Guest Review by Katya Robin Bobby Baker is an artist who makes installations and does performances about women’s daily lives. She was diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD; Endnote 1) in 1997. When she started going to a mental health day centre, diary drawing became a core element of her daily art practice and self-care. Her self-imposed daily drawing continued for the next eleven years, thereafter changing to weekly updates. Over this time, she included a series of more than 700 drawings. A selection of 158 photographs of these drawings were exhibited at The Wellcome Collection (Endnote 2) in 2009…. Read More
‘Cancer Sells’ by Tat Effby
Tat is a cartoonist and illustrator, whose work has appeared in Private Eye, the Oldie, the Guardian and as Cath Tate Cards. She is a regular contributor to My Shrewsbury Magazine, home to her strip ‘Round the Bend’, based on the wildfowl on Shrewsbury’s stretch of the river Severn. Tat lives in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, with a husband and two sons (probably hers) who like to break things so she has something to do. Instagram & Twitter : @tat_effby www.tat-effby.com
The Story Of My Tits
Review by Raghavi Ravi Kasthuri Originally published in the Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics. Published online: 03 Oct 2016. To cite this article: Raghavi Ravi Kasthuri (2016): The story of my tits, by Jennifer Hayden Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics, DOI: 10.1080/21504857.2016.1233900 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/21504857.2016.1233900 Published in the year 2015 following the critical acclaim of graphic onco-narratives such as Cancer Vixen: A True Story (2006) by Marisa Acocella Marchetto and David Small’ s Stitches: A Memoir (2009), Jennifer Hayden’ s The Story of My Tits which is located in the discourse of graphic medicine, is not just a… Read More
New Graphic Medicine Podcast Season Begins!
The first episode of the new and improved (and sponsored!) Graphic Medicine Podcast is now available! You can listen to the episode by clicking below or subscribe to the feed in iTunes. In Graphic Medicine News, I mention the following two pieces: Ryan Montoya’s “Sign Out” new on the Annals of Internal Medicine site. and “Market for Medical Graphic Novels Grows” article on Bookseller, flagged up by Paula Knight. This week on the podcast, we feature an interview with Jennifer Hayden, creator of The Story of My Tits (Top Press, 2015). Jennifer describes how she came to making comics, describes her… Read More
Roses in December (And More)
guest review by Kevin Wolf Two books , Safe Return Home: An Inspirational Book for Caregivers of Alzheimer’s (Andrews McMeel publisher 1998) and Roses in December: a story of love and Alzheimer’s (The Kent State University Press 2015) by Tom Batiuk and Chuck Ayers are the early and complete collections, respectively, of Crankshaft comic strips about elderly characters suffering from Alzheimer’s disease from diagnosis to death. The book Lisa’s Story: the other shoe (The Kent State University Press 2007) by Tom Batiuk is a collection of Funky Winkerbean comic strips about Lisa’s diagnosis of breast cancer, her treatment, remission, and recurrence. These stories sensitively and humorously show the effect of… Read More
Cancer Vixen
Cancer Vixen-The figure of Doctor guest review by Nathan Sethu Representation of humans in comics are minimal to create intimacy between the reader and the narrator,which broadens the scope of graphic novels, the responsibility being shifted to the audience in understanding the imagination of storyteller through combination of visual effects. Panels are sequenced at the will of the author, who makes herculean task of unfolding ties between different characters including creativity usurped through sub – human beings, thereby shifting focus on complexity, irony and genre description. The writers of graphic novels present experience of protagonist, suddenly jumping into a specific role… Read More
Lisa’s Story: The Other Shoe
Guest review by Sathyaraj Venkatesan and Raghavi Ravi Kasthuri, National Institute of Technology, India. Published in 2007, Lisa’s Story: The Other Shoe by Tom Batuik is a compilation of comic strips about the breast cancer experience of Lisa Moore, a popular fictional character in the Funky Winkerbean series. Syndicated in more than four hundred newspapers, the Funky Winkerbean series is celebrated for illuminating socially relevant issues such as teenage pregnancy, alcoholism, gun violence, suicide, among others. Lisa’s Story: The Other Shoe is no exception in that Batuik, through a series of two tier black and white cartoons, meditates upon the diagnosis,… Read More
Atrium: Graphic
Atrium is the report of the Northwestern Medical Humanities and Bioethics Program Graphic, Issue 10, Spring 2012 was guest co-edited by Catherine Belling and MK Czerwiec, full PDF of issue available here. Table of contents: The View from the Spectrum: The Challenges of Picturing Autism in Comics Form by Courrney Angermeier and Jeff Benham Aggression Management Manga: An Interview with Rinko Endo by MK Czerwiec Monsters and the Ghosts of PubMed by Alice Dreger Picture This: Illustrating the Future of HIPAA Docukents by Leah Eisenberg and Rose Anderon Saving Grace: Teaching about Breast Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment Using Comic Form (in… Read More
New Podcast: Comics & Medicine in the Mainstream
This is Panel 13 from last summer’s Comics & Medicine conference in Toronto. In this episode we will hear from three speakers in two presentations. Both will address medically-relevant themes as they have appeared in mainstream media comics. Use the Quicktime player above to view images along with the audio. If you don’t have Quicktime, you can listen to the audio-only version below. “Facing” illness: what the “funnies” can teach us about caregiver role, response, and needs Sarah Russe and Judith Kaplan-Weinger An overt focus on the effects of illness is still rare in mainstream syndicated comics. One of the… Read More
Homesick by Jason Walz
Dr Mita Mahato reviews homesick: In 2009, Jason Walz’s mother Linda died from complications related to breast cancer. However, Homesick, Walz’s debut graphic memoir, is not about his mother or her terminal illness so much as it is about coming to terms with the gutting loss he experiences upon her death. While Linda is living (though rapidly deteriorating) through much of the book, Walz narrates from the perspective of losing her—or knowing that he will lose her. The book is built out of a succession of memories that emphasize the isolation and panic that Walz feels during Linda’s final months. … Read More