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 

GRAPHIC MEDICINE AT THE NYU SCHOOL OF MEDICINE

The cover of the mini comic.
How many organs/structures can you identify?

Last fall (2018) I taught a Graphic Medicine course for the NYU School of Medicine's Master Scholars Program in Humanistic Medicine. It was a wonderful experience. I got paid to talk about comics to medical students and hospital staff! 

We read as many genres and artists as I could cram in to a six seminar series. Julia Wertz, Roz Chast, Grant Morrison, Caroline Pequita, Osama Tezuka, Bishakh Som, Iasmin Oma Ata, and oh-so-many-more cartoonists gave us plenty to consider and discuss.

We analyzed the  medical clinical encounter from the perspectives of patients, doctors, caregivers, and more. We explored issues like paternalism, miscommunication in medicine, professional burn out, gender identity, women's health... the list goes on. 

At the end of each class EVERYONE drew. It was fascinating to watch these talented doctors, students, researchers, and nurses, ponder my in-class assignments and create lively, funny, and touching comics in literally minutes!

We drew symptoms, wrote comic strips about personal clinical and academic encounters, designed cute organ mascots, and illustrated popular sayings about health and medicine. "Cute" is not an aesthetic that is usually explored in medical contexts. Illustrating and making (even silly) comics about medicine is a really interesting method for appreciating multiple pathways of communication. Plus it breaks up the intensity of creating uncomfortable narratives.

At the end of the course, we assembled the work into a mini comic. You can see some examples on the Lit Med Magazine site and check out their literature, arts, and medicine database.

SILVER WIRE

UNDERSTANDING SURGERY AND BIOETHICS THROUGH EMBROIDERY AND COMICS

TAKES ONE TO KNOW ONE

Page 6 of Silver Wire. I decided to
use soft colors for a hard topic.
Author: Kriota Willberg

Since my artist residency at the New York Academy of Medicine Library, I have been thinking a lot about the way I tend to be more interested or open to an intimidating subject if I have a connection to it though previous experience or knowledge. One thing that researching the histories of domestic sewing and of sutures and ligatures has taught me is that sewing was a universal skill for millennia. These days it may not be as common a skill, but practically everyone understands what it is and the basic techniques and equipment used.

My new comic, Silver Wire, explores the histories of surgery, unethical research, and slavery, by using embroidery as the medium for gaining a little more understanding of these very intimidating subjects. In the narrative, I go to the park with my doctor-friend Mollie for a lesson about surgery and suturing techniques. As we wound and sew up fruit, we explore the histories of medical sewing and decorative sewing, gossiping and joking about the great surgeons of history. But the same techniques that Mollie uses with her patients to relieve their suffering have a dark history that affects us all. 

Yes – my interests in embroidery and history changed my life by giving me a way to wrap my head around the debt global modern medicine owes to the American enslaved! I tear up just thinking about it.

Making this book really honed my understanding of the need for studying history to reconcile ourselves with the present. The following appears on the inside back cover of the book:

Silver Wire page 16.
Author: Kriota Willberg

You know, the New York Academy of Medicine Library changed my life. One day in the Rare Book Room I was reading an introduction by Charles Bell to one of his books (I forget which one.) In it, he addressed the reader and praised them for their curiosity and interest in medicine. He was inspired by his patients and his students who were “young men of science” or something like that. The guy was truly devoted to education. His language was so enthusiastic and welcoming, I felt like he was talking to me, specifically. At the end of the page, he wrote that through a shared interest in science, we are all comrades. His signature began with “Your friend…” 

I am pretty sure that Charles Bell, at the end of the 18^thcentury, had no idea that a middle aged, childless, cis-gendered female, massage therapist, cartoonist(!) would read his words and then struggle to keep back her tears of gratitude, but that is what happened. I hope Bell would be pleased.

History is full of love, suffering, service, and cruelty, sometimes all coming from the same source. By weeding through the culture and politics of medicine of the past, we can understand and improve the state of public health today. 

We need voices like Bell, Boivin*, Trota**, yes, and even (that asshole***) Sim’s to be heard, discussed, and acted upon to help us understand the present with some anger and a lot of compassion for people suffering today. We need the past to make a better future.

If you made it through this book and all the crazy citations and comments, thank you! Please consider me…

…Your Friend,

Kriota

*You probably never heard of her, look her up!

**If you’re one of those people who say she didn’t exist, then replace her name with someone she may represent to you.

***J. Marion Sims was a gynecological surgeon who experimented on enslaved women in the 1840s. His work is a major component of the book. And he was an asshole. His memoir is a huge ego trip where he talks about how touching women’s reproductive organs is the last thing he ever wanted to do. Oh yeah, there’s also the unethical research!

Page 20 of Silver Wire.
Lace and embroidery over an illustration of
"the Sim's position" from a 1876
surgical textbook by Henry Savage.

Silver Wire is a 19-page comic book followed by a whopping 8 pages of citations, notes, and pictures of medically themed embroidery. 

You can read it on Medium.com (after July 8) and if you want your very own copy, order it from Birdcage Bottom Books or find it at Forbidden Planet or JHU Comics in New York City, or Chicago Comics or Quimby’s in Chicago. 

P.S. (Get your butt to the library!)

SOME REVIEWS OF "DRAW STRONGER"

Sure, I've been telling you to buy my book, Draw Stronger: Self-Care for Cartoonists & Visual Artists, but now you don't have to take my advice. Frankly, I don't blame you for not paying attention to mercurial me. But listen to your pain, and consider the reviews from these reliable sources.

Publisher's Weekly.com
"Artists, designers, writers, and anyone else who spends their days hunkering over keyboards, squinting at screens, or posed over a drawing board will appreciate Willberg’s nerdy, pun-heavy advice for better self-care...This practical, handy volume is a worthy addition to many workplace bookshelves—preferably high up, requiring a standing stretch to reach it." (Apr.)

Intima: a Journal of Narrative Medicine
"What makes "Draw Stronger" different from other self-help books is Willberg's sense of humor that infuses every drawing, tip, fact, exercise and quip with originality and a lightness of being. While there will be pages you'll want to photocopy and tape up near your computer or sketch table for easy reference and reminders to stretch throughout the day, the book will also be a useful reference guide whenever a lightning bolt of raw pain shoots up your arm, neck, or back." —Donna Bulseco

Library Journal 
"Willberg’s straightforward yet lighthearted delivery makes her advice enjoyable and easy to follow. This lively self-care guide should wake up artists, amateur and pro, and also apply to anyone who sits at the computer all day".—MC

Publisher's Weekly.com
This is an interview, so I'm not going to quote myself. That seems a little.... weird.

DRAW STRONGER!

APRIL 7 IS THE DAY!

The cover

Get set to Draw Stronger! With my new injury prevention and self-care book for cartoonists and artists. 

How do liniments mask pain? One explanation is called The Gate Theory.

How is this book different or better than the mini comics (No) Pain! and First Aid for Drawing Injuries? MORE COMPREHENSIVE INFORMATION. Understand how injuries happen and what types of injuries commonly affect drawing professionals. Use practical first aid to help manage pain in the event of injury. Learn what types of symptoms should be diagnosed by doctor. Practice simple exercises to help correct posture and reduce fatigue and pain. The book also explores stylus grip, has expanded its exploration of types of repetitive stress injuries, and added exercises and info specific to back pain. 

Changing your grip for different types of lines 

can help reduce stress to the hand and wrist!

Publisher's Weekly interviewed me about health culture amongst artists and the new book. I'm curious to hear from anyone (you) about their attitudes about pain and creative practice. Talk to me! Comment, please!

Interested in purchasing a copy of Draw Stronger? You can find it online through the publisher, Uncivilized Books (okay, yes. Amazon, too.)

SPX 2017 COMICS DEBUT - STITCHIN' TIME!

NEWEST MINICOMIC

How do I process research as I work on a large project? By making small snippets to help me process narrative priorities, explore media, and transform vast amounts of data into digestible pieces. One of these pieces has been transformed into my mini comic, Stitchin' Time!

Was Galen really bossy? Maybe not, but historians 

consider him a bit of a "showman." 

(Buy the book if you want this citation! - I am shameless!)

Stitchin' Time! is a ridiculous historical fiction based on factual medical history. Aulus Cornelius Celsus (c. 25 BCE – c. 50 CE) was a Roman writer of De Medicina, an important medical text.  Aelius (or Claudius) Galenus (129  – c. 200 CE) was a famous surgeon and one of the most influential writers in the history of medicine. In this minicomic, for the first time ever, Celsus and Galen team up to stitch a disemboweled gladiator back together! Could these men have ever met? Heck no! Would this type of surgery have taken place in the 2^nd century? Heck yes!

Yes, Celsus wrote about a double-handed suture! 

Who needs robotic surgery when you can get so fancy with a needle?

RIGOROUS RESEARCH

Yeah, it's a pretty silly story and I'm giving you links in this post to Wikipedia, but the historical research is sound! This is the first comic resulting directly from my residency at the New York Academy of Medicine Library. There are notes about each panel and a citations list at the back. You don't have to read them if you don't want to, but they may help you get a joke or two.

A surgery panel inspired by a 17th century anatomical 

illustration from the Academy Library Historical Collection.

SPX TABLE H13A

The mini will be debuting at the Small Press Expo in Bethesda Maryland, September 15-16.

OTHER PLACES TO BUY
After SPX you will be able to purchase this tome (and more!) at Birdcage Bottom Books.

TWO NEW MINICOMICS AND MORE FOR TCAF

ANATOMICAL TRIANGLES PREMIERING AT TCAF!

I have 2 new mini comics debuting at the Toronto Comic Arts Festival (TCAF)! I will be on the second floor at table Q18. Come on by May 13-14!

ANATOMICAL TRIANGLES OF THE NECK  A Selection of Love Stories

This little green gem of a comic blends fanciful and melodramatic passages about lovers' triangles with the graphics of various anatomical triangles of the neck. You can read the whole thing here, but if you'd like to own this adorable quarter page micro-tome click here. If you're going to be in Toronto for TCAF you can also pick it up there at my table!

AT LEAST WE HAVE OUR HEALTH!

Looking for a chuckle about medical history? Antisepsis? Bioethics? If you're not I suggest you stop reading. This selection of gag cartoons and graphic rhymes uses everything from mutated lung cells to the dancing movie star Anne Miller to the theory of spontaneous generation, just to make a joke. Don't worry! If you don't get the gag, I have included a short "humor analysis" section to get you on board. Find it at TCAF or click here to buy it online.

BRAND NEW COMICS FOR MY FIRST CXC

WHERE WILL YOUR UTERUS BE THIS WEEKEND?

Get it this weekend at CXC!

Mine will be in Columbus Ohio for the Cartoon Crossroads Columbus fest. We (my uterus and I) will be presenting the workshop "Drawing with (No)Pain! Injury Prevention for Cartoonists" on Friday, October 14, 11:00 AM at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum guess what it's about? 

And when we're not wandering around the floor, checking out all the incredible work that will be there, you will find my uterus and I in anchorage at our exhibitor table with my spouse, the incredible R. Sikoryak.

Female pathologic anatomy in Medieval Europe.

THE WANDERING UTERUS
Why all the uterus talk? Because I will be debuting my latest mini comic, The Wandering Uterus (Furor Uterinus) and Contemporary Applications of Ancient Medical Wisdom. Yes, it's a long title but that's what I do!

The uterus at rest where it is happiest!

This "parchment," full color, 5.5" w x 8.5" h, 12-page (including covers) 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! Learn ancient treatments of this malady! Witness one woman's (my) attempt to use this ancient wisdom for her own symptom relief!

The inspiration for this tome came from the book Perilous Chastity by Laurinda S. Dixon. She has a fascinating list of publications in her CV. I think Perilous Chastity is a must-read for anyone interested in the history of women's health and art. 

What?!? You can't get to Columbus, OH this weekend? Well, you'll have to wait until later this month to purchase the Wandering Uterus through Birdcage Bottom Books.

VISIT MY GUEST BLOG POST

An image from Salvage's Anatomie du Gladiator in the NYAM collection.

VISIT THIS BLOG TO VISIT THAT BLOG
Yes, it's a little ridiculous, but this blog post is here only to send you to my latest blog post for the New York Academy of Medicine's Books, Health, and History blog. Many Anatomy Lessons at the New York Academy of Medicine is my second blog post for NYAM. 

Interested in taking my Visualizing and Drawing Anatomy classes at NYAM? Classes start June 6 so there's still time to sign up!

MINI COMICS, THE BODY, HEALTH, AND MEDICINE

SHOWING AND TELLING

Last night I took the subway uptown with a grocery bag full of mini comics to show and discuss with a monthly Graphic Medicine Workshop that I attend regularly. 

The Workshop is facilitated by Pat Stanely and Marsha Hurst, both of the Columbia University Narrative Medicine program. Typically we read a graphic novel or memoir in the realm of graphic medicine, and when we meet, have a conversation somewhere between a close reading, an analysis of writing and/or drawing, and a discussion of anything else that might catch someone's eye. 

The group varies, but attendees are often faculty teaching narrative medicine; students and graduates of the program; writers; people with social work or other healthcare backgrounds; and/or cartoonists. The groups is as interesting as the books we discuss. I learn at least 3 new things every time I go.

This month, as a change of pace, I brought my medical/bio/health- themed mini comic collection for the group to look over. Graphic novels are a rich resource, but minis offer an incredible range of topics and insights, too!

The authors of the minis included Emi Gennis, David Lasky, Whit Taylor, Box Brown, Mindy Indy,  Georgia Webber, Kate Lacour, Anuj Shrestha, Liesl and John G. Swogger, Shing Yin Khor, Joyana Mc Diarmid, Andy Warner, Sarah Mink and Corinne Mucha, Claire Sanders, Cathy Leamy, and many more...!

I think minis can be underrated as dynamic teaching tools. My collection ranges in topics from mental health to cancer diagnosis to genital mutilation to science fiction. They are memoir, instructional, fiction, and journalism  or manifesto. Most of them are not for children. 

Many minis in my collection weren't drawn with education or bio/health/medicine readers as a target market. They just happen to fall into that category. ANY topic you can imagine is likely addressed in a mini comic. They're (usually) cheaper than comic books or graphic novels, the art and writing are comparable, and are an excellent way to target an individual short story rather than wading through an anthology for the work of one particular cartoonist. 

Minis often are self-published and don't go through an editorial process. If you are interested in public perceptions of science, health, and the body, minis will give you a more diverse sample than graphic novels. Some of them are very opinionated (to put it mildly!)

BODIES!

Photo: John Beaman

"BODIES" THE C.A.B. PANEL

Sunday November 8 was the second day of the Comic Arts Brooklyn festival. Day one was the marketplace and day two was panel day. Karen Green was invited to curate day two by Desert Island Comics' Gabe Fowler, producer and chief of the whole event. Karen, in turn, invited me to moderate a panel called "Bodies."

What a dream job! The artists were Andrea Tsurumi, Jennifer Hayden, and Michael DeForge, three unique artists who incorporate themes of physicality and the body into their comics in distinctive ways and with distinctively separate visual and narrative styles.

Research was a dream!* There was too much to talk about. To get as much in as possible I decided to divide a PowerPoint slideshow into body-themed categories that all three artists share. There were plenty!

Here's the (shared) list with only a few of many example images...

ANATOMIZED BODIES

Michael DeForge describes "Spotting Deer" in a style reminiscent of the
Naturalists and their diaries and anatomical tomes.

THE SEXUAL BODY

If you think this is Sexy, you should see what can be done with the other days of 2014!

TRANSFORMATIVE BODIES

Young Jennifer Hayden fantasizes about the breasts that would transform
her and her life, if she only had them. In The Story of My Tits.

THE AGING BODY

A young Peter Parker's dream of witnessing his Aunt and Dr. Octopus having sex.
A head 1/3 the size of his body infantalizes Parker and the wrinkles 
and sweat on the bodies of the Aunt and the Dr. age them. 

Andrea Tsurumi really knows how to "render" fat in the elderly!

THE BODY IN MEDICAL NARRATIVE

Jennifer Hayden and her husband look at prosthetic breasts to 
determine what size her post-mastectomy new breasts will be.

We made it through a discussion of the shared BODY themes, but to be honest, I was so excited to be sitting on stage with these three, that I'm not going to try and paraphrase what the artists said. I don't want to misrepresent them. If the video becomes available, I'll let you know. 

BUT WAIT! THERE'S MORE!
I also prepped three categories in which an individual artist was clearly the doyen. We had such a good conversation that we didn't make it this far. I thought I'd share these, and my perceptions of these artists' works in each...

Andrea Tsurumi: THE EXUBERANT BODY

In this way, I feel that Andrea's rendering of physicality is the most traditional of these three. She often represents the body in motion or stillness to communicate emotional narratives. Posture, movement, and expression bring humans and inanimate objects to exuberant, animated life in her work. In Andrea's worlds pastries go to war with gruesome results, and the Liberty Bell, sauerkraut, and rubbing alcohol get sexy!

Michael Deforge: BODY HORROR/BODY DELIGHT

When you read a review of Michael's work the term "body horror" will inevitably be used to describe the tone of his comics. Michael shares his awareness of the body through his anatomized drawings, attention to physical and structural minutia, and transmogrification of sex and body functions. But one (wo)man's horror is another (wo)man's delight. 

Jennifer Hayden: SACRED/SPIRITUAL/ENERGETIC BODIES

The Story Of My Tits is Jennifer's autobiography of her life in relationship to her breasts (and much more! But I'm focusing on the body, remember.) Aging, sexual maturation, and patient narratives are themes that many cartoonists use in graphic memoirs about their bodies. Jennifer combines these themes with her perceptions of the body as a vessel of life force and her rituals for celebrating the breasts she loses to cancer. Her story is very touching.

I'm simultaneously thrilled and bummed that we didn't to these topics during the panel, but on the other hand there just wasn't room for everything. Jennifer, Michael, and Andrea are not just talented artists, their smart AND articulate. Thanks to them and Karen for making this my BEST PANEL, EVER!


*To be read in the same lilting tone as an actress in "The Lady Eve" who says to Henry Fonda, "The fish was a poem!"

SKETCHBOOK FROM GRAPHIC MEDICINE 2015

Yes, it's October and yes, July was ... in July, but look what I found in my sketchbook! Sketches (duh) from the July 16-18 Graphic Medicine Conference in Riverside California. There are a lot. In the interest of keeping things moving, I'm only showing a few pages.

 These two pages are from Jared Gardner's inspiring talk the night the conference opened. As with all of these sketches, some of the text is from the speaker and some is me riffing off the presentation. Don't let these pages fool you, Gardner is brilliant.

 I can't remember who was responsible for the presentations represented by these two pages, but you can see I admonish myself to read "Death, Disability, and the Super Hero" by Jose Alaniz and "Chronically Me: Flushing Out My Life And Times With IBS" by Joy Spencer, and more!

 Frank Ramos used Allie Brosh's Hyperbole and a Half to in his presentation about depression. Somehow I was inspired to draw a Wonder Woman costume on a hypodermic while listening to Dr. Stacy Leigh Pigg.

These two pages are from Justin Green-the-cartoonist-not-the-quarterback, one of the keynote speakers. He's a fascinating guy!

YOU ARE A DONUT

IT'S TRUE!

Yes, the rumor's are true! In addition to my self-care mini comic First Aid For Drawing Injuries, available now through Birdcage Bottom Books, I have another mini out: You Are A Donut. Premiering at the Grand Comics Festival this Saturday June 6. 

Are you in for a treat! (Not a donut - the mini comic!) You are a Donut compares you to a donut to reveal 2 cold, hard, facts about your digestive tract. That's it, just two. It's very short.

Come by my table on Saturday at the Grand Comics Festival. Pick up a copy of "First Aid" or "Donut" or both! Pet my taxidermied rabbit!

Thank you, Pat Dorian for the photo!

FIRST AID FOR DRAWING INJURIES

ANOTHER ESSENTIAL VOLUME
You're a cartoonist. You take care of yourself to prevent drawing injuries, do your stretches, take regular breaks, draw with perfect posture, and what happens? You start to experience pain while you draw anyway. Another example of Bad Things happening to Good People. What do you do? Go to the doctor if it's serious, but if it's a minor injury go to your bookshelf and start reading First Aid For Drawing Injuries or, Pain is Your Frenemy!

Finally, the sequel to (NO)PAIN! Injury Prevention for Cartoonists is here! This little tome can be used to help you reduce discomfort until you can see a healthcare professional, or it can provide guidelines for the self-care of mild drawing injuries that don't require medical attention. Explore R.I.C.E. therapy from the perspective of the committed drawer, learn some tips for understanding your pain, avoid making your injury worse, and more!

The benefits and dangers of compression... revealed!

How do you get your mitts on this mini? Come to the Toronto Comic Arts Festival and their Word Balloon Academy May 8-10! 

Not in Toronto? Pick up a copy at Brooklyn's Grand Comics Festival June 6.

Not in Brooklyn? By the end of May you will be able to order a copy through Birdcage Bottom Books. More on that soon.