New Award Category Recognizes Innovation in Educational Graphic Medicine

 

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The Graphic Medicine International Collective (GMIC) is proud to announce the addition of a new award category to the annual GMIC Awards: Educational.

The original categories of short-form (28 pages or less) and long-form (more than 28 pages) will remain. This new third award category, launching in the 2025 award cycle, celebrates excellence in educational graphic medicine. It is intended to celebrate comics with a primarily instructional aim: comics that emphasize one or more medical topics, treatments, diseases, devices, and biological functions to teach medical professionals, medical students, patients, caregivers, or the general public. Submissions in this new category can be of any length. Winners will receive $600 and a keepsake award. 

“With generous donations from our community, we continue to support artists and honour Nancy and Herbert Wolf. This year, we are delighted to introduce a new category highlighting accessible and ingenious educational comics that convey accurate medical information.” said Ebru Ustundag, Board co-chair of the Graphic Medicine International Collective and member of the GMIC Award steering committee.

Submitted educational comics will be evaluated on: 

• Innovation and creativity 
• Potential for impact on learning outcomes
• Community engagement and collaboration
• Medical accuracy (required, but conventional medical illustrations are not)
• Accessibility and ease of understanding
• Effective use of the comics medium

PLEASE NOTE: Comics generated using artificial intelligence (AI) will not be considered for any of the three GMIC Awards.

Nominations for all three GMIC Awards will open Wednesday, January 1, 2025, with winners announced Summer 2025. Creators, educators, and publishers can submit nominations through the GMIC website. 

The Graphic Medicine International Collective is a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting the use of comics in health. (www.graphicmedicine.org) The GMIC Awards are one of GMIC’s primary initiatives. Previous award recipients and shortlisted works can be found here.