Defining Graphic Medicine: Opening Panel for the NLM Traveling Exhibit “Graphic Medicine: Ill-Conceived and Well-Drawn!”

Over the next six weeks, Countway Library will play host to the National Library of Medicine’s traveling exhibit on comics in medicine, titled Graphic Medicine: Ill-Conceived and Well-Drawn! Join us for an opening panel discussion that will help frame and explore the emergence of the field, the community, and the genre that we call graphic medicine.

Our panelists, Cathy Leamy, A. David Lewis, and Joel Christian Gill, bring a wealth of experience not only in comics creation, but in the study and teaching of comics across a range of disciplines. The panel will include a moderated discussion led by Countway librarian, Matthew Noe and audience Q & A. Registration will be required for attendance and will be open to the public. This event will be available via recording at a later date.

About the Panelists:

Joel Christian Gill, a noted cartoonist and historian, actively advocates for storytelling nationwide. He authored the Eisner Nominated graphic memoir, Fights: One Boy’s Triumph Over Violence, hailed as one of 2020’s best graphic novels by The New York Times and winner of the 2021 Cartoonist Studio Prize. Gill also penned and illustrated the acclaimed graphic novel series, Strange Fruit and Tales of The Talented Tenth, highlighting figures like Bass Reeves, Bessie Stringfield, and Robert Smalls. He adapted Dr. Ibram Kendi’s award-winning Stamped From the Beginning into a graphic novel, contributing further to the narrative against racism. Dedicated to building empathy and humanity through storytelling, Gill holds the inaugural Chair of Boston University’s CFA MFA in Visual Narrative, holding an MFA from Boston University and a BA from Roanoke College.

Cathy Leamy is a Boston-based cartoonist and health communication specialist. She is known for using humor and plain language in health education, with health comics such as What the Hell?! Why is My Doctor So Late? and Diabetes is After Your Dick! When she’s not making comics, she works in healthcare IT as a content designer and UX writer.

A. David Lewis is an Eisner Award nominee (2015) and judge (2023), as well as co-editor of both Graven Images: Religion in Comic Books and Graphic Novels and Muslim Superheroes: Comics, Islam, and Representation. A founder of library collections at both Boston University and MCPHS University, Dr. Lewis is currently program director for the MHS degree at the MCPHS University School of Arts and Sciences where his teaching and research focus on Graphic Medicine, specifically the depiction of cancer in comic books and graphic novels. In addition to serving as the inaugural co-editor of the Graphic Medicine Review journal, he is the acclaimed author of such comics as The Lone and Level Sands and The Prophet graphic novel adaptation.

Matthew Noe is Lead Collection & Knowledge Management Librarian at Harvard Medical School’s Countway Library. He also teaches as a Part-Time Instructor at the University of Kentucky, School of Information. He is most well-known for work in comics librarianship, health sciences librarianship, and in particular, graphic medicine. Matthew was the 2021-2022 President of the American Library Association’s Graphic Novels and Comics Round Table and has been the Treasurer for the Graphic Medicine International Collective since 2019. He is currently serving a six-year term on the Worcester Public Library Board of Directors. In addition to numerous book chapters on collection management and graphic medicine, Matthew is a comics reviewer for both Booklist and his Diamond Bookshelf column, Noe’s Comics Nook. You can often find him overcaffeinated, ranting about all manner of things on Twitter, or curled up with two dogs, a book, and not enough hands.

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Learn more about the NLM traveling exhibit Graphic Medicine: Ill-Conceived and Well-Drawn and other related events at countway.info/graphicmed.