WHSC Library Collection Highlights

An illustrated feature chronicling ten personal accounts of life and death from the frontlines of COVID-19. These true stories from journalist Ethan Sacks (Old Man Hawkeye) are brought to vivid life by Dalibor Talajic (Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe, Hotell). Originally distributed online by NBC News, these tales of hope amidst devastation are now available in print for the first time, fully colored, with behind-the scenes features. From a man stuck in Wuhan during the initial days of the outbreak to an ICU nurse in the thick of one of the busiest hospitals in the country to an Italian opera singer who goes viral while trying to bring hope to his devastated neighborhood, this series takes you where news cameras couldn't go.

In 1994, at the height of the AIDS epidemic in the United States, MK Czerwiec took her first nursing job, at Illinois Masonic Medical Center in Chicago, as part of the caregiving staff of HIV/AIDS Care Unit 371.

Depicting her experiences from coming out right through to gender reassignment surgery, Lily's story provides vital advice on the social, emotional and medical aspects of transitioning and will empower anyone questioning their gender.

Hyperbole and a Half showcases Allie Brosh's unique voice, leaping wit, and her ability to capture complex emotions with deceptively simple illustrations. Contains "Adventures in Depression," and "Depression Part Two," which have been hailed as some of the most insightful meditations on the disease ever written. #1 New York Times Bestseller.

This comics anthology delves deeply into the messy and often taboo subject of human reproduction. Featuring work by luminaries such as Carol Tyler, Alison Bechdel, and Joyce Farmer, Graphic Reproduction is an illustrated challenge to dominant cultural narratives about conception, pregnancy, and childbirth.

A graphic memoir about the treatment of mental illness, treating mental illness as a commodity, and the often unavoidable choice between sanity and happiness.

In her first memoir, Roz Chast brings her signature wit to the topic of aging parents. Chast's memoir is both comfort and comic relief for anyone experiencing the life-altering loss of elderly parents. #1 New York Times Bestseller.

Chronicles the decline of the author's elderly parent's health. Though her parents are the protagonists, Farmer makes her voice known through creative visual metaphors and in her indictment of the careless treatment of the elderly in nursing homes.

This short, research-based graphic book reveals just how strange pain is and explains how understanding it is often the key to relieving its effects. This original, gently humorous book explains pain in an easy-to-understand,engaging graphic format and reveals how to change the mind's habits to transform pain.

An Arab-American college student struggles to live with epilepsy in this starkly colored and deeply-cutting graphic novel.

Meet Dr. Iwan James: cyclist, doctor, would-be lover, former heavy metal fan, and, above all, human being. Cartoonist and doctor Ian Williams introduces us to Iwan's troubled life as all humanity, it seems, passes through his surgery doors.

This follow-up to Ian Williams's graphic novel The Bad Doctor is an entertainingly realistic look at rural medicine and the unique personalities it attracts, from patients with genital tattoos of cartoon characters to doctors who find creative ways to color on either side of the ethical lines. The Lady Doctor shows that life and work in the medical field can be anything but clinical, and that even the most talented of professionals have wildly unexpected bad days.

A memoir of the author's emotions and the challenges and decisions she faces in raising a child with Down syndrome.

An inside look at recovery from the perspectives of five Twelve Step group members, each with a unique set of addictions, philosophies, struggles, and successes while working the Steps.

How does one deal with a diagnosis of Parkinson's disease at the age of forty-three? Cartoonist Peter Dunlap-Shohl answers the question with humor and passion, recounting his attempt to come to grips with the "malicious whimsy" of this chronic, progressive, and disabling disease. Dunlap-Shohl gives the person newly diagnosed with Parkinson's disease the information necessary to cope with it on a day-to-day basis. Dunlap-Shohl imparts a realistic basis for hope-hope not only to carry on, but to enjoy a decent quality of life.

Artist, writer and curator Matt Freedman underwent radiation and chemotherapy for treatment of Adenoid Cystic Carcinoma, a rare cancer that had spread from his tongue to his neck to his lungs by the time it was discovered. This is the journal he kept during that time, his 35-day course of treatment.

Aneurin Wright hasn't been on good terms with his father, who has been diagnosed with emphysema and "certified for hospice," for a long time. Newly unemployed, he is free to move into the trailer park where his father lives and assume the role of caregiver.

7 Miles a Second depicts artist David Wojnarowicz's childhood of prostitution and drugs on the streets of Manhattan,through his adulthood living with AIDS, and his anger at the indifference of government and health agencies.

The Facts of Life is a funny, sometimes painful graphic memoir that explores what it takes to be a woman, a partner, and a mother . . . or not.

In 1976, Ben Martini was diagnosed with schizophrenia. A decade later, his brother Oliver was told he had the same disease. For the past thirty years the Martini family has struggled to comprehend and cope with devastating illness, frustrated by a health care system lacking in resources and empathy, the imperfect science of medication, and the strain of mental illness on familial relationships.

Giving a father's insight into life with his daughter Maria, aged 12, who has autism, this comic shows the day-to-day challenges that people with autism and their carers face, and how Miguel and Maria overcome them.

Myriam is diagnosed with macular degeneration in her right eye, but that doesn't explain the strange things she's been seeing: children in bright red helmets dancing on the doctor's ceiling, exotic vines growing from her television set, and thousands of colored castles forming patterns on her kitchen walls. The surreal lives side by side with the everyday in this graphic novel about life with Charles Bonnet syndrome, a condition in which a person with partial or severe blindness has complex, often bizarre hallucinations.

Aliceheimer's is a series of illustrated vignettes, daily glimpses into the world of Alzheimer's. Graphic medicine, the author writes, "lets us better understand those who are hurting, feel their stories, and redraw and renegotiate those social boundaries."

Harvey Pekar and his wife, Joyce Brabner, discovered Harvey had cancer. But he had a better-than-average chance to beat cancer and he took it -- kicking, screaming, and complaining all the way. Pekar and Brabner draw on this and other trials to paint a portrait of a man beset with fears real and imagined -- who survives.