The Graphic Medicine International Collective (GMIC) have announced the nominees for the fifth edition of their annual comics awards. Split across three categories, the 2026 GMIC Awards cover educational, long form and short form comics. The winners will be announced as part of the annual GMIC conference, set to take place in Baltimore between July 23-26.
Posting on the collective’s website, MK Czerwiec (aka Comic Nurse) said:
“The Graphic Medicine International Collective is thrilled to announce the shortlists for the 2026 Graphic Medicine International Collective Awards for outstanding health-related comic projects completed and/or published in 2025. GMIC is a not-for-profit organization with the mission to guide and support the uses of comics in health, and these awards are at the heart of our mission.”
They add,
“The entries were wide-ranging in form, length, geographical origin, and topic, but they had one thing in common: they revealed deep engagement with highly meaningful subjects. The GMIC Board and Award Committee are grateful for and moved by the care and trust their creators showed in submitting work for these awards, and we honor all of the creators. Deciding on five nominees in each category was not an easy process!”
According to the website, the Graphic Medicine Awards (or the GMIC Awards) shortlists and winners are selected by a diverse panel “representing one or more of these categories: cartoonist, academic, clinician, librarian, person with lived experience of illness, caregiving, and/or disability, and comics critic/reviewer”. Each winning entry receives $600 and a keepsake.
Previous long form category winners have included Élodie Durand‘s graphic memoir about living with tumor-related epilepsy, Parenthesis (Top Shelf); Rick Louis & Lara Antal‘s graphic memoir about parenting a child with a terminal diagnosis, Ronan and the Endless Sea of Stars (Abrams ComicArts); Maia Kobabe & Dr. Sarah Peitzmeier‘s handbook Breathe: Journeys to Healthy Binding (Dutton Books); and Boum’s partially autobiographical sightloss story The Jellyfish (Pow Pow Press).
‘Graphic Medicine’ is described as the intersection between comics and healthcare, with works covering multiple perspectives and subjects that can help improve knowledge and understanding at the patient or professional level – such as the experience of healthcare workers, personal testimony with illness and treatment, as well as guides on complex or nuanced subjects. The term was first coined in 2007 by British general practitioner and graphic novelist Dr Ian Williams. Inspired by Brian Fies Mom’s Cancer, Dr Williams set up the website graphicmedicine.org which drew the interest of creators, librarians academics, and physicians. The community that developed coalesced into the non-profit Graphic Medicine International Collective, with their first conference taking place in 2010. The GMIC Awards were introduced in 2022 to highlight works in the category.
GRAPHIC MEDICINE INTERNATIONAL COLLECTIVE AWARD 2026 SHORTLISTS
[note, we have supplied the links for those nominees that may be trickier to find]
Educational Comics
- IT’S A JOURNEY: A Graphic Medicine Exploration of Endometriosis and Gender Diversity, by cowritten by Asiel & Dr. M. Giacomozzi, illustrated by Asiel (Treat it Queer and Spaghetti Publishing)
- Pregnancy and Birth: A Graphic Guide, by Laura Godfrey-Isaacs, Lilly Williams. (Icon Books)
- Crash Cart, by writer/creator Ebony Toussaint, penciller/inker Robert Aultman, colorist Alexandria Batchelor, letterer Jeremy Darby, cover penciller/inker Josh Jones (Hellcat Comics)
- Precipitated Withdrawal, by Ryan Montoya — an excerpt from a graphic novel-in-progress.
- Making it to the Registers: A Migrant Healthcare Worker’s Story, by Hugh Goldring, nicole marie burton, Marie-Andrée Jacob, Priyasha Saksena, Nasreen Ali, Amrita Limbu, Britzer Paul Vincent Paul Raj, and Rukia Saleem (White Rose Libraries; funded by the Arts & Humanities Research Council, University of Leeds)
Long Form Comics
- Precious Rubbish, by Kayla E (Fantagraphics Books)
- Toxic Tropics – A Horror Story of Environmental Injustice, by writer Jessica Oublié, artist Nicola Gobbi, colorist Kathrine Avraam, and photographer Vinciane Lebrun (Street Noise Books)
- Call Me Emma: One Chinese Girl Finds Her Way in America, by Makee (Street Noise Press)
- Hello Sunshine, by Keezy Young ( LB Ink | Little, Brown & Company.)
- This Might Surprise You: A Breast Cancer Story, by Hayley Gullen (Green Tree | Bloomsbury Publishing)
Short Form Comics (any work under 25 pages)
- BOLD Buddies Stories, by Federico Muelas Romero (Blue Pug Books)
- What Have We Lost? Infertility, Miscarriage, and Disenfranchised Grief, by Shawn Forde (Graphic Medicine Review | UMass Medical School)
- The Anatomy of My Spine, by Sydney Heifler (publication forthcoming in an anthology)
- On Epilepsy: Between Seizure and Silence, by Siyu (Anna) Li (self-published)
- Emergency Room, by Faye Harnest (self-published)
