How drawing can help us see one another

Abstract

This chapter discusses graphic narrative as an emerging realm of possibilities for documenting and responding to the trauma of the pandemic. The essay draws on theories of graphic medicine to survey the depth and breadth of documentary comic responses to COVID-19. The essay explores Pandemix: Quarantine Comics edited by Whitney Matheson and Dean Haspiel and the New York Times’ Diary Project, featuring quarantine diary comics. The essay gives special attention to the drawn comics diary, analyzing how it helps navigate the everyday experience of life amid the contracted spaces and complex temporalities in quarantine and in the midst of a pandemic. © 2022 selection and editorial matter, Irene Gammel and Jason Wang;individual chapters, the contributors.