Medical and potential trigger issues: eating disorder, anorexia nervosa, sexual assault, OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder), alcoholism, mental health, suicide, death, grief Review by Alison Kent Lucille by Ludovic Debeurme is a startlingly beautiful book that starts out with a young woman walking through the woods. Her cellphone goes off; it’s her mother. She lies, saying she didn’t take a detour home from school. The woods are her only apparent solace. Socially awkward and full of self-doubt, it quickly becomes apparent that she is also seriously anorexic. Her solitary sexual explorations fill her with more self-loathing than relief. She is… Read More
Charisma Check: A Review of Just Roll with It by Veronica Agarwal and Lee Durfey-Lavoie
Guest Review by A. David Lewis Like obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) itself, Just Roll with It by Veronica Agarwal and Lee Durfey-Lavoie does not reveal itself immediately. The YA graphic novel betrays nothing on its cover, with its summary blurb, or for the first sixty-plus pages of the story. With no overt initial comment, the narrative follows sixth-grader Maggie as she navigates the new challenges of middle school. Her two older sisters had been exemplary students in their time, so Maggie feels the additional burden to excel in addition to her anxiety with friends, classes, and after-school clubs. She is… Read More
The Bad Doctor – The Troubled Life and Times of Dr Iwan James
Review first published in the Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics, 2016 The Bad Doctor: The Troubled Life and Times of Dr. Iwan James is a riveting, debut graphic novel by Ian Williams, a celebrated medical humanist and founder of the Graphic Medicine website. He previously published using the nom de plume Thom Ferrier and contributed a series of comic strips for the Guardian. In The Bad Doctor, inspired by Justin Green’s Binky Brown Meets the Holy Virgin Mary and by his own experience of the continuing secondary effects of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), Ian Williams deftly evokes the world of country GP Dr Iwan James’s deep… Read More
The Bad Doctor on the BBC
Ian Williams was interviewed for the BBC’s World Update about his new graphic novel The Bad Doctor (Myriad Editions). You can listen to the interview at the link below. Ian Williams on World Service
New Podcast: Ian Williams “Medical Examinations” Keynote
Juliette McMullin at the University of California, Riverside recently organized a conference titled, “Medical Examinations: Art, Story, Theory.” It was sponsored by the Center for Ideas and Society as well as Department of Anthropology. We are honored to share two of the conference keynotes as Graphic Medicine podcasts. First up is Graphic Medicine site co-director, Ian Williams. 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 Nao of Brown- Inkstuds Interview with Glyn Dillon
Robin McConnell’s interview with comics artist Glyn Dillon, author of the wonderful Nao of Brown. Glyn explains the thinking behind the book, which tells the story of a young woman who has OCD. Graphic Medicine gets a mention in the interview! LISTEN
The Nao of Brown
Publisher’s Blurb: ‘“A young woman’s struggle with love, life and murderous thoughts ” Nao Brown suffers from OCD, but not the handwashing, overly tidy type that people often refer to jokingly. Nao suffers from violent morbid obsessions, while her compulsions take the form of unseen mental rituals. Working part-time in a “designer” vinyl toy shop, while struggling to get her own illustration career off the ground, she’s still searching for that elusive love – the perfect love. And in meeting the man of her dreams, she realizes… dreams can be quite weird. Nao’s meditation practice is an attempt to quieten… Read More
I’m Crazy
Not reviewed yet on GM.org This is an autobiographical graphic novel about Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) read a review on Metapsychology here
Map of My Heart
Not reviewed yet by GM.org Drawn and Quarterly website blurb: MAP OF MY HEART celebrates the twentieth anniversary of John Porcellino’s seminal and influential comics zine, KING CAT COMICS, which he started self publishing in 1989 and which has been his predominant means of expression. In this collection, while Porcellino is living in isolation and experiencing the pain of divorce he crafts a melancholic, tender graphic ballad of heartbreak and reflection. Known for his sad, quiet honesty rendered in his signature deceptively minimalist style, Porcellino has a command of graphic storytelling as sophisticated as the medium’s more visually intricate masters…. Read More