Documenting trauma in comics : traumatic pasts, embodied histories, and graphic reportage by 
Graphic medicine, humanizing healthcare and novel approaches in anatomical education by
Part I. History of Medical Illustration, Graphic Medicine, Humanizing Healthcare and Equitable Visualizations -- Chapter 1. Drawn Together: Merging the Worlds of Health and Comics Through Graphic Medicine -- Chapter 2. Medical Graphics and Graphic Medicine -- Chapter 3. Decolonising Visual Narratives in Global Health: The Case for Equitable and Ethical Imagery Use -- Chapter 4. Medical Illustration in Anatomy -- Chapter 5. Valuing Creativity in Biomedical Science Education: A Reflective Narrative -- Chapter 6. Biomedical Visualization in Embryology Education: A Scoping Review -- Chapter 7. A Framework for the Design, Production, and Evaluation of Scientific Visualizations -- Part II. Anatomical and Cell Biology Education -- Chapter 8. Palpation: The Art of Felt Anatomy -- Chapter 9. Teaching Histology with Analogies -- Chapter 10. Using the Hands for Learning Anatomy -- Chapter 11. Corporeal Pedagogy: Visualizing Anatomy Through Art, Archaeology and Medicine.
Graphic Medicine Manifesto by
This inaugural volume in the Graphic Medicine series establishes the principles of graphic medicine and begins to map the field. The volume combines scholarly essays by members of the editorial team with previously unpublished visual narratives by Ian Williams and MK Czerwiec, and it includes arresting visual work from a wide range of graphic medicine practitioners. The book's first section, featuring essays by Scott Smith and Susan Squier, argues that as a new area of scholarship, research on graphic medicine has the potential to challenge the conventional boundaries of academic disciplines, raise questions about their foundations, and reinvigorate literary scholarship--and the notion of the literary text--for a broader audience. The second section, incorporating essays by Michael Green and Kimberly Myers, demonstrates that graphic medicine narratives can engage members of the health professions with literary and visual representations and symbolic practices that offer patients, family members, physicians, and other caregivers new ways to experience and work with the complex challenges of the medical experience. The final section, by Ian Williams and MK Czerwiec, focuses on the practice of creating graphic narratives, iconography, drawing as a social practice, and the nature of comics as visual rhetoric. A conclusion (in comics form) testifies to the diverse and growing graphic medicine community. Two valuable bibliographies guide readers to comics and scholarly works relevant to the field.
Graphic Medicine Review
The Graphic Medicine Review (GMR) (ISSN 2993-8252) publishes scholarly works relevant to both the comics medium (aka comic books, graphic novels, manga, bande dessinée, etc.) and healthcare, medicine, wellness, patient experience, and public health policy. GMR is an open-access resource primarily produced in English but international in scope and concerns.
Infertility Comics and Graphic Medicine by
Infertility Comics and Graphic Medicine examines women's graphic memoirs on infertility, foregrounding the complex interrelationship between women's life writing, infertility studies, and graphic medicine. Through a scholarly examination of the artists' use of visual-verbal codes of the comics medium in narrating their physical ordeals and affective challenges occasioned by infertility, the book seeks to foreground the intricacies of gender identity, embodiment, subjectivity, and illness experience. Providing long-overdue scholarly attention on the perspectives of autobiographical and comics studies, the authors examine the gendered nature of the infertility experience and the notion of motherhood as an ideological force which interpolates socio-cultural discourses, accentuating the potential of graphic medicine as a creative space for the infertile women to voice their hitherto silenced perspectives on childlessness with force and urgency. This interdisciplinary volume will be of interest to scholars and students in comics studies, the health humanities, literature, and women's and gender studies, and will also be suitable for readers in visual studies and narrative medicine.
About Betty's Boob by
She lost her left breast, her job, and her guy. She does not know it yet, but this is the best day of her life. An inspiring and surprisingly comedic tale of loss and acceptance told largely through silent sequential narrative, About Betty's Boob is seminal work from master storytellers Véro Cazot and Julie Rocheleau. Praise for About Betty's Boob "The artwork is vibrant and kinetic, and its depiction of goings-on both fantastical and reality-bound is detailed and eminently appealing. About Betty's Boob is an inspiring, entertaining story of pain and grief transformed into joyful self-acceptance--societal expectations be damned." - BookPage ". . . Cazot shows that however offbeat her sensibility, she understands the depth of her character's pain. This frothy book isn't just an attempt to lighten up a serious topic. It's also a surprisingly subtle exploration of how we deal with the weight of both breasts and cancer." - NPR "Winsome, erotic, and hilarious, Betty's adventures break the mold for cancer stories in pulling art and beauty out of tragedy." - Library Journal, starred review "Betty's story is a charmed one, but not quite a fairy tale. Rather, it is a celebration of change, fortitude, and the healing power of art." - Publishers Weekly "Tackling loss and questions of femininity and identity from a comedic angle keeps the focus and agency rooted in Betty, not just her cancer or her boob, a fine line that many cancer stories fail to establish." - Paste
Back, Sack and Crack (& Brain): a rather graphic novel by
A story that brings tears to your eyes, in more ways than one. It touches you so much you it makes you want to cross your legs in sympathy - Nev Fountain, writer at Dead Ringers, author of Painkiller Rob Wells has spent much of his adult life coping with chronic pain of different kinds - an embarrassing bowel problem in his early 20s, recurring testicular pain in his late 20s and 30s, and back problems requiring spinal surgery in his early 40s. Consistent through these experiences has been a feeling of being passed from pillar to post by the medical community, seemingly at a loss to explain the cause of these issues, or to find a lasting solution for them. This hilarious and brutally frank graphic memoir tells Rob's story, taking us through emergency surgery for a misdiagnosed twisted testicle, the extremes of weight loss and weight gain, the insides of far too many public toilets, and having to resort to walking with a cane. As Rob's back, sack and crack all became causes for concern so too did his brain, as his recurring problems unsurprisingly left him with depression and agoraphobia. This is the warm and witty story of a man's battle with his own body, and with the medical industry that couldn't quite appreciate the problem. For anyone who has ever felt let down by their doctors, or who has suffered with chronic pain that shows no sign of subsiding, Rob Wells bravely invites you to really get to grips with his balls.
COVID Chronicles: a comics anthology by
In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic brought the world to itsknees. When we weren't sheltering in place, we were advised to wear masks, washour hands, and practice social distancing. We watched in horror as medicalpersonnel worked around the clock to care for the sick and dying. Businesseswere shuttered, travel stopped, workers were furloughed, and markets dropped.And people continued to die. Amid all thisuncertainty, writers and artists from around the world continued to createcomics, commenting directly on how individuals, societies, governments, andmarkets reacted to the worldwide crisis. COVID Chronicles: A Comics Anthologycollects more than sixty such short comics from a diverse set of creators,including indie powerhouses, mainstream artists, Ignatz and Eisner Awardwinners, and media cartoonists. In narrative styles ranging from realistic tofantastic, they tell stories about adjusting to working from home, homeschoolingtheir kids, missing birthdays and weddings, and being afraid just to leave thehouse. They probe the failures of government leaders and the social safety net.They dig into the racial bias and systemic inequities that this pandemic helpedbring to light. We see what it's like to get the virus and live to tell aboutit, or to stand by helplessly as a loved onepasses. At times heartbreaking and at othershopeful and humorous, these comics express the anger, anxiety, fear, andbewilderment we feel in the era of COVID-19. Above all, they highlight the powerof art and community to help us make sense of a world in crisis, reminding usthat we are truly all in this together. The comicsin this collection have been generously donated by their creators. A portion ofthe the proceeds from the sale of this volume are being donated by the publisherto the Book Industry Charitable Foundation (Binc) in support of comics shops,bookstores, and their employees who have been adversely affected by thepandemic.
Crazy Like a Fox : adventures in schizophrenia by
This autobiographically-inspired graphic novel explores mental health and schizophrenia in a surprising and emotionally honest story with a fantastical cast of animal characters. Fox Foxerson's got a new roommate. Fox Foxerson's got a new job. Fox Foxerson's got a date. The roommate is only a little strange, sometimes. The job seems to involve . . . filing? It's not very clear. The date seems to be more interested in someone else. Fox would rather be making art. As the oppressive weight of the everyday routine beats down on Fox, nothing is going right. And it doesn't seem like anyone can help -- not Fox's roommate, not Fox's friends, and definitely not the nurses and doctors at the hospital, who don't seem to take notice of anything Fox tries to tell them. Fox needs some time and space to figure things out. This quirky, humorous graphic novel tinged with pathos, immerses readers in the constant question: are you okay? Fox is not okay, but Fox is working on it.
Dumb: living without a voice by
Part memoir, part medical cautionary tale, Dumb tells the story of how an urban twentysomething copes with the everyday challenges that come with voicelessness. Webber adroitly uses the comics medium to convey the practical hurdles she faced as well as the fear and dread that accompanied her increasingly lonely journey to regain her life. Her raw cartooning style perfectly captures her frustration and anxiety. But her ordeal ultimately becomes a hopeful story when she learns to lean on the support of her close friend and finds self-expression in creating comics.
El Deafo by
The beloved #1 New York Times bestselling and Newbery Honor winning graphic novel memoir from Cece Bell Starting at a new school is scary, especially with a giant hearing aid strapped to your chest! At her old school, everyone in Cece's class was deaf. Here, she's different. She's sure the kids are staring at the Phonic Ear, the powerful aid that will help her hear her teacher. Too bad it also seems certain to repel potential friends. Then Cece makes a startling discovery. With the Phonic Ear she can hear her teacher not just in the classroom but anywhere her teacher is in the school--in the hallway . . . in the teacher's lounge . . . in the bathroom! This is power. Maybe even superpower! Cece is on her way to becoming El Deafo, Listener for All. But the funny thing about being a superhero is that it's just another way of feeling different . . . and lonely. Can Cece channel her powers into finding the thing she wants most, a true friend? Also Available: El Deafo: Superpowered Edition! Get a special hardcover collector's edition of Cece Bell's beloved graphic novel with 40 bonus pages of childhood photographs, early sketches, notes from Cece, and much more!
Epileptic by
David B. was born Pierre-François Beauchard in a small town near Orléans, France. He spent an idyllic early childhood playing with the neighborhood kids and, along with his older brother, Jean-Christophe, ganging up on his little sister, Florence. But their lives changed abruptly when Jean-Christophe was struck with epilepsy at age eleven. In search of a cure, their parents dragged the family to acupuncturists and magnetic therapists, to mediums and macrobiotic communes. But every new cure ended in disappointment as Jean-Christophe, after brief periods of remission, would only get worse. Angry at his brother for abandoning him and at all the quacks who offered them false hope, Pierre-François learned to cope by drawing fantastically elaborate battle scenes, creating images that provide a fascinating window into his interior life. An honest and horrifying portrait of the disease and of the pain and fear it sowed in the family, Epileptic is also a moving depiction of one family’s intricate history. Through flashbacks, we are introduced to the stories of Pierre-François’s grandparents and we relive his grandfathers’ experiences in both World Wars. We follow Pierre-François through his childhood, adolescence, and adulthood, all the while charting his complicated relationship with his brother and Jean-Christophe”s losing battle with epilepsy. Illustrated with beautiful and striking black-and-white images, Epileptic is as astonishing, intimate, and heartbreaking as the best literary memoir.
Graphic Reproduction : a Comics Anthology by
This comics anthology delves deeply into the messy and often taboo subject of human reproduction. Featuring work by luminaries such as Carol Tyler, Alison Bechdel, and Joyce Farmer, Graphic Reproduction is an illustrated challenge to dominant cultural narratives about conception, pregnancy, and childbirth. The comics here expose the contradictions, complexities, and confluences around diverse individual experiences of the entire reproductive process, from trying to conceive to child loss and childbirth. Jenell Johnson's introduction situates comics about reproduction within the growing field of graphic medicine and reveals how they provide a discursive forum in which concepts can be explored and presented as uncertainties rather than as part of a prescribed or expected narrative.
Here I Am, I Am Me: an illustrated guide to mental health by
This colorful graphic novel adventure through the brain demystifies and destigmatizes emotional and mental health for children through accessible language and lessons. Join author-illustrator Cara Bean in Here I Am, I Am Me, as she takes readers on an illustrated journey to the center of the brain. Each of the 9 chapters in this therapist-recommended book explores a different aspect of mental health, from the brain and the mind, to feelings and emotions. By portraying complex neuroscience concepts with a cast of illustrated characters (that represent parts of the brain), the book explains what is really going on in the reader's head in an accessible, approachable way that ultimately serves to empower the reader. Each chapter includes a "question map" that gives context to and helps frame the pages that follow as well as a "Bean Memory," which shares a first-person true story that illustrates the chapter's subject matter as it has played out in the author's life. The book doesn't talk down to its readers, and it doesn't pretend that teens are immune to mental health struggles: Cara Bean masterfully discusses crucial topics like depression, substance use and addiction, and suicide, all while equipping readers with mindfulness tips, specific resources, and empathetic affirmations. Readers will learn to destigmatize the conversation around mental health by reframing their thinking, learning how to use conscious language, and helping themselves and others through mental health dilemmas.
Ink in Water : an illustrated memoir : or, How I kicked anorexia's ass and embraced body positivity! by
At once punk rock and poignant, Ink in Water is the visceral and groundbreaking graphic memoir of a young woman's devastating struggle with negative body image and eating disorders, and how she rose above her own destructive behaviors and feelings of inadequacy to live a life of strength and empowerment. As a young artist living in Portland, Lacy Davis's eating disorder began with the germ of an idea: a seed of a thought that told her she just wasn't good enough. And like ink in water, that idea spread until it reached every corner of her being. This is the true story of Lacy's journey into the self-destructive world of multiple eating disorders. It starts with a young and positive Lacy, trying to grapple with our culture's body-image obsession and stay true to her riot grrrl roots. And while she initially succeeds in overcoming a nagging rumination about her body, a breakup with a recovering addict starts her on a collision course with anorexia, health food obsession, and compulsive exercise addiction. At the request of her last real friend, she starts going to a twelve-step Overeaters Anonymous course, only to find that it conflicts with her punk feminist ideology. Blending bold humor, a healthy dose of self-deprecation, vulnerability, literary storytelling, and dynamic and provocative artwork by illustrator Jim Kettner, Ink in Water is an unflinching, brutally honest look into the author's mind: how she learned to take control of her damaging thoughts, redirect her perfectionism from self-destructive behaviors into writing and art, and how she committed herself to a life of health, strength, and nourishment.
Invisible Differences: a story of Asperger's, adulting, and living a life in full color by
Marguerite feels awkward, struggling every day to stay productive at work and keep up appearances with friends. She's sensitive, irritable at times. She makes her environment a fluffy, comforting cocoon, alienating her boyfriend. The everyday noise and stimuli assaults her senses, the constant chatter of her coworkers working her last nerve. Then, when one big fight with her boyfriend finds her frustrated and dejected, Marguerite finally investigates the root of her discomfor: after a journey of tough conversations with her loved ones, doctors, and the internet, she discovers that she has Aspergers. Her life is profoundly changed - for the better.
Kid Gloves: nine months of careful chaos by
If you work hard enough, if you want it enough, if you're smart and talented and "good enough," you can do anything. Except get pregnant. Her whole life, Lucy Knisley wanted to be a mother. But when it was finally the perfect time, conceiving turned out to be harder than anything she'd ever attempted. Fertility problems were followed by miscarriages, and her eventual successful pregnancy plagued by health issues, up to a dramatic, near-death experience during labor and delivery. This moving, hilarious, and surprisingly informative memoir,Kid Gloves, not only follows Lucy's personal transition into motherhood but also illustrates the history and science of reproductive health from all angles, including curious facts and inspiring (and notorious) figures in medicine and midwifery. Whether you've got kids, want them, or want nothing to do with them, there's something in this graphic memoir to open your mind and heart.
Kimiko Does Cancer: a graphic memoir by
A graphic memoir that upends the traditional cancer narrative from a young woman's perspective, confronting issues such as dating while in menopause, navigating work and treatment, and talking to well-meaning friends, health care professionals, and other cancer survivors with viewpoints different from her own. Not one for pink ribbons or runs for the cure, Kimiko seeks connection within the cancer community while also critiquing the mainstream cancer experience. Honest and poignant, Kimiko Does Cancer is about finding one's own way out of a health crisis.
Look Again: a memoir by
Once, years ago, while walking her dogs in the woods, Elizabeth found a dead body. Trauma can make truth hard to find. Have you ever experienced a terror, grief, or confusion so great that when you try to share it you can only find shattered images floating in darkness? You try over and over, but can't tell the story, to yourself or to anyone else. Look Again presents us with six variations of the same event, seen through the different lenses caused by other life revelations. It explores the fragmenting nature of trauma by tracing the convoluted evolution of the author's story, a process often experienced by trauma sufferers and their loved ones.
Medicine: a graphic history by
In the Middle Ages, surgery was performed by barbers, owing to their skill with sharp instruments. In the mid-19th century, a "grand exhibition" of the effects of laughing gas inadvertently led to the discovery of anaesthesia. Three decades later, Louis Pasteur enjoyed a crucial breakthrough in his search for vaccinations because his assistant decided, against his orders, to take a vacation. In Medicine: A Graphic History, surgeon and professor of medical history Jean-Noël Fabiani stitches together the most significant and intriguing episodes from the history of medicine, from chance breakthroughs to hard-fought scientific discoveries. Spanning centuries and crossing continents, this fast-paced and yet rigorously detailed graphic novel guides us through one of the most wondrous strands of human history, covering everything from blood-letting to organ donation, x-rays to prosthetics.
Mom's Cancer by
Each year, approximately 1.5 million people in the United States and Canada are diagnosed with cancer. This is one family's story. When Brian Fies's mother was diagnosed with metastatic lung cancer, he and his two sisters struggled with the effects of her illness and her ongoing recovery from treatment. Brian processed the experience in his journal, which took the form of words and pictures. The story that came to be known as Mom's Cancer first gained notice on the internet. It was posted anonymously, with the intention of sharing information and insights gained from his family's experience. Word of Brain's website spread, until it found its way to Abrams and, ultimately, a book contract. Since then his story has been nominated for the comic book industry's highest honour; an Eisner Award for Best Digital Comic, which is a category that was created with his work in mind.
My degeneration : a journey through Parkinson's by
A narrative of the author's battle with Parkinson's disease. Traces the author's journey through depression, the disease symptoms, the medication and its side effects, the author's interactions with family, and the mental and physical changes caused by the disease
Psychiatric tales by
This book delves inside the mystery of mental disorders - presenting explanations and recollections using the cartoonist's own experiences as both a psychiatric and care nurse and as someone who himself has suffered from depression.
Smile: a Graphic Novel by
Raina just wants to be a normal sixth grader. But one night after Girl Scouts she trips and falls, severely injuring her two front teeth. What follows is a long and frustrating journey with on-again, off-again braces, surgery, embarrassing headgear, and even a retainer with fake teeth attached. And on top of all that, there's still more to deal with: a major earthquake, boy confusion, and friends who turn out to be not so friendly.
What's Wrong?: personal histories of chronic pain and bad medicine by
What's Wrong? is author, illustrator, and scientific researcher Erin Williams's graphic exploration of how the American health-care system fails us. Focusing on four raw and complex firsthand accounts, plus Williams's own story, this book examines the consequences of living with interconnected illnesses and conditions like: immunodeficiency cancer endometriosis alcoholism severe depression PTSD Western medicine, which intends to cure illness and minimize pain, often causes more loss, abuse, and suffering for those Americans who don't fit within the narrow definition of who the system was built to serve--cis, white, heterosexual men. The book explores the many ways in which those receiving medical care are often overlooked, unseen, and doubted by the very clinicians who are supposed to heal them. What's Wrong? is also a beautiful celebration of nontraditional modes of healing, of how we become whole not because of health care but despite it.