Graphic Medicine The surprising role of Comics in health care
Graphic Medicine at YDL In the past 30 years, comic books have moved well beyond superhero stories and made their place on adult literature shelves. Graphic novels employ imagery, insight, and humor, even while taking on difficult issues like war, illness, and mental health. Recently, graphic novels have even begun making their way into hospitals and medical school courses as a way to help patients and caregivers alike get in touch with the emotional side of illness, treatment, and recovery. The Ypsilanti District Library (YDL) is proud to introduce a new collection of graphic novels: 80 titles dealing with such topics as cancer, STDs, depression, mental health, aging, Alzheimer’s, epilepsy, and alcoholism. The project is inspired in large part by the UK-based group Graphic Medicine, a group of health care practitioners who are popularizing the use of graphic novels in health care and who recommend and review relevant graphic novels on their website. Many people who are dealing with a serious illness would never think of picking up a graphic novel, but reading the visual memoir of someone who has been through a similar experience can aid the healing process. The staff at YDL hope that this collection will be a new resource for patrons who are dealing with illness, their caregivers and loved ones, and for anyone who is interested in the ability of graphic novels to tackle weighty issues in creative and powerful ways. This brochure profiles selected titles from the collection, which is funded by the Will and Ann Eisner Foundation through the 2014 Will Eisner Graphic Novel Growth Grant. YDL is a proud to carry on Mr. Eisner’s legacy by expanding awareness and appreciation of comics and graphic novels in our community.
online Resources YDL’s Graphic Medicine collection: www.ypsilibrary.org/graphicmedicine Graphic Medicine website: www.graphicmedicine.org Comic Nurse: www.comicnurse.com
Aging, Alzheimer’s, Dementia, Caregiving, End of life Care Tangles: A Story About Alzheimer’s, My Mother and Me by Sarah Leavitt (Skyhorse, 2012) Mildred, known as Midge, the author’s well-educated, intellectual mother, began showing signs of Alzheimer’s disease at fifty-two. Her disease had unforgettable impacts on the woman and her family.
Special Exits: A Graphic Memoir by Joyce Farmer (Fantagraphics, 2010) Chronicles the final years of Lars and Rachel’s lives, their relationship with one another and with their daughter, and how they cope with the emotional fragility of the most taxing time in their lives.
Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant? by Roz Chast (Bloomsbury, 2014) Roz Chast brings her signature wit to the topic of aging parents. Spanning the last several years of their lives and told through four-color cartoons, family photos, and documents, and a narrative as rife with laughs as it is with tears, Chast’s memoir is both comfort and comic relief for anyone experiencing the life-altering loss of elderly parents.
Mental Illness and depression Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo, and Me: A Graphic Memoir by Ellen Forney (Gotham Books, 2012) An artist describes her bipolar disorder diagnosis and her struggles with mental stability while discussing other creative people throughout history who were also labeled as “crazy,” including Vincent van Gogh, Georgia O’Keeffe, and Sylvia Plath.
Swallow Me Whole by Nate Powell (Top Shelf Productions, 2008) Nate Powell quietly explores the dark corners of adolescence-not the clichéd melodramatic outbursts of rebellion, but the countless tiny moments of madness, the vague relief of medication, and mixed blessing of family ties. Two step-siblings cope with the mental illness that each of them suffers while dealing with high school and their grandmother’s impending death.
Psychiatric Tales: Eleven Graphic stories about Mental Illness by Darryl Cunningham (Bloomsbury, 2011) This collection presents first-person perspectives on the experiences of mental illness, portraying the myths, stigmas, and dynamics of a range of psychiatric conditions. Concluding with a reflection on how mental illness has affected his own life, Darryl Cunningham’s Psychiatric Tales is a moving, engaging examination of what is, at its root, the human condition.
Cancer Mom’s Cancer by Brian Fries (Abrams Image, 2006) Brian Fies is a freelance journalist whose mother was diagnosed with lung cancer. As 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.
Cancer Vixen: A True Story by Marisa Acocella Marchetto (Knopf, 2006) A New York City cartoonist recounts her eleven-month bout with breast cancer, from initial diagnosis to cure, chronicling her highpowered Manhattan lifestyle, the romance between the ultimate bachelorette and her surprising Prince Charming, and her fierce battle against disease.
Stitches: A Memoir by David Small (W.W. Norton, 2009) The author recounts his troubled childhood with a radiologist father who subjected him to repeated x-rays and a withholding and tormented mother, an environment he fled at the age of sixteen in the hopes of becoming an artist.
Our Cancer Year by Joyce Brabner and Harvey Pekar (Four Walls Eight Windows, 1994) The well-known comic artist couple document the year of their lives when Pekar was diagnosed with cancer. Our Cancer Year is portrait of a man beset with fears real and imagined, who survives as they cope with chemotherapy, buying a house, and moving.
AIDS and STDs Blue Pills: A Positive Love Story by Frederik Peeters (Houghton Mifflin, 2008)
In deeply personal graphic memoir about love in the time of AIDS, Frederik meets Cati and falls in love, but the two face many obstacles to happiness because Cati is HIV positive, just like her three-year-old son.
Black Hole by Charles Burns (Pantheon, 2005) Seattle teenagers of the 1970s are suddenly faced with a devastating, disfiguring, and incurable plague that spreads only through sexual contact.
OTher The Alcoholic by Jonathan Ames (Vertigo, 2008) Coming off a doomed romance, a failing writer searches for hope in the bottom of a bottle as he careens from one off-kilter encounter to another in search of himself.
Epileptic by B. David (Pantheon, 2005) A memoir told in the form of a graphic novel chronicles the author’s experiences growing up with an older brother afflicted with epilepsy and the effects of the disease on the family, and the roots of his career as a cartoonist.
Book Group Kits Book group kits inlcude two copies of each book listed (unless otherwise noted), as well as author biographies, an overview of graphic medicine, a quick guide to reading graphic novels, and discussion questions.
Aging & Alzheimers Can We Talk About Something More Pleasant? by Roz Chast (2014) Tangles: A Story About Alzheimer’s, My Mother, and Me, by Sarah Leavitt (2012) Special Exits: A Graphic Memoir, by Joyce Farmer (2010)
AIDS Blue Pills: A Positive Love Story, by Frederik Peeters (2008) Pedro & Me: Friendship, Loss and What I Learned, by Judd Winick (2000) AIDS in the Endzone, by Kendra S. Albright (2014)
Alcoholism and Addiction The Alcoholic, by Jonathan Ames (2008) My New York Diary, by Julie Doucet (1999) Buzzkill, by Donny Cates (2014)
Mental health Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo and Me, by Ellen Forney (2013) Swallow Me Whole, by Nate Powell (2008) Psychiatric Tales: Eleven Graphic Stories About Mental Illness, by Darryl Cunningham (2010)
Epilepsy Epileptic, by B. David (2005): Six copies in kit
Eating Disorders Lighter Than My Shadow, by Katie Green (2013) Inside Out: Portait of an Eating Disorder, by Nadia Shivack (2007) Tyranny, by Lesley Fairfield (2009)
Cancer Mom’s Cancer, by Brian Fies (2006) Our Cancer Year, by Joyce Brabner and Harvey Pekar (1994) Stitches: A Memoir, by David Small (2009)
But wait, there’s more... This is a partial list of additional graphic novels in our collection that are relevant to Graphic Medicine. Some can be found in the youth and young adult sections. Bodyworld: Shaw, Dash Cancer Made Me a Shallower Person: Engleberg, Miriam Couch Fiction: Perry, Philippa Daddy’s Girl: Drechsler, Debbie Don’t Go Where I Can’t Follow: Nilsen, Anders Dragonslippers: Penfold, Rosalind Funny Misshapen Body: Brown, Jeffrey Good Eggs: Potts, Phoebe Home Sweat Home: Johnstone, Lynn I Never Liked You: Brown, Chester Infinite Wait and Other Stories: Wertz, Julia Janet and Me: An Illustrated Story of Love and Loss: Mack, Stan Living with a Black Dog and His Name is Depression: Johnstone, Matthew Map of My Heart: Porcellino, John Mother, Come Home: Hornschemeier, Paul My New York Diary: Doucet, Julie Nao of Brown: Dillon, Glyn Not Your Mother’s Meatloaf: Miller, Sayla Nurse Nurse: Skelly, Katie Seeds: Mackintosh, Ross Smile: Telgemeier, Raina The Infinite Wait : Wertz, Julia The Photographer: Guibert, Emmanuel The Ride Together: A Brother & Sister’s Memoir of Autism in the Family: Karasik, Judy The Tale of One Bad Rat: Talcot, Bryan Transhuman: Hickman, Jonathan When David Lost His Voice: Vanistendahl, Judith Years of the Elephant: Linthout, Willy
Ypsilanti District Library The Graphic Medicine collection is available to all cardholders, and is highlighted at the following YDL locations: YDL-Whittaker 5577 Whittaker Road Ypsilanti, MI 48197 734-482-4110 x1377 YDL-Michigan 229 W. Michigan Avenue Ypsilanti, MI 48197 734-482-4110 x1385 www.ypsilibrary.org Updated information on the collection can be found at: ypsilibrary.org/graphicmedicine Many thanks to the Will and Ann Eisner Foundation for making this project possible.