Over at Journalist's Resource, comic artist Josh Neufeld has a great piece of visual journalism called A tale of two pandemics: A nonfiction comic about historical racial health disparities. It's available under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives 4.0 International License, so I've included it below; but if you'd prefer a high-resolution PDF, that's also an option.
More details about the piece:
In a "A Tale of Two Pandemics: Historical Insights on Persistent Racial Disparities," Josh Neufeld uses the form of comics journalism to highlight a recent research article published in the Annals of Internal Medicine. The comic draws on the research article itself, along with additional sources — including interviews with co-authors Lakshmi Krishnan, S. Michelle Ogunwole and Lisa A. Cooper. The three medical doctors are the main characters of the comic, which explains racial health disparities and the spread of misinformation during the coronavirus pandemic and the 1918 influenza pandemic. The doctors' speech-bubble quotes come directly from their interviews with Neufeld. The text in rectangular boxes comprises Neufeld's own narrative — except in cases when he uses quotation marks to denote a direct quotation.
In cases where Neufeld quotes directly from the doctors' research article, he depicts the authors speaking in unison — akin to a Greek chorus. "I let their voices guide the narrative," Neufeld says. "I'm so grateful that they spoke to me about their article!"
The social media posts featured in the comic are quoted verbatim from actual posts, and many of the drawings are based on news photos — such as Associated Press photographer Bebeto Matthews' images of people waiting in line for face masks and food in New York last April. For more on Josh Neufeld's comics journalism process, please see our companion Q&A.
A tale of two pandemics: A nonfiction comic about historical racial health disparities [Josh Neufeld / Journalist's Resource]
