare—occurring in two to seven per million people annually. Vivian has a doctor explain on pages 32-34, that “Vivian was airlifted here from a hospital in St. Martin [in the Caribbean Sea]. … Vivian suffers from a rare drug reaction, TEN—Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis—syndrome … Chronic conditions can occur due to scar tissue forming in places like the corneas, ear drums … We induced a coma [for almost two months] to stabilize her and relieve her pain ….” Vivian woke on a respirator and was full of questions she couldn’t communicate! Her hospital stay was tortuous. Dancing after TEN is medically detailed. During her coma, it appears that Vivian had a tracheotomy to allow her to breathe through her throat (i.e., trachea). Death, mental health, personal hygiene and problematic healthcare providers haunt her.

Activities of daily living became a relearning process.  Other people often aren’t sensitive to Vivian’s situation. Lacking personal control was a major issue, both in and away from treatments.  She learns to traverse her new apartment surroundings with touch. Vivian was at the mercy of her live-in home aide.

We watch Vivian’s ad hoc learning to deal with her blindness and extreme light sensitivity through her own activities. To stay positive, she tells herself many affirmations. Her blindness training (learning braille, using a cane indoors, cooking) appears somewhat inadequate. She has to learn on her own how to maneuver outside with traffic lights.

On a very small scale, the reader learns to navigate the graphic work Dancing after Ten, sometimes without clear guideposts of time, place, or identification of people beyond Vivian. This lack of guidance is possibly deliberate, to provide an iota of Vivian’s turmoil and extreme difficulties. Some images are similar to Webber’s own graphic memoir, Dumb, when almost disembodied word balloons fill a page—with a Blindness Support Group session on pages 83-84. Slowly, Vivian finds her support network through what she’s passionate about; such as art therapy, CNIB [23] (Canadian National Institute for the Blind) classes, friends, adaptive cooking (i.e., cooking methods for those with a disability) [24], drumming in a rock band, yoga, swimming, dancing, ukulele playing, pottery, and one-woman show with humor of her own story.

Vivian is told of a promising treatment—a cornea transplant—in Florida that “may restore some of your vision … There’s no guarantee …;” which she translates into “I will see again! [page 90]” After the operation, Vivian has a frenzied period of drawing about her early life and her post coma recovery, … before her sight dims from TEN’s continued scarring. Because of her swimming, her hearing deteriorates from TEN scarring around her eardrums, and she now needs hearing aids. Another experimental treatment is offered to try to build new eardrums. She maintains control by picking the source of her new eardrums which leads to partial success!

There’s scribbled blue imagery, the best Vivian could do after she became blind, and some rudimentary drawings during a two-week period when Vivian had partial sight after the cornea surgery. The illustrations in Dancing after TEN are black ink with some black and blue shading. The word balloons are blue with black words on white, while thoughts are black words on blue and dotted balloon. From the start words are metaphorical or carry double meaning. For example, Vivian, who can’t see—flying into (or out of?) Toronto to have surgery—is asked to “… watch my bag …” but she only can if the suitcase is placed “… near my hand …” and she’s told “… you gotta see this!” on TV (pages 1-2). Her irresponsible friend doesn’t take notes when she meets with her eye surgeon before her cornea transplant; and even left her alone at that appointment. Only 20% of Vivian’s sight returned and only for two weeks. She desperately tried to draw all she could see at that time. To reinforce the rushed nature of the drawings by Vivian, the illustrations are shown as taped to pages (13 – 21; page 20 is shown below) of blue paper.

From page 20 of Dancing after Ten

Dancing after TEN includes a few graphic communication techniques. For example, when talking to someone on the phone, the caller appears as a black silhouette behind Vivian. And Non-English communication appears translated in angle brackets (< … >). Dancing after TEN has some meta-aspects—breaking the panel walls—where Georgia Webber draws herself interviewing Vivian.

Toward the end of Dancing after TEN scarring disappears from Webber’s images of Vivian, which is at least a good metaphor for the unpollyannish, positive, forgiving conclusion of this graphic medicine work. Dancing after TEN was nominated for the Best Graphic Memoir Eisner award.

Regarding seeing related issues, www.graphicmedicine.org has also reviewed Wink [25] by Rob Harrell a fictional illustrated book about musical passion and navigating middle school before and during treatments—with autobiographical aspects—for malignant mucoepidermoid carcinoma of the lacrimal (tear) gland causing blindness in the affected eye. There’s a lot of information on the internet about comics for the visually impaired; for example, https://spinweaveandcut.com/blind-accessible-comics/ [26]. And here’s a link [27] to a talk on audio description of comics for the visually impaired from March 2021’s WonderCon.

Endnotes

[1] According to Merriam-Webster (https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/allusion-illusion-delusion) keywords: Merriam-Webster allusion vs. illusion difference

[2] National Science Foundation (https://www.nsf.gov/) keyword: NSF

[3] Clan Apis (https://www.graphicmedicine.org/medical-mentions-book-reviews-i/) keywords: graphic, medicine medical mentions I

[4] pax-6 Hox gene (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PAX6) keywords: Wikipedia and Pax 6

[5] cones (retinal visual receptors at higher light) and rods (vision at low light) (https://www.cis.rit.edu/people/faculty/montag/vandplite/pages/chap_9/ch9p1.html) keywords: rods and cones

[6] Science Comics Can Save the World (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=feTCOfJkq18) on YouTube; keywords: Jay Hosler’s TEDx talk

[7] Dyslexia (https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/dyslexia/symptoms-causes/syc-20353552) keywords: Mayo Clinic Dyslexia symptoms and causes

[8] well-known people with dyslexia (https://www.understood.org/en/articles/success-stories-celebrities-with-dyslexia-adhd-and-dyscalculia) keywords: celebrities with dyslexia

[9] International Dyslexic Association https://dyslexiaida.org/. keywords: international dyslexic association; or specific country’s dyslexic association

[10] The Brain: The Ultimate Thinking Machine (https://www.graphicmedicine.org/comic-reviews/the-brain-the-ultimate-thinking-machine/) (keywords: graphic medicine The Brain book review

[11] Little Boxes lyrics by Malvina Reynolds (1962); https://people.wku.edu/charles.smith/MALVINA/mr094.htm Words and music by Malvina Reynolds; copyright 1962 Schroder Music Company, renewed 1990.

[12] United States’ National Institute of health (https://rarediseases.info.nih.gov/diseases/10343/charles-bonnet-syndrome) keywords: NIH Charles Bonnet syndrome

[13] UK’s National Health Service – National Eye Institute – Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD,   https://www.nei.nih.gov/learn-about-eye-health/eye-conditions-and-diseases/age-related-macular-degeneration) keywords: NHS age-related macular degeneration

[14] Charles Bonnet (“bō nay,” 1720-1792; https://ehealthhall.com/charles-bonnet-syndrome.html; keywords: ehealth hall Charles Bonnet

[15] Graphic Medicine Series (https://www.psupress.org/books/series/book_SeriesGM.html); keywords: PSU press graphic medicine series

[16] CBS www.charlesbonnetsyndrome.uk

[17] age-related macular degeneration; (https://www.macular.org/what-macular-degeneration0; keyword: macular.org

[18] The Black Project (https://www.gbrookes.com/shop/the-black-project); keywords: Gareth Brookes Black Project website

[19] Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis (https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/toxic-epidermal-necrolysis/symptoms-causes/syc-20491903); keywords: Mayo Clinic toxic epidermal necrolysis

[20] Actual five senses are taste, smell, touch, hearing, and sight

[21] Dumb; (https://www.graphicmedicine.org/comic-reviews/dumb-living-without-a-voice/)  keywords: graphic medicine review of Dumb

[22] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK459323/; keywords National Institute of Health, National Library of Medicine, entitled “Stevens Johnson Syndrome” by Amanda Oakley and Karthik Krishnamurthy

[23] https://cnib.ca/; keywords: Canadian National Institute for the Blind

[24] https://accessiblechef.com/; keywords: adaptive cooking, accessible chef

[25] Wink (https://www.graphicmedicine.org/comic-reviews/wink/) keywords: graphic medicine review of Wink

[26] https://spinweaveandcut.com/blind-accessible-comics/; keywords: spin weave and cut, blind accessible comics

[27]  Wondercon  link (https://youtu.be/YzwjVMf9zQ0) keywords: youtube Wondercon visually impaired talk. There was an accessible comics design contest with the winners announced; you can find out more at https://www.graphicmedicine.org/accessible-comics-design-competition-winners-announced/.