Medical Comics, also known as graphic medicine, is the intersection between the medium of comics and the discourse of healthcare—this accessible format for conveying serious information has the power to create awareness and lasting change in attitudes and experiences of patients and healthcare providers.
Launched last fall, Geisel School of Medicine’s Medical Comics Workshop, a noncredit, interprofessional enrichment course, immerses students across Geisel’s professional degree programs in the process of creating medical comics giving them the practical knowledge, and critical thinking skills necessary to create a comic and convey an idea or concept that can affect real life outcomes.
Can’t draw. No worries—drawing skills are not required.
Led by Vinald Francis, a medical illustrator at Geisel with expertise in medical comics, says, “A lot of people are intimidated by the artistic aspect of this medium. But this is about becoming comfortable with artistic expression, to really understand the mechanisms behind comics: how to tell a story that is read in sequential boxes.”
Before creating comics, Francis leads students through simple drawing exercises designed to get the creative juices flowing—leading to an understanding of their potential. “These exercises focus on thinking about what you are doing rather than how. When finished, you’ve created something you didn’t think was possible,” he says.
Students also workshop their ideas, participate in group progress discussions, and produce storyboards.
Francis has co-taught medical comics workshops and presented at national and international conferences—most recently in Ireland. When he arrived at Geisel, he sensed the environment was conducive to introducing medical comics—especially with the proximity of The Center for Cartoon Studies in White River, VT.
“Medical comics are different from other comics because of the subject matter—it’s heavy and deals with points of poignancy,” he points out. “The subject matter requires careful handling.”
Chiamaka Agali MPH’26, who neither draws nor has an art background, was attracted to the course because of her innate creativity and interest in medical anthropology where she first saw and was captivated by comics and other art forms depicting mental illness within the arts. “In a presentation I made on one of the Dark Knight comics where Batman kills the Joker, I argued that he exhibited signs of psychosis throughout the comic,” she says.The drawing exercises were fun, she says, because rather than focusing on perfect depictions, they began with simple lines—straight, wavy, jagged—that Francis says are expressive. “Vinald asked us to think about our day and represent our thoughts with lines—I was surprised by the varied interpretations,” Agali says.
The urge to try a new way to express ideas led Bilqis Omoyeni Ayeni MED’29, to the course. Brimming with thoughts and ideas, Ayeni says she struggled with expressing them. “Vinald was encouraging, even though I’m not artistic and was worried about that lack of experience,” she recalls. “But he reminded us that the artwork doesn’t need to be fancy as long as it represents our thoughts.”
Ayeni learned creating a comic that represented her thoughts was more difficult than she initially thought. “When writing about something, you use words to build a world that captures the reader,” she says. “With comics, you build the world through artwork as well as words, which means the words need to be concise, even when the topic carries depth. Learning this new language of art to represent my thoughts was a good experience.”
Agali and Ayeni will submit their comics to the Annals of Internal Medicine that publishes medical comics on a wide, nationally recognized scale. “An entire section of the journal dedicated to graphic medicine and I think they both have potential to be published,” Francis says.
“I didn't think that as a student in Geisel’s MPH program, I’d submit a medical comic for publication,” Agali says. “If you have any creativity inside of you or if you have a story you want to tell that you think might get lost in how medicine traditionally tells stories about patients, take this course.”
Medical comics are an interesting way to express your thoughts, Ayeni notes. “I think if the course had more people, there would be more feedback and engagement with each other’s work. It was a fun class, and I cannot recommend it enough.”
As with all of Geisel’s enrichment courses, this one promotes interdisciplinary learning and provides an outlet for students to explore topics beyond the curriculum.
If you would like more information about the Medical Comics Workshop, contact Vinald Francis: vinald.francis@dartmouth.edu.
