Message in a Bottle from August
On Spider-Man, the Odyssey, comics and medicine, home tour, and fun shoes
Hello readers,
I recently got back from Baltimore, Maryland, land of crab cakes and a terrific art museum with tons of Matisse paintings after attending the annual Graphic Medicine Conference, which focuses on the intersection of the medium of comics and healthcare stories. This year there was a lively discussion about how librarians are cataloging zines, and a keynote by the palliative care doc Nathan Gray about his forthcoming graphic memoir about med school and residency. Yes, 2026 is the year of the med school graphic memoir!
While I was in Baltimore I read the powerful graphic memoir Opioids & Organs by Arizona O’Neill. This memoir explores the author’s experience with her father’s fentanyl overdose and her ambivalence about donating his organs: “It did not take me long to start feeling guilty about having given his organs back to a society that does not care about addicts.” Both the storytelling and art are beautiful.
Speaking of storytelling, the graphic medicine conference ended with a panel on new books in graphic medicine (including See One, Do One, Teach One!), and one of the panelists called his book “a message in a bottle” to someone facing similar questions. I loved this particular use of the expression, and I think I’m going to start calling SODOTO a “message in a bottle to people considering med school.” This message in a bottle was reviewed on NPR.org last week, which was super exciting.
Okay, now that we’ve discussed medicine, comics, and books, it’s time to discuss a couple of my other favorite things: astrology and fashion. In terms of astrology, how was your mercury retrograde? I accidentally sent a phishing email to my entire gmail contacts, and then had to reply to an embarrassing number of people asking me if the email was real or phishing. It was fun to reconnect with every single person I’ve ever known.
Let’s move on to fashion. I am currently monitoring this mismatched shoe trend. First Russ (age 11) has asked me to buy these sets of sneakers, and then my mom and I both noticed one of the characters in the second season of the Netflix show The Four Seasons wearing these flats. Now I’m searching for a new pair of running shoes that are different colors, but I haven’t found any that I like. What do you think? Is this a trend that’s going somewhere?
I do love a multicolor moment, which you can see in the recent Cup of Jo home tour. Amber Vickery (an Austin photographer!) made everything look nice, and I had so much fun chatting with Jannelle! My older son George says that this article gives the impression that I am a dog person, which I am not. But our dog Putnam definitely thinks he is a supermodel. We recently bid farewell to the bunkbeds, so it’s nice to have these photos. Of course I also have a million drawings of the bunkbeds.
I might need to bring back the primal scream days after this week of abhorrent treatment of Fauci, the bogus claims of our current secretary of HHS, and the Clancy trial. To avoid the emotional toll of all of this, and to help with the post-World Cup comedown, Russ and I started the academic project of watching all of the Tom Holland Spider-Man movies in order. There are 3 if you don’t count the Captain America movie where he is introduced, and the 2 Avengers movies where he “joins the Avengers” (whatever that means!). We needed to catch up because my Aunt Stella was taking him to see the new Spider-Man this week. I wasn’t really looking forward to watching these movies, so imagine my surprise when I loved them! Replacing the World Cup with Marvel makes total sense—it’s a global phenomenon, so much talent, etc. Last night we went to see Spider-Man Brand New Day and it was wonderful. I cried. I think I preferred it to The Odyssey and the The Invite, both of which I also enjoyed. All this to say, if you, like me, have previously been a snob about Marvel, no judgment! I get it now, though.
Okay, I hope the rest of your summer goes well. Any summer reading recommendations for me? I’m in the middle of a few different novels right now (one hardback, two paperback, and a few on my phone’s Libby app). I saw these photos, and thought ew, but I ended up checking out Asymmetry, which I am enjoying.
See you back here once the school year starts up again! xo
Great post. Thanks for sharing. I look forward to having as a guest on the GraphicMEMOIRBlog once day!
Congratulations on the npr review, and I’m so excited to learn there is a graphic medicine conference because that definitely feels like something that makes the world a better place. Thank you for doing all the work you do, Grace!! You make the world a better place.