ANOTHER FANTASTIC ARTS RESIDENCY

I have been working as a graphic medicine cartoonist/illustrator for the Center to Advance Palliative Care. It's part of the nonprofit Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. It has been a very gratifying experience. I also became their Artist-In-Residence last year. My residency will finish at the end of December 2024. My work with CAPC has been to illustrate their online clinical education/training. It has been a fascinating process.

Page excerpt from a CAPC educational unit.My drawing.

Page excerpt from a description of CAPC .My drawing.

Palliative Care teams work to help patients with intense, chronic, and/or terminal illnesses, to relieve or reduce their symptoms. Some people think palliative care and hospice are the same thing, but they are not. Hospice is for patients who have been diagnosed with a terminal illness and the prognosis includes a potential date of their death. But palliative physicians help both hospice and other patients. I think we can all imagine that taking care of these patients must be an intense and emotional experience for the patient, caregiver, and palliative care clinicians!

This area has supported a lot of artistic growth for me, since I am drawing patients and clinicians having all sorts of very intense conversations about illness, pain, and maybe death. What a fantastic opportunity for me!

Page excerpt from a CAPC educational unit.My drawing.

And now, I get to share with you that the CAPC Marketing and Communications team has announced that CAPC won four 2024 MarCom Awards! Here's their website description of the Web-Based Training. I'm also going to take a moment to brag and share a link that also include my name in the credits about the project. And here's a description of CAPC's blog, just to give you a more dynamic sense of their work.

If you'd like, you can Follow @CAPCpalliative on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook 

CADAVER CHRONICLES MEMOIR SERIES

WHY WRITE A MEMOIR ABOUT MY RELATIONSHIP TO DEAD BODIES?

Excerpt from Cadaver Chronicles Episode #2 by K. Willberg. 

I'm remembering my love of anatomy related to dancing.

I teach a drawing class in a cadaver lab. This dream job inspired me to make Cadaver Chronicles, a philosophical, occasionally explicit, and sometimes poignant and funny graphic memoir about childhood, anatomy, death, dying, healthcare, art, food, and relationships.
 
For artists, healthcare workers, scientists, and scholars, the study of actual human bodies affects how we perceive the dead and gives us context for reflection on the deaths of others and ourselves. For me, every living creature has an anatomical identity. For many, anatomy is not only an area of scientific knowledge and technical specificity, it’s a lifestyle!

I've already written and drafted roughly 200 pages illustrated with comics as well as 20 years of drawings from my sketchbooks. What kind of sketchbook drawing? My sketches from the cadaver lab where I teach, figure drawings where I anatomized the live models (just for fun!), animal sketches including an anatomized kitten, comparative anatomy sketches where I turn animal skeletons into people, general sketches of bodies, some bones, and even some dancers. 

EPISODE #1

 Here's the cover of this 24 page episode. I drew it from a selfie and anatomized my face. That's my spouse, cartoonist R. Sikoryak in the background. He's been tolerating my fascination with bodies for 30 years!

This first episode starts with the book's prologue about how I was terrified of death as a child. So much so that driving by a cemetery with a friend when I was 10 terrified me. 

How could I remember that? By gazing at my sketches and following a chain of flashbacks from my trip to the Paris Catacombs at 50, through a series of events taking me back to the cemetery. 

Then Episode #1 gets into Chapter 1 of the book.

Highlights include my father getting me very interested in animals and anatomy. So much so that one day, he brought me a bullfrog from the biology department on the campus where he was a professor. We dissected it in the basement together.

Dad was so encouraging that he was totally supportive when a friend and I started hanging out a a local veterinary clinic. 

Obviously, a childhood of catching wildlife, dissecting frogs, and assisting in the medical and surgical treatment of animals began to soften and moderate my fear of death.

Here are a few pages and excerpted panels.

Interested in browsing a copy? If you live in New York or New Jersey, I'll be selling them this Saturday and Sunday, March 16-17th at MoCCA Fest  in Manhattan, sponsored by the Society of Illustrators.

A description and samples of Episode #2 will be posted next!

FALL 2022 EVENTS

SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE, EVERYWHERE

I love the fall. The weather cools down, the trees turn color, and we all get busier. 

SEPTEMBER 3, 11AM-6PM 

BMX/BIG MILK EXPO Zine Fair—FREE!

at The City Reliquary, 370 Metropolitan Avenue (outdoors)

I will be selling my minicomics including my latest releases, “Name the Villaine” and “Cadaver Diaries."

SEPTEMBER 17-18

SPX/SMALL PRESS EXPO

Bethesda North Hotel & Conference Center, Bethesda, Maryland

I will be selling minicomics at Table I14 and presenting a self-care for cartoonists workshop.

My latest author head shot!

SEPTEMBER 20 7:00-8:30PM ET

THE VISUAL ARTS AND GRAPHIC MEDICINE IN MEDICAL EDUCATION Zoom panel hosted by the Society of Illustrators.

Here's the description of the panel--The incorporation of arts/humanities education is a growing trend in the training of healthcare professionals. Many medical schools are offering arts and humanities elective courses and opportunities for deeper engagement within these areas. This panel (of physicians, artists, students, cartoonists, and educators) will explore the clinical, interpersonal, professional, and practice-based skill benefits of these interdisciplinary arts programs. They will describe their roles in arts-based medical education, share their creative work, and investigate the influence of the artist on medical culture. 

The panelists are all people I know from my artist residency at the Master Scholars Program in Humanistic Medicine at NYU Langone Grossman school of medicine. Artist Laura Ferguson was the Inaugural AIR in the MSPHM and developed the brilliant Art and Anatomy class offered at NYU. Katie Grogan co-directed the medical humanities program at NYU for 10 years. Emily Yin, Michael Natter, and Michael Shen are very talented doctors and cartoonists. And there's me.

The plan is that we share information valuable to everyone--artists interested in teaching or working in medical settings; medical educators who would like to instigate arts programing in their departments; students, staff, and healthcare providers curious about the content of these classes; healthcare practitioners who also have a creative practice; plus anyone else who is curious.

An image from my in-progress book.

OCTOBER 6-9

CXC/CARTOON CROSSROADS COLUMBUS

In and around Columbus Ohio. See site for specific event locations.

I will be selling minicomics and presenting a self-care for cartoonists workshop.

Between these events, working on my book, and teaching, I'm going to be super busy through Thanksgiving!

GRAPHIC MEDICINE CONFAB - STUDY GUIDES!

FEBRUARY CONFAB

As you probably already know, The Graphic Medicine Confab is a roundtable conversation focusing on the challenges and techniques of making graphic medicine: comics about everything and anything to do with health, medicine, illness and our bodies. Each meeting has a theme and a facilitator and there's NO CHARGE! 

Here's info about our next 'Fab. (Not just for graphic medicine makers!)

COMICS STUDY GUIDES! WHAT ARE THEY? WHY CREATE THEM?

Comics are becoming popular classroom media for use by students from kindergarten to doctorate programs. 

 

Quince: The Definitive Bilingual Edition with a 
study guide by Theresa Rojas! 

Educational graphic medicine subjects include genetics, gender studies, race and racism, bioethics, patient experiences, epidemiology, violence, mental health, incarceration, and so much more. Comics about these topics can teach fact and theory, share lived experience, or provide thought-provoking narratives in a variety of formats. You might be making educational graphic medicine comics without realizing it!

Do you make comics that could be used in a classroom? If so, you might want some tips on ways to promote your work as (not just fantastically entertaining but also) educational. One way to inspire educators to use your comics in the classroom is to make study guides for your books. What is a study guide, you ask? Come to the GM Confab and find out.

Are you an educator interested in connecting with cartoonists and using more comics in the classroom? If so, you may want to share in the Confab conversation about study guides.

 

Wednesday, February 17 2021 at 5pm PT/8pm ET 

NO CHARGE!

Dr. Theresa Rojas joins the Graphic Medicine Confab facilitators Georgia Webber, Joel Christian Gill, Benjamin Schwartz, Kriota Willberg, and YOU, to talk all about study guides: what they are, how they are used, where to find them, how to make them, and more!

Join us to contribute ideas, ask questions, get feedback, and share resources.

Fill out this Google Form and we will send you the Zoom invite. 

The 'Fab Dr. Theresa Rojas!

Dr. Theresa Rojas is a Professor of English and Professor of Ethnic studies at Modesto Junior College, who teaches literature, creative writing, composition, and comparative media, with a speciality in post-1945 Comics Studies and Visual Culture. She is an Academic Senator and the Founding Director of the Latinx Comic Arts Festival. LCAF is the California Central Valley's international celebration of Latinx comic arts creators and friends, highlighting Latinx cartoonists, writers, animators, artists, and comic arts educators. She serves on the Executive Board of the Graphic Medicine International Collective and is developing a number of projects focusing on the intersection of Latinxs and graphic medicine. 

See you on the 17th!

HOLIDAY SHOPPING 2020

 'TIS THE SEASON!

Thanksgiving is over! Now we have entered The Holiday Shopping Zone! (Ominous music would play here if I had the tech for it.) What do you get for colleague, friend, or loved one with a charming geek/eclectic interest in graphic medicine, anatomy, pandemic compliance, crafting AND fashion -- put together?!?

Here are some possibilities, mostly UNDER $20.

FACE MASKS AND T-SHIRTS

Go to Kriota.Threadless.com for anatomically whimsical Napping Cat shirts, using an illustration from the Cat Friends... mini comic listed below. Click the links on the Threadless site for many styles and colors. Prices vary with style.

"I 💜 your Lungs" face masks, modeled by Miriam Leuchter,

or Crabby, Minigolf, or blue Rose Hip face masks are also available on my Threadless shop. There are a variety of mask types to choose from. I HIGHLY recommend only double layer or thicker masks and gaiters. Prices vary with style.

SELF-CARE FOR DESK-BOUND CREATIVES

DRAW STRONGER: SELF-CARE FOR CARTOONISTS AND OTHER VISUAL ARTISTS is  a comprehensive self-care guide for artists interested in preventing repetitive stress injuries and sustaining a pain free life long drawing practice. It's the perfect gift for artists, writers, and creative workers spending long hours focused on making small scale projects. I've also received a lot of praise for the book from people working at home in less creative areas during the pandemic! Let's face it - now that we're struggling with a pandemic we are all focusing on small scale projects for hours a day. Between the time we spend drawing, texting, needle working, mask sewing, painting, game playing, and laptopping, this book may be for everyone in the world. Price  $16.95

XMAS COMICS

Stubb and Leski's Catsmas can't be found on my Artists Page on the Birdcage Bottom Books site (for
some wacky reason) but click on the link for a description of this adorable stocking stuffer of a mini comic! Is it really graphic medicine? Well...maybe incidentally since our adorable cat heroes are amputees. But the book is not about disability. It's about a pair of cats looking for the perfect Christmas gift for their humans. Read the comic via this link before you consider giving this book to young children. Mewy Catsmas! It's $6.00.

You can visit my Artists Page at Birdcage Bottom for the following and more!

ANATOMY COMICS

Pair up a Napping Cat anatomical T-shirt with Cat Friends, Bird Acquaintances, and Their Human Furniture. My cat Leski came up with the idea for this book while I was working on a project for Movement Science Made Simple. Think of this comic as as a neo-anatomist picture book! It's $6.00

Cadaver Diaries is my latest publication. Perfect for anatomy students, bioethicists, massage therapists, and people interested in human dissection, i.e. practically everybody! 😉 The illustrations are from sketches I made in cadaver labs between 2004 and 2019. $10.00 

Anatomical Triangles Of The Neck: a selection of love stories take the reader through diagrams of muscular anatomical triangles found in (my) neck, accompanied by short narratives about lovers triangles. Only $3.00

FEMINIST COMICS FOR ANY GENDER

Go to my Artist Page for all my comics about gender, "women's work" like embroidery, and unethical research on enslaved women. Some books are all three topics blended together.

Embroidery Lab: The Medical History Nerd's Introduction to Medical Needlework. $4.00

Silver Wire has the honor of being listed on the BCALA and the ALA Graphic Novels and Comics Round Table: Black Lives Matter Reading List. $10.00

The Wandering Uterus: Furor Uterinus and contemporary applications of ancient medical wisdom. The title says it all, doesn't it? This mini comic explores a diagnostic standard of women's medicine that was honored by the medical profession, across the ("known") world for millennia! Learn about the scope of diseases caused by the wandering uterus! $5.00

The perfect gifts for the graphic medicine/anatomy buff/bioethicist/needleworkers in your life!! Happy Holidays!

CADAVER DIARIES

WARNING! IF SKETCHED IMAGES OF DEAD AND DISSECTED HUMAN BODIES ARE DISTURBING TO YOU THEN DON'T READ THIS POST!!! I MEAN IT. - KW

ANATOMY AND CADAVERS

As you probably already know, a detailed study of human anatomy doesn't necessarily require us to partake in the dissection of cadavers. With in-depth reading materials, exceptional illustrations, incredible anatomy apps that can show you layers of anatomical structures rendered three  dimensionally, and a willing living human body at hand to practice palpation upon, you can meet educational requirements for many fitness, health science, and artistic professions.

Even so, I've had the fortune of studying anatomy in and out of cadaver labs for almost 40 years. (Wow!) My latest affiliation with an anatomy lab was last year as a co-teacher with artist Laura Ferguson in her Art And Anatomy drawing classes at NYU. She has been teaching this class for years and it is an amazing experience. For more about the class, visit the Art And Anatomy website. 

(For more about my adventures teaching graphic medicine seminars through in The Master Scholars Program in Humanistic Medicine at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, visit this blogpost.)

ANATOMY AND DEATH

Conversations last fall with Laura and with NYU faculty about anatomic, artistic, and healthcare education gave me a lot of time to think about my relationships to bodies, anatomy, art, and death over the last 40 years. I spent very fulfilling quiet time in the lab sketching and examining bodies, watching students draw, and thinking about the professional and personal growth that repeated exposure to death and dying has provoked over the course of my lifetime. 

In January started looking at my last 16 years of figure drawings and cadaver sketches. I thought about my work as a massage therapist with seriously ill and dying patients and friends. I thought about the death of my father. I thought about my new relationship to the cadavers in the lab: I was there as an artist instead of health sciences student or teacher. Wow! What a change in perspective.

Of course the inevitable happened - I made a graphic memoir about my life with cadavers, illustrated exclusively from my sketchbooks. 

ANATOMY AND LIFE

I really got into drawing faces in the lab. I started to like some of the cadavers more than others. Obviously they had no say in my perception of our relationship, but I started to think of these bodies as my friends!

Working with cadavers is a life-changing experience. My work with dead human bodies definitely influenced my massage treatments of living human bodies. It helped me process the death of my father. It changed the way I see bodies. If you're curious about any of this, then this book may be for you! If you want to know what it's like to dissect a cadaver, this book may be for you! If you are curious about different ways people emotionally cope with dissecting human bodies, this book may be for you! This book is definitely NOT for you if sketches of dissected human bodies and faces are too disturbing.

DON'T WORRY!

The identities of these living and dead bodies can't be determined through the sketches in the book. Tattoos and distinctive skin markings (other than my own) are not show. The facial features of live models are obscured and the faces of the dead models have been dissected. No one is identifiable.

If you'd like to order a copy of Cadaver Diaries, take this link to Birdcage Bottom Books.

GRAPHIC MEDICINE CONFAB THIS SUMMER!

THESE ARE GRAPHIC MEDICINE TIMES

Kriota Willberg

Right now, almost every aspect of our lives has been impacted by two major cultural/medical phenomena: pandemic and violence. COVID-19 and the murder of George Floyd is shaping our values, our behaviors, and our body/mind/spirits. 

This implies that practically any comics that you make these days could qualify as graphic medicine: comics about everything and anything to do with health, medicine, illness and our bodies.

Whether your interest is in protecting people from COVID-19, fighting racism, or just blowing off some tension by making gag cartoons about herpes, creating graphic medicine presents a range of challenges like - making arguments that will inspire people to make healthier choices; communicating intense subjective states like pain, grief, or fear; using humor to explore sensitive subjects; educating readers without being boring; or mastering techniques for drawing the perfect word balloon.

Are you making comics about graphic medicine? Looking for answers to tricky comics problems? Want to share your skills and knowledge? Have nothing to do on Tuesday evenings? 

JOIN THE GRAPHIC MEDICINE CONFAB! - IT'S FREE!!

Joel Christian Gill

The Graphic Medicine Confab is a roundtable conversation focusing on the challenges and techniques of making graphic medicine: comics about everything and anything to do with health, medicine, illness and our bodies. 

There's no charge.

Each meeting has a theme and a facilitator.

The GMC will meet four times this summer via Zoom, Tuesday evenings from 7-7:45 PM (ET).

June 16, Kriota Willberg – How can we make dangerous information less threatening? 

June 30, Joel Christian Gill –  Emotion and style in comics

July 14, Georgia Webber – Collaborating across access needs

July 28, Ben Schwartz – Humor, Comics, and Medicine

Join us to contribute ideas, ask questions, get feedback, and share resources.

Fill out this Google Form and we will send you the Zoom invite to each meet.

WHO ARE WE?

Georgia Webber

Joel Christian Gill™  is the chairman, CEO, president, director of development, majority and minority stock holder, manager, co-manager, regional manager, assistant to the regional manager, receptionist, senior black correspondent and janitor of Strange Fruit Comics. He is the author/illustrator of 2 books from Fulcrum Publishing Strange Fruit vol I Uncelebrated Narratives from Black History May 2014 and Tales of the Talented Tenth Fall 2014. In his spare time he is the Chair of Foundations at the New Hampshire Institute of Art and  member of The Boston Comics Roundtable.  He received his MFA from Boston University and a BA from Roanoke College. His latest work is a memoir chronicling how children deal with abuse and trauma: Fights: One Boy's Triumph Over Violence (Oni Press January 2020.) 

Georgia Webber is a comics artist, writer, and editor entirely occupied by the intersection of health and art, making music, comics, and facilitating health workshops.  Georgia is best known for her debut graphic memoir, Dumb: Living Without a Voice (Fantagraphics 2018), the chronicle of her severe vocal injury and sustained vocal condition which causes her pain from using her voice. This difficult experience lead her to work as a Cranial Sacral Therapist, a meditation facilitator, and as an improvising musician. She has extended her love of the voice into the community with a project called MAW Vocal Arts. MAW hosts a vocal arts showcase event and online practice sessions called Breathing. Georgia’s latest book is a collaboration with Vivian Chong, Dancing After TEN (Fantagraphics 2020).

Ben Schwartz

Ben Schwartz,  MD is a staff cartoonist for the New Yorker and an assistant professor of medicine (in surgery) at Columbia University’s Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. After graduating from medical school at Columbia University and completing an internship in internal medicine, Schwartz decided to take the leap to becoming a full-time cartoonist. Though he no longer practices as a doctor, Schwartz has taken on multiple roles at Columbia, where he teaches comic storytelling in the school’s Narrative Medicine program, serves as Chief Creative Officer for the Department of Surgery, and provides communication strategy to various groups throughout the medical center. 

Kriota Willberg makes comics about the body sciences, medical history, and bioethics. Her book, Draw Stronger: Self-Care for Cartoonists and Visual Artists, is published by Uncivilized Books. Other comics have appeared in: 4PANEL.ca,Spiral Bound (Medium.com), SubCultures, Comics For Choice, The Graphic Canon, Intima: Journal of Narrative Medicine, and Strumpet 5, among others. Willberg writes a self-care column for the Comics Beat called Get A Grip!. Her comic Silver Wire was nominated for a 2019 Ignatz Award. She teaches graphic medicine and drawing in the Department of Humanistic Medicine at NYU. 

Hope to see you soon!