Comics in the Time of COVID-19

In recent years Graphic Medicine has gained in importance in various fields, ranging from clinical to activist contexts. By analysing the experiences of the Käthe Collective which created the comic book Materia Viva in 2020, the aim of this essay is to review the elaborations that have developed in the field of Graphic Medicine and examine its role during COVID-19. Materia Viva is a comic that focuses on different concepts and principles of health such as: a conceptualisation of health that goes beyond the absence of disease, the social determinants of health, health inequalities, and community participation. Starting from a review of the different uses and purposes of Graphic Medicine, the essay focuses on the context in which Materia Viva was born, namely the lockdowns introduced in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy, and on the creative process that led to the publication of the comic book. Subsequently, the main contents of the comic book are analysed, to conclude with the description of the concrete contexts of Materia Viva’s development and use after its publication. Our analysis highlights how, although Materia Viva was created to disseminate health-related content, it has also been used in other educational, clinical and activist contexts. In this perspective its physical and virtual form, as well as its purpose are shaped by the people who interact with it, resulting in an unexpected relevance compared to the original intentions.