Graphic Medicine: Graphic medicine titles at UCSF

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She lost her left breast, her job, and her guy. She does not know it yet, but this is the best day of her life. An inspiring and surprisingly comedic tale of loss and acceptance told largely through silent sequential narrative, About Betty's Boob is a seminal work from master storytellers Véro Cazot and Julie Rocheleau.

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Alice has Alzheimer's, and while she can remember all the songs from The Music Man, she can no longer attend to the basics of caring for herself. Alice moves to live with her daughter, Dana, in Vermont, and the story begins. Aliceheimer's is a series of illustrated vignettes, daily glimpses into their world with Alzheimer's. In drawing Alice, Walrath literally enrobes her with cut-up pages from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. She weaves elements from Lewis Carroll's classic throughout her text, using evocative phrases from the novel to introduce the vignettes.

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A coming-of-age middle-grade graphic novel featuring a girl with severe allergies who just wants to find the perfect pet. With illustrations by Michelle Mee Nutter, Megan Wagner Lloyd draws on her own experiences with allergies to tell a heartfelt story of family, friendship, and finding a place to belong.

Ebook
A graphic memoir about Bechdel's troubled relationship with her distant, unhappy mother and her experiences with psychoanalysis, with particular reference to the work of Donald Winnicott.

Ebook
Nicola Streeten's little boy, Billy, was two years old when he died following heart surgery for problems diagnosed only 10 days earlier. 13 years later, able to finally revisit a diary written at the time, Streeten began translating her notes into a graphic novel. The result, a gut-wrenchingly sad retrospective reflection from a 'healed' perspective, is an unforgettable portrayal of human responses to trauma.

Ebook
In 1976, Ben Martini was diagnosed with schizophrenia. A decade later, his brother Olivier was told he had the same disease. For the past thirty years the Martini family has struggled to comprehend and cope with a devastating illness, frustrated by a health care system lacking in resources and empathy, the imperfect science of medication, and the strain of mental illness on familial relationships.

Ebook
Visionary artist and New York Times bestselling author Kim Krans returns with a decadently illustrated and incredibly raw graphic memoir that chronicles her multi-layered search for truth and recovery from an eating disorder and infertility in the throes of a health and wellness-obsessed culture, touching on the healing potentials of creativity and spirituality.

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A graphic memoir in which Swiss comic artist Frederick Peeters chronicles his relationship with his HIV positive girlfriend and her young son, who also has the disease.

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A young man has a horrible motorcycle accident. He wakes up in the hospital to discover that one of his arms has been amputated. Then a portrait on the wall of his hospital room begins to speak to him. The subject of the painting introduces himself as Ambroise Paré, the French barber-surgeon who revolutionized the art of amputation. From this wonderfully absurd premise, the two begin an imaginary conversation that takes them through a sweeping history of surgical amputation, from the Stone Age to the Space Age. Unencumbered by pathos or didacticism, this graphic novel explores the world of amputation, revealing fascinating details about famous amputees throughout history, the invention of the tourniquet, phantom limb syndrome, types of prostheses, and transhumanist technologies.

Ebook and Print
Celebrates the final years of the author's aging parents' lives through cartoons, family photos, and documents that reflect the author's struggles with caregiver challenges.

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A cartoonist examines her experience with breast cancer in an irreverent and humorous graphic memoir.

Ebook
Marchetto tells the story of her 11-month, ultimately triumphant, bout with breast cancer--from diagnosis to cure and every challenging step in between. This graphic memoir is a portrait of one woman's supercharged life in Manhattan and a wonderful love story.

Ebook
A deeply moving tragicomic graphic memoir about a single woman's efforts to conceive in her forties. Beautifully illustrated by Christache, Catalogue Baby is one woman's story of tragedy and beating the odds, and is a resource for all women and couples who are trying to conceive. Catalogue Baby is a compassionate portrait of fertility and infertility that hasn't been seen before.

Ebook
The narrative follows Cristina Durán and Miguel Giner Bou as they rebuild and reinvent themselves after their daughter Laia is born with cerebral palsy. Hospitals, rehabilitation centers, and doctors become part of their daily routine. There is one chance in a thousand that Laia will pull through ― and they hold on to that chance with tremendous strength and indomitable joy. Years later, with the same courage and determination, Cristina and Miguel embark on the arduous process of adopting their second daughter, Selam, from Ethiopia.

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Dealing with pregnancy, child-rearing, art-making, mental illness, and an MS diagnosis, the parts of Chlorine Gardens’ sum sound heavy, but Keiler Roberts’ gift is the deft drollness in which she presents life’s darker moments. She doesn’t whistle past graveyards, but rather finds the punch line in the pitiful.

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Tyler Feder had just white-knuckled her way through her first year of college when her super cool mom was diagnosed with late-stage cancer. Now, with a decade of grief and nervous laughter under her belt, Tyler shares the story of that gut-wrenching, heart-pounding, extremely awkward time in her life—from her mom’s first oncology appointment to her funeral through the beginning of facing reality as a motherless daughter. She shares the sting of loss that never goes away, the uncomfortable post-death firsts, and the deep-down, hard-to-talk-about feelings of the grieving process.

Ebook
In this intimate and moving graphic memoir, Teresa Wong writes and illustrates the story of her struggle with postnatal depression in the form of a letter to her daughter Scarlet. Equal parts heartbreaking and funny, Dear Scarlet perfectly captures the quiet desperation of those suffering from PPD and the profound feelings of inadequacy and loss.

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In this collection of letters, drawings, and photos, Anders Nilsen chronicles a six-year relationship and the illness that brought it to an end. Don't Go Where I Can't Follow is an eloquent appreciation of the time the author shared with his fiancée, Cheryl Weaver. The story is told using artifacts of the couple's life together, including early love notes, simple and poetic postcards, tales of their travels in written and comics form, journal entries, and drawings done in the hospital in her final days. Don't Go Where I Can't Follow is a deeply personal romance, and a universal reminder of our mortality and the significance of the relationships we build.

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In this deft, honest work, writer-illustrator Penfold documents how she traveled from successful businesswoman to abused wife and back again. An extraordinary visual testimony, Dragonslippers presents the many warning signs of abuse and offers a frank examination of the psychology of both abusers and victims. Above all, this is the story of a woman who fights for and finds the strength to break free.

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Part memoir, part medical cautionary tale, Dumb tells the story of how an urban twentysomething copes with the everyday challenges that come with voicelessness. Webber adroitly uses the comics medium to convey the practical hurdles she faced as well as the fear and dread that accompanied her increasingly lonely journey to regain her life.

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When Susan MacLeod accompanied her 90-year-old mother through a labyrinthine long-term care system, it was a nine-year journey navigating a government within a heart in a system without compassion. She found herself involuntarily placed at the pivot point between her frail, elderly mother's need for love and companionship, the system's inability to deliver, and her brother's indifference. She had also spent three years as a government spokesperson enthusiastically defending the very system she now experienced as brutally cold.

Ebook
In this funny, poignant graphic novel memoir, author/illustrator Cece Bell chronicles her hearing loss at a young age and her subsequent experiences with the Phonic Ear, a very powerful--and very awkward--hearing aid. The Phonic Ear gives Cece the ability to hear--sometimes things she shouldn't--but also isolates her from her classmates. She really just wants to fit in and find a true friend, someone who appreciates her as she is. After some trouble, she is finally able to harness the power of the Phonic Ear and become "El Deafo, Listener for All." And more importantly, declare a place for herself in the world and find the friend she's longed for.

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David B.'s family life changed abruptly when his big brother Jean-Christophe was struck with epilepsy at age eleven. In search of a cure, their parents dragged the family to acupuncturists and magnetic therapists, to mediums and macrobiotic communes, but every new cure ended in disappointment. Angry at his brother for "abandoning" him and at all the quacks who offered them false hope, the author learned to cope by drawing fantastically elaborate battle scenes, as well as reliving his grandfathers' experiences in both World Wars through flashbacks. An honest and horrifying portrait of the disease and of the pain and fear it sowed in the family, this graphic autobiography is also a moving depiction of one family's intricate history.

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A graphic memoir and visual exploration of the stigma-inducing health issues of miscarriage, childlessness, and chronic medical conditions.

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It is spring 2012 and 40,000 people have died since the start of the Syrian Arab Spring. In the wake of this, Yasmine has set up a clandestine hospital in the north of the country. Her town is controlled by Assad's brutal regime, but is relatively stable. However, as the months pass, the situation becomes increasingly complex and violent. Told in stark, beautiful black-and-white imagery, Freedom Hospital illuminates a complicated situation with gut-wrenching detail and very dark humor.

Ebook
Alison Bechdel's groundbreaking, bestselling graphic memoir that charts her fraught relationship with her late father. Distant and exacting, Bruce Bechdel was an English teacher and director of the town funeral home, which Alison and her family referred to as the "Fun Home." It was not until college that Alison, who had recently come out as a lesbian, discovered that her father was also gay. A few weeks after this revelation, he was dead, leaving a legacy of mystery for his daughter to resolve.

Ebook
Maia’s intensely cathartic autobiography charts eir journey of self-identity, which includes the mortification and confusion of adolescent crushes, grappling with how to come out to family and society, bonding with friends over erotic gay fanfiction, and facing the trauma and fundamental violation of pap smears. Started as a way to explain to eir family what it means to be nonbinary and asexual, Gender Queer is more than a personal story: it is a useful and touching guide on gender identity—what it means and how to think about it—for advocates, friends, and humans everywhere.

Ebook
The powerful, unforgettable graphic memoir from Jarrett Krosoczka about growing up with a drug-addicted mother, a missing father, and two unforgettably opinionated grandparents. Hey, Kiddo is a profoundly important memoir about growing up in a family grappling with addiction, and finding the art that helps you survive.

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A memoir, in graphic novel format, of the author's emotions and the challenges and decisions she faces in raising a child with Down syndrome.

Ebook
The Hospital Suite is a landmark work by the celebrated cartoonist and small-press legend John Porcellino -- an autobiographical collection detailing his struggles with illness in the 1990s and early 2000s. In 1997, John began to have severe stomach pain. He soon found out he needed emergency surgery to remove a benign tumor from his small intestine. In the wake of the surgery, he had numerous health complications that led to a flare-up of his preexisting tendencies toward anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder. The Hospital Suite is Porcellino's response to these experiences.

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Brave, witty and empowering, this graphic memoir follows Rebecca as she navigates her asexual identity and mental health in a world obsessed with sex. From school to work to relationships, this book offers an unparalleled insight into asexuality.

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Sheila Alexander remembers the days she was afraid she would get pregnant before she was ready. But when she and her husband were ready to have a baby, the process did not go as smoothly as they hoped. After more than one year of trying to have a baby, the couple decided it was time to try invitro fertilization treatments. In IF: A Memoir of Infertility Treatment, Alexander shares her story about the lonely road to pregnancy. With a humorous outlook, she tells about the emotional roller coaster of feelings, the physical issues endured, and the joy she felt at finally becoming pregnant.

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There are many different breeds of Black Dog affecting millions of people from all walks of life. The Black Dog is an equal opportunity mongrel. It was Winston Churchill who popularized the phrase Black Dog to describe the bouts of depression he experienced for much of his life. Matthew Johnstone, a sufferer himself, has written and illustrated this moving and uplifting insight into what it is like to have a Black Dog as a companion and how he learned to tame it and bring it to heel.

Ebook
I Know You Rider is Leslie Stein's rumination on the many complex questions surrounding the decision to reproduce. Instead of focusing on trauma, I Know You Rider is a story about unpredictability, change, and adaptability, adding a much-needed new perspective to a topic often avoided or discussed through a black-and-white lens. People are ever changing, contradicting themselves, and having to deal with unforeseen circumstances: Stein holds this human condition with grace and humor, as she embraces the cosmic choreography and keeps walking, open to what life blows her way.

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Translated for the very first time in English, Invisible Differences is the deeply moving and intimate story of what it's like to live day to day with Asperger Syndrome.

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From unsuccessful attempts to repeated failures, the two newlyweds face a menacing foe: sterility. Together, they embark on the confusing journey that is in vitro fertilization. Haunted by the hyperbole of WebMD and the guilt of infertility, Guillaume experiences the daily embarrassment of sperm donations, tests with dreaded results and endless consultations. With realistic, self-effacing charm, William Roy humbly and accurately shares a deeply human experience that is propelled by unshakable hope.

Ebook
Her whole life, Lucy Knisley wanted to be a mother. But when it was finally the perfect time, conceiving turned out to be harder than anything she'd ever attempted. Fertility problems were followed by miscarriages, and her eventual successful pregnancy plagued by health issues, up to a dramatic, near-death experience during labor and delivery. This moving, hilarious, and surprisingly informative memoir not only follows Lucy's personal transition into motherhood but also illustrates the history and science of reproductive health from all angles, including curious facts and inspiring (and notorious) figures in medicine and midwifery.

Ebook
At the age of twenty-five, Kimiko Tobimatsu was a young, queer, mixed-race woman with no history of health problems whose world was turned upside down when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. In an instant, she became immersed in a new and complicated life of endless appointments, evaluations, and treatments, and difficult conversations with her partner and parents.

Ebook
Last Things is the true and intensely personal story of how one woman coped with the devastating effects of ALS in her family. Using her trademark mix of words and pictures to sharp effect, Marissa Moss presents the story of how she, her husband, and her three young sons struggled to maintain their sense of selves and wholeness as a family and how they continued on with everyday life when the earth shifted beneath their feet.

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Through drawings, paintings, and poetic, prayerful affirmations grounded firmly in the Jewish experience, the author offers a creative response to her mother's final illness and death.

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Lighter Than My Shadow is a hand-drawn story of struggle and recovery, a trip into the black heart of eating disorders, an exposure of those who are so weak that they prey on the weak, and an inspiration to anybody who believes in the human power to endure and to eventually find happiness.

Ebook
As young girls in Cairo, Anna and Layla strike up an unlikely friendship that crosses class, cultural, and religious divides. Years later, Anna learns that she may carry the hereditary cancer gene responsible for her mother's death. Meanwhile, Layla's family is faced with a difficult decision about kidney transplantation. Their friendship is put to the test when these medical crises reveal stark differences in their perspectives until revolutionary unrest in Egypt changes their lives forever.

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As beautifully illustrated as it is touching, this second book from Matthew Johnstone, author of I Had a Black Dog, is written for those who care for those suffering from depression - friends, family members, colleagues, and even therapists. Using wonderful illustrations and the image of Churchill's infamous 'black dog', Matthew and his wife Ainsley offer a moving, inspirational and often humorous portrait of life with depression - not only for those suffering from it themselves, but for those close to them.

Ebook
Shortly before her thirtieth birthday, Ellen Forney was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Flagrantly manic but terrified that medications would cause her to lose her creativity and livelihood, she began a years-long struggle to find mental stability without losing herself or her passion. Searching to make sense of the popular concept of the "crazy artist," Ellen found inspiration from the lives and work of other artist and writers who suffered from mood disorders, including Vincent van Gogh, Georgia O'Keeffe, William Styron, and Sylvia Plath.

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Set in a generic Fredericton suburb called Skyline Acres, this is the fictional biography of Martin Peters, a teenager with type 1 diabetes. The coming of age story revolves around Martin's relationship with his on-again off-again high school girlfriend, and how, desperate to fit in, he begins neglecting his health. The twisting narrative follows his deteriorating condition until, eventually, he finds himself fighting for his life in the hospital.

Ebook
An honest, unflinching, and sometimes humorous look at the practical and emotional effect that serious illness can have on patients and their families, Mom's Cancer is a story of hope--uniquely told in words and illustrations. Brian Fies is a freelance journalist whose mother was diagnosed with lung cancer. As he and his two sisters struggled with the effects of her illness and her ongoing recovery from treatment, Brian processed the experience in his journal, which took the form of words and pictures.

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Equally humorous and horrific, Monsters explores the physical and emotional traumas of learning to live, and love again, with herpes.

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Keiler Roberts mines the passing moments of family life to deliver an affecting and funny account of what it means to simultaneously exist as a mother, daughter, wife, and artist. Drawn in an unassuming yet charming staccato that mimics the awkward rhythm of life, no one's foibles are left unspared, most often the author's own. In My Begging Chart, her most encompassing work yet, Keiler meditates on routine and stillness. The vignettes of her everyday life exude immense presence, making her comics thoroughly relatable and reflective of our all-too-human lives as they unfold with humour, sadness, and relieving joy. Her MS diagnosis lingers in the background, never taking center stage. In transporting these stories onto paper, Keiler observes, and at times relishes, a fleeting present.

Ebook
Emma Ahlqvist's graphic memoir about the birth and early moments of raising her first child is a wry and resonant portrayal of both the challenges and excitement of pregnancy, birth, breastfeeding, and embracing the experience of motherhood. Told through black-and-white drawings and short, frank captions, Ahlqvist considers everything from lactation woes to anxieties about late-stage capitalism and global warming, with drawings centered on the gendered division of labor, her efforts to maintain a professional and artistic life after having a baby, and the genuine rewards of bringing a child into the world.

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How does one deal with a diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease at the age of forty-three? My Degeneration, by former Anchorage Daily News staff cartoonist Peter Dunlap-Shohl, answers the question with humor and passion, recounting the author’s attempt to come to grips with the “malicious whimsy” of this chronic, progressive, and disabling disease. This graphic novel tracks Dunlap-Shohl’s journey through depression, the worsening symptoms of the disease, the juggling of medications and their side effects, the impact on relations with family and community, and the raft of mental and physical changes wrought by the malady.

Ebook
A poignant look at one woman's fight with depression, which is by turns funny, tender, heart-breaking and uplifting and will resonate with all who have been affected by depression. Through expressively scrawled drawings and commentary, Elizabeth Swados gives the reader an intimate glance into the illness that controlled her life. She discusses the strained relationships, the side effects of anti-depressants and the everyday difficulty of getting out of bed and keeping going.

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February 2002. Mio Matsumoto, a Japanese student at the Royal College of Art in London, finds what she thinks is an ulcer on her tongue. In July she decides that she ought to have it looked at. When her dentist recommends a biopsy, Mio, scared, decides to return to Japan. There she is diagnosed with cancer. My Diary is Mio Matsumoto's brilliantly drawn diary of the five months she spends in treatment. In it she writes about - and illustrates - her fears, her feelings, her darkest moments, as well as brilliantly observed and often painfully funny scenes from hospital life - the boredom, the food, the enemas, the other patients, the doctor she has a crush on...

Ebook
The follow-up to the critically acclaimed autobiographical comics collection Super Late Bloomer, documenting transgender artist Julia Kaye’s life post-transition. My Life in Transition is a story that’s not often told about trans lives: what happens beyond the early days of transition. Both deeply personal and widely relatable, this collection illustrates six months of Julia's life as an out trans woman—about the beauty and pain of love and heartbreak, struggling to find support from bio family and the importance of chosen family, moments of dysphoria and misgendering, learning to lean on friends in times of need, and finding peace in the fact that life keeps moving forward.

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Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder. It is not a phase, a fad, or a choice. It is a debilitating illness, manifested in a distorted relationship with food, but which actually has more to do with issues of control. It is often a puzzle for doctors, therapists, parents, and friends. And so those who suffer from it are belittled, or tragically misunderstood, not only by society but by the healthcare system meant to treat it. Nervosa is a no-holds-barred, richly textured portrait of one young woman’s experience. In her vividly imagined retelling, Hayley Gold lays bare a callous medical system seemingly disinterested in the very patients it is supposed to treat. And traces how her own life was irrevocably damaged by both the system and her own disorder. With brutal honesty and witty sarcastic humor, Gold offers a remarkably candid exploration of the search for hope in the darkness.

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In 2009, Tessa Brunton experienced the first symptoms of myalgic encephalomyelitis (also known as chronic fatigue syndrome). She spent much of the next eight years unwell, in a medical holding pattern, housebound and often alone. In 2017, she found a strategy that helped reduce her symptoms, and soon began creating the first installments of a graphic memoir. Notes from a Sickbed collects previously released and brand-new, unseen comics that recall her experiences with honesty, a pointed wit, and a lively visual imagination.

Ebook
Cartoonist Sina Grace returns with another chapter in his growing library of reflective memoir, producing his most compelling and strongest tale to date. Chronicling a year of heartbreaks, writer’s block, career highs, emotional lows, and the emergence of a mystery illness, Nothing Lasts Forever is Grace’s unflinching exploration of how to pick up the pieces and find hope when absolutely everything falls apart.

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With subtlety and sensitivity, this powerful graphic novel draws the reader into the experience of trauma and dissociation caused by sexual violence. It reveals the intrusive traumatic memories and distress experienced by a victim of childhood sexual exploitation in her adulthood and follows the process of coming to terms with her past through therapy and art. Positive and hopeful at its heart, it demonstrates her ability to be a good parent irrespective of mental health struggles and explores the importance of relationships with people in the present.

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It was they year of Desert Storm that Harvey Pekar and his wife, Joyce Brabner, discovered Harvey had cancer. Pekar, a man who has made a profession of chronicling the Kafkaesque absurdities of an ordinary life (if any life is ordinary) suddenly found himself incapacitated. But he had a better-than-average chance to beat cancer and he took it -- kicking, screaming, and complaining all the way. Pekar and Brabner draw on this and other trials to paint a portrait of a man beset with fears -- real and imagined -- who survives.

Ebook
A triumph of graphic memoir, Parenthesis narrates the author's experience with tumor-related epilepsy--losing herself, and finding herself again. Julie is barely out of her teens when a tumor begins pressing on her brain, ushering in a new world of seizures, memory gaps, and loss of self. Suddenly, the sentence of her normal life has been interrupted by the opening of a parenthesis that may never close. Based on the real experiences of cartoonist lodie Durand, Parenthesis is a gripping testament of struggle, fragility, acceptance, and transformation.

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Pedro Zamora changed lives. When the HIV-positive AIDS educator appeared on MTV's The Real World: San Francisco, he taught millions of viewers about being gay and living with AIDS. Pedro's roommate on the show was Judd Winick, who created Pedro and Me to honor Pedro Zamora, his friend and teacher and an unforgettable human being.

Ebook
Written and illustrated by A.K. Summers, and based on her own pregnancy, Pregnant Butch strives to depict the increasingly common, but still underrepresented experience of queer pregnancy with humor and complexity—from the question of whether suspenders count as legitimate maternity wear to the strains created by different views of pregnancy within a couple and finally to a culturally critical and compassionate interrogation of gender in pregnancy.

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A moving, often very funny graphic memoir about what it is like to grow up with an illness that no one can diagnose. When the headaches started, Sarah Lippett would stand alone on a different side of the playground from the other children. When she started to drag one of her legs, her parents took her to hospital, and so began the visits to many different doctors, each one more bewildered by her illness than the last. But although Sarah's parents often despaired of the stream of appointments and no cure, they never showed it and she grew up in the midst of a boisterous, loving family and found good friends at last. Finally, when Sarah turned sixteen, she was admitted to Great Ormond Street Hospital where the doctors diagnosed her with the rare disease, Moyamoya. The book ends with Sarah waking up after brain surgery.

Ebook
Rock Steady: Brilliant Advice From My Bipolar Life is the eagerly awaited sequel/companion book to Forney's 2012 best-selling graphic memoir, Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo, and Me. Whereas Marbles was a memoir about her bipolar disorder, Rock Steady turns the focus outward, offering a self-help survival guide of tips, tricks and tools by someone who has been through it all and come through stronger for it.

Ebook
When Rick and Emily's infant son Ronan is diagnosed with Tay-Sachs, an incurable neurological disorder, they are faced with the practical and emotional hurdles of parenting and loving their son—despite the shadow of inevitable loss. Rick Louis narrates this original graphic memoir, with illustrator Lara Antal translating the space that Ronan occupies before, during, and after his life, using flights of fancy and imagination to express the bizarre, heartbreaking, and sometimes even silly reality of human beings suddenly trapped in an impossible situation.

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This book is the product of Kriota’s artists residency at the New York Academy of Medicine Library. It includes a graphic memoir, images of embroidery she made based on historical medical illustrations, and notes and citations of her research from the Academy’s Historical Collection. Kriota, an embroiderer, goes to the park with her doctor-friend Mollie for a lesson about surgery and suturing techniques. As they wound and sew up fruit, they 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. History is full of love, suffering, service, and cruelty, sometimes all coming from the same source. Kriota’s knowledge of embroidery helps her understand the legacy of medical research.

Ebook
Raina just wants to be a normal sixth grader. But one night after Girl Scouts she trips and falls, severely injuring her two front teeth. What follows is a long and frustrating journey with on-again, off-again braces, surgery, embarrassing headgear, and even a retainer with fake teeth attached.

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Joyce Farmer's memoir chronicles the decline of the author's parents' health, their relationship with one another and with their daughter, and how they cope with the day-to-day emotional fragility of the most taxing time of their lives.

Ebook
This exquisite graphic novel memoir by a transgender artist, explores the concept of identity by inviting the reader to view the author moving through life as she would have us see her, that is, as she sees herself. Framed with a candid autobiographical narrative, this book gives us the opportunity to enter into the author's daily life and explore her thoughts on themes of gender and sexuality, memory and urbanism, love and loss.

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Born with severe spina bifida, doctors considered Al Davison a hopeless case, condemned to the 'spiral cage' of his own DNA. In Al's own words and pictures, this book movingly portrays his struggle to overcome 'disability' and the prejudice that surrounds it.

Ebook
A visually gripping graphic memoir, this book delivers the gritty details of a mother, a newborn, and a five-month stay in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). A routine prenatal exam reveals a dangerous problem and the first-time parents find themselves thrust into a world of close calls, sleepless nights, and psychological crisis.

Ebook
The author recounts in graphic novel format his troubled childhood with a radiologist father who subjected him to repeated x-rays and a withholding and tormented mother, an environment he fled at the age of sixteen in the hopes of becoming an artist.

Ebook
Instead of a traditional written diary, Julia Kaye has always turned to art as a means of self-reflection. So when she began her gender transition in 2016, she decided to use her popular webcomic, Up and Out, to process her journey and help others with similar struggles realize they weren't alone. Julia's poignant, relatable comics honestly depict her personal ups and downs while dealing with the various issues involved in transitioning--from struggling with self-acceptance and challenging societal expectations, to moments of self-love and joy. Super Late Bloomer both educates and inspires, as Julia faces her difficulties head-on and commits to being wholly, authentically who she was always meant to be.

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This is a touching, illustrated story of Tony's father and how dementia slowly took him away from his family. The title is a reference to his last words to his son - on a day when Tony had spent the day in the care home with no sign of recognition. The book is framed as a chat between Tony and his dad, who fades away through the last few pages of the book.

Ebook
Bringing together the voices of males and females of all ages, the stories in this collective graphic memoir reflect real life experiences of sexual abuse, violence and harassment. Each experience is brought to life by Maria Stoian's exceptional artwork. Her unique and varied styles powerfully reflect the tone and mood of the different stories and in just a few pages express the complex emotions felt by victims of sexual abuse. Covering acts such as sexual violence, public sexual harassment, domestic abuse and child abuse, this is a reminder for survivors that they are not alone and a call for all of us to take action. The stories clearly show that assault of any type is not an honor bestowed on anyone. It is not a compliment.

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In this graphic memoir, the author reveals how Alzheimer's disease transformed her mother, and her family, forever. In spare black-and-white drawings accompanied by prose, the author shares her family's journey through a harrowing range of emotions - shock, denial, hope, anger, frustration - all the while learning to cope, and managing to find moments of happiness. This book confronts the complexity of Alzheimer's disease, and gradually opens a knot of moments, memories, and dreams to reveal a bond between a mother and a daughter that will never come apart.

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In this graphic novel, the author documents his reconciliation with his father, dying of emphysema, as he cares for him in hospice.

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A boldly drawn, unforgettable memoir about trauma and the barriers to gender affirming health care. The Third Person is a riveting memoir from newcomer Emma Grove. Drawn in thick, emotive lines, with the refined style of a comics vet, Grove has created a singular, gripping depiction of the intersection of identities and trauma. The Third Person is a testament to the importance of having the space to heal and live authentically.

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A woman's experiences, in graphic novel format, with Charles Bonnet syndrome, hallucinations brought on by loss of vision.

Ebook
Conrad and Joanne met in their final year of university and have been virtually inseparable since then. For a while, it felt like they had all the time in the world. Yet now, when they are finally ready to have kids, they find that getting pregnant isn't always so easy. Ahead of them lies a difficult, expensive, and emotional journey into the world of assisted fertility, where each "successful" implantation is followed by a two-week wait to see if the pregnancy takes. Join Joanne and Conrad, their friends, their family, their coworkers, and a stream of expert medical practitioners as they experience the highs and the lows, the tears and the laughter in this sensitive but unflinching portrayal of the hope and heartbreak offered to so many by modern medicine.

Ebook
This "charming and addictively accessible introduction to neuroscience" (Steven Pinker) takes us on a highly entertaining tour through the wonders and mysteries of the human brain--from a renowned husband-and-wife team of cognitive neuroscientists. Professors and husband-and-wife team Uta and Chris Frith have pioneered major studies of brain disorders throughout their nearly fifty-year career. Here, in this "pleasing mix of wonder, genial humor, and humility" (Kirkus Reviews, starred review), they tell the compelling story of the birth of neuroscience and their paradigm-shifting discoveries across areas as wide-ranging as autism and schizophrenia research, and new frontiers of social cognition including diversity, prejudice, confidence, collaboration, and empathy.

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In Tyranny, brisk, spare text and illustrations that deal head-on with anorexia propel the reader along on Anna’s journey as she falls prey to the eating disorder, personified as her tormentor, Tyranny. Brilliantly and realistically presented, Tyranny is a must-read for anyone looking for a better understanding of eating disorders and for everyone looking for a compelling page-turner that is truly a story of triumph and hope.

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In this beautifully illustrated graphic novel, artist Ephameron chronicles her father's losing battle with early-onset primary progressive aphasia (PPA)--a rare form of dementia that advanced slowly and left him unable to speak or to coordinate his thoughts and actions. A moving sequence of paper collage illustrations layered under text depicts Ephameron's father's decline and her family's experience of caring for him.

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Meet Dr. Iwan James: cyclist, doctor, would-be lover, former heavy metal fan, and, above all, human being. Weighed down by his responsibilities--from diagnosing personality disorders to deciding who can hold a gun license--he doubts his ability to make decisions about the lives of others when he may need more than a little help himself. Cartoonist and doctor Ian Williams introduces us to Iwan's troubled life as all humanity, it seems, passes through his surgery doors.

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Bestselling author Philippa Perry turns her keen insights to the power of therapy. This compelling study of psychotherapy in the form of a graphic novel vividly explores a year's therapy sessions as a search for understanding and truth. Beautifully illustrated by Flo Perry and accompanied by succinct and illuminating footnotes, this book offers a witty and thought-provoking exploration of the therapeutic journey, considering a range of skills, insights and techniques along the way.

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Documents in graphic novel format the experiences of Syrian refugees housed in camps in Iraqi Kurdistan, Greece, France, Germany, Switzerland, and England. Based on interviews and photographs by the author during his work as Communication Officer for the organization Doctors Without Borders.

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This hilarious, warts-and-all follow-up to Ian Williams's graphic novel, The Bad Doctor, is an entertainingly realistic look at rural medicine and the unique personalities it attracts, from patients with genital tattoos of cartoon characters to doctors who find creative ways to color on either side of the ethical lines. Via a cast of relatable and sometimes shocking characters, Williams explores the politics and pitfalls of a small-town practice, the frustration of dealing with demanding and misguided patients, the double standards facing female medical practitioners, and current medical issues such as clinic privatization and hardening government attitudes towards drugs and addiction, all with his wonderfully sly sense of humor.

Ebook
Brent Dulak doesn't want to go to Afghanistan. Haunted by the memories of his two tours in Iraq and burnt out on soldiering, he wants nothing more than to engage in self-destructive behavior. He's a U.S. Army medic who was recently promoted to sergeant, in charge of a team of soldiers whose job it will be to patch up the wounded at a remote outpost as the Americans prepare to turn Kandahar Province over to the Afghan forces. Brutally honest and darkly funny, Machete Squad is the story of a soldier trying to keep people alive as America's longest war rages all around him. He must look out for the welfare of his men and their patients even as he doubts his own abilities--and at times his sanity.

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Working class nurse. Mother of three. Labor organizer. Margaret Sanger—best known as the pioneer of birth control—was revolutionary in more ways than one. In Sabrina Jones’s graphic novel Our Lady of Birth Control, the author illustrates the incredible life of Margaret Sanger (1879-1966), framing the biography with her personal experiences of coming of age at the height of the sexual revolution.

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In 1986, Afghanistan was torn apart by a war with the Soviet Union. This graphic novel/photo-journal is a record of one reporter's arduous and dangerous journey through Afghanistan accompanying the Doctors Without Borders. Didier Lefèvre’s photography, paired with the art of Emmanuel Guibert, tells the powerful story of a mission undertaken by men and women dedicated to mending the wounds of war.

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Psychiatric Tales draws on Darryl Cunningham's time working in a psychiatric ward to give a reasoned and sympathetic look into the world of mental illness. In each chapter, Cunningham explores a different mental health problem, using evocative imagery to describe the experience of mental illness, both from the point of view of those beset by illness and their friends and relatives. As Cunningham reveals this human experience, he also shows how society's perceptions of and reactions to mental illness perpetuate needless stigma.

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Maxwell Fox didn't know what he would witness in France. America had only been in the Great War since April 2, 1917. Nothing could have prepared him for the horrors that awaited him and the rest of the men of the 4th Infantry "Ivy" Division. As the Meuse-Argonne Offensive raged on, Maxwell became assigned to a unit of stretcher bearers, men who were tasked with running into harm's way to rescue their fallen brethren from the clutches of death. This wouldn't be an easy job, but with Graham, Frank, and Ralph by his side, Maxwell had to rely on his team and hope to survive. A dark and honest look at the bond of brotherhood during war, The Stretcher Bearers tells the unforgettable tale of a young soldier trying to save the lives of wounded soldiers and keep the men he'd formed a bond with alive. But in the "war to end all wars," no one was safe

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In 1994, at the height of the AIDS epidemic in the United States, MK Czerwiec took her first nursing job, at Illinois Masonic Medical Center in Chicago, as part of the caregiving staff of HIV/AIDS Care Unit 371. Taking Turns pulls back the curtain on life in the ward. A shining example of excellence in the treatment and care of patients, Unit 371 was a community for thousands of patients and families affected by HIV and AIDS and the people who cared for them. This graphic novel combines Czerwiec’s memories with the oral histories of patients, family members, and staff. It depicts life and death in the ward, the ways the unit affected and informed those who passed through it, and how many look back on their time there today.

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An exploration, in graphic novel form, of the French psychiatric clinic La Chesnaie. Illustrates the supportive environment where patients and caregivers participate equally in the day-to-day operations of the clinic.

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Jean is a medical student who’s about to start her final residency rotation in gynecology. But she’d much rather practice surgery than listen to simpering women moan about their problems all day. Plus, this department is headed by the notorious Dr. Karma, renowned throughout the hospital for his stubborn mindset and unorthodox practices. However, in her first week, Jean begins to realize that Dr. Karma’s reputation isn’t fully accurate, and, perhaps, the complexities of women’s stories are worth listening to and respecting.

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Be Gay, Do Comics is filled with dozens of comics about LGBTQIA experiences, ranging from personal stories to queer history to cutting satire about pronoun panic and brands desperate to co-opt pride. Brimming with resilience, inspiration, and humor, an incredible lineup of top indie cartoonists takes you from the American Revolution through Stonewall to today's fights for equality and representation. Featuring more than 30 cartoonists including Hazel Newlevant, Joey Alison Sayers, Maia Kobabe, Matt Lubchansky, Breena Nuñez, Sasha Velour, Shing Yin Khor, Levi Hastings, Mady G, Bianca Xunise, Kazimir Lee, and many, many more.

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A collection of original comics engaging fundamental issues in medical ethics, including patient autonomy, informed consent, unconscious bias, mandated reporting of suspected abuse, confidentiality, medical mistakes, surrogate decision-making, and futility.

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Comics for Choice is an anthology of comics about abortion. As this fundamental reproductive right continues to be stigmatized and jeopardized, over sixty artists and writers have created comics that boldly share their own experiences, and educate readers on the history of abortion, current political struggles, activism, and more.

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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.

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Combining scholarly essays with visual narratives and a conclusion in comics form, establishes graphic medicine as a new area of scholarship. Demonstrates that graphic medicine narratives offer patients, family members, and medical caregivers new ways to negotiate the challenges of the medical experience. Discusses comics as visual rhetoric.

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Graphic Public Health demonstrates the range and potential of comics to address topics such as immunization promotion, outbreak prevention, gun violence, opioid addiction prevention, and climate change. It features the work of acclaimed cartoonists Ellen Forney, David Lasky, and Roberta Gregory, pieces by up-and-coming artists, and comics that Meredith Li-Vollmer produced as a communications specialist for Seattle's public health department. More than a collection of cartoons, this book connects comics with fundamentals of health communication and discusses why the form can be uniquely effective for these purposes.

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A comics anthology that illustrates the complicated and multiple experiences of human reproduction and explores comics within the growing field of graphic medicine.

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Looking at Trauma: A Tool Kit for Clinicians is an easy-to-use, engaging resource designed to address the challenges health care professionals face in providing much-needed trauma psychoeducation to clients with histories of childhood trauma. This book presents twelve trauma treatment models accompanied by innovative and engaging comics. The models help clinicians provide practical information about the impacts of trauma to their clients--and support those clients in understanding and managing their distressing symptoms.

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Featuring works by comics luminaries such as Lynda Barry, Joyce Farmer, Ellen Forney, and Carol Tyler, Menopause is the perfect antidote to the simplistic, cheap-joke approach that treats menopause as a cultural taboo. This anthology challenges stereotypes with perspectives from a range of life experiences, ages, gender identities, ethnicities, and health conditions.

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The essays in this volume show how illness narratives expressed in a variety of forms--biographical essays, fictional texts, cartoons, graphic novels, and comics--reflect on and grapple with the fact that these human experiences are socially embedded and culturally shaped. This collection demonstrates what can emerge when scholars and artists interested in fiction, life-writing, and comics collaborate to explore how various media portray illness, medical treatment, and disability.

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This unique anthology combines comics with scholarship for a stunning and heart-felt inquiry into the current state of queer men's physical, mental, emotional and sexual health. With over 30 contributing artists, comics explore subjects like online dating, fat-shaming, gender dysphoria, top surgery, good consent, and overcoming adversity with the help of a friend or partner. Rainbow Reflections is, at its core, a book of self-love and self-care.

Ebook
From artist and curator Bex Ollerton comes an anthology featuring comics from thirty autistic creators about their experiences of living in a world that doesn't always understand or accept them. Sensory: Life on the Spectrum contains illustrated explorations of everything from life pre-diagnosis to tips on how to explain autism to someone who isn't autistic, to suggestions for how to soothe yourself when you're feeling overstimulated. With unique, vibrant comic-style illustrations and the emotional depth and vulnerability of memoir, this book depicts these varied experiences with the kind of insight that only those who have lived them can have.

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In 1972, underground cartoonists Joyce Farmer and Lyn Chevli produced Tits & Clits -- a funny, rowdy, raucous underground comix series about female sexuality that one reviewer described as "the ultimate in vaginal politics" -- and became the first American women ever credited with writing, drawing, and publishing their own comic books. Featuring stories about birth control, abortion, menstruation, masturbation, and more, Tits & Clits featured intimate politics which occasionally clashed with contemporaneous feminist concepts about sex and sexuality. Now, for the first time in half a century, a new generation of readers will be shocked, entertained, enlightened, and scandalized by the bold satirical cartoonists that comprised the band of sisters in Tits & Clits.

Open Access
Methadone and buprenorphine are the most-effective, most-researched medicines for treating drug addiction. However, in many countries where injection drug use drives the HIV epidemic, these medicines are largely inaccessible – or even banned outright. The Open Society Foundations developed Methadone Man and Buprenorphine Babe to help raise awareness about the glaring lack of access to these lifesaving drugs.

Open Access
This homemade book, created by a UCSF nursing school student, includes 31 illustrations that parody everything from late-night cram study sessions to overwhelming patient and doctor requests.

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A collection of dental comics.

Open Access
A comic book explanation of how AIDS is transmitted, commissioned by Hawaii's Life Foundation.

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A collection of 57 humorous cartoons inspired from the author's experience in medical school.

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A collection of medical cartoons from the British comic magazine, Punch.

Open Access
Public Health – Seattle & King County has developed a 12-page comic book on pandemic flu in multiple languages.

Open Access
Written by a UCSF nursing student and representing all 29 members of the class of 1947, this comic records the real life experiences students had during their training, both on and off duty.

Open Access
An educational comic about AIDS produced by the San Francisco AIDS Foundation.

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Published by Last Gasp, this collection was created by three of the "last underground cartoonists" of the time. Funds from the book sales went to the Shanti Project in San Francisco.