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All Is Not Well – New Website

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Developed by Cardiff University and a group of independent comic creators, All Is Not Well aims to reflect the reality of life as a care giver via a series of short comic strips. Working in care has become one of the most thankless and undervalued jobs in society, yet it is one of the most important.  Our aim is to try and give voice to some of the people involved in the caring of others. The site will host a variety of  strips from creators who have worked as carers or been cared for themselves. These will feature alongside interviews with the creators, as well… Read More

Carol Tyler: Bringing It All Back Home

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In this week’s Graphic Medicine Podcast, Carol Tyler’s keynote address from the Graphic Medicine 2015 conference in Riverside, California. The talk is titled, “Bringing It All Back Home.” With this being the Thanksgiving holiday in the U.S., I thought it would be a great tie-in to post Carol’s talk in conjunction with the Great Thanksgiving Listen. Here’s a video about that project from StoryCorps: Carol Tyler’s monumental book, Soldier’s Heart: The Campaign to Understand My WWII Veteran Father was released this week. The process which led to the creation of this book was a monumental act of intense listening, intense caregiving,… Read More

Things to Do in a Retirement Home Trailer Park When You Are 29 and Unemployed

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guest review by Chicago medical student Brian Kim Things to Do in a Retirement Home Trailer Park … When You’re 29 and Unemployed is a beautiful approach to discussing the various facets of death in one’s life.   Aneurin Wright depicts his journey in caring for his father, who is dying from emphysema. He illustrates the profound memories that form the foundation for his relationship with his father, as well as fundamental memories that have formulated his father’s relationships.   Additionally, he depicts his thoughts and daydreams that highlight his anguish and frustration with his situation and also the reconciliation of his relationship… Read More

New Podcast: Joyce Farmer and Paul Gravett in Conversation

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“I put something amusing in every two pages.” – Joyce Farmer “Every exit should be special.” – Paul Gravett The last session from our 2012 Comics & Medicine conference in Toronto presents the magnificent Joyce Farmer in conversation with Paul Gravett. They discuss her long career making comics on medical themes, from “Tits & Clits” to “Abortion Eve” to Special Exits. 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. The featured image for the podcast is a crayoned self-portrait Joyce did during Michael Green and… Read More

New Podcast: Comics & Medicine in the Mainstream

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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

New Podcast: Comics & Caregiving

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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. Our eleventh panel from Toronto and they just keep getting better and better! I, MK, had the honor of moderating this panel and am quite pleased to revisit and post it here. The first speaker is Michelle N. Huang,  a Master’s Student and University Graduate Fellow at The Pennsylvania State University. Her research interests include disability studies, war literature, and cultural studies in the twentieth century. She writes of her paper, The “Good Enough Daughter”… Read More

Tangles: A Story of Alzheimer’s, My Mother, and Me

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guest review by Katie Delaney, MD/MA program in Bioethics and Medical Humanities, Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine   “Sarah: What’s it like, Dad? Dad: I don’t know. I guess sometimes it turns out that everything you thought about how the future would be just isn’t true.” – Tangles, page 46   Tangles is a poignant and clever name for Sarah Leavitt’s graphic memoir about her mother’s Alzheimer’s disease. First, there is the way Leavitt’s partner describes the mind of Sarah’s ailing mother: “Like the garden this summer… tangled, but with spots of brightness.” (114). Then, there is the fact that… Read More