Sarah Iqbal thinks comics are a non-threatening and humane medium to offer context to an adversity and provide information in an accessible manner to help make sense of that crisis. Iqbal is an independent science engagement consultant, a trained researcher in Life Sciences, and member of Superheroes Against Superbugs (SaS)—a public antibiotic awareness campaign that aims to engage young children. “This project is special because the comics are made by participants who attend our workshops; they aren’t medical experts or scientists. This means that the jargon is left out,” adds Somdatta Karak, a trained molecular and cellular neuroscientist and member of SaS.

The reason why comics have long been used to educate the people during a humanitarian crisis, is that they can be thought-provoking despite being traditionally seen as a vehicle of entertainment. Be it war, genocide and ethnic cleansing (Vanni: A Family’s Struggle through the Sri Lankan Conflict by Benjamin Dix and Lindsay Pollock), an environment crisis (Great Pacific by Joe Harris and Martin Morazzo, I’m Not a Plastic Bag by Rachel Hope Allison), immigration (The Unwanted: Stories of the Syrian Refugees by Don Brown), comics have come handy as tools of education and communication, explains Dr Sathyaraj Venkatesan, an associate professor and a comics enthusiast teaching at the department of humanities and social sciences, National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli. Their use for health awareness can be traced back to the early 18th century, he says.