The following is an interview with comic book writer Jeff Morris regarding his upcoming “Healing Through Comics” workshop for young adults in Pinellas County, FL. In this interview, Fanbase Press Editor-in-Chief Barbra Dillon chats with Morris about the genesis behind the workshop, how Graphic Medicine can help to destigmatize mental health and engender greater empathy for others, and more!
Barbra Dillon, Fanbase Press Editor-in-Chief: This summer, you will host a free “Healing Through Comics” workshop for young adults interested in creating comics to process their complex emotions. What can you tell us about the genesis behind this workshop?
Jeff Morris: In 2019, I made my first short comic, Paper Champion, about watching my father die in front of me when I was 15. Jorge Santiago Jr.’s emotional art helped me see my grief objectively, but it took me 20 years to finally find the courage to face my loss. Sequential art can help us uncover dormant feelings and gain the strength to walk through these emotions without fear. Paper Champion helped me realize that I still blamed myself for my father’s death. Through this comic, I could examine the narrative I’d been telling myself for twenty years and choose a different story. Making Paper Champion set me on the road to forgiveness, and sequential art provided the means toward healing.
Unfortunately, I started this journey later in life. Now, I desire to help teens and young adults in Pinellas County, FL., experience the healing potential of sequential art earlier in their journey through loss. As a teen, I didn’t know that comic books could be a tool for examining grief, but I know now. With the recent publication of True Believer, a collection of three short comics about my journey through grief, I believe–now more than ever–that comics can be a healing tool for helping teens and young adults navigate grief and find hope through this challenging process.
BD: This event will be hosted in partnership with Creative Pinellas and the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI Pinellas). Why have these organizations served as ideal partners for this event?
JM: Fostering change can be hard to do on a large scale. Sure, I’d love to have EVERYONE believe that comics can help individuals face and find healing through grief, but that’s quite difficult. With that in mind, I realized I could make a difference in my local community, especially with teens and young adults who’ve experienced loss early in life. To help achieve this goal, I applied for a grant with Creative Pinellas to help me fund the materials needed for the Healing Through Comics workshop.
However, I needed to ensure that I could reach teens and young adults who’d need it most. To this end, NAMI Pinellas has a chapter of its organization called Youth Move. When I spoke with NAMI and Youth Move, they were excited about the possibility of reaching teens and young adults with the healing power of sequential art. To find people who believed in the therapeutic capacity of comic books filled me with joy and affirmation. As a comic book writer, my biggest hope is that my stories find the readers who can see themselves in my pages and find hope in their panel-less lives. Creative Pinellas, NAMI, and Youth Move believe in this vision, and I’m grateful to collaborate with a team that affirms the healing potential of sequential art.
BD: For attendees who may be interested in participating, are there any necessary qualifications for registering?
JM: Any teens or young adults between the ages of 16 and 26 who live in or near Pinellas County, FL., are welcome to attend! Interested individuals can sign up for the workshop here.
BD: In addition to the workshop, you recently crowdfunding the short comic collection, True Believer, which utilized the sequential art medium to process your own experiences with grief and loss. How would you describe your creative process in bringing these stories to life on the page?
JM: Grief is a uniquely painful experience that never leaves us. While we may not always feel the intensity of loss, the suddenness and unpredictability of grief can be quite challenging. After working through the loss of my father in Paper Champion (2019), I lost more family and friends whom I loved dearly. Making two additional short comics enabled me to unearth more questions about grief and helped me examine the complexities of loss. Dirt Mountain (2024) helped me explore spiritual doubt and find that acceptance can be more powerful than answers. True Believer (2025) challenged me to examine my feelings of grief during the holiday season. When absence is all we feel during the holidays, what can we hold onto that feels real? True Believer reaffirmed my faith in what remains in loss: a photograph, a familiar song, a memory that can’t be stolen. This trilogy of stories is my experience with grief in comic book form. My greatest desire is for readers to see their lived experiences in these pages and find hope by the stories’ end.
BD: Graphic Medicine is an emerging genre that combines the field of medicine with the medium of comics. How do you feel that Graphic Medicine stories like these can not only help to destigmatize mental health, but also engender greater empathy for others?
JM: Storytelling is one of the only mediums left that can unify us as human beings. Through narrative, we can see ourselves in diverse characters who feel like we feel, struggle as we do, and hope like we long to hope. I believe empathy will grow as we see others’ mental health experiences interwoven with our own.
Ultimately, Graphic Medicine stories are a powerful form of narrative therapy. Championed by Michael White and David Epston, narrative therapy enables individuals to examine problematic narratives in their lives and rescript their stories to better reflect their authentic selves. Comic books are a powerful form of narrative therapy, and readers can see characters who, like them, suffer due to their problematic narratives. Oftentimes, characters–and we, by extension–struggle to realize our true selves because of society’s dominant, problem-saturated narratives. Whether it’s systemic inequalities, parental trauma, or workplace discrimination, we’re told stories about ourselves that are harmful and, more importantly, untrue. Comic books can utilize the tenets of narrative therapy to reveal characters bold enough to question their dominant narratives. As we empathize with their struggles, we feel empowered to question our problem-saturated stories and rescript a narrative that affirms and aligns with our truest, most valued selves.
BD: Are there any other projects – past or current – that you would like to highlight for our readers?
JM: I am currently working on a pitch for a five-issue series entitled Blue Jays in Desolation. Set in a cyberpunk universe, this series will examine the real impact that trauma and mental illness can have on romantic relationships. I am working with Andrea Giannini, the artist of Synap (Mad Cave), and we are hoping to find a publisher for our series soon.
I am also working on my graduate degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling and Expressive Arts Therapy. In the future, I hope to utilize comic books to help children, teens, and young adults who’ve experienced trauma find the strength to rescript their problematic narratives. I believe comic books are a valid and valuable expressive art modality, and I plan to utilize sequential art in my work as a prospective counselor.
BD: Lastly, what is the best way for readers to find more information about the workshop, True Believer, and your other work?
JM: You can read my articles about mental health and comics at counselingandcomics.org. Also, you can read a preview of True Believer on my website there!
If you’d like to read a digital version of True Believer, head over to Global Comix.
If you’d like to purchase a physical copy of True Believer, you can grab one here.
