Cover art by Ashling Larkin
Pandemic Tales: Responses to COVID-19 and Lockdown
The Comics
Lost, and Found, in Transitions
School Transitions: Whose Transitions Are They Anyway?
Buddy’s Tips to Social Diss-tancing
University Lives in Transition
Covid Nine’Teen & Covid Cross Man
Have I Been Here Before? Fibromyalgia and COVID-19
When the Coronavirus pandemic took hold in early 2020, sending the world into lockdown, we decided to create an anthology comic to help people reflect upon the impact of the virus. We wanted to capture the important transitions that everyone was making, and to tell the stories of the communities, groups, and individuals who were doing amazing things to help themselves and others. We sought to tell the stories of ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. We also wanted to highlight the University of Dundee’s response. This has included scientists working to assist the global effort to find a vaccine, nursing students join the front line by completing their studies in practice, the creation of the Scrub Hub, which saw a partnership between the university, business and the public to create much needed PPE, creating guidance material and resources in partnership with British Psychological Society to support children and young people, school staff and families with educational and life transitions , and many other activities. In light of these inspiring tales of dedication and determination the comics team mobilised to help tell these stories in the best way we know how – through a comic!
Pandemic Tales: Responses to Covid-19 and Lockdown collects stories about these strange and challenging times. In the first instance the stories created for this anthology will be released individually as webcomics on the Scottish Centre for Comics Studies website and some through blogs published by the Transformative Change: Educational and Life Transitions (TCELT) Research Centre. Eventually we will collect these stories into one volume and launch it as a print publication when it is safe to do so.
Many thanks to all those who are supporting this project, from all the writers and artists creating these stories, to Professor John Rowan, Dr Clive Randall and Kaye Lister at the University of Dundee who have assisted with funding the project.
We are excited to share these stories with you, and there are many more to follow!
If you have any queries or feedback please feel free to contact us. Also, please complete a brief questionnaire about our comics (https://dundee.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/public-information-comics). We would really appreciate your thoughts on the comics, especially on the impact they might have made on your understanding of these issues.
Professor Christopher Murray
Director, Scottish Centre for Comics Studies and Dundee Comics Creative Space
University of Dundee
Professor Divya Jindal-Snape
Director, Transformative Change: Educational and Life Transitions (TCELT) Research Centre
University of Dundee
Please find links to some of our other public information comics here:
https://discovery.dundee.ac.uk/en/publications/fibromyalgia-and-us-living-with-fibromyalgia
https://discovery.dundee.ac.uk/en/publications/when-people-die-stories-from-young-people
https://discovery.dundee.ac.uk/en/publications/understanding-coeliac-disease
https://discovery.dundee.ac.uk/en/publications/close-to-the-heart
https://discovery.dundee.ac.uk/en/publications/understanding-forensic-gait-analysis-1
https://discovery.dundee.ac.uk/en/publications/great-war-dundee-featuring-ragtime-soldier
Scottish Centre for Comics Studies 