By Aaradhana Natarajan Vanna Vinci does justice to the fantastic imagery and vibrant earthiness of Frida Kahlo’s art in both the text and the visuals of her 2017 graphic novel Frida: The Story of Her Life. The pages hold a blend of recollections, history and conjecture that form a syncretic portrait of an artist most known for her heavily symbolic self-portraiture. The text is both biography and exposition for the lush art. Vinci imbues her subject with the rich, often mordant and morbid sensibility Kahlo* is known for. I thought it was refreshing how, even as a child, Vinci’s… Read More
Booster Shot Comics Take on Pediatric Pain!
Booster Shot Comics consists of cartoonist and board certified pediatric allergist Alex Thomas and health communication specialist Gary Ashwal. In this week’s episode of the Graphic Medicine Podcast, you’ll hear them discuss their comics project the Stoplight Pain Scale. This project is a great model for how to make a research-based comics-format health intervention. Keep an eye on your screens because images are dropped paired with the audio. Graphic Medicine News This week my work was focused on a presentation called “Teaching Science with Comics” I gave to the Chicago Council on Science & Technology last night. In the course of… Read More
Pain Is Really Strange
Chronic pain is often poorly understood by health professionals and pain management is under-funded and under-resourced within our National Health Service. As a General Practitioner, faced with a patient with chronic pain and having less than ten minutes to ‘sort them out’, I know from experience it is very easy to reach for the prescription pad (or, latterly, the prescribing screen on the computer), rather than engage in lengthy discussion about perception, thinking habits and physical remedies. From now on, however, I may well recommend this great little book as part of my management of such difficult ‘cases’. The author,… Read More