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Comics sought, exploring experience of care, by All is Not Well project

By John Freeman on August 24, 2022

All Is Not Well is a space for experimental comic strips that explore experiences of care, from the perspective of the caregiver and of the person who receives care – and the team are looking for more strips.

Giving care is essential to a functional, healthy, and ethical society. Far too often caregivers are forgotten about, made invisible, and overlooked, whether they are de facto stay-at-home carers, or the underpaid and undervalued caregivers who work for our institutions and social services. Care in the community and supported living saw the end of dehumanising institutions but it also drove care underground with a huge rise in private sector provision.

All is Not Well - "tony Wants" by Lucy Bergonzi — “Tony Wants” by Lucy Bergonzi

All is Not Well - Rental Health Crisis by Sian Ellis — “Tony Wants” by Lucy Bergonzi

All Is Not Well – Comics About Care, has been realised in conjunction with Cardiff University and is being funded by ESRC Impact Acceleration. It is run by Jonathan Clode, a comics writer and former care manager with an interest in stories that deal with social issues, history, memory and biography.

Alongside Jonathan is Ryan Prout, lecturer at the Cardiff University School of Modern Languages. Ryan has worked on European comics that have raised awareness of autism and Alzheimer’s, and came to the project after researching representations of disability in comics and finding that this was an area that needed exploration.

The team are looking for contributing writers and artists and for material designed especially for the project. The style of the strip is completely up to individual artists/writers; the only proviso is that the story should relate either to personal experience or be informed by someone with knowledge of life in care work. Ideally, these stories will be around four to eight pages in length and will ultimately be collected into a print publication, at which time the proceeds will go to the creators. Any information shared will be done so in strictest confidence.

This project is driven by the realities of day to day care work and the team very much want to hear from people who have a story to tell though they may not be writers or artists.

• Find out more, read more of the strips already published online and where to submit your comics here on the official All os Not Well site

John Freeman

The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.

He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.