A large pencil stuck through a skull in the same way the pole went through Phineas Gage's head: entering under the left eye and exiting through the top of the skull.

New England Graphic Medicine Summit Returns

We are pleased to announce the return of the New England Graphic Medicine (NEGM) Summit on October 24, 2025, featuring a half-day incubator designed to foster community and collaboration at the intersection of healthcare and comics across New England. Since the conference’s original launch in 2019 as “the New England Graphic Medicine Comic-Con,” the field of Graphic Medicine has grown considerably in Boston and the region.

This year’s event—hosted on Boston's Longwood Avenue, a world-renowned hub for hospitals, medical research centers, and academic institutions (including our hosts, MCPHS University and Harvard Medical School's Countway Library)—will consist of presentations, panels, and workshops, both in-person and virtually, to connect, illuminate, and expand the area’s Graphic Medicine community. An additional aim is to galvanize interest and coordinate organizers for a potential larger regional conference in 2026. Proposals are sought from those living in New England or focusing on the region, comparing their region to New England, or creating material on/for specifically New England, including, but not limited to, scholarly, creative, clinical, and pedagogical by readers, creators, students, educators, scholars, retailers, librarians, clinicians, and healthcare policy makers. For more information about the event, check out this Fanbase Press interview with planning committee members Caroline Hu and Briana L. Martino! 

Please mark your calendars, with registration details and full agenda to be announced soon. Proposals (of approx. 200 words, fully listing all contributors) will be due by September 2, 2025, and a Google Form for submissions will go live in August. If you would like to help promote the event, you can download the NEGM Summit flyer (PDF).

Register to Attend or Present

The New England Graphic Medicine (NEGM) Summit will welcome a number of registered individuals to the Boston campuses on Friday, October 24th as well as have unlimited online attendance opportunities. Please signal your interest in attending, either in person (limited numbers available), over Zoom, or as an on-site presenter here: Attend NEGM 25!

NEGM25 Summit Programming

Friday, October 24, 2025

  • 9:00 am: Doors open
  • 9:30 am: Welcome from co-organizers
  • 10:00 am:
    • Panel A: Tom Hart, Sequential Artists Workshop - "Rituals of Graphic Medicine” with special guests
    • Panel B: LB Lee - “Quick’n’Dirty Plural Artistic History”; Meredith Kustina, Cambridge Health Alliance - “Mornings Are Rough: A Book for Children with Autism”; Sylvia Lardeaux - “A Body Out of Order: Living through Long COVID before It Existed"
  • 11:15 am:
    • Panel C: Publishers panel, featuring Graphic Mundi, Street Noise Books, and more; Joel Christian Gill Boston University (Moderator)
    • Panel D: Nealie Ngo, Cambridge Health Alliance - "Creating Comics About Psychotropic Medications for Kids” (lightning talk); Scarlet Shilo, Boston University - "Communicating Previvorship in Zines and Graphic Memoirs”; Briana Martino & Ellen Grabiner, Simmons University - “Keywords/Keyimages in Graphic Medicine: Picturing”; Annika Mengwall, Yale University - "Artistry & Accuracy: Striking a Balance in Health Education Materials”; A. David Lewis, MCPHS University - “The Bodies of Graphic Memoir” (Moderator)
  • 12:45 pm: Closing remarks
  • Throughout the event: Exhibiting artists - Penelope McDonald & Lafleche Giasson

The afternoon will consist of two workshops (James Sturm and the CCS’s Cartooning Clinic, Jess Ruliffson’s Graphic Medicine in Three Panels or Less) as well as a NEGM 2026 brainstorming session. Tables for various organizations and art exhibits will also be featured. Stay tuned for further updates!

Cartooning Clinic

The Cartooning Clinic is open for consultation!Could your graphic medicine project use a creative check up?

Do you have a long-form graphic medicine project? Are you struggling with specific elements or having difficulty viewing it holistically?

The New England Graphic Medicine Summit is pairing with the Center for Cartoon Studies' Applied Cartooning Lab to offer creative check-ups for long-form graphic medicine projects. The Cartooning Clinic is modeled after teaching hospitals—learning from direct feedback and learning through observing others.

Selected applicants will have their work reviewed by a team of CCS educators prior to NEGM25. Then, during the NEGM Summit, applicants will receive the team's insights and suggestions in front of interested attendees. We hope all participants will benefit from these assessments.

Follow the link below for full eligibility requirements and to apply. The deadline is 9/19.

NEGM25 Cartooning Clinic Application

Values Statement

As it is vital for the event's programming and goals to align with its principles and ethics, the following values will be observed for all aspects of its planning and execution:

Whom is NEGM for...

Readers, creators, students, educators, scholars, retailers, librarians, clinicians, healthcare workers, policy-makers...—either living in New England, focusing on New England, comparing their region to New England, or creating material on/for specifically New England.

What NEGM Prioritizes....

In accord with the stated mission of the Graphic Medicine International Collective (GMC): "We value kindness, compassion, and inclusivity. We welcome curiosity, creativity, and ingenuity. We foster community, connection, and collaboration. We commit to transparency, honesty, and accountability to ourselves and to our community."

NEGM would like to highlight the following three principles, explicitly:

  1. We advocate for access and inclusion across all identities and abilities, as well as safety and health for all people.

  2. While we welcome discussion/organizing in regards to generative AI, we currently cannot accept submissions, written or illustrated, which make use of it. As this technology matures and the societal landscape around it and its ethical use develop further, we can return to review this principle. As such NEGM also pledges to limit any use of these tools in its own work.

  3. We value evidence-based medical practices and scientific inquiry, and we seek to combat misinformation and disinformation.

Organizers

The 2025 New England Graphic Medicine Summit is a collaboratively organized event brought to you by:

  • A David Lewis (MCPHS University)
  • Briana Martino (Simmons University)
  • Caroline Hu (Massachusetts College of Art and Design)
  • Lisa Kennedy (Massachusetts College of Art and Design)
  • Sarah Levin-Lederer (Network of the National Library of Medicine, Region 7)
  • Matthew Noe (Harvard Medical School)
  • Yasmina Kamal (Harvard Medical School)

Connect with Us

Follow #NEGM25 on social media:

Please email all questions to NEGM, thank you.