PF Anderson presents for OLLI-UM on February 25, 2021. Graphic Medicine describes the genre of comics and graphic novels around healthcare, as told from personal and professional perspectives. Many think of comics as for children, but that could be risky with some of these! The personal experiences described can be tender or gritty, and touch on topics such as specific conditions, social justice, dying, lived experiences, resilience. Visual aspects of storytelling take advantage of new literacies, offering insights not possible through other mediums.

1. “It’s Not Brain Surgery”:
Graphic Medicine, Graphic Justice, and
More About Comics for Grown Ups
PF Anderson @pfanderson
University of Michigan — Ann Arbor
OLLI-UM, February 25, 2021

2. Outline
Hook
Line (What, Who,
Where, When, Why,
How)
Sinker

3. The Hook
(The Beginning, The Pivot
Point)

4. “She chews like a good girl.” (J. Margolis)

5. “Dad, feeding Mom her dinner.” (J. Margolis)

6. By Judith Margolis, 2014-2017

7. Carrie’s Recipe, medical equipment macro (J. Margolis)

8. Carrie’s Recipe For Pesach Rolls (J. Margolis)
<http://judithmargolis.com/paintings/life-support/>

9. Judith Margolis. Life Support; Invitation to Prayer.
<https://www.psupress.org/books/titles/978-0-271-08373-5.html>
"My father called me
... He described how he
sat with Mom, watching
her sleep. "I said
goodbye to her," he
told me. I listened to
him while he wept on
the phone, and then I
had to go into class
and teach." Page 28

10. The Line (What, Who, Where, When, Why, How)

11. The Line by Anuj
Shrestha
<https://thenib.
com/the-line/>

12. The Line, 1:WHAT are
#GraphicMedicine &
#GraphicJustice

13. Graphic Medicine
<https://www.graphicmedicine.or
g/>

14. Graphic Medicine 101
“I have coined the title
graphic medicine for this
site as a handy term to
denote the role that comics
can play in the study and
delivery of healthcare.”
Dr. Ian Williams (a.k.a. @TheBadDr),
<https://www.graphicmedicine.org/why-graphic-med
icine/> Graphic Medicine Manifesto
<http://www.psupress.org/books/titles/978-0-271-06649-3.html>

15. Graphic Justice
<https://graphicjustice.org/>

16. Graphic Justice Can be …
… about comics,
and law, and
jurisprudence …
Image: <https://graphicjustice.org/about/>

17. Graphic Justice Can ALSO be …
… about comics and
social justice
Image:
<https://etechlib.wordpress.com/2019/06/21
/45-graphic-memoirs-and-graphic-novels-on-
social-justice-themes/>

18. Justice is also Medicine
… because social
justice issues
connect to social
determinants (or
influencers) of
health (SDoH/SIoH)
Image:
<https://health.gov/healthypeople/obje
ctives-and-data/social-determinants-he
alth>

19. The Line, 2:Who (makes, reads, uses)

20. Medicine Goes Graphic: Covering
subjects from Parkinson's to
genocide to COVID-19, comics
aren't just for kids any more
(Tuesday, February 16, 2021)
<https://news.psu.edu/story/632386
/2021/02/16/research/medicine-goes
-graphic>

21. Brian & …
Images from the book “Mom’s Cancer” by
Brian Fies. More info here
<https://www.momscancer.com/>

22. Peter & …

23. … & Ellen & Allie …
Images: Ellen Forney, Rock Steady.
<https://www.fantagraphics.com/products/rock-
steady> Allie Brosh, Hyperbole & a Half.
<https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Hyper
bole-and-a-Half/Allie-Brosh/9781451666175>
<https://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2011/
10/adventures-in-depression.html>

24. … & MK & Ian & …
Images: MK Czerwiec, Taking Turns
<https://www.psupress.org/books/titles/978-0-271-07818-2.html>
Ian Williams, The Bad Doctor
<https://www.psupress.org/books/titles/978-0-271-06754-4.html>
<https://thebaddr.wordpress.com/2013/02/16/sneak-preview-the-bad
-doctor/>

25. … & Me???? LOL!

26. The Line, 2b:Who Else?

27. #FirstTimeISawMe &
#RepresentationMatters
<https://twitter.com/WFMMK/st
atus/1278985680719425537>
“What I would have done
to have heard a story
like mine. Not for
blame, not for
reputation, not for
money, not for power,
but to feel less alone.
To feel connected.”
Hannah Gadsby, in
Nanette.
<https://twitter.com/Re
directRScript/status/10
16762809370185736>

28. “My dad died,
unfortunately,
when I was two… ” “but he was interviewed in these zines.
Getting to know him through those
interviews, through a culture I had no
idea I would be a part of years later …
They are very difficult to find,
specific issues and the like. It speaks
to the importance of preservation of
these zines.”

29. #OwnVoices - What is it? How does it work?
“#ownvoices, to recommend kidlit
about diverse characters written by
authors from that same diverse
group.”
<https://twitter.com/corinneduyvis/
status/640584099208503296>
“When voices on the internet become
so loud and so vitriolic that
artists are afraid to experiment
and make mistakes, something very
dangerous is happening in our
society.” Artists Mustn't Fear the
Social Media Call-Out Culture |
Nora Raleigh Baskin |
TEDxTheBenjaminSchool
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27
7RUJks-Kk>

30. Thousands More!

31. The Line, 3:Why

32. Why Anthologies?
RM: There’s a
comfort in knowing
that so many
different people
from so many
different
backgrounds &
different genders &
different races,
etc, have all had
similar experiences.
SC: It kind of
gives the reader
power. … Giving the
reader the power to
say, “Okay, that
was intense. I can
put this down. And
I can revisit these
different stories
whenever I need
to.”
HN: Showing the breadth & commonality of certain experiences.

33. Comics Anthologies
RACHEL MILLER: Why anthologies?
SAGE COFFEY: … Comics give
visuals to feelings we can’t
perhaps express with words.
HAZEL NEWLEVANT: All of these
stories are reaching different
audiences than they would
otherwise.
I think there’s an element of making difficult subject
matter potentially more approachable.
https://www.smallpressexpo.com/sessions/anthologies-acti
vism-and-visibility |
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmeLMRNrZI8

34. Comics Anthologies
as #OwnVoices
Abortion, Anxiety,
Asian-American, Childbirth,
Chronic Illness,
Contraception, Crisis,
Disaster, Gun Violence,
Holocaust, Homelessness,
Imprisonment, Latinx, LGBT,
Menopause, Mental Illness,
Police Brutality, Poverty,
Puberty, Racism, Rape,
Refugees, Sex Ed, Suicide,
Transgender…

35. Why Comics?
Images: Kay Sohini (2021) <https://www.kaysohini.com/drawing-unbelonging-excerpt>

36. Who knows? You might
change the world

37. The Line, 4:Where

38. #OwnVoices - How do we KNOW?

39. Who publishes it?
● Pre-2015 (12)
○ Small press
○ Imprints/
Labels
○ Major press
● 2015-2020 (38)
○ >90% from
alternative
presses,
indie pubs,
self-
published
● Self-Published (KPD Print,
Lulu, etc.)
● Crowdfunded (Kickstarter,
Indiegogo)
● Amazon, comiXology
Who buys it/funds it?
Image:
<https://www.graphicmedicine.org/wp-content/upload
s/2021/02/Essential-Graphic-Medicine-An-Annotated-
Bibliography-Final.pdf>

40. Libraries & Bookstores Have to Buy The Books
DIANE NOOMIN: Actually,
Trina Robbins edited an
abortion anthology in
the … 70s or the 80s …
and I did a story
called, “The C Word”
for “Choices.” ... And
it did exist. I think a
lot of times I feel
like those things
disappeared.
HAZEL NEWLEVANT: That
is really
unfortunate, how
little known that
is. I mean. I feel
like I should have
known about that.
DIANE NOOMIN: It was a
long time ago.
Quotes from their presentation
at Small Press Expo
<https://www.smallpressexpo.com/
sessions/anthologies-activism-an
d-visibility>

41. Scholarly
Presses Make
Comics
Image:
<https://www.psupress.org/book
s/series/book_SeriesGM.html>

42. Scholarly
Presses Make
New
Imprints
to Make
Comics
Image:
<https://www.graphicmundi.org/
books/book_main.html>

43. Comics As
Scholarship,
Scholarship
As Comics
Image:
<https://www.hup.harvard.edu/
catalog.php?isbn=978067474443
1>

44. Scholarship
About
Comics
Images:
<https://www.psupress.org/books/titles/978-0-271-084
74-9.html> Green MJ, Wall S. Graphic Medicine—The
Best of 2020. JAMA. 2020;324(24):2469-2471. Doi:
<https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2020.19479>

45. Instagram,
Kickstarter,
Indiegogo,
ComicCons
<https://www.instagram.co
m/explore/tags/graphicmed
icine/>

46. The Line, 5:When

47. Forever
Image:
<https://commons.wikimedia.o
rg/wiki/File:Egyptmotionseri
es.jpg>
See also: Bond, Sarah E.
Finding the Roots of Graphic
Novels in the Ancient World.
Hyperallergic, January 11,
2018.
<https://hyperallergic.com/4
20807/finding-the-roots-of-g
raphic-novels-in-the-ancient
-world/>

48. Forever
““Sequential art,” to use Will Eisner’s (1985) term, is nothing new.
Think of Hogarth’s (1735) popular series of eight prints limning the
rise and demise of a headstrong and greedy young man, A Rake’s
Progress, and you will see that the idea of a series of visual images
connected together by a narrative thread is not something that originated
recently. Indeed, we can trace this idea much further back to ancient
Egyptian, Greek, and Roman murals, Chinese and Japanese
scroll paintings, and to medieval art such as the Bayeaux
tapestries and stained glass windows. Some (Kiefer, 2008) argue that
we can go even further back, to prehistoric sequential cave
paintings.” LR Sipe, Art of the picturebook. Handbook of research on
children's and young adult literature,
2011.<https://www.routledgehandbooks.com/doi/10.4324/9780203843543.ch17>

49. The Line, 6:How

50. Typical Process: Storyboard, Rough Sketch, Final(s)
Anderson PF, Wescom E, Carlos RC.
Difficult Doctors, Difficult Patients:
Building Empathy. JACR 2016 13(12) DOI:
<https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jacr.2016.09
.0>

51. You Don’t Have To Be A Super-Artist!
Images:
<https://www.irregularwebcomic.
net/>
<https://m.xkcd.com/2425/>
You Can Use Photos!
You Don’t Have To Do It Alone!

52. You Don’t Even Need
To Tell a Story (But
Sometimes It HELPS)
Image from Nick Sousanis’s PhD
dissertation, Unflattening.
<https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalo
g.php?isbn=9780674744431>

53. The Sinker
(The Surprise, The Moral, The
Clincher, The Take-Away)

54. Graphic medicine
may not be
brain surgery,
but it does
something else,
touching
directly on
the mind.
Image original: <https://archive.org/details/101233110.nlm.nih.gov>

55. Contact Information:
Patricia F. Anderson
@pfanderson
<pfa@umich.edu>
[Langiappe: https://leopardskinlibrarian.wordpress.com/]