Slides from my plenary presentation at the close of Graphic Medicine 2019 in Brighton, England. In the presentation, I asked attendees to reflect on the conference theme of que(e)rying the field and explored how we got to where we are and what the future may hold. I hoped to spark ongoing discussion and pressure to diversify the voices being heard - at conferences, in classrooms, in published works, and beyond. NOTE: I know there are fields missing from the list on slide 20. If you notice one missing, email me.

1. Graphic Medicine:
Past, Present, Future

2. Matthew N. Noe, MSLS [he/his]
@NoetheMatt / #GraphicMedicine
Lead Collection & Knowledge
Management Librarian, Harvard Medical
School
Part-Time Instructor, School of
Information, University of Kentucky
Co-Editor, GraphicMedicine.org
(This Week in Graphic Medicine)
Resources & Toolkits Committee Chair,
ALA Graphic Novels & Comics Round

3. Why pause and reflect NOW?
• This is the 10th Graphic Medicine / Comics & Medicine
conference!
• A veritable explosion of interest in the field
• If you follow along with TWIGM, you’ve seen me comment on this
• From our call for papers, “The time for blind evangelism is past:
let’s critically explore our field.”
• Conference’s hold great academic power – but are inherently
exclusionary

4. The Past
< 1950’s
Wertham and
the Before
1960’s – 1970’s
Development
Work
1980’s – Early
90’s
HIV/AIDS &
Underground
Comics
Late 90’s –
2000’s
A Period of
Sporadic Uses
2010’s
Graphic
Medicine
Explosion
2020’s &
Beyond
???

9. The Present
< 1950’s
Wertham and
the Before
1960’s – 1970’s
Development
Work
1980’s – Early
90’s
HIV/AIDS &
Underground
Comics
Late 90’s –
2000’s
A Period of
Sporadic Uses
2010’s
Graphic
Medicine
Explosion
2020’s &
Beyond
???

10. “Graphic Medicine is the intersection of the
medium of comics and the discourse of
healthcare.”

11. Illustrated by Kelly Lund

18. The Future
< 1950’s
Wertham and
the Before
1960’s – 1970’s
Development
Work
1980’s – Early
90’s
HIV/AIDS &
Underground
Comics
Late 90’s –
2000’s
A Period of
Sporadic Uses
2010’s
Graphic
Medicine
Explosion
2020’s &
Beyond
???

20. • medical anthropologists,
• cartoonists,
• literary scholars,
• medical illustrators,
• librarians,
• pharmacists,
• physicians,
• nurses,
• scholars of disability studies,
• theater studies scholars,
• public health professionals,
• mental health professionals,
• activists,
• creative writers,
• historians,
• scientists,
• art therapists,
• chaplains,
• bioethicists,
• physical therapists,
• professional and personal
caregivers,
• medical and allied health
students,
• patients, which all of us are or will
be at some point in our lives.

21. Thinking Forward
• Graphic Medicine has been a THING for longer than I’ve been alive – is evangelism what we
still need?
• Absolutely amazing growth in scholarship – from medical education to literature and beyond
• Consider the comics I highlighted – ♫ who lives, who dies, who tells your story ♫
• The surge of published comics continues – how do we encourage the publication of more
voices?
• Consider the voices we’ve heard at this – and other – conferences; how do we ensure those
voices not here are heard going forward?
• More courses and programs! How can we share our plans and give critical, productive
feedback to each other?
• What is the scope of graphic medicine? Climate? Gun violence?

22. Graphic Medicine
International
Collective

24. Coming in Summer 2020:
Graphic Medicine in Toronto, Canada
Watch www.graphicmedicine.org
for details in the coming months!