Of comics and dementia: an interview with Nigel Baines, Rebecca Roher, and Liza Futerman

Abstract

ABSTRACT Dementia is often represented as both a terrifying illness and a social threat. Graphic medicine is a burgeoning comics genre dealing with the experience of dementia through physical, and emotional issues. Through the medium of comics, graphic memoirs tease out how dementia operates formally and thematically. In this email interview, three graphic memoirists, Nigel Baines (author of Afloat), Rebecca Roher (author of Bird in a Cage) and Liza Futerman (author of Keeper of the Clouds), reflect on their nuanced understanding of dementia, their experience as caregivers, the challenges of dementia caregiving, and the potential of graphic medicine to convey such issues. The interview is divided into two sections: in Part I, titled Of Comics and Dementia, the authors respond to common questions related to dementia, personhood, dementia care, and graphic memoirs, among others, and in Part II, titled ‘Tragedy not deep and sharp if it can be shared with friends’: The Power of Storytelling, each of the authors responds to questions related to their respective dementia comics