A Microbiologist, An Illustrator, And the Microbes!
Assistant Professor James Hall and his Illustrator friend, Edward Ross create the upbeat comics ‘Luna & Simon’ that follows the adventures of a pair of siblings and their friendly banter while they discover the world of biofilms, antibiotic-resistant bacteria, and plasmids.
One of the challenges we face as microbiologists is to communicate our science effectively. Many of us use analogies from popular pop culture references or, if we are lucky, we have beautiful microscopic images of our experimental models to keep our audiences engaged.
Here’s another idea- how about creating a fictional comic about your research discoveries? James Hall and Edward Ross take us through their journey of creating their comics, ‘Luna & Simon- bizarre bacteria and peculiar plasmids’
How did it all start?
Back in Glasgow as an undergrad, James studied a peculiar parasite, Trypanosoma brucei, that had five DNA bases (most DNAs, including ours, have 4 nucleotide bases) and a liquid crystal-like surface coat that evolved to escape the host immune system. Often while observing the cells of this bug under the microscope, he wondered if the people of Glasgow are missing out on an amazing opportunity to get to know these fascinating microbes.
“If we had pandas in Glasgow, that would be on the news. People are excited about these big animals. But in terms of diversity, of course, the real biodiversity of the planet are these microbes” says James adding, “I had this idea- what can we do to make the kind of walls of the lab more transparent so the people can look in and see what we're doing. And also, how can we take these organisms out of the lab to show them?”
What followed was James and his friends parading a 7-meter effigy of T. brucei (mostly in pink!), like a Chinese dragon at a big community-wide event called the West End Festival. The pink color sure got them some eyeballs, but it was the comics that he wrote with his friend, Edward Ross that made a lasting impact at the parade. The 1200 copies that they distributed explained why parasites are found in Glasgow and the role of the University there to promote global health.
“Banking on the comics worked well, as we could explain some quite difficult scientific ideas. And, they were quite attractive. They were repeatedly printed and got used extensively at the Parasitology Department’s outreach events. And that's what got the ball rolling on my kind of science comics side career, I suppose.”, explains James.
Making of Luna & Simon
The funding from the research grants to support new comics brought more freedom in terms of story-telling. Earlier comics- e.g., Parasites, Malaria- had actual scientists as the main characters explaining their science to other characters in the comics or readers. That made the narrative a bit restricted. To make the plots more interesting, the duo decided to introduce tropes and amateur characters.
Inspired by Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes, Luna is meant to be a curious kid without any scientific training. The idea was to put scientific knowledge into the hands of people who are not scientists and do not get carried away with scientific facts. “The key motivation was, I think, a secret, that people don’t realize about scientific research, that it is incredibly important for you to be very imaginative and very creative to do it”, tells James.
The comics discuss some key research findings such as the evolution of antibiotic resistance, flagella evolution networks, and plasmids (the circular DNA entities found in bacteria). Although most of these research stories are motivated by concerns about public health, the comics also aim to instigate curiosity and fascination with the natural world through their characters.
In their upcoming comics, Luna and her friends discuss bacteriophages against the backdrop of a Halloween night. The comics have CC BY license and can be downloaded and printed for reading, outreach, and teaching purposes.
Science has a huge social role in shaping societies but is often crowded with facts and language that alienates the non-scientists. Efforts such as these, where scientists and artists collaborate, open new avenues of public engagement and can be rewarding to the scientific community by creating more funding opportunities.
Other comics by Edward Ross include Filmish (where he talks about interesting ideas behind some popular films), and Gamish (the graphic history of gaming). These have been translated into different languages and are available on Amazon.