Web Comics

Kind people have been sending me links to comics published on the web. There are probably many others I do not know about. If you know of other web comics dealing with medical narrative, please let me know about them.

GP and cartoonist Thom Ferrier publishes his occasional strips and graphic short stories under the title of "disrepute". He professes to like his patients on the whole, and likes his job too, but says that "sometimes general practice can do your head in" and his short strips are generally gags about that side of practice, although "Professional Paranoia" (above) is about a doctor who seems to have become psychotic.

His style is based on simple "clear line and flat colour" medical illustrations, like those found in first aid manuals.There are only a few strips online at present but Thom is working on more and has plans for a longer, serialised story. The 2 page short story "Stigmata" in which a doctor meets a patient who bullied and assaulted him as a teenager is downloadable as a high, or low-res pdf. It raises questions about the doctor-patient relationship and assumptions made by both parties. Worth a look. Click on the image above to link to the site.

this large image (on a pdf file) is a one page comic where the panels spiral across the background image. Its about what being fat makes you feel like and think. I don't need to explain it any more, go and look at it, it's good!

The Drs Malpani run the fifth biggest infertility clinic in india. They are firm believers in the empowering of patients through "information therapy" and one look at their website will confirm that they practice what they preach. It is a veritable mine of free, patient centred information. Dr Anirudda Malpani also runs the the world's largest free patient education library, HELP ( www.healthlibrary.com), as well as a blog which commentates on the human side of medicine. This 237 page (!) flash animated comic book delves deep into reproductive medicine. A free resource aimed at couples experiencing infertility problems which would be equally valuable as an undergraduate textbook or reference guide for the non specialist. Excellent.