The winners in each of three categories of the 2026 Graphic Medicine International Collective Awards were announced last weekend, at the GMIC annual conference in Baltimore.
These awards are made possible by donations and a generous matching gift in honour of Nancy and Herbert Wolf, and carry on their legacy of service and care.
Nancy and Herbert Wolf were married for 61 years, raising four children and enjoyed their two grandchildren. Nancy was an artist, especially skilled at needlepoint, and a medical records administrator who chaired the medical records department of a Chicago-area hospital. Herb was a consulting actuary specializing in life insurance. In 2010, he received the lifetime achievement award from the Conference of Consulting Actuaries.
As college students in the late 1940s, Nancy and Herb fought racial discrimination, sitting-in at segregated lunch counters. They supported anti-racist, anti-war, and economic social justice causes throughout their lives. They performed numerous plays with friends for over 45 years. Nancy died in 2010. Herb died in 2018.
You can contribute to help match the grant for these awards by donating via PayPal here
Educational Category Winner
The winner in the Educational Category is It’s A Journey by Asiel & M. Giacomozzi
Writing about this year’s nominated titles, Kevin Wolf noted “The narrator and protagonist of It’s a Journey, is ‘a gender-diverse person with endometriosis.’ Endometriosis is tissue growing outside the uterine cavity and may include extreme pain, heavy menstrual bleeding, and/or later fertility problems. This work is a mix of quotes from real but anonymous people, narrated illustrations, comic form (thought and word balloons of dialogue between characters), and textual and visual medical explanations. The colorful comic is well-researched with a lengthy bibliography for further reading and acknowledgments of several medical experts, gender-diverse people, and those with lived endometriosis experience.
The judges felt that: It’s a Journey “is a fascinating and informative work about endometriosis across gender diversity, and reproductive choices in queer-friendly clinical practice. The judges particularly liked the engaging, yet subtle, colour schemes and the use of a story thread throughout the work.
Asiel and M. Giacomozzi will share $600 US prize money and a commemorative trophy. Head here to download a PDF or ask about a print edition
Nominated were Pregnancy and Birth: A Graphic Guide by Laura Godfrey-Isaacs, Lilly Williams, Published by Icon Books, a comprehensive and inclusive guide to the biological, cultural, and medical aspects of reproduction; Crash Cart by Ebony Toussaint (writer, creator), Robert Aultman (penciller, inker), Alexandria Batchelor (colourist), Jeremy Darby (letterer), Josh Jones (cover penciller, inker) from Hellcat Comics, a procedural walk-through of emergency nursing and Code Stemi cardiac arrest protocols; “Precipitated Withdrawal”, art and story by Ryan Montoya, an excerpt from a graphic novel-in-progress, an educational look at how opioids affect the brain and the medical protocols used to prevent withdrawal; and “Making it to the Registers: A Migrant Healthcare Worker’s Story” by Hugh Goldring, Nicole Marie Burton, Marie-Andrée Jacob, Priyasha Saksena, Nasreen Ali, Amrita Limbu, Britzer Paul Vincent Paul Raj, and Rukia Saleem from White Rose Libraries; funded by AHRC (Arts & Humanities Research Council), University of Leeds, an exploration of the professional and personal accreditation struggles faced by migrant clinicians in Britain.
Short Form Category Winner
The Winner in the Short Form Category is What Have We Lost? by Shawn Forde | Available to download here
This fourteen-page comic about the author’s perspective on his family’s infertility difficulties, in vitro fertilisation attempts, and miscarriages accompanied his five page article that appeared in Graphic Medicine Review.
“This comic presents a personal narrative depicting the disenfranchised grief that comes along with infertility and pregnancy loss,” Shawn notes in the abstract for his project. “The comic became a way to make sense of the relentless cycles of hope and disappointment that characterise infertility. Rather than focusing on the loss of a particular pregnancy, the grief depicted in this work centres on the endless possibility that a child might still be born. It focuses on the cruel optimism of the always possible child and how mourning is delayed for the next medical procedure.
“The comic explores the disenfranchised grief and psychological toll that infertility imposes, especially within a medical system that narrowly defines success as the birth of a baby and often overlooks the emotional needs of the majority who do not achieve that outcome. It also grapples with existential rupture that occurs when long-held reproductive stories and imagined futures begin to unravel.
“This work does not offer solutions or closure. Instead, it invites readers into the unresolved and often invisible emotional landscape of infertility.”
“Placing the words ‘still’ and ‘born’ separated only by ‘be’ couldn’t have been coincidental, and seems to summarise their experience in three words,” notes Kevin Wolf. “The black and white comic that follows the article’s text provides two very emotionally fraught stories. The author’s and spouse’s own story is contrasted with that of a pod of orca whales. The sadness of miscarriage appears as ink smudges, loneliness, and nearly empty panels. Forde mourns not only the loss of a ‘possible child’ but the lack of community support.”
“Shawn Forde demonstrates an excellent use of the comics language in this moving short form work,” the judges noted, who “particularly appreciated the repeating motif of dropping, or falling, or letting go.”
Shawn will receive $600 US prize money and a commemorative trophy.
Also nominated were: BOLD Buddies Stories by Federico Muelas Romero, published by Blue Pug Books, humorously illustrated stories of women overcoming cancer and navigating the financial and physical repercussions of treatment; The Anatomy of My Spine by Sydney Heifler, a personal exploration of how physical disability and trauma from assault inhabit the body and the role of art in healing; On Epilepsy: Between Seizure and Silence by Siyu (Anna) Li, self-published, a medical student’s watercolour account of neurology rounds and learning patient communication during a crisis; and Emergency Room by Faye Harnest, self published, a symbolic, circus-themed depiction of the disorientation and sensory chaos following a traumatic brain injury.
We’re sorry we can’t include images here from The Anatomy of My Spine and On Epilepsy: Between Seizure and Silence, but it’s been impossible to find any of sufficient quality, beyond those in this composite image…
Long Form Category Winner
The Winner in the Long Form Category is Hello Sunshine by Keezy Young
Last semester, Alex was in a sweet new relationship with Noah, a new boy at school, but when Noah comes back from summer camp, he finds Alex has been missing and something went terribly wrong. Alex had pushed him away over the summer, not responding to Noah’s texts, which he’d been sad about, but it turns out while Noah was gone, Alex had experienced a severe psychotic episode. Kids at school are saying he was “crazy” and violent and even his twin brother Jamie doesn’t know where he is now. Noah gathers Jamie, friends Sky and Izzy, and the family dog Cass, together to get to the bottom of what happened to Alex. The nightmares [Alex’s] psychosis creates blurs with reality, as he talks to his mother who died when he and Jamie were young. She also struggled with mental illness.
“Alex has schizoaffective disorder and he’s a witch,” notes Keezy Young. “I wanted mental illness to exist in this fantasy story alongside supernatural elements.”
“Overall, it is an artfully compelling and haunting read,” noted Cassy Lee. “Young says she, ‘wanted this book to help all of us feel less alone and scared, whether we experience severe mental illness, love someone who does, or simply share the world with those who do.’
The judges were “blown away by the artwork and the sophistication of the storytelling which blurs the lines between mental illness and the supernatural. With best short form work last year, Keezy Young is obviously on a roll.”
Keezy will receive $600 US prize money and a commemorative trophy.
Also nominated were: Precious Rubbish by Kayla E., published by Fantagraphics Books, a personal memoir using retro graphics to explore gender identity and the survival of chronic family abuse; Toxic Tropics – A Horror Story of Environmental Injustice by Jessica Oublié (writer); Nicola Gobbi (art); Kathrine Avraam (colour); and Vinciane Lebrun (photography) and published by Street Noise Books (translated from French by Irene Vázquez), investigative journalism regarding pesticide contamination and its health impacts in the Lesser Antilles; Call Me Emma: One Chinese Girl Finds Her Way in America by Makee, published by Street Noise Press, a narrative tracing the psychological strain, social anxiety, and resilience of a teenager navigating cultural transition; and This Might Surprise You: A Breast Cancer Story by Hayley Gullen, published by Green Tree, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing, an honest, black-and-white portrayal of navigating diagnosis, treatment, and self-advocacy after a breast cancer diagnosis.
Congratulations to all the nominees and winners.
These awards were envisioned, created, and are administered not to champion one or two works of graphic medicine, but many. This award was conceived by our donors and the board to be in service of the mission of GMIC, “to guide and support the use of comics in health.”
Their hope is that this annual engagement by the larger GMIC community with a very deliberative, careful award process will result in enthusiasm and awareness, promoting all graphic medicine works.
The GMIC Awards committee thanks all the donors who make this Awards process possible. The commemorative trophies this year were designed and built with GMIC board member Alex Thomas’ logo design by Ben Sass of Handmade Studios in Sawyer, Michigan.
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John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.
He’s the writer of comics such as 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.
Categories: Comics, Creating Comics, downthetubes Comics News, downthetubes News
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