Discovering Dementia
Graphic Novel
A collaboration with lab4living, working with design researcher Claire Craig and poet John Killick, to create a book aimed at helping people recently diagnosed with dementia.
The book takes the reader on a visual journey to communicate the psychological and emotional effects of dementia, through metaphorical imagery and real life quotes.
‘Design and the arts have an important role to play in how dementia is portrayed and understood. Stigmatising products, and certain media representations of individuals living with dementia serve to reinforce negative stereotypes which can undermine self-hood. Our hope is that this book will challenge existing genres of publication, providing an alternative picture of hope and potential.’ - Claire Craig
Written by John Killick and People with Dementia
Published by Lab4Living
Press
Written by Steve Haines
Published by Singing Dragon, Hachette
Available to pre order here
Press
Released on 21st April
Touch Is Really Strange
Graphic Novel
Why can't we tickle ourselves? How can slow touch convey more powerful emotions than fast touch? How does touch shape our perception of the world? The latest addition to the Really Strange Series , this science-based graphic comic addresses these questions and more, revealing the complexity of touch and exploring its power and limits. Used positively, touch can change pain and trauma, communicate compassion and love and generate social bonding. Get it wrong and it can be abusive and terrifying.
Everyone's initial experience of life and existence is tactile and spatial at its core. Before we have language, our concepts are formed as we meet a world full of edges and textures. Touch Is Really Strange celebrates the power of inward touch (interoception) and looks at how we can use skillful contact to promote feelings of joy, connection and vitality inside another. Touch helps us feel real and connected, and is fundamental to the development of consciousness and to perception. Steve Haines' new book teaches us how to safely touch people, not parts of people.
Written by Teddy G Goetz
Published by Singing Dragon, Hachette
Gender Is Really Strange
Graphic Novel (Released 19 October 2023)
What does it mean to be trans? Non-Binary? Gender Diverse? What parts of gender come from society? What parts come from within? How much is biology, and how much is socialization?
Part of the Really Strange series, this science-based graphic medicine comic addresses these questions and more, revealing the inherent messiness of gender identity and sex. A mysterious amalgam of biology and society, inherently sensed, yet societally-defined, the complexity of gender is revealed through examining neuroscience, biology, hormones, mental health, behaviour and how much of gender comes from society. Exploring theories, thinkers, terminology, history and gender cultures around the world and across different religions, this easy-to-understand and engaging book will help you to question perceived norms and engage critically with your own gender identity.
Get ready to break down the binary B.S. and celebrate gender in all its messy glory!
Camouflage
Graphic Novel
An engaging insight into the often underexplored condition of autism in women and girls, delivered in an expertly researched and beautifully illustrated graphic book. The perfect resource for anyone who wishes to understand how gender affects autism, it shows how to create safer, more accommodating environments for women on the spectrum.
Written by Sarah Bargiela
Published by Jessica Kingsley Publishers
Available to buy here
Press
The Observer | The Independent | The Sun | 9e Kunst | Autistic and Unapologetic | Guardian Bookshop Feminist Season | Refinery 29 | Book Riot 1 and 2 | Comicon | Spectrum Women | The Beat
Further Reading
Anxiety Is Really Strange
Graphic Novel
What is the difference between fear and excitement and how can you tell them apart? How do the mind and body make emotions? When can anxiety be good? This science-based graphic book addresses these questions and more, revealing just how strange anxiety is, but also how to unravel its mysteries and relieve its effects. Understanding how anxiety is created by our nervous system trying to protect us, and how our fight-or-flight mechanisms can get stuck, can significantly lessen the fear experienced during anxiety attacks. In this guide, anxiety is explained in an easy-to-understand, engaging graphic format with tips and strategies to relieve its symptoms, and change the mind's habits for a more positive outlook.
Forgiveness Is Really Strange
Graphic Novel
What is forgiveness? What enables people to forgive? Why do we even choose to forgive those who have harmed us? What can the latest psychological research tell us about the nature of forgiveness, its benefits and risks?
This imaginative comic explores the key aspects of forgiveness, asking what it means to forgive and to be forgiven. Witty and intelligent, it answers questions about the health benefits and restorative potential of forgiveness and explains, in easy-to-understand terms, what happens in our brains, bodies and communities when we choose to forgive.
Written by Masi Noor and Marina Cantacuzino
Published by Jessica Kingsley Publishers
Avaliable to buy here
Press
Trauma Is Really Strange
Graphic Novel
What is trauma? How does it change the way our brains work? And how can we overcome it? When something traumatic happens to us, we dissociate and our bodies shut down their normal processes. This unique comic explains the strange nature of trauma and how it confuses the brain and affects the body. With cat and mouse metaphors, essential scientific facts, and a healthy dose of wit, the narrator reveals how trauma resolution involves changing the body's physiology and describes techniques that can achieve this, including Trauma Releasing Exercises that allow the body to shake away tension, safely releasing deep muscular patterns of stress and trauma.
Written by Steve Haines
Published by Jessica Kingsley Publishers
Avaliable to buy here
Press
Pain Is Really Strange
Graphic Novel
Answering questions such as 'how can I change my pain experience?', 'what is pain?', and 'how do nerves work?', this short research-based graphic book reveals just how strange pain is and explains how understanding it is often the key to relieving its effects. Studies show that understanding how pain is created and maintained by the nervous system can significantly lessen the pain you experience. The narrator in this original, gently humorous book explains pain in an easy-to-understand, engaging graphic format and reveals how to change the mind's habits to transform pain.
Written by Steve Haines
Published by Jessica Kingsley Publishers
Avaliable to buy here
Press
Graphic Medicine | Page 45 | Scholar Sage | Booktopia | Down The Tubes | Reading Well