The US Edition of Psychiatric Tales

News. The US edition of Psychiatric Tales is prominantly displayed on page 34 of the new Bloomsbury's Winter catalogue. Here's what the US version of the cover looks like.



Also, two interviews with me are now online. One is at Avoid The Future, and the other is at Frontier Psychiatrist.

A Summery of Recent Events

It's been a very good year, so far. Perhaps my best ever. Psychiatric Tales was finally published after years of effort. All hail the internet for getting me to the attention of publishers. It's now out in the UK from the small but perfectly formed UK publishing house, Blank Slate, and will be published by the giganto-sized publishing house, Bloomsbury, in the US early next year.

The book is selling well. It's certainly attracting a lot of attention. I was interviewed for the Big Issue back in Feb (far better than selling the Big Issue). Did a live radio interview on a Scottish arts show. Was invited to take part in the Graphic Medicine conference at the University of London. This latter event looked at the ways that the comic strip format could be used in the study and delivery of health care. Which sounds dry, but it was a very enjoyable event.

Last week I was in Oxford as a guest of Caption (Oxford's annual comic's convention). In three weeks (Monday 23rd of August) I'll be doing a talk at the Laydeez Do Comics meeting at the Rag Factory in Brick Lane, London. The day before that I'll be attending the Comica Comiket Independent Comic Fayre, at the Pump House Gallery, Battersea Park, London.

Oh yes, Psychiatric Tales was also Graphic Novel of the month in the Observer, and this week will be reviewed in the Times Literary Supplement. So it's all rumbling along very well. It's amazing how quickly I've started taking all this for granted.

Also this year I've started putting on the internet chapters of the latest book I've been working on, called: Science Stories. These chapters have whipped up a storm of controversy, as they've tackled such divisive subjects as the MMR Vaccine Scandal, Homeopathy, and NASA's supposed Moon Landing hoax. The comments I've received about these strips have been mostly positive, but I have had my fair share of hate mail. So it goes. Here's a typical example from Anon.

"It is morons like you that cause even lower level idiots to attempt to think with bad information. I am so glad I don't know you or your friends."

This stuff doesn't bother me though. It's to be expected.

On the negative side, despite all this success, I'm still very poor. Although now years in the past, the consequences of being ill and having to leave the nursing course I was doing, are still with me. I ran up huge debts at that time (I was in such despair that I didn't care what happened). So the little money I do make is usually sucked up in charges by the vampire bank, leaving me feebly dry.

This will of course change in time. I presume that Psychiatric Tales and the books I'm working on now will generate money at some point in the future. But I'm not there yet. Which is why donations are still gratefully received. Thanks all.

Darryl at Caption

As I may have said previously, in my day job I do care work with the elderly. It's agency work, which means I get sent all over the place to cover, when nursing or residential homes are short staffed. Summer is good to me, because it's the holiday season, and this means I'm getting plenty of shifts (days and nights). However, this also means that I've not had much time to do any comic book work recently (none actually). I'm tired from the long shifts and just want to flop down when I get home from work. This will change soon though, as I launch myself back into the four-colour world.

This weekend I'll be a Caption in Oxford. Where I'll be interviewed by the delightful Sarah McIntyre.

And now as promised ages ago, here are the main references I used to write the Moon Hoax strip.

Wikipedia. Moon landing conspiracy theories.

Phil Plait's Bad Astronomy blog. Fox TV and the Apollo Moon Hoax.

Nasa Science. The Great Moon Hoax.

The Guardian. Those hoax myths debunked.

FOX GOES TO THE MOON, BUT NASA NEVER DID. THE NO-MOONIES CULT STRIKES By Michael Shermer.

Moon Base Clavius. Photo Analysis Page.

NASA. Where No Flag Has Gone Before: Political and Technical Aspects of Placing a Flag on the Moon.

MythBusters Episode 104: NASA Moon Landing. 2008 Season. NASA Moon Landing.

The Moon Hoax

Today is the 41st anniversary of the first moon landing. So I completed this strip just in time. Feel free to point out any errors and I'll correct them over the next couple of days. References will be in the next entry.

This strip is but one chapter in my book Science Tales, out now from Myriad Editions.

Homeopathy References

The reason, of course, that the homeopathy strip has upset so many people, is that when writing negatively about such a subject, you are inevitably tramping on people's deeply held beliefs. Such criticism can seem like a personal attack. I don't think for a minute that a comic strip on homeopathy is going to change the mind's of people who are really invested in it. That's not going to happen. Only some event in their own experience will do that (maybe). The strip is primarily aimed at readers who only have a vague knowledge of the subject, and think perhaps that there must be something to the practice, as why otherwise would the British National Health service divert funds to it, and why would so many celebrities, politicians, journalists, members of the royal family, etc, believe in it?

The strip has done extraordinarily well, having had over 30 thousand views in the first two days. By far the single most successful strip I've ever had online.

Thanks to all the many people who took the time to email me and leave me notes. Far too many for me to ever get back to. A special thanks to those who have sent me links.

My next science strip will be on the subject of the supposed Moon Hoax.

References for the homeopathy strip.

Wikipedia entry on Homeopathy

What is Homeopathy. The Society Of Homeopaths.

Homeopathy: What's The Harm by Simon Singh.

Homeopaths 'endangering lives' by offering malaria remedies, Alok Jha, science correspondent, The Guardian, Friday 14 July 2006

The Lancet – “Benefits and risks of homoeopathy by Ben Goldacre.

Death By Homeopathy. Steven Novella, Neurologica Blog.

Homeopathy pdf, Sense About Science.

Statement on homeopathic remedies for malaria, Health Protection Agency.

Learn From This Tragedy, Andrew Bolt of the
 Herald Sun on the death of Penelope Dingle.

Coroner questions why Dr Peter Dingle didn't confront homeopath, Chris Robinson From: PerthNow

Homeopathy

A 19 page strip about homeopathy. My follow up story-strip to the one I did on the MMR vaccine scare, and another chapter of my ongoing book about science. This is, in effect, the beta version of the strip. There will, I'm sure, be mistakes dotted throughout that I haven't spotted. So do feel free to point out any errors. The references will be in the next entry.

All About The Graphic Medicine Conference

Had a fabulous time in London, attending the Graphic Medicine Conference at the university of London. I'm still digesting the experience which was something of a whirl. I've not attended one of these academic events before, so for me it was something quite different. Nothing like the comics events I usually attend.

I have this stereotyped image in my mind of professors wearing tweed jackets while smoking pipes. The people there were nothing like this. I talked for a while with this young woman, who turned out to be a professor of European Intellectual history at an American university. I thought she was just some girl. Which doesn't say much for me.

The event was well attended. There were about seventy-five delegates there, from all over the world. Quite a lot of people from Canada. The main thrust of the conference was to explore the medical narrative in graphic novels and comics. Sounds a bit dry and surely there's only a tiny area to explore? Not so. In recent years there's been a small explosion of medical-themed graphic novels. A few of the creators of these books were at the event. Brian Fies, talking about his book Mom's Cancer: A Family's Experience In Comics. Also attending was Philippa Perry, author of Couch Fiction, a graphic novel about psychotherapy. And, of course, I was there with Psychiatric Tales.

There was also a focus on using illustrations and comics in the education of those working in medicine, as well as its usefulness in therapy for patients. I was particularly interested in one talk, by MK Czerwiec, in which she discussed using illustrations to break down the barriers between professional caregivers and their patients. It's still sometimes hard for doctors, nurses, etc, to properly see the point of view of their patients. This is partly due to the professional detachment such working people are obliged to have and the emotional defence necessary in these professions. Put on the white coat and you're immediately detached from the rest of humanity due to the higher status you've just achieved and the powerful stresses of the work. In MK Czerwiec's talk she discussed asking care-givers to draw both the experience of a particular illness from the point of view of the professional and the patient. The division in the content of these illustrations was very clear. The emotional and empathetic content was almost entirely lacking when the care-givers took the professional stance, but it remained a powerful element in the drawings when the group took the patient's role.

It was mostly very interesting, although I didn't get to see every presentation, due to the parallel programming that had to go on in order to fit everything into one day. From my point of view it was a great success. I sold every copy of Psychiatric Tales I had (and could have sold many more). I did well on the panel discussion with Brian Fies and Philippa Perry (chaired by Paul Gravett). The whole event was quite a blast and there was free wine at the end of the day. What could be better than that?

Thanks to Paul Gravett, Peter Stanbury, and Ian Williams.

Uncle Bob And The Vampire

A chapter from the Uncle Bob book which will be coming out from Blank Slate next
year.