“The end is where we start from.” — T. S. Eliot. As I enter cave time to work on a number of projects – with initial focus on completing the remaining 16 pages of the 22 page comic, “Potato Nose: Narratio Retrógrada” – I say “see ya” by sharing the back and front covers. The…
Tag: graphic medicine
Temporal ambiguity…
The MRI, March 17, 2026. “Illness narratives do not always begin at the beginning.” — Catherine Kohler Riessman, “Ruptures and Sutures: Time, Audience and Identity in an Illness Narrative,” Sociology of Health & Illness, Vol. 37, No. 7 (2015) Experimenting with “temporal ambiguity” and messing around with imagery for my upcoming 16 page comic, Potato Nose:…
Reclaiming autonomy
For the first time in a long while, the future feels brighter. Scratch that. The present feels brighter and the year ahead feels lighter. Big news: Two of my graphic novel projects have received Canada Council grants for Artistic Creation. The funding will support research and development for both books. The deeper work on those…
Graphic Medicine. Drawing it out releases me… #potatonose
Potato Nose: 1977, the graphic novel What is graphic medicine? ‘The intersection between the medium of comics and the discourse of healthcare’. — My new Kickstarter Campaign is now live and runs Oct 24 – Nov 20, 2025 Potato Nose: 1977, the graphic novel A tragicomic memoir of pubescent anxiety and ecstatic delusion “If you…
Kill your darlings: a sampling of pieces that didn’t make it into my graphic novel
My graphic novel, Salt Green Death (Conundrum Press), is a work of creative nonfiction born out of historical research – a Vancouver-based family saga spanning mainly 1924 to 1968. Salt Green Death, Katarina Thorsen, Conundrum Press 2025 (Video and music by Julian Bowers) Salt Green Death contains 165 hand-drawn pages. Of course, there is a…
Nature Moves Through Carcasses Embroidered Drawing
Nature Moves Through Carcasses (Embroidered Drawing) (Video and Music by Julian Bowers) Nature Moves Through Carcasses pays tribute to Molly O’Dwyer—a young woman whose life and memory became the emotional and narrative catalyst for my graphic novel Salt Green Death (Conundrum Press, 2025). The embroidered drawing process is one of my most personal approaches to…
Dementia Dad: A story about the Caring Relationship by Hannah Miller
I was delighted to receive the mini-comic Dementia Dad by Hannah Miller in the post today. The book is a simple, heart-warming, insightful and empowering piece. With her profound illustrations and humorous text, Hannah manages to paint a portrait of the effects of dementia on daily life. A simple short story says SO MUCH. We…