When I mentioned that I wanted to do an interview to accompany my review of the graphic novel The Pervert, and thereby shine a spotlight on the graphic arts, my editor suggested I contact MK Czerwiec because she was a nurse who made comics. What I found when I went looking for her was not only all of her numerous comics—many free to read online at comicnurse.com—and her book Taking Turns: Stories from HIV/AIDS Care Unit 371, but an entire subdivision of the medical humanities.

Graphic medicine is “the intersection of the medium of comics and the discourse of healthcare,” as Czerwiec writes in Graphic Medicine Manifesto. It is also, according to Susan Merrill Squire in the same book, a “movement for change that challenges the dominant methods of scholarship in healthcare, offering a more inclusive perspective of medicine, illness, disability, caregiving, and being cared for.” Plainly put, graphic medicine is what happens when healthcare and comics get thrown together, mixed up, and spread over the page. It uses the many strengths of the comic form, including the ability to tackle taboo topics and portray stigmatized events and people, to deliver the perspective of the caregiver, the patient, the doctor, the healthcare provider. Their stories are put on the same level, erasing the hierarchy and inherent power structure of modern medicine.

Comics don’t only break down barriers on the narrative side; they also happen to be one of the best forms to deliver complicated information. Studies have shown that more information is retained and understood when delivered in comic form. Think of the emergency card in the seat back of your last flight—it’s probably a comic, and there is a reason for that.

To shed more light on the subject of graphic medicine, MK Czerwiec and I caught up over email to talk about this subgenre of the medical humanities, the form of comics, and her latest projects.

Please See Me: Graphic medicine narratives have so many uses, and one of them is the benefit that they provide to the artist of the comic. You have said that you stumbled upon comics as a reflection of your experience at work on Unit 371, specifically as a way to process the things that you have witnessed. Can you talk specifically about how comics—the words and images— helped you to communicate what happened in that moment?

MK Czerwiec: There is a practice and theory of using reflective writing to process difficult experiences, and I find that reflective drawing is also of great value. What I stumbled into in making my first comic was the realization that I could process and integrate challenging experiences by putting words and images together. Certain things can’t be put into words, so the images help slow the reflective process and do that work. That said, at times an image alone may not tell the whole story, so the text steps up. The combination is powerful. The stepwise process of comics also helps to mitigate my feelings of being overwhelmed. When I am working on a single panel I can focus on a single area of the issue, then face the next with the next panel. It deconstructs the large issue into stepwise, manageable pieces.

PSM: Another use of graphic medicine is the conveyance of educational information. You even conducted a formal study of this area. Did you find that there are specific situations or criteria where comics work best at conveying information?

MKC: Yes, I’ve thought and talked about this a lot. I think comics are excellent educational interventions when there is a great deal of information to learn, the information to be learned is very important, and the learner is under stress.

PSM: There has been a rise in the graphic medical memoir written by patients and caregivers. What have you found is the value of communicating these stories, for the patients/caregivers, the medical community, and the public at large?

MKC: One benefit to patients and caregivers from graphic memoir is to have their experience conveyed, witnessed, and preserved. These accounts provide insight into the lived experiences of illness, which can then serve as excellent teaching tools, as we are given a window into what we often don’t see. These graphic memoirs have the power to amplify the voices of patients and their caregivers. They also can serve as valuable resources for families and friends of those experiencing illness and caregiving.

PSM: Some of your comics on comicnurse.com are almost like a journal of your personal experiences, like a walk with your dog, Alice, or your love of the Bee Gees. Is this another beneficial function of graphic medicine

MKC: Yes, these are an extension of processing experiences and communicating perspectives. Fun, lighthearted, or very serious, the medium still works!

PSM: It seems like many of the narratives that are the basis of graphic medicine are nonfiction. Why do you think this is? Do you know of any fictional narratives?

MKC: Real life offers us much to process and share, especially around health issues. I think this accounts for much of the nonfiction graphic medicine.

But fictional graphic medicine absolutely exists. A very kind audience member at a recent talk sent me a copy of The Death of Captain Marvel for me to consider as part of my end-of-life care work. I think many of the narratives in graphic medicine are nonfiction because telling and witnessing real-life stories has great benefit to the teller and the reader, but that’s not to say that fiction can’t work in this arena. I think it absolutely can. Sometimes fiction can do work that nonfiction can’t. Imagining something that didn’t happen, or could happen, or serves purely as metaphor can do the same kind of healing story work that nonfiction does.

PSM: You teach comics and medicine to students. Is it a master class in the use of shading, line, and color, or is it something different?

MKC: Oh gosh no, not at all! I don’t really have those skills—I could benefit from taking a master class in shading, line, and color myself! No, my classes involve exercises aimed at empowering nondrawers to employ the basic visual language they already possess to help teach and learn about health, illness, caregiving through the accessible-but-powerful medium of comics.

PSM: What do you think the future of the form?

MKC: I’d like to believe that in the future there is a more widespread acceptance of comics as a teaching, learning, and communicating tool. I’d love to see more people drawing about their experiences, and more acceptance of comics as a legitimate publication and communication form. There is still some resistance in academia, libraries, and bookstores regarding the medium, but that is changing rapidly.

PSM: If I wanted to dip my toe into the graphic medicine genre, do you have a list of books you recommend or comics to check out?

MKC: Colleagues and I created a book called Graphic Medicine Manifesto. It serves to give you some theory and background about the use of comics in healthcare, and also excerpts a few good examples of the subgenre.

PSM: What is next for you? Are there any upcoming projects we should be on the lookout for?

MKC: In May of next year, a book I edited for Penn State University Press called Menopause: A Comic Treatment will be released. I’m super excited about this collection because we have amazing work in it and it’s a topic that has not yet been positively addressed in comic form. This book will change that.

I’m also interested in editing a collection of comics about the wide range of work that nurses do—graphic nursing. And beyond that, my next graphic memoir will be about end-of-life care, coming out, love, and my mother.

PSM: With all of these benefits, do you have any advice on how medical professionals can advocate for the inclusion of medical humanities in their workplace? Are there any resources you can direct people toward to bring graphic medicine to their community?

MKC: My colleague Alice Jaggers, a medical librarian who specializes in graphic medicine, is in the process of creating a wonderful resource focused on bringing comics into health care settings. This one, “A Graphic Medicine Toolkit,” is just what you are asking for. And there are other posts like it on her blog with more to come.

A. M. Larks is the fiction editor of Please See Me.