‘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…
Gotta have a @GraphicMedicine selfie for #alaac18! Heard about this comics and medicine thing? Give @ComicNurse or I a shout! pic.twitter.com/yCEF74rWPv
— Matthew Noe (@NoetheMatt) June 24, 2018
No specific link to send you to this week, rather, I want to reflect a little on attending the American Library Association Annual Conference (2018) in New Orleans this past weekend. This was, as far as I know, the first time attending an ALA for all of us there for the Graphic Medicine: Narratives of Illness, Healing, and Care and it was equal parts overwhelming and amazing! The panelists included myself as moderator, our own MK Czerwiec (Taking Turns), Ellen Forney (Rock Steady), and Julie Rocheleau (About Betty’s Boob). This panel was the primary cause of attendance for me (and for MK) and I want to give a special shout out to Meg Lemke for making it happen!
The panel drew a great crowd, many of whom stayed behind after so long to chat that we got kicked out of the room (whoops!), and we learned more about folks connection to graphic medicine and future projects. I can’t wait to share them with you all here as they come to fruition! Having a full-blown panel at the largest library conference in North America is a big moment for graphic medicine – following a series of big moments this year, like the NLM exhibit launch. I think it’s safe to say we have, as they say, The Big ‘Mo! You can find coverage of the panel in American Libraries Magazine. And this is a thread of live-tweeting from librarian Steve Thomas.
Speaking of Meg, she was also responsible for the plethora of French Comics Association events and speakers during ALA, a nearly complete list of which can be seen on this PDF. Two that stood out to me were the Bande Dessinée Soirée—It’s A Comics Party! event held at local comics shop, Crescent City Comics, and the French Comics Kiss Better panel. The LCS party was a great way to learn more about the comics scene in New Orleans and meet area cartoonists AND many of the French cartoonists in town for the conference. I walked away with some really neat items – like a small box of 12 TINY comics from Caesar Meadows (picture below) and some local comics relevant to graphic medicine, like Incision by artist Kate Lacour, who has a number of medical titles on her Etsy shop (linked).
The panel brought together Cati Bauer (Four Sisters), Aurélie Neyret (Cici’s Journal), Barroux (Alpha), and Eve Tharlet (Mr. Badger & Mrs. Fox) and was moderated by Meg Lemke. It was fascinating to hear more about the different processes for creating French comics (they have a different market than the US) and how differently each artist approaches their work. I was particularly taken with Barroux’s discussion of how Alpha came to be and he even brought the original notebook that the published comic is, more-or-less, an exact replica of. Did you know that French comics are the 3rd largest comics market in all of the word? You do now!
Sketchnotes from the #ALA18 @FrenchComix panel moderated by @meglemke pic.twitter.com/J32DGpGlyR
— ComicNurse (@ComicNurse) June 23, 2018
Comics – and zines – were on grand display at ALA, and based on what we heard at the Will Eisner Graphic Novel Grants for Libraries Reception, this was just the latest year of growing comics presence at ALA. Which is fitting, since the ALA Graphic Novels & Comics in Libraries Round Table became official at ALA 2018! For us librarians, this is a huge step and I can say, for me personally, gives me a big incentive to become a dues paying ALA member again.
Don’t forget to stop by the @zinepavilion – there’s even some #GraphicMedicine! #alaac18 pic.twitter.com/icV5icjfIF
— Matthew Noe (@NoetheMatt) June 24, 2018
Wrapping this up, I’m sure many of you are wondering about what books we discovered relevant to graphic medicine. Between MK and I, in addition to any titles already mentioned above, we snagged copies of…
Dumb by Georgia Webber (Fantographics), Gumballs by Erin Nations (IDW), Smile, Sisters, & Ghosts all by Raina Telgemeier (known, yes, but I got them signed!), Hey, Kiddo: How I Lost My Mother, Found My Father, and Dealt with Family Addiction by Jarrett Krosoczka (Scholastic Graphix), Machete Squad by Brent Dulak and David Axe (US Naval Institute), Drawn to Berlin: Comic Workshops in Refugee Shelters and Other Stories from a New Europe by Ali Fitzgerald (Fantographics), Home After Dark by David Small (Penguin Random House), and Super Late Bloomer: My Early Days in Transition by Julia Kaye (Andrews McMeel)
I’m sure there were others that we missed – the exhibits floor was too massive to properly tackle even in 3 days! And these are just the examples of clear graphic medicine! All-in-all, I’d say Graphic Medicine’s first venture to ALA was a massive success and we hope to build on this in future years! (For more complete coverage of ALA’s comics presence, head over to The Beat.)
So… this is why my back hurts. ARCs and signed books from #alaac18! Looking forward to adding a bunch of these to our budding humanities collections. pic.twitter.com/mX8vzmSInR
— Matthew Noe (@NoetheMatt) June 25, 2018
Articles & More…
Call for Submissions: Oh Joy Sex Toy Guest Comics
Kickstarter: Being True LGBTQ Comics Anthology
Webcomic: Boot on the topic of suicide and survival
Webcomic: Visibility Has Its Rewards: Six Cartoonists on Gender and Transition via @TheNib
Webcomic: Asylum Experience for Canadian Children via @FalseKnees [Old but relevant right now]
Webcomic: They Tell Me It’s Normal Grief via @The_Intima
Webcomic: ‘Wings’, by Paula Knight
Comic Excerpt: Marry Me A Little
Scholarly: Exploring the Surgical Gaze Through Literature and Art
Interview: Comics Are For Everybody: Talking with Stephanie Cooke About Creator Resource
Interview: Ellen Forney Wants Those Living with Bipolar Disorder to Rock Steady
Interview: Viñetas con garabatos médicos
Book Review: Taking Turns via @cmajblogs
Book Review: It’s Time for Lissa (Review by @adlewis) via @GraphicMedicine
Book Review: Rock Steady: Brilliant Advice from My Bipolar Life via @GraphicMedicine
Book Review: Psiquiatrico II (Crazy Seventies) via @GraficaMedicina
Book Review: Rx: A Graphic Memoir
Book Review: Rock Steady: Brilliant Advice from my Bipolar Life. (Booklist)
Book Review: Mis(h)adra – Iasmin Omar Ata’s Distinctive Take on Graphic Medicine Chronicles a Life Living with Epilepsy via @brokenfrontier
Book Review (Medical Humanities): Anne Whitehead’s Medicine & Empathy in Contemporary British Literature: An Intervention in Medical Humanities
Library: ALA 2018 Spotlight: ALA Program Highlights
Library: ALA 2018: Lots of Comics Programming in N’Orleans!
Library: Graphic Medicine and LGBTQ Health via @nnlmner
Blog: Look Harder: Choosing Comics for the Classroom via @ginabrandolino
Blog: CaringKind Chronicles via @GraphicMedicine
Blog: Graphic Medicine: Breathing new insights into illness narratives with comics
Blog (Medical Humanities): The Complicated History of the Visual Analog Scale: Part 1
We talk a lot about these kinds of scales in graphic medicine, so while not technically a comic, it is relevant here.
2018 Summer Reading for Compassionate Clinicians via @GoldFdtn
How to Write Across Difference
Science Comics’ Super Powers via @matteofarinella
New graphic novel puts American Indian storytelling in comic form
Fall 2018 Announcements: Comics & Graphic Novels
‘Fun Home,’ graphic novel, has Watchung Hills parents at odds
Queer Visibility Interview: The Boston Comics Roundtable and their BEING TRUE Anthology
Why art is becoming part of doctors’ education at Virginia Mason in Seattle
Inaugural Excellence in Graphic Literature Awards Winners
Graphically Speaking: Sequential Art Continues To Proliferate
Tweets…
I am trying something new this week for the Tweets section: capturing the content using Wakelet and embedding it into this post. This should, in theory, help streamline the capture process for me – we’ll see, as I test it out. An important note: tweets will appear in REVERSE CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER, rather than the traditional attempt to have them oldest first. I haven’t found a way to reverse this in Wakelet. If you have feedback about this change, do let me know.
Hey comics artists/writers/teachers/educators/librarians: Do you know of any resources or guidelines for making comics for early readers?
— Maris Wicks (@mariswicks) June 25, 2018
Useful thread (^^) about making comics for young audiences
Some great stuff this week! Did I miss something? Let me know in the comments below or tweet @NoetheMatt! Until next time…
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