Graphic Medicine

Graphic medicine refers to comics concerning medicine and healthcare, and their use in medical education and patient care. This genre of comics make often intimidating information accessible, while building empathy and a greater understanding of different lived experiences.

Updated July 16, 2024
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Taking turns stories from HIV/AIDS care Unit 371
Czerwiec, MK
Paper Book
In 1994, at the height of the AIDS epidemic in the United States, MK Czerwiec took her first nursing job, at Illinois Masonic Medical Center in Chicago, as part of the caregiving staff of HIV/AIDS Care Unit 371. Taking Turns pulls back the curtain on life in the ward. A shining...
Wrinkles
Roca, Paco (Comic book artist)
Paper Book
Retired bank manager Emilio, suffering from Alzheimer's, is taken to an assisted living home by his son. He befriends his roommate Miguel, an overconfident ladies' man. Together, they employ clever tricks to keep the doctors from noticing Emilio's ongoing deterioration -- and keep him from being...
Mis(h)adra
Ata, Iasmin Omar
Paper Book
An Arab-American college student struggles to live with epilepsy in this starkly colored and deeply-cutting graphic novel. Isaac wants nothing more than to be a functional college student--but managing his epilepsy is an exhausting battle to survive. He attempts to maintain a...
Go with the flow
Williams, Lily
Paper Book
High school students embark on a crash course of friendship, female empowerment, and women's health issues in Lily Williams and Karen Schneemann's graphic novel Go With the Flow. Good friends help you go with the flow. Best friends help you start a...
Proxy Mom
Adriansen, Sophie.
Paper Book
The first graphic novel that explores postpartum depression. A story of reconstruction and resilience. Marietta and Clovis, madly in love, are expecting a baby. But childbirth marks the end of the fairy tale. Zoe's birth didn't go as Marietta imagined, and the maternal instinct is slow to manifest...
Sensory Life on the Spectrum : An Autistic Comics Anthology
Ollerton, Rebecca.
Paper Book
A colourful and eclectic comics anthology exploring a wide range of autistic experiences - from diagnosis journeys to finding community - from contributors with autism. From artist and curator Bex Ollerton comes an anthology featuring comics from thirty autistic...
Kind of coping an illustrated look at life with anxiety
Wilson, Maureen (Cartoonist)
Paper Book
"These comics perfectly capture what it's like to live with anxiety." --BuzzFeed Maureen "Marzi" Wilson--the popular Instagram cartoonist behind Introvert Doodles--is back with a brand-new collection of hilarious, relatable, and heartwarming doodles about anxiety that...
Allergic
Lloyd, Megan Wagner
Paper Book
A coming-of-age middle-grade graphic novel featuring a girl with severe allergies who just wants to find the perfect pet! At home, Maggie is the odd one out. Her parents are preoccupied with getting ready for a new baby, and her younger brothers are twins and always in their own world....
One in a million
Lordon, Claire
Paper Book
Debut graphic novelist Claire Lordon's medical misfortunes may be one in a million in this relatable memoir, but so is her determination, grit, and passion to beat the odds and reclaim her life. Something is wrong with Claire, but she doesn't know what. Nobody does, not even her...
Stitches a memoir
Small, David
Paper Book
The prize-winning children's author depicts a childhood from hell in this searing yet redemptive graphic memoir. One day David Small awoke from a supposedly harmless operation to discover that he had been transformed into a virtual mute. A vocal cord removed, his throat...
CancerVixen a true story
Marchetto, Marisa Acocella.
Paper Book
The groundbreaking graphic memoir that inspires breast cancer patients to fight back--and do so with style. * "Powerful ... A vibrant, neon chronicle with plenty of atti­tude ... A triumph of imagination and spirit." --Los Angeles Times "What happens when a shoe-crazy,...
Impossible people a completely average recovery story
Wertz, Julia
Paper Book
**NPR "BOOKS WE LOVE"** **SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE "FAVORITE BOOKS OF THE YEAR""** **PUBLISHERS WEEKLY "BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR"** **KIRKUS "BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR"** **LIBRARY JOURNAL "BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR"** In...
Hungry Ghost
Ying, Victoria.
Paper Book
A beautiful and heart-wrenching young adult graphic novel takes a look at eating disorders, family dynamics, and ultimately, a journey to self-love. Valerie Chu is quiet, studious, and above all, thin. No one, not even her best friend Jordan, knows that she has been binging and...
Tangles a story about Alzheimer's, my mother, and me
Leavitt, Sarah
Paper Book
In this powerful memoir the the LA Times calls "moving, rigorous, and heartbreaking," Sarah Leavitt reveals how Alzheimer's disease transformed her mother, Midge, and her family forever. In spare blackand- white drawings and clear, candid prose, Sarah shares her family's journey through a...
Mom's cancer
Fies, Brian.
Paper Book
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...
Dumb living without a voice
Webber, Georgia
Paper Book
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...
Kid gloves nine monthes of careful chaos
Knisley, Lucy
Paper Book
ANew York Times bestseller 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...
My degeneration a journey through Parkinson's
Dunlap-Shohl, Peter
Paper Book
How does one deal with a diagnosis of Parkinson's disease at the age of forty-three? My Degeneration, by former Anchorage Daily News staff cartoonist Peter Dunlap-Shohl, answers the question with humor and passion, recounting the author's attempt to come to grips with the "malicious...
Kimiko does cancer : a graphic memoir
Tobimatsu, Kimiko
Paper Book
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...
Not funny ha-ha a handbook for something hard
Hayes, Leah
Paper Book
Not Funny Ha-Ha is a bold, wry graphic novel about two women from different backgrounds who undergo two different abortions (medical and surgical). It follows them through the process of choosing a clinic, reaching out to friends, partners, and/or family - and eventually the procedures themselves....
A Fox in My Brain
Lubie, Lou.
Paper Book
A Fox In My Brain is a graphic memoir about a young woman's emotional journey struggling to understand and control a disease that has plagued her, her entire life.   After many troubled years, Lou finally discovers what's causing the chaos in her brain: her Cyclothymia, a...
A quick & easy guide to sex & disability
Andrews, A.
Paper Book
A quick, easy, and educational comic book guide that will help change the way we talk about sex and sexuality for all bodies.  "This guide can help disabled people (and their partners) on their journey toward self-love, better communication, and confidence." -- Alice Wong,...

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