We are very excited to announce that our very own MK Czerwiec, a.k.a. Comic Nurse, will be a keynote speaker at our Brighton conference in July. Most people reading this post will be aware of MK’s stella contribution to the field of Graphic Medicine over the last 10 years, and it is fitting that she will give one of the two keynote addresses to the 10th international Graphic Medicine conference. MK is a Senior Fellow of the George Washington School of Nursing Center for Health Policy and Media Engagement (Washington, DC) and the Artist-in- Residence at Northwestern Feinberg School of… Read More
Graphic Medicine @ Toronto Comic Arts Festival
Press Release – Graphic Medicine @ Toronto Comic Arts Festival Three authors of books in Penn State University Press’s critically acclaimed Graphic Medicine series are participating in the Toronto Comic Arts Festival this May. Graphic novelist, printmaker, and textile artist Gareth Brookes will exhibit advance copies of his forthcoming graphic novel A Thousand Coloured Castles. Rendered entirely in unique scratched-off crayon drawings, the book depicts life with Charles Bonnet syndrome, which causes intense hallucinations in people with preexisting vision problems. Brookes’s previous graphic novel, The Black Project, won the 2013 Best Original Graphic Novel Award from Broken Frontier. MK Czerwiec (pronounced sir-wick) is a… Read More
Taking Turns: Stories from HIV/AIDS Care Unit 371
Guest review by Dr. Devlyn McCreight MK Czerwiec’s graphic memoir Taking Turns is one of the latest entries in the Graphic Medicine series published by Penn State University Press. The book chronicles Czerwiec’s seven years serving as a nurse on the dedicated HIV/AIDS Care Unit at Illinois Masonic Hospital. While it could be reasonably assumed that Czerwiec serves as the de facto “main character” of the story due to the autobiographical threads woven into the narrative, this does not actually seem to be the case. The care that Czerwiec takes in gathering and sharing the stories of the doctors, nurses,… Read More
Graphic Medicine Manifesto Nominated for Eisner Award.
The Graphic Medicine Manifesto has been nominated for an Eisner Award in the catagory Best Academic/Scholarly Work. One of the most prestigious awards in the industry, the Eisners – officially called the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards – are referred to as the ‘Oscars of comics’. A five-strong panel of judges compile the list of nominations which are then voted on by industry professionals, with the winners announced at the annual Comic-Con in San Diego in July. The Manifesto, published by Penn State University Press, has been very well received by specialist and non specialist readers alike. Written by MK Czerwiec, Ian Williams, Susan Squier, Michael… Read More
Graphic Medicine Podcast: Interview with MK Czerwiec
You may have noticed an interruption in the podcasting of presentations from Brighton. This has been due to both poor audio quality and time constraints. Hoping to get a few more of those presentations audible and edited before our Baltimore conference. In the meantime, Michael Green was kind enough to interview me, MK Czerwiec, while we were on a mini-speaking tour of Southern California. Michael is a gifted interviewer, and I can babble about Graphic Medicine at a moment’s notice. Hope you enjoy our chat.
Graphic Medicine @ Transform
In September, MK Czerwiec and Michael Green were invited to participate in Transform 2013 at the Mayo Clinic Center for Innovation. Their Graphic Medicine main stage talk is now available online. The talk is followed by a Q&A with conference moderator John Hockenberry.
Of Comics and HIV
Dr. Ian Williams Comics Forum October 7, 2012
New Podcast Wednesday For Reals!
Today on the podcast it’s the amazing Riva Lehrer! Artist and educator Riva Lehrer talks with MK about bodies, her portrait series Circle Stories, her anatomical art lecture beauty and variation, disability culture and community, medicine, comics, Graphic Medicine, the recent University of Chicago Comics Conference and more. Riva teaches life drawing at the Art Institute of Chicago and Northwestern Medical School. The Paper Mirror: Drawing Alison Bechdel is a film by Charissa King-O’Brien that documents Riva’s collaboration with cartoonist Alison Bechdel. A screening of the film will be the opening night event at the Comics & Medicine 2012 Toronto… Read More
MK Czerwiec on The Sequential Art of Illness
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. Northwestern’s Feinberg School of Medicine, Department of Medical Humanities and Bioethics, recently sponsored a three-lecture series on Graphic Medicine. The first of these lectures features MK Czerwiec introducing the field, highlighting some texts, and going on about how everyone should draw more. Introduction by Cate Belling, great comments after the talk from MA/MD students, also Riva Leher, Laurie Zoloth, and Katie Watson.
MK Czerwiec on Taking Turns: A Medical Tragicomic
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. “TAKING TURNS: AIDS, Oral History & Comics” describes the motivation, process, and challenges of creating a graphic memoir on the subject of AIDS care that incorporates oral and lived history. MK Czerwiec (pronounced sir-wick) is a registered nurse who has been making comics under the pseudonym Comic Nurse since 2000. She has an MA in Medical Humanities & Bioethics and assisted in organizing the June 2011 Comics & Medicine conference in Chicago. She is currently… Read More