Graphic Medicine
Information on the use of the comics medium to explore issues in healthcare.
Anti-Racism
Books in the Health Sciences Library
March: Book One by Congressman John Lewis' first-hand account of his lifelong struggle for civil and human rights, meditating in the modern age on the distance traveled since the days of Jim Crow and segregation.
Books 2 and 3 also in our collection.
COVID Chronicles by A collection of short comics about the COVID-19 pandemic. Diverse artists address disruptions in work, school, and family life as well as failures in public policy, racial biases, and systemic inequalities revealed by the pandemic.
Persepolis by Wise, funny, and heartbreaking memoir of growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution.
LISSA: A Story About Medical Promise, Friendship and Revolution by A story of two friends growing up in Cairo, one American, one Egyptian. Their friendship is put to the test when medical crises in each family reveals stark differences in their perspectives...until the Arab Spring revolution changes everything.
The Complete MAUS by The Pulitzer Prize-winning Maus tells the story of Vladek Spiegelman, a Jewish survivor of Hitler's Europe, and his son, a cartoonist coming to terms with his father's story.
Fights by A visceral and deeply affecting memoir of artist/author Joel Christian Gill, chronicling his youth and coming of age as a Black child in a chaotic landscape of rough city streets and foreboding backwoods.
Webcomics
- African-Americans Are More Likely to Distrust the Medical System. Blame the Tuskegee Experiment, by Whit Taylor and Chris KindredDiscusses the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment of the mid-1900's, Medical Ethics, and Distrust of the Healthcare System
- America’s Shameful History of Housing DiscriminationThe history of redlining and racial discrimination in the United States, and the impacts its had on Black and Brown communities throughout the generations
- Black Mothers Face Far Worse Health Outcomes. How Do We Fix It? by Whit TaylorDiscusses the high maternal mortality rate of Black mothers and how we can begin to address it.
- REDLINED: THE H.E.A.T. Report COMIC BOOK Pt. 1 & 2Incorporating historical records and stakeholder interviews, We Are Wynadotte (Kansas City, KS) created two comics on redlining, how the practice continues to affect the health of their community, and possible solutions to correct them.
- A Sense of BelongingAn African American physician reflects on her 30 years since graduating from medical school, and how racial disparities played a role in her education and perspective.
- Silver WireConsiders the history of medical experimentation on unwilling subjects, with particular emphasis on “founding father of gynecology” J. Marion Sims’ abuse of enslaved Black women, and the ramifications of benefiting from this cruel approach to medicine.
- Vaccinated at the ball: A true story about trusted messengersA comics journalist tells the story of an effort to increase COVID vaccination rates in Chicago's House Ball community. Addresses the intersections of race, gender, and health. Also discusses the history of and reasons for distrust of the medical system among many members of the Black community
- The Weight of Being Black in AmericaWhat life looks like when you are judged solely by the color of your skin.
- What is Race? by Whit TaylorThis webcomic discusses the history, science, and social aspects of what we refer to as "race."
- Your Black FriendAn award-winning comic from your black friend to you about race, racism, friendship, and alienation. Inspired by Frantz Fanon’s White Skin, Black Masks.