Diversity Week Graphic Novels

At her old school, everyone in Cece's class was deaf. Here, she's different. Then Cece makes a startling discovery. With the Phonic Ear she can hear her teacher not just in the classroom but anywhere her teacher is in the school--in the hallway...in the teacher's lounge...in the bathroom! This is power. Maybe even superpower! But the funny thing about being a superhero is that it's just another way of feeling different...and lonely. Can Cece channel her powers into finding the thing she wants most, a true friend?

Psychiatric Tales draws on Darryl Cunningham's time working in a psychiatric ward to give a reasoned and sympathetic look into the world of mental illness. In each chapter, Cunningham explores a different mental health problem, using evocative imagery to describe the experience of mental illness, both from the point of view of those beset by illness and their friends and relatives. As Cunningham reveals this human experience, he also shows how society's perceptions of and reactions to mental illness perpetuate needless stigma.

Karen Page, Matt Murdock's former lover, has traded away the Man Without Fear's secret identity for a drug fix. Now, Daredevil must find strength as the Kingpin of Crime wastes no time taking him down as low as a human can get.

Nao Brown is not well. A 28 year-old half-Japanese, half-English girl tormented by her OCD and struggling to get her design and illustration career off the ground, she embarks on a spiritual journey to calm her mind, meeting Gregory, a washing machine repairman, along the way. A life-affirming story about the power of love and the importance of spirituality.

Meet Dr. Iwan James: cyclist, doctor, would-be lover, former heavy metal fan, and, above all, human being. Weighed down by his responsibilities--from diagnosing personality disorders to deciding who can hold a gun license--he doubts his ability to make decisions about the lives of others when he may need more than a little help himself. Cartoonist and doctor Ian Williams introduces us to Iwan's troubled life as all humanity, it seems, passes through his surgery doors.

Isaac wants nothing more than to be a functional college student--but managing his epilepsy is an exhausting battle to survive. The doctors won't listen, the schoolwork keeps piling up, his family is in denial about his condition, and his social life falls apart as he feels more and more isolated by his illness. Even with an unexpected new friend by his side, so much is up against him that Isaac is starting to think his epilepsy might be unbeatable.

Moon is everything Christine isn't. But after Moon moves in next door, these unlikely friends are soon best friends, sharing their favorite music videos and painting their toenails when Christine's strict parents aren't around. Moon even tells Christine her deepest secret: that she has visions, sometimes, of celestial beings who speak to her from the stars. Moon's visions have an all-too-earthly root, however, and soon Christine's best friend is in the hospital. Can Christine be the friend Moon needs, now, when the sky is falling?

Claudette's fondest wish is to slay a giant. But her village is so safe and quiet! What's a future giant slayer to do? With her best friend Marie (an aspiring princess), and her brother Gaston (a pastry-chef-to-be), Claudette embarks on a super-secret quest to find a giant--without parental permission. Can they find and defeat the giant before their parents find them and drag them back home?

Snap's town has a witch. And when Snap's dog goes missing, she finds her dog there, recovering from being hit by a car, in the care of a woman named Jacks. They make a deal: If Jacks teaches Snap how to take care of a crate of orphaned baby opossums that Snap rescued, Snap will assist Jacks with her work. But as Snap starts to gain an appreciation for what Jacks does and their friendship deepens...she realizes that Jacks may in fact have real magic and that she also may have a connection with Snap's family's past.

"With a bolt of lightning on my kicks, The court is SIZZLING. My sweat is DRIZZLING. Stop all that quivering. 'Cuz tonight I'm delivering," raps twelve-year-old Josh Bell. Thanks to their dad, he and his twin brother, Jordan, are kings on the court. But Josh has more than basketball in his blood--he's got mad beats, too, which help him find his rhythm when it's all on the line.

The breakout star of this summer's blockbuster Avengers film, Clint Barton - aka the self-made hero Hawkeye - fights for justice! With ex-Young Avenger Kate Bishop by his side, he's out to prove himself as one of Earth's Mightiest Heroes! SHIELD recruits Clint to intercept a packet of incriminating evidence - before he becomes the most wanted man in the world.

In his most ambitious book to date, Nate Powell quietly explores the dark corners of adolescence -- not the clichéd melodramatic outbursts of rebellion, but the countless tiny moments of madness, the vague relief of medication, and mixed blessing of family ties. As the story unfolds, two stepsiblings hold together amidst schizophrenia, obsessive compulsive disorder, family breakdown, animal telepathy, misguided love, and the tiniest hope that everything will someday make sense.

Yu'er and her grandpa live in a small neighborhood in Beijing. In one tale, Yu'er wants to swim in the Special Olympics, a sports competition for people with disabilities. But she and her grandpa don't have a pool! In another story, a friend takes Yu'er to a wild place full of musical insects. Later, Yu'er hears a special story about her grandparents. And in the final story, Yu'er and her grandpa show a cranky painter the sweet side of life.

Nimona is an impulsive young shapeshifter with a knack for villainy. Lord Ballister Blackheart is a villain with a vendetta. Their mission: prove to the kingdom that Sir Ambrosius Goldenloin and his buddies at the Institution of Law Enforcement and Heroics aren't the heroes everyone thinks they are. But as small acts of mischief escalate into a vicious battle, Lord Blackheart realizes that Nimona's powers are as murky and mysterious as her past. And her unpredictable wild side might be more dangerous than he is willing to admit.

Harriet Flores struggles with boredom, an unrequited crush, and a multiple sclerosis diagnosis through a long, hot, 1990s summer in Chicago. She uses her imagination to cope, which sometimes gets her into trouble, as she makes up fantastical fibs and wonders if there are ghosts upstairs. One neighbour, Pearl, encourages Harriet to read and write, leading Harriet to have a breakthrough and discover the power of storytelling.

Every time Allie Brosh posts something new on her hugely popular blog Hyperbole and a Half the internet rejoices. This full-color, beautifully illustrated edition features more than fifty percent new content, as well as classics from the website like, "The God of Cake," "Dogs Don't Understand Basic Concepts Like Moving," and her astonishing, "Adventures in Depression," and "Depression Part Two," which have been hailed as some of the most insightful meditations on the disease ever written.

Out of the Woods is a book to help people understand and overcome depression and anxiety. It is the author's own story told entirely through 700 beautifully hand drawn watercolor illustrations. It is an immensely practical guide for sufferers, their loved ones, and professionals working in the area too.

When Brian Fies's mother was diagnosed with metastatic lung cancer, he and his two sisters struggled with the effects of her illness and her ongoing recovery from treatment. Brian processed the experience in his journal, which took the form of words and pictures.

David B. spent an idyllic early childhood in a small town near Orléans, France. But his life changed abruptly when his brother, Jean-Christophe, was struck with epilepsy at age eleven. In search of a cure, their parents dragged the family to acupuncturists and magnetic therapists, to mediums and macrobiotic communes. But every new cure ended in disappointment as Jean-Christophe, after periods of remission, would only get worse.

Liz Swados takes readers on a journey that is achingly familiar to those who suffer from depression. Readers feel the weight of her struggle to keep her condition a secret; laugh with her about the strange effects of the new drugs; empathize with the little things that sometimes trigger a massive relapse; and watch as she tries to overcome the long-term effect of the suicides of her mother and brother.

Rock Steady: Brilliant Advice From My Bipolar Life is the eagerly awaited sequel/ companion book to Forney's 2012 best-selling graphic memoir, Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo, and Me. Whereas Marbles was a memoir about her bipolar disorder, Rock Steady turns the focus outward, offering a self-help survival guide of tips, tricks and tools by someone who has been through it all and come through stronger for it.

Part memoir, part medical cautionary tale, Dumb tells the story of how an urban twenty-something copes with the everyday challenges that come with voicelessness. Webber adroitly uses the comics medium to convey the practical hurdles she faced as well as the fear and dread that accompanied her increasingly lonely journey to regain her life. But her ordeal ultimately becomes a hopeful story.

From his early days at Oxford, Stephen Hawking's brilliance and good humor were obvious to everyone he met. At twenty-one he was diagnosed with ALS, a disease that limited his ability to move and speak. He went on to do groundbreaking work in cosmology and theoretical physics for decades after being told he had only a few years to live. Through his 1988 bestseller, A Brief History of Time, and his appearances on shows like Star Trek and The Big Bang Theory, Hawking became a household name and a pop-culture icon.

In 1997, John began to have severe stomach pain. He soon found out he needed emergency surgery to remove a benign tumor from his small intestine. In the wake of the surgery, he had numerous health complications that led to a flare-up of his preexisting tendencies toward anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder. The Hospital Suite is Porcellino's response to these experiences.

A graphic memoir of eating disorders, abuse, and recovery. Lighter Than My Shadow is a hand-drawn story of struggle and recovery, a trip into the black heart of a taboo illness; an exposure of those who are so weak as to prey on the weak, and an inspiration to anybody who believes in the human power to endure towards happiness.

This inaugural volume establishes the principles of graphic medicine and begins to map the field. The volume combines scholarly essays by members of the editorial team with previously unpublished visual narratives, and it includes arresting visual work from a wide range of graphic medicine practitioners.

Nadia Shivack was fourteen years old when she met Ed, her eating disorder. At an inpatient unit unit of a hospital where she was taken for treatment, Nadia wrote and drew on napkins after meals in order to keep the food in and calm the outrageous voices in her head. These pictures, together with others drawn on a variety of surfaces, tell an unflinchingly honest story of a woman's lifelong battle with anorexia and bulimia.

n 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.