AIDS, Unit 371, and the Current Administration
Mary Norcol at the Chicago Sun-Times/WBEZ wrote a story about Illinois Masonic’s HIV/AIDS Care Unit 371, in the context of proposed and actual cuts to HIV care and prevention that…
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MK Czerwiec, RN, MA is a nurse who uses comics to contemplate the complexities of illness and caregiving.
MK has been making comics under the pseudonym Comic Nurse since 2000. In addition to lecturing, teaching and comic-making, she co-runs GraphicMedicine.org, a website devoted to the intersection of comics and health.
Menopause: A Comic Treatment
“Often informative, sometimes moving, and ambitious in its frank talk about what is oddly taboo: an inevitable experience for half of humanity.” - Publishers Weekly Featuring works by comics luminaries such as Lynda Barry, Joyce Farmer, Ellen Forney, and Carol Tyler, Menopause is the perfect antidote to the simplistic, cheap-joke approach that treats menopause as a cultural taboo. This anthology challenges stereotypes with perspectives from a range of life experiences, ages, gender identities, ethnicities, and health conditions.
Winner of TWO Eisner Awards!
Taking Turns
JAMA Best of Graphic Medicine 2017 Fear of contagion, isolated patients, a surge of overwhelming and unpreventable deaths, and the frontline healthcare workers who shouldered the responsibility of seeing us through a deadly epidemic: as we continue to confront the global pandemic caused by COVID-19, Taking Turns reminds us that we’ve been through this before. Only a few decades ago, the world faced another terrifying and deadly health crisis: HIV/AIDS. Nurse MK Czerwiec began working at the Illinois Masonic Medical Center’s HIV/AIDS Care Unit 371 in the 1990s—a pivotal time in the history of AIDS. Deaths from the disease in the United States peaked in 1995 and then dropped drastically in the following years, with the release of effective drug treatments. In this graphic memoir, Czerwiec provides an insider’s view of the lives of healthcare workers, patients, and loved ones from Unit 371. With humor, insight, and emotion, MK shows how the patients and staff cared for one another, how the sick faced their deaths, and how the survivors looked for hope in what seemed, at times, like a hopeless situation. Drawn in a restrained, inviting style, Taking Turns is an open, honest look at suffering, grief, and resilience among a community of medical professionals and patients at the heart of the AIDS epidemic.
My Graphic Memoir
LB & Me: A Tribute, Memoir, and an Invitation
Created to celebrate the 15th anniversary of both LDComics and Graphic Medicine, this 80 page collection shares seven wacky comics about Lynda Barry's influence on my art and teaching - with exercises to help us together influence yours. The book also includes 15 additional creators sharing their stories of influence - and invites you to share your story as well.
Preorders coming soon!Latest Posts
New Book Release!
For the past year, I have been on a sabbatical from teaching to complete a dream project: a tribute to and appreciation of the amazing Lynda Barry. Created to celebrate…
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Close Reading Comics
Teachers often ask how to engage their students in critical close reading of graphic novels. Others have written on this as well, but my answer almost always seem to involve…
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Fall 2024 Update
Highlights since my last update: Teaching – This past spring term I taught a fantastic new Graphic Medicine course at the University of Illinois in Chicago’s Biomedical Visualization program to…
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