Exploring the field of graphic medicine
I recently wrote about rediscovering comics as a medium, and I knew it was only a matter of time before I began reading a lot of graphic novels dealing with public health issues.
Dr. Ian Williams, an artist, physician, and one of the field's forefathers, describes graphic medicine as follows:
“In 2007 I coined the term ‘graphic medicine’ for the name of this website, mostly because I thought it sounded good. I also began to use it as a handy term to denote the role that comics can play in healthcare and, over time, it has been adopted as the accepted term for this area of study and practice. My use of the word ‘medicine’ was not meant to connote the foregrounding of doctors over other healthcare professionals or over patients or comics artists, but, rather the suggestion that use of comics might have some sort of therapeutic potential – ‘medicine’ as in the bottled panacea rather than the profession.
Over time, I was asked what the term meant and so, in the Graphic Medicine Manifesto, I provided the definition quoted above. I wanted to keep the definition purposefully broad, as, to my thinking, the discipline could include graphic memoirs of illness, educational comics for both students and patients, academic papers and books, gag strips about healthcare, graphic reportage and therapeutic workshops involving comic making, as well as many other practices and source material, both fictional and non-fictional.
Coming across the graphicmedicine.org website, I immediately ordered the Graphic Medicine Manifesto and as I’m waiting for it to arrive, I read a few other graphic novels: Taking Turns: Stories from HIV/AIDS Care Unit 371 by MK Czerwiec, The Bad Doctor: The Troubled Life and Times of Dr. Iwan James by Ian Williams, and Dumb: Living Without a Voice by Georgia Webber. And I have to admit, nothing has impacted me as much as those unassuming volumes. Although each could be consumed in one sitting, I was savoring them all, letting the emotions they evoked sink in.
Graphic novels make oftentimes difficult and heavy topics more accessible and engaging. They make it possible for the various actors of the system to be heard and seen, providing insights into the experiences of those who battle diseases or disabilities, or the realities of health professions. And, being a very inclusive medium, they help people connect and be understood.
I couldn’t be happier to discover that the 2022 Graphic Medicine Conference will be held in Chicago in July! You can find more information here.
