10 Comics You'll Love If Grey's Anatomy Is Your Favorite Show
Spanning nearly two decades, Grey's Anatomy has won over legions of fans with its heartwarming portrayals of doctors, interns, and residents as they deal with their personal and professional trials and tribulations. The series would impress readers who are aficionados of genres like workspace drama, romantic drama, and medicine-related storylines. Its fandom is evident in various fanfiction pieces, some of which acquire a comic book format.
Over the years, several graphic novels have evoked such tones, often stemming from the author/illustrator's personal trysts with hospitals or illnesses. They can also be tragicomic in nature, considering the bleakness of such scenarios coupled with light-hearted art.
10 The Bad Doctor (2014)
Welsh doctor Ian Williams began his writing career with the graphic novel The Bad Doctor. Basing the titular character Ian James on his own professional experience, Williams explores how his staff and patients might have seen him in a negative light owing to his personal struggles with obsessive-compulsive disorder.
His guilt aside, The Bad Doctor also unearths Williams' traumatic childhood that was riddled with bizarre rituals accompanied by compulsive neurosis. Thematically, and for the strong autobiographical undercurrents, the book was also compared to the acclaimed Binky Brown Meets The Virgin Mary by Justin Green.
9 Epilectic (2001)
French comic book maestro David B aka David Beauchard authored this heavily personal comic book series that was also published as L'Ascension du haut mal (The Rise of High Evil).
The author and cartoonist recounts his coming-of-age as his family dealt with his brother JC's epilepsy. Like the aforementioned The Bad Doctor, Epileptic covered the family's desperate efforts to treat the writer's sibling as an ambitious surgeon, hellbent on 'experimenting' on JC. The surreal tones and the black-and-white artwork did have a cult influence as can be seen from the work of Persepolis author Marjane Satrapi who was also mentored by David B.
8 Graphic Medicine Manifesto (2015)
The illustrated medium can definitely help in popularizing medicinal narratives and spread information in an interactive manner as compared to bulky, academic volumes. Several auteurs of this subculture of 'graphic medicine' including Ian Williams and Kimberly R Myers. The book serves as an omnibus of several observations that touch upon each author's experience in candidly expressing their years in medicine through a more engaging viewpoint.
The book shatters the notions of medicine being a homogenous field and opens the possibilities of experimenting with new mediums to interpret and reinterpret medical conditions.
7 The Hospital Suite (2014)
John Porcellino's area of expertise was cartooning for the press, with his work appearing in several daily publications. The Hospital Suite is a collection of such darkly comic cartoons of his, focusing specifically on his medical complications in the 1990s and the 2000s.
His monochrome mini-comics brim with a heartwarming yet tragic overtone as he presents his visits to the hospital in an easygoing and relatable style. The Hospital Suite also explores the vulnerable connection between physical and mental health as it's his intestinal surgeries that bring back his anxiety and OCD.
6 Lissa (2017)
Lissa: A Story About Medical Promise, Friendship, and Revolution follows a cross-cultural friendship and its transition to early adulthood. In Cairo, Anna and Layla are friends who go through turbulent childhoods as both of their families undergo medical troubles. While Anna might inherit the cancer that killed her mother, a kidney transplantation operation plagues the latter's family.
And then when Egypt itself is caught in the midst of a political revolution, both of their lives change, revealing their economic and cultural differences. Academic authors Sherine Hamdy and Coleman Nye offer an anthropological perspective through Lissa, exploring how social factors alter access to healthcare.
5 The Lady Doctor (2019)
Written yet again by Ian Williams, the follow-up (or rather a spin-off) to The Bad Doctor is a grittier take on Williams' style. The Lady Doctor is centered around Dr. Iwan James, who is mostly attached to the same Welsh hospital as the previous book's Dr. Iwan James.
While the doctor handles everyday personal crises after turning 40, her patients also drive her to her wit's end, coming up with all sorts of strange requests. Addiction is a recurring theme throughout the book as characters are addicted to either recreational drugs, banned substances, or everyday vices like cigarettes and coffee.
4 Our Cancer Year (1994)
Our Cancer Year is a work of illustrated non-fiction authored by Harvey Pekar (of American Splendor fame) and political comic writer and wife Joyce Brabner.
Their candid writing style is evident in Our Cancer Year that documents a year in the life of Pekar as he overcomes his lymphoma. Additionally, the book also covers the couple's views on the socio-political landscape of the time leading to a no-holds-barred comedy-drama. Some themes from the book also made their way into American Splendor, Harvey Pekar's biopic starring Paul Giamatti.
3 Taking Turns: Stories From HIV/AIDS Care Unit 371 (2017)
When the AIDS epidemic was at its height, an era of taboo and misinformation was kicked off that led to general paranoia. MK Czerwiec's account is an empathetic reflection of this time from the perspective of medical care workers in a Chicago medical center (where she herself had served around this time).
To gain a realistic picture, she also relied on archival records and oral histories from the period. Despite its heavy content, she doesn't rely on monochrome and uses vibrant colored-panels instead.
2 Mom's Cancer (2006)
Mom's Cancer spawned out of an anonymous webcomic through which the writer expressed their grief of coping with their mother's metastatic cancer. As the blog acquired a cult fanbase with many sharing the emotions of bewilderment and uncertainty, Brian Fies revealed his identity, and his work was compiled in an Eisner-winning hardcover volume.
Fies also tries to understand his mother's perspective, chronicling her own fears in getting used to the physical and mental changes that she undergoes.
1 Psychiatric Tales (2010)
Psychiatric Tales is a gut-wrenching anthology of dealing with depression from writer Darryl Cunningham's personal experience as a mental health nurse. The book also serves as an educational guide for medical students and laypersons who wish to understand the differences between certain psychiatric conditions.
While most of the chapters include Cunningham's conversations with his patients, a few stories also find the character breaking the fourth wall to give a more intimate understanding to the readers. One chapter also delves into the issues of clinically depressed celebrities like Judy Garland while the author himself opens up about his own history of depression towards the final portions.