Billy, Me & You, a graphic memoir about Nicola Streeten’s bereavement following the death of her two-year old son, was published by Myriad in 2011, following initial serialization in Liquorice Magazine, a comic Nicola produced with her daughter. It received Highly Commended in the Popular Medicine category of the 2012 British Medical Association Medical Book Awards. In 2012, Nicola received an Arts Council England award to research and develop her second graphic novel, a fiction exploring issues around pregnancy, to be published in November 2014 by Myriad.
Nicola is an anthropologist-turned-illustrator and comics scholar, and is co-founder of Laydeez do Comics, “a combination between a book club and a series of TED talks” (Julie Davis, Art Animal, A Woman's Art Magazine, Feb 2013). She has been awarded an Arts and Humanities Research Council Scholarship from Sussex University to begin a research doctorate in 2013, on British women’s comics from 1970-present. Nicola continues to work on commercial illustration commissions. Every Friday, she adds to a regular cartoon strip series #ayearat50 on her blog.
Billy, Me & You was highly commended by the British Medical Association in the Popular Medicine category at the Book Awards 2012.
As part of the Ethics in Performance series at Brighton and Sussex Medical School, Nicola joined fellow graphic novelist Nye Wright and geriatrics specialist Dr Muna Al-Jawad to discuss the importance of Graphics in Medicine. Hear her discussing Billy, Me & You and the interchange between ethics, comics and medicine at the Graphic Medicine Comics Forum in Leeds, November 2011.
Nicola recently attended the third annual Comics and Medicine conference in Toronto, co-organised by Ian Williams, whose graphic novel SCRUPULOSITY will be published by Myriad in 2014. Paul Gravett opened the conference with a rousing speech about graphic medicine, including a mention of Myriad's own contribution to the field. Ian and Nicola were later interviewed for Canadian CBC Radio's Sunday book show, featuring Billy, Me & You. Listen to the podcast here
