Graphic authors Darryl Cunningham (Science Tales, Supercrash) and Ian Williams (The Bad Doctor) will take part in a panel event discussing the subjects of literature, mental health and suicide, as part of Manchester’s SICK! Festival.

In 1974 the sociologist David Phillips coined the term The Werther Effect, after the hero of a novel by Goethe supposedly inspired copycat suicides. Can talking about suicide really result in contagion? These panels bring together academics, writers who work with people suffering from depression, novelists who deal with the subject, and those who write about the subject from the point of view of the depressed.

Graphic journalist Darryl Cunningham is the author of Science Tales, shortlisted for Best Book at the British Comics Awards 2012. His latest investigative title, Supercrash: How to Hijack the Global Economy, was published by Myriad in 2014. He is one of thirty world-renowned artists invited to contribute their own unique piece to The Art of Saving a Life, an online resource launched in January 2015 to encourage vaccination, sponsored by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Ian Williams is a comics artist and GP and founder of the website GraphicMedicine.org, coining the term that has been applied to the interaction between the medium of comics and the discourse of healthcare. His debut graphic novel, The Bad Doctor, was published by Myriad in June 2014 and introduces us to the troubled life of GP Dr Iwan James as all humanity, it seems, passes through his surgery door.

Tickets cost £8 / £5 concessions. Suitable for ages 16+. Click here for more information.