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Beyond the Comic Panel: Using the principles of cartooning to boost health communication
Beyond the Comic Panel: Using the principles of cartooning to boost health communication
Background:
With the growing popularity of print and digital comics, there is renewed interest in using comics to support health literacy. Comics have demonstrated value as a communication tool to explain medical and public health topics. The flexibility of this visual narrative medium makes it useful in a wide variety of situations, however traditional comics formats (comic strips, comic books) may not be the best choice in all contexts.
Program background:
In more than 50 health communication projects, our creative team of a cartoonist/physician and a health communication writer/designer/producer have applied comics principles to many non-comics projects. For health literacy, the comics principles most relevant to non-comics applications are abstraction, juxtaposition, metaphor, and sequence. Abstraction can produce visuals that are easier to identify with and understand. Juxtaposition can add layers of meaning without increasing a reader’s cognitive burden. Metaphor can communication complex ideas with simplicity and accuracy. Sequence can articulate information about time, space, action, and relationships.
Evaluation Methods and Results:
This presentation will show original examples, methods, and results from several health communication projects that apply these principles in non-comics formats. Examples include a website to share cancer screening information with people the LGBTQ+ community, a decision support tool about chronic mechanical ventilation options, a children’s book from a childhood obesity intervention, and multimedia educational program that uses comic metaphors to teach complex medical information such as pulmonary pathophysiology and pharmacological mechanisms of actions to children.
Conclusions:
With a 100-year-old history, the medium of comics offers visual communication techniques that can be effective beyond comics.
Implications for research and/or practice:
This presentation will demonstrate how health communication professionals can use principles from comics to guide writing and design decisions, even if they are not producing traditional comics.