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People who come from all walks of life who need to use the Seattle King
County Clinic. They have many different reasons.
So we wanted to be able to share their stories
as part of the work that we do with the clinic.
- I'm 37 years old.
I work for a small business.
They can't afford dental insurance.
Comics journalism is using the medium of comics,
but in this case, you're talking to people and then do interviews
like a newspaper article or for TV.
And then you are conveying their stories using the medium of comics.
- When they share those stories with comic journalists.
These comics, these illustrated stories, really
have the ability to help better inform people about who's
struggling to get care and why they're in this situation.
Because a lot of times people jump to conclusions.
One of the first conclusions people jump to right now
is that people in need are people experiencing homelessness.
With Seattle King County Clinic.
95% of our patients are housed.
- Comics are fun to read.
Although it might take you by surprise, you might think you're about
to have a laugh and instead you're like, oh no, this is actually a tragic story.
- In another hour I'll have dental surgery and extraction.
Without this clinic, “dental”...
is myself and a pair of pliers.
I've done it before.
It's not fun.
- The reason why we were doing comics at all
is to get people to look at the problems in different ways.
- I have insurance, but they don't cover
more than one a year.
- These are real people, and they're real people
telling their stories in the churn of this system.
You can have what you think is good medical insurance
until you really put it to use.
(sound of pencil drawing)
- I've always had eczema my whole life.
I saw a dermatologist and they sent me to light therapy.
It was very effective in helping my eczema.
Anyway, they changed health care plans in the middle of me
getting these treatments, and I just was like, oh yeah, that’s covered.
Like, I didn't think that would change, you know?
Now know much better.
This was me getting all my medical bills in the mail
and trying to pretend that they didn't exist,
because I didn't have the money to pay them.
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One of the things I really love about comics
is that it makes subjects that are hard to talk about or taboo or,
you know, difficult, for whatever reason, a little bit easier, a little bit easier
to digest, a little bit easier to consume because it feels a little bit
more harmless.
- I like the comics medium because it's also emotional.
We can convey a lot of empathy for what people are going through.
We can, hear what they're saying.
We can also have thought bubbles that express what they're thinking.
We can show the humanity in their face and really try
and connect to people who are reading it, who might have similar experiences.
So I really like
using that emotional part of the comics medium.
- Call me “Trombone Larry.”
I moved here after Katrina hit in New Orleans.
I need a crown or something to cover my broken tooth.
- He had had some damage to his teeth and because of that, he couldn't
get his mouth into the right position to play the trombone.
Without that piece of tooth.
I can't put the real oomph into the music.
If you can't get that, what else you got?
For him, it meant that he would be able to go back to work
playing music if he could get his teeth fixed.
(trombone music)
He was somebody I was able to get in touch with afterwards
because I wanted him to see the comic strip I drew about him,
and he was actually playing music again, and he was really happy about it.
(trombone music)
You know, that one sticks in my mind.
- Janet.
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So she was part of our intermittent parking staff.
She would come in when there were certain events.
She had some dental needs that were beyond her financial capabilities,
and so she was going to
come and wait in line for a ticket and try to get dental care.
So she came to the clinic on a subsequent day.
Ended up, I think, getting some crowns.
As she was starting
to make her way to the exit.
Somebody stopped her and said, you look to be
somebody who's about an age that may need a mammogram.
And so she said, you know what?
My primary care provider has been suggesting this for a really long time.
I've been putting it off. I'm going to go do it.
And she did.
And, she told me that they diagnosed her
with breast cancer in that mammography exam.
You know, here was somebody who was working,
but they just couldn't afford it with the type of insurance that they had.
(♪♪)
Janet,
continued to work at Seattle Center, and she came back for a number of years
as a volunteer because she wanted to pay it forward.
Unfortunately, in our fifth year, Janet succumbed to her
her diagnosis of breast cancer.
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- Part of the responsibility of telling these stories is making sure
that we actually do something with them, that we use it as a call to action
to advocate for better access to health care services.
- We've started to include these comics in our final reports,
and I ultimately learned I had to hold back these comics
because they got so engrossed in looking at these that they wouldn't
pay attention to what I was saying.
- I think that's something that people need to get.
Is that the clinic is a Band-Aid on this system.
These comics are just part of the larger cry
for help, to see that the people deserve so much better.
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