Medical Mentions are a group of graphic works. The graphic works reviewed here are books whose primary topics are not medical, and yet they cover a medical topic with some depth at some point in the work. The rest of the work might be fictional or nonfictional, while the medical portion is often technical and five pages or more. The reviewer will usually neither recommend nor discourage reading the work, except when the rest of the work is deemed outstanding or terrible, respectively. Typically, six graphic works will be part of the review with one paragraph for each. Prior Medical Mentions can be found at I, II, III, IV, V, VI , VII, VIII, IX, X – Comic Strip Edition #1, XI, XII, XIII – Comic Strip Edition #2, XIV — Genre Fiction Edition, XV. With that in mind here’s Medical Mentions XVI.
Book Reviews by Kevin Wolf (except Pastimes review by Andrew Templeton)
Photographic: The Life of Graciela Iturbide by Graciela Iturbide (photographs), Isabel Quintero (text) & Zeke Peña (illustrations); pp of medical mention; ISBN: 978-1234567890; Getty Publications; March 2018; hardcover; 96 pages; author’s websites: Graciela’s website isn’t secure, https://www.isabelinpieces.com/ for Isabel, https://www.zpvisual.com/info for Zeke.
I recently joined a long-running graphic novel discussion group at my local library and the first book that I joined them for is entitled Photographic: The Life of Graciela Iturbide. Graciela Iturbide (1942 –, currently age 83) is an award-winning black and white Mexican photographer. Iturbide’s photographs reminds me of those by Diane Arbus in that the images are often close-ups of people in their work, play or home environment, and she often stays in their environment for a while to get to know who she’s photographing, being accepted by those pictured and capturing their spontaneous activity. When questioned about her images being black and white, Photographic quoted Iturbide saying “Well, for me, color is fantasy. I see reality in black and white [pg. 4].” Her father was an amateur photographer, and as a youngster Iturbide didn’t like having her photo taken (15 – 16). She enrolled in film school after she married and had three children (two sons (Manuel and Mauricio) and a daughter (Claudia)). “Claudia’s death [at age six] is something I will not speak of publicly … but it is one of the reasons I pick up the camera—to find understanding [20].” Death plays a significant role in her artistic search. In Guanajuato (central Mexico), “I catch Death’s grin on the faces of angelitos; infants turned angels before their first step … A cemetery in Hidalgo is the last time I photograph Death without permission. … Vultures appear in my path, eating what’s left of what was once a man. It is Death saying, ‘If you want to photograph me here I am. But no more suffering, Graciela. No more [25].” She photographs Mexican American hearing-impaired people in East Los Angelos (“I want to show what America looks like for people twice invisible [30]”). We see the slaughter of goats for food among indigenous Mixtecos for mole dish. In Juchitán (SE of Oaxaca), Iturbide photographs “muxes, who are both men and women at the same time. Muxes have been celebrated and accepted here for centuries.” When Iturbide travels to India she photographs some prosthetic legs which reminds her, upon the fiftieth anniversary of Frida Kahlo’s death being permitted to enter Kahlo’s sealed off bathroom—it had been sealed by Diego Rivera, Frida’s husband—to photograph its contents (drawn version below). As expected, the illustrations in Photographic are photo-realistic. One caveat to Photographic is that some of the photographs shown are likely poorer quality than Iturbide’s originals.
Photographic, page 72
Review by Andrew Templeton
Pastimes by Pascal Girard; ISBN: 978-2925114543; Pow Pow Press; Publication November 4, 2025; paperback; 144 pages; author’s website: https://www.facebook.com/Pascal-Girard-193005637407162/
Based in Montreal, Pascal Girard is a social worker and a cartoonist. In Pastimes, a collection of personal diary comics, he draws inspiration from his day job at a hospital as well as his home life with his wife, daughter, and dog. The collection considers whether Pascal is a magnet for awkward encounters or whether he’s the agent of them. By the end, one’s left thinking maybe a bit of both, but there’s also a lot here that’s about the very common absurdity of modern city life. Translated from the French by Aleshia Jensen, the highlight for me is the series of conversations Pacal has with his daughter, Lucie, who asks pointed questions about death and the grieving process which manage to be profound and laugh-out-loud funny. This is my first time reading Girard’s work and there is a lovely sense of the familiar. With its regular rhythm and simple character designs, Pastimes has the feel of a classic, daily newspaper strip. Each entry is made up of four illustrations done in Girard’s loose, expressive style. Other medical issues include references to his work at the hospital, interactions with clients, Pascal wearing a walking boot (from a broken toe), and taking Lucie, his daughter, for COVID testing. There is a mention of Canada’s Medical Assistance in Dying program (MAID). Pascal’s graphic novel, Rebecca & Lucie in the Case of the Missing Neighbor was reviewed here.
Under the Banner of King Death – Pirates of the Atlantic by David Lester and Marcus Rediker with Paul Buhle Afterword; pp of medical mention; ISBN: 978-0807023983; Beacon Press; February 2023; paperback; 136 pages; author’s website: https://davidlesterartmusicdesign.wordpress.com/, https://www.marcusrediker.com/.
At the start of Under the Banner of King Death, the reader gets a Time Line for “The Golden Age of Piracy: 1660 – 1730 [pg. x].” This graphic novel avoids romanticizing the life of a pirate, which was often a short, deadly one; but it does portray the worldly reversal where those who previously had no power or freedom have taken just that from the literal “bigwigs” (i.e., the British aristocracy in the colonies). This is the story of John Gwin, who fled his enslavement in South Carolina, to only be kidnapped, chained, and whipped to work on a cargo ship (named The African Prince) bound for Sierra Leone under the authority of the Royal African Company and Captain James Skinner (“They don’t call him ‘Skinner’ for nothing,” 13 – 15). We learn about John’s earlier life (“Shackl’d together … crammed into the dark bowels of … [a ship] … confusion. Terror. The screams of those branded … whipped … limbs amputated … raped. The dead thrown overboard … Most of us sold at auction in Jamaica … in South Carolina. Hell was a merrier place [17].” After seven weeks on the trip to Sierra Leone, the crew stopped at Port Royal in Jamaica and had time to talk in a tavern. John surreptitiously told his shipmates (abbreviated dialogue) of his dream,
I have worked on merchant ships. On those ships, me and me [sic] brother tars were all treated equally … just like dogs. But we all had tales of fighting back …
Many a time we wish’d an enemy would over-power our ship …
One day on the horizon we saw the black flag with its grinning skull and crossbones. What had we to lose? Not a hard choice after … we threw our captain overboard … no more tyranny of the lash.
But the adventure didn’t stop there … We also chose all the officers of the ship … we divided all the plunder in fair shares … a wooden world turned upside down … [emphasis in original, 23 – 26]
And this past, seemingly wild dream, became reality upon the next beating by Skinner, who’s defeated and tossed overboard to an egalitarian result, including a later just trial on board among the shipmates. There are some medical tool images (81), a disease (the French pox—venereal disease) mentioned, and even a bit of a romance. The latter occurs when John learns one of his seemingly men shipmates is actually a woman. The piracy ends after a battle with a more powerful ship. There’s a second trial at a British court. John Gwin is saved from the gallows to “honor the request of your master, to whom you will be returned in South Carolina.” This will lead to Revolution by Fire, its sequel and next reviewed. I’ll close with something Ruban Dekker, another shipmate and leader, said after capture, “Snelgrave [Royal African Company ship captain and pirate hunter], you vilify us, as scoundrels do, but the only difference is, you rob the poor under the cover of laws and we plunder the rich under the protection of our own courage. We will not be governed by laws rich men have made for their own protection [101].” Prophet Against Slavery: Benjamin Lay—by the same creative team—was previously reviewed.
Revolution by Fire – New York’s Afro-Irish Uprising of 1741 by David Lester and Marcus Rediker with Paul Buhle Afterword; ISBN: 978-0807012550; Beacon Press; November 2024; paperback; 176 pages; author’s website: https://davidlesterartmusicdesign.wordpress.com/, https://www.marcusrediker.com/.
Revolution by Fire provides a graphic reenactment of the multi-racial, pre-American Revolution attempted revolt against enslavement. It’s almost tame calling slavery and the exploitation of the enslaved a public health issue, but there it is nonetheless. The black and white drawings grab the emotions with detailed shading, putting the readers in close quarters of the taverns, houses and courtrooms where most events occurred. This book is a sequel to Under the Banner of King Death – Pirates of the Atlantic, written and drawn by the same creative team: David Lester and Marcus Rediker with Afterwords by Paul Buhle. Revolution by Fire continues John Gwin’s story from escaping enslavement to piracy to death by hanging after a trial under the British colonial system. As Rediker’s Foreword states, “Many of the lines spoken by the rebels in the pages that follow are direct quotations from the trial record [perhaps not with the same timing; vii].” Gwin, shown on the gallows, said (at length),
Some of ye hope for a confession. I’ll not disappoint. I CONFESS! To a lifetime of fightin’ for a new world. I confess t’ turnin’ pirate, to throwin’ a brutal captain overboard … to givin’ poor sailors, black ‘n’ white, the choice in themselves for a better life. We all became free men, ‘n’ some women, if only for a short time. I’ve tried to do the same here in New York, no more, no less. These are my crimes. … You can scuttle our bodies, but you cannot scuttle our ideas. When the next rebellion comes, ‘n’ all the ones that follow, I’ll be with ye every time. … Long live the outcasts o’ all nations! [emphasis in original, 145 – 147]
Like many revolts that are almost lost to history, it was quashed soon after it started, because a fire signal was set too early, that fire turned into multi-building conflagration, and it was all too small to bring out hoped for reinforcements among the enslaved and indentured. This book explains its sources on page viii with a Glossary of Speech on ix.
The Genius Under the Table: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain by Eugene Yelchin; ISBN: 978-1536236248; Candlewick Press; Publication May 2024 (hard cover October 2021); paperback; 208 pages; author’s website: https://www.eugeneyelchin.com/
The Genius Under the Table is Eugene Yelchin’s author-illustrated humor-filled (and serious) memoir of his childhood in the Soviet Union. Early on Yelchin declares “Because Leningrad is not far from the Arctic Circle, our winters were perfect for sore throats, nasty colds, and pneumonia. Before I was allowed outside in the winter, Mom swaddled me in layers of itchy wool … I could hardly move [15].” In the Soviet Union resources were scarce. For example, an old X-ray image was used to illegally make a rock and roll record (19). Each room of an apartment (except bathroom and kitchen) was occupied by a family and each communal apartment had a (often paid) spy. The author’s mom was an ex-ballerina and now worked for the Vaganova Ballet Academy. Her hero was the then young, now famed, Mikhail Baryshnikov with the Kirov Ballet Theater. The author was “the genius under the table” who used to make his childish pencil illustrations under and on the underside of their dining room table—where the draped table cloth gave him privacy. Yelchin’s brother became a skilled figure skater, earning his own private apartment, but when young would dangerously use an ice hook attached to the back of a truck to skate at breakneck speeds along the ice-covered streets. They visited Lenin’s Tomb where his body is visible through a glass coffin; and Yelchin found “Lenin had a bandage under his beard … How could a mummy cut itself [64]?” “Talents” (i.e., people with a talent) would sometimes defect. Yelchin wrote, “Each time I overheard that someone had defected, I had imagined one of our talents stuck in the airport bathroom taking a poop [defecating] and missing his plane back home [71].” This pun doesn’t seem to be lost in translation. Anti-Semitism was overt. Yelchin’s family was Jewish and one day came home to his collapsed grandmother at their apartment door where a swastika was drawn with the words [in Russian] “Beat yids—save Mother Russia [85]!” This was wrongly blamed on a neighbor’s kid who Victor, Yelchin’s brother, now beat up with both ending up bruised and bloodied. The words and image were quickly removed. We learn that Yelchin’s father loves Russian poets and will read their poetry from books he acquires at great cost (e.g., requiring many pounds of paper to drop off for recycling to get a coupon for one book). We learn Russian poets are often killed; for example, Alexander Pushkin at age 37 died in an 1837 pistol duel. Another Russian poet died at age 26 in another duel. Yelchin’s father would say, “You can never be a great poet, …. if you’re afraid to tell the truth [95].” Family members are erased from photo albums after their arrest by the USSR authorities. These events (extreme cold, pneumonia, scarce resources, erasure, and truth-telling) forbode Yelchin’s father’s death. Yelchin ends The Genius under the Table jarringly optimistic (“Our past lay hidden in darkness, but my future seemed dazzlingly bright [201].”).
This book received many honors, including American Library Association Notable Book of 2022, Kirkus Reviews Best Books of 2021 and Association of Jewish Libraries 2022 Sydney Taylor Book Award Honor.
Photographic Memory: William Henry Jackson and the American West by Bill Griffith; ISBN: 978-1419784149; Abrams ComicArts; October 21, 2025; hardcover; 288 pages; author’s website: https://www.zippythepinhead.com/.
Coincidentally, just as I opened this Medical Mentions with a photographer’s biography, I will close with another photographer. Though this book has the least direct medical content of all the books reviewed herein, I hope it has some of the longest lasting. The President of the United States can pick National Monuments; while the U.S. Congress selects U.S. National Parks. The first U.S. National Park (and first in the world) is Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming and designated on March 1, 1872. On June 29, 1906, the 7th National Park at Mesa Verde in Colorado was designated. I believe National Parks fall into public health, not only for the human visitors but for the environment and ecology of all other life. Both of these Parks’ designations are because of photographer William Henry Jackson (WHJ, 1843 – 1942). National Parks are defined as “a nature park designated for conservation purposes because of unparalleled national natural, historic, or cultural significance.” There are several characteristics of National Parks by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), including “not materially altered by human exploitation …visitors [can] enter … for inspirational, educative, cultural, and recreative purposes.” Bill Griffith’s, the author of Photographic Memory, full name is William Henry Jackson Griffith and is the great-grandson of the photographer. Griffith was very proud of having four names and often checked, while in school, if anyone else had four names and found none. As Photographic Memory progresses with the author and great-grandfather aging both look more and more alike. WHJ was hired by railroad lines and following his own and others’ commercial desires to photograph the western U.S. Griffith’s mom says her grandfather’s “pictures of … Yellowstone were collected in albums and presented to congress to show them it was a real place worth preserving [6].” I found some of the history of the American West and early photography fascinating (traveling with his mule-drawn darkroom/box/tent and making his own negatives from wet glass plates with equipment weighing 300 pounds in total). Medical references include Griffith attending the Jonas Salk Junior High School (named after the creator of an early polio vaccine); WHJ was allergic to tulips; WHJ believed in the bogus science of phrenology (health and mental predictions from head shapes); he had vitamin deficiencies during wagon train excursions; visited an optometrist and had hearing loss with age; the trans-continental railroad, in part, led to the slaughter of bison or buffaloes from 30 – 60 million down to less than 1,000; his first wife (Mollie) died in childbirth and that child died soon after while WHJ was photographing in the west; excursions in the U.S. and abroad led to strains in his two marriages (the second marriage lasted 45 years, until Emilie’s death at age 75); he witnessed forced labor in far eastern (now) Russia at 20 – 40 degrees below zero; and his only severe injury occurred when he fell into an open cellar from the sidewalk at age 94. As a frustration to many artists, WHJ lost most of his control of the photographs he’d shot outside the U.S. and was cheated out of pay during that three-year excursion. Griffith inserts himself into the story at various points. As a child and providing a connection to his great-grandfather, Griffith enjoyed the cartoon The Yogi Bear Show about Yogi’s exploits in Jellystone Park—an obvious name spoof. There are some iconic scenes (e.g., see illustration at end of this review). Griffith includes a few scenes from his own artistic life, including restaurant automats, Zippy the Pinhead, a roadside diner, an odd “western cowboy figure” holding a golf club, and an imaginary scene of Griffith and WHJ taking he same New Jersey ferry boat 30 years apart but somehow together. In the chapter entitled “The First People,” 76 – 107, Griffith found “at least twenty-five published books on Jackson and his photographs [77].” And to his credit Griffith—among other commentary—states “Only one [book] deals with Jackson’s impact on the indigenous people he encountered, and that one only slightly. The others credit his adventurous life with helping ‘open the west’ to settlement and tourism, without any critical perspective or sensitivity to the people who were there long before Jackson arrived [77].” Griffith provides lengthy quotes from indigenous men and women. WHJ over his life used different artistic media (oil painting, watercolors, map sketches of enemy lines in the Civil War, and pen and ink line art illustrations into his 90s (borders of all chapter headings). Late in life WHJ photographed in color with a Leica 35-millimeter camera, but Griffith says none of those photographs have been found. WHJ was a Union Army veteran of the Civil War (receiving a $75/month pension) and survived through almost the end of WWII. At the end of Photographic Memory Griffith provides his sources, endnotes, and fifteen photographs that WHJ made between 1871 and 1910.
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