GRAPHIC MEDICINE CONFERENCE IN BALTIMORE

THESE ARE MY PEOPLE
I just got back from this year's Graphic Medicine conference in Baltimore. Yes, you read me: Graphic Medicine - comics about health, medicine, and body sciences. There's actually a thriving community of cartoonists, healthcare professionals, academics, and people acting in combinations of those professional roles. 

The days were filled with panels and talks. Here are some excerpts from my note/sketchbook.

Megan Kirkland gave a fascinating "Lightning Talk" about
using comics for educating youth with spina bifida about
sex and sexuality. Simple idea and an elegant solution to a real problem.
(The Z's are my notes from another (boring!) talk.)

Leah Eisenberg is looking for graphic methods of explaining
the rights of children to them when they are involvedi in medical studies.
My representation of Bio Banking has nothing to do with reality.

Just when you think you've heard it all about Fredric Wertham,
Carol Tilley comes along and he gets interesting once again.

Cathy Leamy fights the good fight: Make educational
comics INTERESTING and ENTERTAINING --- please!
I got so excited that I wrote "create" instead of "creative."

Booster Shot Comics is Alex Thomas and Gary Ashwal.
They gave a presentation  describing how they anthropomorphized asthma
medications to educate children about dosage and asthma self care.
Do not confuse my notes with their graphic skills. The pill with the smiley face is my own pathetic design.
These guys are medical comics geniuses.

There was oh-so-much more than just my visual list, here. James Sturm, ET Russian, Ellen Forney, and many, many, many other people gave excellent presentations. (Okay... some presentations were boring or not quite hitting the mark for solid comics making, but I don't want to talk about them and harsh my post-conference buzz. But I will say that the rumors about Nancy Silberkleit are true!)

Words fail to describe how exhilarating it is to be in a crowd that doesn't require explanations of the humor I use in Pathology Laffs. I sold a copy of Pictorial Anatomy of the Cute to Shelley Wall who got the title reference (Pictorial Anatomy of the Cat) at first glance! (She studied with the author, Stephen G. Gilbert.) My world is complete!