Noe’s Comics Nook: Covid Chronicles

Review

I’ll admit: I cried and had to pause reading this anthology more than once. Reading these stories while still in the midst of nearly 4,000 people a day dying in the U.S. from COVID-19 is a grief-filled, almost rubbing-salt-into-the-wound kind of experience – but I believe it is a necessary experience. We owe it to those suffering from this disaster to not look away, to remember them, to honor them. COVID Chronicles is an example of an attempt to do these things in comics form.

Bringing together writer and former reporter Ethan Sacks with artist Dalibor Talajic, who previously collaborated on another work of comics journalism (Madaya Mom), the reader is given insight into a surprisingly wide range of COVID-19 experiences. The accounts from frontline healthcare workers and patients were expected, but it was an unexpected surprise to get a story about Apollonia Pina acting as a street medic during the summer 2020 Black Lives Matter protests. This account stands out for providing insight into a role often unknown outside of activist circles, for showcasing a member of the Mvskoke Creek Nation, and for making clear that the horror of COVID-19 isn’t taking place in a vacuum – other crises abound alongside it.

In what is already an ocean of COVID-19 comics (see https://www.graphicmedicine.org/covid-19-comics), with more printed anthologies to come, COVID Chronicles provides a realistically illustrated and heartfelt accounting that will be a great teaching tool for years to come.

Elements of Story

Plot: COVID-19 quickly became a global pandemic in 2020, overwhelming countries all over the world and redefining what we consider “normal.” COVID Chronicles captures stories from the front lines of the pandemic during the early part of 2020, including perspectives from healthcare workers, patients, reporters, and more.

Characters: Each comic in this anthology has its own cast of characters, all based on real people and real stories.

Major Settings: Hospitals around the globe, New York City (United States), Florence (Italy), Wuhan (China), Toronto (Canada), Oklahoma (United States), Florida (United States), Matamoros (Mexico), Seattle (United States)

Themes: COVID-19, Pandemics, Healthcare, Grief, Trauma, Faith, Hope, Medical Science, Social Justice, Public Health

Lesson Plan Idea Using Common Core Standards (CCS)

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.11-12.7 – Analyze multiple interpretations of a story, drama, or poem (e.g., recorded or live production of a play or recorded novel or poetry), evaluating how each version interprets the source text. (Include at least one play by Shakespeare and one play by an American dramatist.)

Directions: COVID Chronicles, as a journalistic comics anthology, is a collection of real stories from the perspectives of real people throughout the early part 2020 in the COVID-19 pandemic. While these stories all take place in the same time period and are about a shared, global event, they each offer different viewpoints and understandings of the time and event. Analyzing and understanding how different understandings of a shared event fit together to illustrate a broader, fuller picture is an important skill – one this assignment seeks to grow:

1. Divide students into groups of at least 3, though ideally no more than 4.
2. Students will each choose either one of those the stories read in the anthology OR will provide their own COVID-19 story.
3. Each student will share the story with the group, including their response to the experience and how it impacts them and their understanding of the pandemic.

Then, as a group, students should prepare a 2 to 3 page analysis of how these similar, yet different, experiences during the pandemic mesh together. What is similar across them? What is different? Does one story contradict or complicate another? How do you resolve different beliefs or experiences in this situation? Which story or stories do you think history will remember and which do you think will be forgotten?