Swine Flu Comic Book is No Ordinary Comic
Using Comics to Spread H1N1 Pandemic Information
Many experts in infectious diseases are predicting that the H1N1 Swine Flu could become the next influenza virus to reach global pandemic proportions. At the same time, Public Health officials are searching for effecting means of informing the public about the potential dangers of this disease and how they can help to slow its spread.
Most of the efforts used to inform the public include the familiar old pamphlets and public service announcements. For instance, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has produced a series of PSAs featuring Elmo, from Sesame Street, advising children to sneeze into their elbows.
Educational Comics to the Rescue
The Seattle – King County Health Department decided to turn to another form of media to spread the word about the potential pandemic: the comic book. Thanks to a $75,000 grant from the National Association of County and City Health Officials, the Seattle Health Department was able to hire local comic-creator David Lasky to do the art for a story written by Public Health risk-communication specialist Meredith Li-Vollmer.
Li-Vollmer's demographic analysis of her target audience of immigrants and refugees in the Seattle area, according to Stephen Betts in the August 18, 2009 Comix Influx, revealed that pictorial information, especially in the form of comic books, would be especially effective in conveying her message, This should come as no surprise as comic books have been used, to great effect, to convey educational messages. A prime example are the comics used by the U.S. government and the Catholic Church to warn Americans of the pending Communist threat during the height of the cold war.
The 1918 Spanish Flu Pandemic as a Metaphor
Li-Vollmer's tale uses the 1918 "Spanish" flu pandemic as a metaphor to spin her story about the potential horrors of the Swine Flu. The 1918 flu killed an estimated 50 to 100 million people and Li-Vollmer uses survivors of those ghastly times to create the allusion that this flu season, the Swine Flu could lead to similar devastation.
She enlisted Seattle comic creator David Lasky to illustrate the comic. Lasky has a strong emotional tie to the work as his great-grandmother, a Russian immigrant, died from the 1918 flu. Her death caused three of her six children, including Lasky's grandmother to be placed in an orphanage. Lasky told the Seattle Times on July 24th that, because of the 1918 pandemic, his grandmother never got the chance to live the American dream.
Images of Desolation and Loss
Li-Vollmer and Lasky's combination of words and images are, at times, staggering. Their portrayal of the desolation and loss during the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic is perhaps best seen in one panel where one lonely man walks past an empty playground. The reader is also made aware of how quickly society breaks down during a pandemic as shortages of doctors, food, and even coffins plague the sick and healthy alike.
After the harrowing history lesson, the reader is given details about the potential Swine flu pandemic and how to prepare for the catastrophe which may be coming. This is not your usual Health Department pamphlet. It contains the storytelling power of the comic book and the horrors of history distilled into a morality fable which warns the reader of a coming apocalypse.
Doug Evans, the director of Health Communication and Marketing in the School of Public Health and Health Services at George Washington University says that this type of educational entertainment is a very effective means of sending a message. He told ABC News on September 2, 2009, "Educational Entertainment can bring home the reality, potentially, as opposed to public service announcements, which often aren't seen, are dry, and sometimes, the message doesn't get through.
Speaking in Tongues
The comic was carefully translated into 12 languages and readied for distribution on the internet as a PDF file as well as in the traditional print format. Anne Shields, who manages community and school based partnerships for the Health Department told the Associated Press on August 17, 2009, that response to the comic has been positive: "We got lots of positive feedback. It was a publication that got picked up and taken home instead of left in the other pile of papers that the school sent out."
If you wish to judge for yourself, go to the Seattle--King County Health Department web site where you can download a PDF copy in one of 13 languages.
No Ordinary Flu -- No Ordinary Comic Book
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