GRAPHIC MEDICINE SUMMIT 2025
We were thrilled to partner with the Graphic Medicine International Collective (GMIC) for a 3 day online Graphic Medicine Summit between July 18-20, 2025. This summit featured comic readings, workshops and panel discussions, as well as the GMIC Graphic Medicine Awards. Artists, publishers and attendees joined from all around the world. It was an amazing experience and for anyone who missed it, the recordings can be enjoyed right here.
Opening Comics Reading!
The opening to the Graphic Medicine Summit 2025, including comics readings from Makee, Gianna Paniagua, Maureen Burdock, and Janice Goldberg. Hosted by Tom Hart.
Maureen Burdock is a graphic novelist, creativity coach and illustrator. She is the author of Queen of Snails: A Graphic Memoir; Feminist Fables for the Twenty-First Century; and several shorter graphic narratives that have been featured in anthologies and journals. Her next book, Sleepless Planet: A Graphic Guide to Healing from Insomnia, will be released in November 2025.
Makee is the author of the autobiographical graphic novel CALL ME EMMA, which tells the story of her immigration to the US from China as a teenager. As she works to acclimate to the US, she deals with her sister's struggles and mental health breakdown.
Gianna Paniagua is a two time heart transplant recipient and graphic medicine creator. Her comics focus on experiences she’s had living with a transplant and chronic pain, with the intention of improving health literacy and promoting patience advocacy. Also a recent graduate of the Columbia Master’s narrative program, she uses all her skills collected towards completing her life’s goal of improving treatment for young adults with organ transplants.
Janice Goldberg creates humorous comics, illustrations and paintings. She is working on a graphic memoir about supporting her daughter through complex chronic illness.
More from our readers
The Graphic Medicine International Collective
(Recorded at SAW on Zoom, July 18th, 2025 as part of our Online Graphic Medicine Summit with the Graphic Medicine International Collective.)
Workshop - Graphic Medicine with Glynnis Fawkes
We were so grateful to have Glynnis Fawkes lead our free graphic medicine workshop as part of the SAW and GMIC Graphic Medicine Summit! We made comics exploring illnesses and injuries we experienced as kids.
Glynnis Fawkes is the co-author with Eric H Cline and illustrator of 1177 BC: A Graphic History of the Year Civilization Collapsed (Princeton University Press). She is also the author-illustrator of Charlotte Brontë before Jane Eyre (Little, Brown) and Persephone’s Garden (Secret Acres), among other books, and her comics have appeared on the website of The New Yorker. She has worked as an archaeological illustrator around the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean, and teaches at the Center for Cartoon Studies in Vermont.
(Recorded at SAW on Zoom, July 18th, 2025 as part of our Online Graphic Medicine Summit with the Graphic Medicine International Collective.)
Comics Reading - Young In Iran
A comic reading by young people in Iran about their experiences growing up. These comics are a selection from an upcoming anthology to be published by the Sequential Artists Workshop.
(Recorded at SAW on Zoom, July 19th, 2025 as part of our Online Graphic Medicine Summit with the Graphic Medicine International Collective.)
Panel discussion: The Significance of Evidence
What value does evidence have? When have we had not enough or the wrong evidence? How can we get better? A panel discussion and reading featuring Stepanka Jisolva, Arielle Duhaime Ross, Kathryn Martin, Victor Jeganathan, and Elly Teman.
Štěpánka Jislová is a Czech illustrator and comics artist. Born in the early 90s in Prague, the intricacies of post Soviet block Europe remain one her favorite topics to explore. She is the (co)author of eight comics albums, the latest being Heartcore, an intimate autobiography about relationships, attachments and the toxic cycles we so often call love.
Dr Victor Jeganathan is a researcher working in a department called the Psychological Insights Team in England in the County of Derbyshire. Vic is in a in dual role as a research officer, providing input to both the local Public Health Department and one of their community health services.
Elly Teman is a medical anthropologist and the author of Birthing a Mother: the Surrogate Body and the Pregnant Self (UCPress, 2010.)
Arielle Duhaime-Ross is a freelance science journalist, podcast host, comics artist, and TV host based in Portland, Oregon.
Kathryn Martin is a multi-award winning illustrator and writer. She is also Senior Lecturer in Illustration for Communication at Ravensbourne University London. Since graduating from the Royal College of Art in 2015, Kathryn’s work has been recognised in national and international illustration prizes, including the World Illustration Awards, and has also exhibited her work internationally in Europe and Asia.
More from our panelists
(Recorded at SAW on Zoom, July 19th, 2025 as part of our Online Graphic Medicine Summit with the Graphic Medicine International Collective.)
workshop: diary comics with jd lunt and e joy mehr
A simple diary comics workshop focusing on health and mental health with two fabulous practitioners of daily comics drawing, E Joy Mehr and J.D. Lunt!
E Joy is a cartoonist in Minneapolis who has been making diary comics since 2018. She created Insert Name Zine Fest and has organized multiple cartoonist retreats and live readings.
J. D. Lunt is a graduate of The Center for Cartoon Studies (CCS). In 2016, he was a cartooning resident at The Atlantic Center for the Arts, with Master Artist Jessica Abel. While studying Cartooning in Vermont, J.D. co-edited, and contributed to, When I Returned, an NEA-funded comics anthology, published by The Center for Cartoon Studies in collaboration with the White River Junction V. A. Medical Center. He also edited and wrote for a follow-up anthology, A Whole Lifetime of Firsts.
More from E Joy Mehr and JD Lunt
(Recorded at SAW on Zoom, July 19th, 2025 as part of our Online Graphic Medicine Summit with the Graphic Medicine International Collective.)
Comics Reading feat. Eric Glickman, MK Czerwiec, et al
SAW Graphic Medicine Summit 2025 comics reading featuring Eric Glickman, Carole McKee Armen, Elvis Bakaitis, MK Czerwiec, Alexandria Batchelor, and Naomi Volain. Hosted by Darlene Campbell.
Alexandria Batchelor, A.K.A. Foxee, is a full-time freelance art director based in Los Angeles, CA, specializing in comic production and illustrative design. Alexandria professionally colors for publishing giants like Penguin Random House, Dark Horse Comics, and ABRAMS Books.
Naomi Volain is a cartoonist and former high school science teacher. Her teaching inspires her to bring art and science together to communicate about cancer, plants, and scientific research.
MK Czerwiec, RN, MA is a nurse, cartoonist, educator, and co-founder of the field of Graphic Medicine. She is the creator of Taking Turns: Stories from HIV/AIDS Care Unit 371, a co-author of Graphic Medicine Manifesto, and editor of the two-time Eisner Award winning Menopause: A Comic Treatment. MK is also the comics editor for the journal Literature & Medicine. She co-manages the website, podcast, annual conferences, and online community of GraphicMedicine.org
Elvis Bakaitis is working on a graphic novel about the eccentric trans philanthropist Reed Erickson. They are a student in the Biography & Memoir MA program at CUNY Graduate Center. Elvis is a longtime queer history activist and on the board of several national LGBTQ history organizations.
Eric Glickman is a cartoonist and art educator. His debut graphic novel, "Camp Pock-a-Wocknee and the Dyn-o-mite Summer of ’77" was praised by Kirkus Reviews as "an endearing, gleefully raunchy coming-of-age tale." Eric is currently collaborating with his longtime creative partner, Stephen Hersh, on a graphic memoir to honor their friendship with heart and humor while documenting Stephen’s experiences with Alzheimer’s Disease.
Carole Mckee Armen was born in married student housing at Earlham College (a Quaker school), and grew up to claim the power of the arts that saved her young self. Reading, writing and drawing didn't rescue her from the incest, rage, turmoil and violence that she experienced as a Quaker Unitarian Universalist minister's daughter. However, in her speculative memoir, Lurking Variables, Carole shows how her imagination made sense out of senseless chaos and art out of feeling alone through trauma.
More from our readers
(Recorded at SAW on Zoom, July 19th, 2025 as part of our Online Graphic Medicine Summit with the Graphic Medicine International Collective.)
Panel Discussion: The Craft and Aesthetics of Graphic Medicine
Let’s talk about the craft of Graphic Medicine. What does drawing matter? Are “good” drawings better than “not good”? What is the value of authenticity? Does collage count? What are we looking for as readers? A panel discussion featuring Gianna Paniagua, Amanda Cannella, Annemarie Jutel, Lucy Sullivan, Alanah Knibb, and Hugh D'Andrade. Hosted by Tom Hart.
Alanah Knibb is an award-winning comic writer and artist who specialises in science communication. Her work aims to create space, opportunities, and inspiration to empower communities to utilise science for collective development and social change. Her latest graphic novel, Three Nines Fine: a Journey with Brain Health, won a 2025 IPPY award and was a finalist in the 2025 National Indie Excellence awards.
Hugh D'Andrade is an illustrator, creative director, and graphic novelist based in Oakland. He is the author of the book The Murder Next Door: A Graphic Memoir, published by Streetnoise Books.
Lucy Sullivan is a Writer/Artist from London who creates comics around social concerns combined with folklore and expressive mark-making. She is the creator of BARKING (Avery Hill) and Folk-Horror series SHELTER, the next story ‘Mothers Ruin’ is currently in production. Lucy’s commissions include Department Of Truth, Black Hammer and artwork for Benedict Cumberbatch’s character DAD in The Thing With Feathers [2025] adapted from the acclaimed novel by Max Porter.
Annemarie Jutel is a sociologist of diagnosis at Te Herenga Waka (Victoria University of Wellington) in New Zealand. Her books include "Putting a Name to it: Diagnosis in Contemporary Society", and "The Tear Bottle" a graphic memoir about heirlooms, remembering and letting go.
Gianna Paniagua is a two time heart transplant recipient and graphic medicine creator. Her comics focus on experiences she’s had living with a transplant and chronic pain, with the intention of improving health literacy and promoting patience advocacy. Also a recent graduate of the Columbia Master’s narrative program, she uses all her skills collected towards completing her life’s goal of improving treatment for young adults with organ transplants.
Amanda Cannella is an artist, researcher, and writer who lives with severe chronic pain from Complex Regional Pain Syndrome in her dominant upper extremity. A doctoral candidate in the Department of English Language and Literature at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, she is currently working on a graphic dissertation that explores the intersections of chronic pain, kink, and medicine for her Ph.D. She has recently presented about her graphic novella Living Pain at the 2024 Graphic Medicine Conference in Athlone, Ireland and was a featured creative writing panelist for "When the Body Speaks: Expressions of Bodily Pain" at the 2023 Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences.
More from our panelists
(Recorded at SAW on Zoom, July 19th, 2025 as part of our Online Graphic Medicine Summit with the Graphic Medicine International Collective.)
gmic awards!
The Graphic Medicine International Collective Awards Committee announced the winners of their 2025 awards, recognizing outstanding health-related comic projects.
(Recorded at SAW on Zoom, July 19th, 2025 as part of our Online Graphic Medicine Summit with the Graphic Medicine International Collective.)
Comics Reading feat. Lynn Bernstein, Sonaksha, et al
A comics reading featuring Lynn Bernstein, Sonaksha, Elly Teman, Sumit Kumar, Circle Yuen, Ankit Mehta, and Faye Harnest.
Lynn Bernstein is working on a graphic memoir, written in alternating section with her husband about his manic episode. Her sections are in comics, his are in prose.
Sonaksha is a South Asian queer and disabled illustrator, graphic recorder, designer and animator. They use art to participate in building liberatory and social justice movements. Their art has supported the work of organisations including Instagram, Adobe, Urgent Action Fund for Feminist Activism and Mama Cash; and been featured in The Washington Post, The Nib and BuzzFeed.
Elly Teman is a medical anthropologist and the author of Birthing a Mother: the Surrogate Body and the Pregnant Self (UCPress, 2010). Together with Zsuzsa Berend she co-authored - illustrated by comic artist Andrea Scebba - A Tale of Two Surrogates: A Graphic Narrative on Assisted Reproduction (PSU Press, 2025).
Sumit Kumar is a self-taught Dalit cartoonist and founder of Bakarmax, a comics and animation studio. His work includes the cult hit The Itch You Can’t Scratch, historical graphic novels with Newslaundry, and a Kickstarter-funded adult animated series. He has been featured in The Guardian, appeared on Shark Tank India, and was mentored by Chacha Chaudhary’s creator, Cartoonist Pran.
Circle Yuen is a Hong Kong-born author and illustrator based in the UK, whose 'Own Voice' picture books, like her debut Our Dance, tenderly explore themes of family change, resilience, and hope.
Ankit Mehta is an Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Minnesota (UMN) Medical School and a hospitalist with HealthPartners. He has a keen interest in the intersection of arts, humanities, and medicine. His graphic works have been published in various journals (including JAMA, Academic Medicine, Annals of Internal Medicine, etc), magazines and publications like LA Times.
Faye Harnest makes comics and soft sculptures that care for people. She is drawing a graphic memoir about grief, motherhood, and living with brain injury. She is from Canada and now lives in Brooklyn, NY.
More about our readers
(Recorded at SAW on Zoom, July 20th, 2025 as part of our Online Graphic Medicine Summit with the Graphic Medicine International Collective.)
Panel Discussion: Bees Over The Berlin Wall
During the time of the Berlin Wall, bees were bred to travel from one side to the other to pollinate their flowers. How do WE cross borders to keep life alive? What bridges have we built or needed built or seen built? What currents have we had to ride to get the care we needed? A panel discussion featuring Cassy Lee, Cara Gormally, Makee, Cori Knight and Pam Wye.
Makee is the author of the autobiographical graphic novel CALL ME EMMA, which tells the story of her immigration to the US from China as a teenager. As she works to acclimate to the US, she deals with her sister's struggles and mental health breakdown.
Cassy Lee is a librarian and comics creator from California, though she just moved back to San Francisco after spending the last four years in Taipei. She will complete her MFA in Comics at the California College of the Arts this August and has been exploring visual narrative as a means to manage emotions and heal from trauma while working on a graphic novel memoir.
Pam Wye is a 2025 Eisner-nominated cartoonist and the Art Teacher at St. Benedict’s Prep School since 2003.
Cori Knight teaches freshman comp at the University of California Riverside but got her sequential art training at the Solstice MFA Program at Lasell University. She's just venturing out into the graphic medicine world, but she grew up in and around hospitals as a cancer patient and survivor, an upbringing that has provided some... interesting... perspectives on the world of medicine.
Cara Gormally is a cartoonist, researcher, and professor. Cara’s narrative nonfiction comics remix autobiographical stories with research about socio-scientific issues to make science relatable. Their comics have appeared in the Washington Post, Mutha Magazine, Spiralbound, and other places. Their debut graphic memoir, Everything is Fine, I’ll Just Work Harder, a story about an unexpected healing journey to come home to themself, debuted in April 2025 from Street Noise Books.
More about our panelists
(Recorded at SAW on Zoom, July 20th, 2025 as part of our Online Graphic Medicine Summit with the Graphic Medicine International Collective.)
Panel Discussion: What Is Next For Graphic Medicine?
“Graphic Medicine” was coined in 2007 and the Graphic Medicine Manifesto written in 2015. In 10 years we have seen the field explode with readers, practitioners, and scholars alike. What has changed in those 10 years? What do we expect to be changing? What have we seen and what would we like to see? This roundtable features: A. David Lewis, Jeannie Mecorney, Paul Mitchell, David Greenfield, moderated by Michael Green.
David Greenfield, EdD is a global educator, artist, technologist and innovator. Dr. Greenfield, completed his doctoral dissertation on ways that graphic literature and comix can be used in classrooms around the world to teach a range of topics including social justice, community and culture, and language learning all using available technologies.
Paul Mitchell is Associate Professor of English at the UCV in Valencia, Spain. His latest research project explores graphic pathographies, particularly in comics and zines, the representation of gender, and art as an activist practice.
A. David Lewis is an Associate Professor of English and Health Humanities at MCPHS University in Boston, Massachusetts. In addition to working on comics like KISMET, MAN OF FATE and the 100th anniversary adaptation of Kahlil Gibran's THE PROPHET, he serves as the co-editor for the GRAPHIC MEDICINE REVIEW journal and Grant Coordinator for the Boston Comic Arts Foundation (BCAF). An Eisner Award nominee as well as Eisner Award judge, Dr. Lewis has a new book -- BODY, SOUL, AND COMICS -- due out in 2026 from University Press of Mississippi.
Jeannie Mecorney spent many years as a graphic designer in film, television, print, and online, and is currently the Mental Health Comics Liaison at the GMIC.
More about our panelists
(Recorded at SAW on Zoom, July 20th, 2025 as part of our Online Graphic Medicine Summit with the Graphic Medicine International Collective.)
Research For Graphic Medicine Workshop
What kind of research is involved in making a work of graphic medicine? How do you find the right sources? How do you know when you’ve gone deep enough, or when have you gone too deep? What is the right amount of research for you? Maureen Burdock will lead you through the visual, social, scientific and other kinds of research you might find yourself needing to do.
Maureen Burdock is a graphic novelist, creativity coach and illustrator. She is the author of Queen of Snails: A Graphic Memoir; Feminist Fables for the Twenty-First Century; and several shorter graphic narratives that have been featured in anthologies and journals. Her next book, Sleepless Planet: A Graphic Guide to Healing from Insomnia, will be released in November 2025.
(Recorded at SAW on Zoom, July 20th, 2025 as part of our Online Graphic Medicine Summit with the Graphic Medicine International Collective.)
Panel Discussion: Publishing Graphic Medicine
A panel discussion on publishing graphic medicine with Liz Frances and Kendra Boileau, moderated by Gina Gagliano.
Liz Frances is the publisher and founder of Street Noise Books
Kendra Boileau is the publisher of Graphic Mundi and Assistant Director/Editor-in-Chief of Penn State University Press
Gina Gagliano has had a career in books and publishing in roles spanning from marketing, publicity, and sales to editorial for over a decade and a half. In that time, she’s worked with kids and comics publishers, as well as with book festivals. Organizations she’s worked with include graphic novel publishers Avery Hill, Street Noise, Levine Querido, First Second Books, and Random House Graphic, as well as the Boston Book Festival and the Boston Comics Art Foundation.
More about our panelists
(Recorded at SAW on Zoom, July 20th, 2025 as part of our Online Graphic Medicine Summit with the Graphic Medicine International Collective.)
Thank you so much to everyone who participated in the Graphic Medicine Summit! Interested in more Graphic Medicine? Consider joining our Graphic Memoir + Medicine Working Group - a monthly subscription community offered on a sliding scale and including professional mentorship sessions with Vanessa Davis and Maureen Burdock.