Dr John Miers
- Kingston School of Art
- Department of Illustration Animation
- School of Design
- Design, Arts and Creative Practice
Senior Lecturer in Illustration and Critical and Historical Studies
About
I am a cartoonist, illustrator, teacher and researcher. My primary interest is in narrative illustration, particularly sequential forms such as comics.
In the past five years my practice has been focused on Graphic Medicine, often defined as “the intersection of the medium of comics and the discourse of healthcare”. My first comic in this field, which dealt with the experience of being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, was produced during a post-doctoral residency at London College of Communication. It was voted “best one shot” in the 2020 Broken Frontier awards and is held in the Wellcome Collection library. Subsequent comics have appeared in publications shortlisted for Council of Editors of Learned Journals and Eisner awards.
This context informs much of my project supervision and teaching, from undergraduate to doctoral projects.
In addition to my work as senior lecturer in illustration at KSA, I am a research associate at the Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, working on a four-year European Research Council project exploring the adoption of Graphic Medicine by formal healthcare institutions in the UK, US, Canada, France, Belgium and the Netherlands.
I also have a long-standing research interest in visual metaphor, initially explored in my PhD and subsequently developed into a monograph. This line of research was sparked by my interest in producing wordless comics, particularly my project Babel, which was highlighted in Tate / Yale UP’s introduction to Comics Art.
With Maggie Gray, Nick White, Gareth Brookes and Isabel Greenberg I co-run the Kingston School of Art Comic Club.
Qualifications
- 2011-2018: PhD Graphic Communication, Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London
- 2003-4: Postgraduate Diploma Fine Art, Chelsea College of Art and Design, University of the Arts London
- 1997-2001: BA Fine Art, Slade School of Fine Art, University College London