Join us at the historic Balboa Theater for a free film screening and panel!

LONG LIVE MY HAPPY HEAD

 Gordon is a gay, Scottish comic book artist with a big bushy beard, very expressive eyebrows – oh, and an inoperable, incurable brain tumor. By making autobiographical comics about his experience, he is able to communicate his thoughts and reactions to cancer in a medium and a language that is disarming, accessible, and inviting.

 Long Live My Happy Head is a film about cancer and comic books, but it’s also fundamentally a love story. Gordon has found the love of his life, Shawn – a warm-hearted and protective American man who lives in Bath County, Virginia. Their relationship may be long-distance, but they talk on the phone every day and visit each other as often as possible. We journey with Gordon and Shawn through one of the most difficult times of their lives only to see them emerge from the other side even stronger than before. Through observational footage, video diary, key interviews, and animations created from Gordon’s comics, this film reveals how art, love, and a sense of humor can sooth our deepest fears of mortality and losing the people we care most about.

This film screening will be followed by a short, pre-recorded interview with the film directors and a panel of queer graphic medicine artists.

Long Live My Happy Comics: Queer Graphic Medicine

 LGBTQIA+ voices have been present in the Graphic Medicine movement from the beginning and indeed were present much earlier exploring the fertile intersection of comics and health. Having identities often deemed an illness and having to struggle for actual healthcare with little institutional support, queer artists were always at the front lines. How do queer cartoonists address issues of disability, health education, therapeutic art, and humor in the face of tragedy? Come find out with this remarkable panel. Panelists to be announced.