The Indigeneity of the Graphic Form: Exploring the Universality of Comics in Healthcare

Abstract

Comics represent a significant literary and artistic medium that narrates stories through the integration of visual and verbal elements. Though reading comics was considered of low culture in the early stage in US, it slowly gained momentum as an art of high culture capable of addressing complex social, cultural, and personal issues.Comics and graphic novels have earned universality especially in healthcare with the advent of the Graphic Medicine. The advent of graphic autopathographiesthat share experiential realities of patient experiences have made comics an inevitable source in healthcare. This paper explores the origin and necessity of comics in healthcare and argues for their efficacy in articulating embodied experiences of illness. Ultimately, the study underscores the relevance of comics as an inclusive, interdisciplinary, and impactful medium within contemporary healthcare narratives.