Care-giving, homelessness and disability explored in new graphic medicine anthology

A new book of comic strips and social documentation edited by a School of Modern Languages scholar explores caregiving, homelessness and disability using a range of visual storytelling styles and graphic aesthetics.

All is not well is a collection of 20 stories and comic strips and is edited by Cardiff University’s Dr Ryan Prout together with Jonathan Clode of Shelter Cymru.

Published in August 2025, the book shines a light on those who need care and their committed, usually overworked, and always underpaid caregivers.

Coming from documentary, ethnographic, and historical perspectives, the book asks challenging questions about caregiving and homelessness via the means of comic strips. The strips sit alongside interviews with the creators and stakeholders, painting a vivid picture of the current context for creative artists with a social conscience.

As Prout explains, “For a brief moment between 2020-2022, at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, caregivers were afforded public recognition: among the many rainbows and ‘NHS worker’ stickers were green Carer badges. Homelessness, too, was also visibly addressed, by making it illegal not to stay at home. Of course, without political will, the green badges are scarcely remembered now, and the housing problems are worse than ever. Yet mainstream media seems utterly oblivious to the issues that remain.” The editors’ collaboration began with a shared sense of the need for alternative representations of the issues around care drawn from an embedded perspective eschewing sensationalism.

The anthology includes contributions made by a number of comic artists hailing from Turkey, the USA, Bulgaria, and Norway as well as strips drawn by graphic artists from Wales and the rest of the UK including  Brick, ILYA, Mark Stafford, Lucy Bergonzi and Gayle Rogers.  The All Is Not Well impact project was funded in part by Welsh Government’s Innovation for All initiative and the anthology includes a focus on Wales offering new visual perspectives on familiar landmarks and places from Cardiff Bay to the River Wye. The book’s foreword is by Dr Ian Williams, author of The Bad Doctor and founder of GraphicMedicine.org.

The project that underpins the new book worked previously with Proper Design, a Cardiff based design agency that hosted the website. The graphic anthology has benefitted from the editorial and design expertise of Corinne Pearlman (former creative director at Myriad Editions) and Vicki Heath Silk (Studio 26).

Exhibitions of creative work from the project have taken place at the Norwegian Church in Cardiff, the Workers’ Gallery in Porth and The Depoo Gallery in Sofia.

All is not Well is available to purchase on Amazon. in paperback and as an e-book