What is Graphic Medicine?

Marnie Galloway, comic artist and co-author of Eisner-nominated and graphic medicine Award-nominated Abortion Pill Zine, explained: “I think because many people associate comics with childhood reading, it’s easy to forget the density of information that is communicated in a page that holds both image and text. Diagrams and data can be contextualized with footnotes on the same page where characters can give first-person accounts of what an embodied experience of that data feels like.”

Galloway continued, “Comics are also good at setting an emotional tone–with facial expressions and body language of characters, of course, but also with page design and color choices. This can be especially useful when communicating educational information that might be culturally stigmatized or associated with fear or pain.”

The medium has a history of being raw and in your face, Williams also noted. During the 1970s, with underground comics, cartoonists showed off the ugly truth of society and people’s bad behavior. So it seems almost natural for people to write comics talking about health issues, even getting into some of the harshest details.

Rachel Lindsay’s Rx is a good example of this rawness. Her book depicts her mania breakdown that resulted in her institutionalization. It’s her own raw personal experience and an indictment of the structures that exacerbate mental illness.

Fact and Fiction

The category of graphic medicine includes both nonfiction and fiction. With fictional accounts, Williams noted that people will take a break from the story to talk about a specific condition or how a medicine works before returning to the story. “I think people learn through narrative,” he said. “Comics often mix up the boundaries between fiction and autobiography….” Comics are already artificially constructed to begin with, as they are drawn in some way, bring attention to certain details over others, and are condensed. Williams noted that his three graphic novels have autobiographical elements to them, but they are fictional works.

Purely educational comics exist, but they can be really hard to do. They have to be on message and include references and a bibliography in a way that’s entertaining and gets the message across. He cited Abortion Pill Zine as a good example of an educational comic since it gives the information and keeps you engaged.

When creating Abortion Pill Zine, Galloway noted that Isabella Rotman, one of the co-authors and impetus behind the project, made sure that each contributor, Galloway, Rotman, and Sage Coffey, “worked on sections where our personal experiences and areas of expertise would best serve the project.” That gave it the personal touch that Williams celebrates.

Graphic Medicine for Makers and Audiences

In addition to providing important information about medicines, procedures, hospital visits, and experiences related to health care, graphic medicine provides benefits for people reading and making them. Williams noted, “people often find some solace or healing in reading about other people’s experiences of similar illnesses.” Some healthcare professionals hand out certain comics to help patients deal with difficult situations.

It’s also therapeutic to make these comics. Galloway noted that Abortion Pill Zine came out as a reaction to the Supreme Court ruling on Dobbs, which overturned Roe v. Wade. “Like so many people, I spent the day in distress, texting friends to check in on them. One of the people I texted was Isabella Rotman. She said she was thinking of making an educational zine about medical abortion in response to Dobbs, and I asked to be a part of it,” she reflected. “We could have thrown something together quickly, but decided to see if we could find a publisher to work with, which would help make the community resource we wanted to make more broadly accessible.”

Silver Sprocket, their publisher, agreed to make it available as cheaply as possible and made the zine free online to ensure access. It’s also been bought by individuals who have been distributing them in Free Libraries, too.

Williams noted that there are many workshops out there for healthcare professionals, patients, and carers to make comics. “There is something really worthwhile in distilling [the personal experiences] into a comic, working out what you think about your experiences by making a comic,” he said.

He noted the community aspect of graphic medicine. People want to take part, either by going to in-person conferences or interacting online. Since COVID, there has been a sort of monthly meetup where people draw together. For some, the community is a big part of the appeal of graphic medicine, and stretches across the world to include Italy, Germany, and Japan.

Where to Start Reading

Since the category is so broad, there are a lot of places to start if you want to read about graphic medicine. Williams recommended some classics, including Taking Turns: Stories From HIV/AIDS Care Unit 371 by M.K. Czerwiec, which recounts Czerwiec’s experiences as a nurse in an HIV/AIDS Care Unit in the 1990s; David Small’s Stitches, which explores his experience when an operation accidentally left him mute; and Cancer Vixen: A True Story by Marisa Acocella Marchetto, which is about the author navigating breast cancer while planning her wedding.

Williams also cited Emma Grove’s The Third Person (2022). In it, Emma receives gender affirming care as a trans woman while also seeking therapy for Dissociative Identity Disorder. It’s almost 1,000 pages, it depicts Grove’s conversations with her therapist, over and over. Williams said: “it shouldn’t work, but somehow it does.”

Galloway also recommendedCara Bean’s Here I Am, I Am Me, which Galloway described as “an excellent book explaining and destigmatizing emotional and mental health. One of her favorites is Dumb: Living Without a Voice by Georgia Webber, “a beautiful comic about living with a chronic throat injury.” She also recommended reading Mutha Magazine, since it “regularly posts comics about parenting as well all the body work that goes into it—pregnancy, miscarriages, IVF, abortion, mental health, etc.”

Of course, there’s Ian Williams’ The Bad Doctor (2014), The Lady Doctor (2019) and The Sick Doctor (2025) and Abortion Pill Zine: A Community Guide to Misoprostol and Mifepristone by Isabella Rotman, Sage Coffey & Marnie Galloway. Other suggestions include Kimiko Does Cancer by Kimiko Tobimatsu , which is her account of dealing with breast cancer as a young queer multi-racial woman; Mis(h)adra by Iasmin Omar Ata, the author’s experiences as an epileptic;and Dear Scarlet: the Story of My Postpartum Depression by Teresa Wong, written as a letter to her daughter, Scarlet.

I also highly recommend Lucy Knisley’s Kid Gloves, which is about her pregnancy and near death from preeclampsia. This book saved my life. You can read more here.

And if you want more graphic medicine, check out this interview with cartoonist Ellen Forney on “Rock Steady,” and this essay about how graphic medicine helped the writer feel seen.