In this two volume collection, Joel Craig documents, through a simple but clear and effective visual language, an honest account of his motivation to enter nursing, his frustrations with colleagues, the joys – and the drudgeries – of his life as a general medical nurse. Reminiscent of Miriam Engelberg’s Cancer Made Me a Shallower Person, Joel’s work also depicts entertaining comedic mind wanderings which reveal the absurdities of life in health care. In this case, Joel discusses his frustrations and aspirations with his imagined dream colleague, Nurse Madonna (as in Material Girl, not religious icon.) Joel also depicts his interpretation… Read More
New Podcast: Studio Time in the Literature & Medicine Classroom
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. This panel from Toronto, “Studio Time in the Literature and Medicine Classroom,” features Susan Squier, Tess Jones, and Scott Smith. They write of their panel, “We will present our experiences introducing ‘studio time’–a time dedicated to creating our own comics (text and images)–into classes that are customarily occupied with discussing comics, either as examples of literature or as modes of communication in health care settings. After brief paper, we answer questions and encourage discussion and comments among… Read More
Dad’s not all there anymore: Lewy Body Dementia comic
Alex Demetris got in touch recently. He’s working on a comic about Lewy Body Dementia. It looks very interesting and I can’t wait to see more (there is a printed copy in the post to me!). This is what Alex has to say about his project: ‘Having produced numerous cartoons and short comic strips over the past six years, last autumn I decided to enrol on an MA in Illustration at Camberwell College of the Arts in order to explore fully my interest in producing a longer narrative comic. In 2007 my father had been diagnosed with Lewy body dementia,… Read More
Comics:Philosophy & Practice
May 18-20, 2012 University of Chicago Center for Critical Inquiry, Chicago, IL organized by Hillary Chute videos of all sessions available here.
Hospice Comics
MK Czerwiec, RN, MA Comics Forum, September 19, 2011
It’s a Bird
guest review by Dr. Ryan Montoya, MD Family Medicine Physician and Comic Book Artist rjmontoya@gmail.com Steve, the narrator of the 2004 Vertigo Graphic Novel It’s a Bird, cannot reconcile the myth of Superman with his every day life. He feels that Superman is the least-relatable character ever created. This becomes startlingly clear in “The Outsider,” one of the many fascinating vignettes that punctuate this semi-autobiographical work by author Steven T. Seagle and artist Teddy Kristiansen. While Clark Kent, a white male, is ostensibly an outsider who hides behind glasses and suit and tie, the real outsiders – the Jewish accountant who… Read More
Level Up
guest review by Kathryn Fay, Northwestern Medical Student Pacman has what every good video game – and narrative for that matter – should have: motivation (fleeing from ghosts), reward (eating yellow dots), and obstacle (navigating a labyrinthine course). Best of all, it has familiarity. Level Up, by Gene Luen Yang, satisfies on all these counts, too. The story starts off with Dennis, the main character, sharing his first experience with an arcade. Many of us remember that moment, too: mine was at the dentist office (the only place I was allowed to play video games, mind you); game of… Read More
New Podcast Wednesday: Comics in Patient Education, Part One
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 first panel podcast from the 2012 Toronto Comics & Medicine conference is on the topic of Comics in Patient Education. In part one of this panel, we will hear from Cathy Leamy and Allison Zemek. The full Q&A from the panel will follow next week’s podcast. Cathy Leamy is an independent cartoonist, specializing in autobiography, humor, and education. She also works as a web developer at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, MA, USA, building… Read More
No Life Lessons Here: Comics, Autism, and Empathetic Scholarship
No Life Lessons Here: Comics, Autism, and Empathetic Scholarship Sara Birge, Pennsylvania State University Disability Studies Quarterly Abstract: Comics, a relatively understudied medium for representations of disability, have enormous potential for providing important critical perspectives in disability studies. This article examines two recent comics that portray individuals with autism: The Ride Together by Paul and Judy Karasik and Circling Normal, a compilation of the comic strip Clear Blue Water by Karen Montague-Reyes. I argue that these comics’ unique narrative geometries make them ideally suited for depicting cognitive disabilities in the nuanced context of embodied life. Through their reworking of stereotypes and their unique portrayals of autism, Circling… Read More
Joyce Farmer: sex, politics and aging parents
Outside the world of underground comix enthusiasts, Joyce Farmer is probably best known for her latest work, Special Exits (Fantagraphics 2010), a memoir (though the names are changed) of her experience caring for her parents during the last few years of their lives. Special Exits is Farmer’s first book-length comic, famously praised by Robert Crumb, but Farmer has been an important figure in comics since the 1970s. I’ll get back to Special Exits in a minute, but first I want to make sure to tell you about her work from the 70s. I wish I’d been more familiar with it… Read More