Medicine and Comics merge for unusual conference

Ethics Under Cover is an interdisciplinary conference in July in Brighton, intended to appeal to a wide audience, including healthcare professionals, comics creators, students, academic scholars, comics enthusiasts and various stakeholder groups.

The meeting, organised by Brighton and Sussex Medical School in collaboration with Brighton and Sussex University Hospital Trust, the Wellcome Trust and Graphic Medicine will consist of a mix of peer reviewed academic papers, lectures and workshops. Guests include Paul Gravett and Nicola Streeten. There will also be an exhibition and stalls for participants’ work.

The organisers of the event are Muna Al-Jawad, Bobbie Farsides, Sue Eckstein, talented comic creator Ian Williams, Susan Squier, Michael Green, Shelley Wall, MK Czerwiec and Lydia Gregg.

Graphic Medicine is a web site created by Ian Williams, who coined the title as a handy term to denote the role that comics can play in the study and delivery of healthcare.
Ian writes papers and articles on comics and medicine, and has just started to run a medical student module at the Medical School in Manchester and also makescomics under the pseudonym Thom Ferrier. He's currently working on a graphic novel, to be published by Myriad Editions in 2014.

"I did an MA in medical humanities (looking at the discourse of medicine using the conceptual tools of the arts and humanities)," Ian explains, "and am a member of the advisory board for the International Health Humanities Network.

"I wrote a dissertation on medical narrative in graphic novels - it's my contention that comic/graphic fiction could be a useful resource for healthcare professionals, patients and carers. Soon after I set up the Graphic Medicine site, one of the first people to get in touch was Michael Green of Penn State University Medical School, who had started to teach a comics class to medical students around the time I was doing my MA.

"It seemed like a critical mass was starting to build, and it has gotten more exciting over the last few years, and will continue to gain momentum over the next few, as people realise that comics can articulate profound truths about the discourse of medicine, and healthcare in general."

• For more information visit: www.graphicmedicine.org/comics-and-medicine-conferences/2013-brighton

In Review: Disrepute by Thom Ferrier

Out: Now

The book: A collection of Thom's medicine-inspired cartoons, most originally published online at www.disrepute.info

The Review: Thom (in reality, Doctor Ian Williams), also author of Graphic Medicine and other books, editor at GraphicMedicine.org, has been sending me copies of his work for some time now. His work is keenly observed, often dark - some might say bleak - but throws up a mirror to the human condition as only someone working in health care, I suspect, could.

(Darryl Cunningham's strips evoke a similar view - I've yet to read similar life-inspired comics from a police or fire person, but I'd imagine they too might similarly be tinged with a black, acerbic melancholia).

According to his official bio, Thom has studied both medicine and art and is "a part time General Practitioner in a small rural market town somewhere in the UK" and has an interest in the Humanities and how the arts relate to medicine.

He most definitely, as claimed, has a vitriolic streak, often railing against the frustrations ofgovernment interference in medicine, managerialism and human greed, to name just a few of his targets for his cartoons and commentary.

Yet, while he's cutting about patients that, inevitably as he notes, "severely try his patience", for the most part his cartoons, while often full on darkly humoured, reveal a passion for the human condition, with a keen eye for eccentricity and personal foible - including his own.

The subject matter may often be unsettling - his cartoons about suicide are not for the squeamish, including one in which an individual builds a guillotine for his own use in his cellar - but this collection offers a compelling, beautifully printed 'taster' for Thom's larger work.

- To buy Disrepute or for more Information: www.disrepute.info

"first fictions" Graphic Novel competition shortist announced

A Rat’s Tale by Adam Blackman &
Dylan Shipley: one of the shortlisted entries.
It's based in modern Britan
and aims to warn young people about
the hazards of 'drug use' and 'addiction'

Myriad Editions has announced its shortlist for its "first fictions" competition which we reported on earlier this year.

The nominees include Hannah Eaton, Thom Ferrier and Tom Eglington, who is paying for his art career by writing comics stories, including the first Tharg’s 3riller which debuted in 2000AD Prog 1740 - "Silver -Tongued Exploits of Cosmo Nibs", drawn by John McCrea.

Novelist Ian Rankin, cartoonist Steve Bell and graphic novelist Bryan Talbot were among six judges that have selected the seven-strong shortlist, joined by graphic novelists Hannah Berry and Ed Hillyer (who is also a début novelist published by Myriad Editions), and Corinne Pearlman, commissioning editor for Myriad’s growing series of graphic titles, now published with the support of Arts Council England.

The shortlisted entries were chosen from a longlist of 21, described by Ian Rankin as "a very high standard overall". Entrants were asked to submit 15–30 pages of a graphic work-in-progress, either fiction or non-fiction, in black and white.

The winning author or team will have their work published by Myriad Editions in 2013.

In all, 74 qualifying submissions were received. The shortlisted entries will be showcased,
and the winner announced, on Saturday 21st January 2012 at First Fictions, a weekend of events championing first novels past and present, jointly organised by Brighton publisher Myriad Editions and the English Department at the University of Sussex.

"We were amazed by the quantity, quality and diversity of the entries," says Corinne Pearlman.

"It was difficult to pick a longlist. It was difficult to pick a shortlist. And it will be difficult to pick a winner."

The seven shortlisted entries include six sole creators and a writer and artist team. They are:

• Adam Blackman & Dylan Shipley: A Rat’s Tale
• Gareth Brookes: The Black Project
• Konstantinos Chrisoulis: Dryland
• Hannah Eaton: Naming Monsters
• Tom Eglington: Amber Sands
• Thom Ferrier: The Enlightenment of Iwan James
• Paula Knight: The Facts of Life

Candidates had to submit between 15 to 30 pages of a graphic work in progress for consideration. The winner will be announced at the First Fictions event, organised by the University of Sussex and Myraiad, on January 21st 2012 and work from the shortlisted entries will be showcased there too. The outright winner will have their graphic novel published by Myriad in 2013.

• For more information, visit www.firstfictions.com

Panel Borders: Doctoring Comics

Concluding radio show Panel Borders month of shows looking at medical comics, they have a talk by Dr. Ian Williams recorded at Laydeez do Comics last month about his work in sequential art including curating Graphic Medicine and creating comic strips under the name Thom Ferrier, followed by a Q and A session featuring questions by Phillipa Perry and Alex Fitch.

Ian did an MA in medical humanities, looking at the discourse of medicine using the conceptual tools of the arts and humanities. He wrote a dissertation on medical narrative in graphic novels and it's his contention that comic/graphic fiction could be a useful resource for healthcare professionals, patients and carers. Graphic medicine, which he set up in 2007, lists and briefly reviews all the graphic novels and comic books that he has found to be relevant.

'[When] I set up Graphic Medicine... I thought I was being pretty clever and original," says Ian, "but after a while I found that there were people out there who had been writing about comics and medicine way before me. People like Scott of Polite Dissent, who also writes about the portrayal of medicine in other media and Ethan Persoff of Comics With Problems. These guys were there first, I am a relative newbie to writing about comics, although I have always loved them (comics, that is).

"Soon after I set up the site, one of the fist people to get in touch was Michael Green of Penn State University Medical School, who had started to teach a comics class to medical students around the time I was doing my MA. There were also articles about comics with medical themes starting to appear in the humanities literature, so it seems like a critical mass was starting to build, and it has got more exciting over the last few years, and will continue to gain momentum over the next few, as people realise that comics can articulate profound truths about the discourse of medicine, and healthcare in general."

• Panel Borders: Doctoring Comics airs at 5.00pm, Thursday 30th June 2011 on  Resonance 104.4 FM (London) / streamed at www.resonancefm.com / podcast after broadcast at www.panelborders.wordpress.com