This Week in Graphic Medicine (10/26/18)

‘This Week in Graphic Medicine’ highlights relevant articles (and tweets) about comics in medicine published during the week (Saturday – Friday). Links are typically presented without commentary, unless clarification of relevance is necessary, with credit given to those who flagged them up where possible. So without further ado…

Matthew’s Pick of the Week…

This week’s pick comes with a content warning for suicide. As many of you know, I am a huge fan of Lunarbaboon, a webcomic series about parenting, depression, and nerd culture (my description). I periodically feature them below – but not every week and certainly not every comic relevant to graphic medicine, otherwise it would risk taking over. (You’ll note, I make this kind of decision with many comics – curator discretion and all that.)

This week, I ask you to take a look at Lunarbaboon #441 – Crisis. This one talks about needing to call the Crisis Hotline (see below) for the first time and surviving through the ideation. These kinds of comics always hit me hard, but I tend to leave them with a sense of awe toward the creator for being willing and able to share such an experience openly. I’ll stop here and let you look, but an ask: I am still trying to develop a research proposal around suicide in comics, so if you know of any examples, please send them my way.

And I want to state this plainly and openly: if you ever need to talk, reach out. Let me know and I will listen. I’m often not the most approachable person, nor always the most open myself, but I WILL be there if you come to me. I promise.

If you’re not comfortable coming to me – or any other friend, family in your life – then please, reach out to SOMEONE. Call the Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255. Text the Crisis Line at 741741. You can even chat online here http://www.spsamerica.org/.

Just know that you matter and you are not alone.

Articles & More…

MICE 2018: Twitter Thread in which I tried to highlight all the graphic medicine at MICE

MICE 2018: Twitter Thread from the Comics and Mental Health Panel (via me)

MICE 2018: Another Twitter Thread from Comics and Mental Health Panel (via @nnlmner)

MICE 2018: A follow-up Thread in which A. David Lewis seeks out more mental health comics! Add to the suggestions!

Event: Graphic Medicine Workshop w/ Whit Taylor and Meredith Li-Vollmer at Short Run Seattle

Event: An Afternoon with David Lasky

Webcomic: Baby Movers and Shakers

Webcomic: Postpartum

Webcomic: Who Wants to Live Forever? via @TheNib

Webcomic: Breast Anatomy (OJST is NSFW)