Abstract

Toxic City is a research-creation project composed of a short graphic novel and a written component that investigates the process of making a personal graphic novel about environmental health and toxicity. Drawn by hand, the self-reflective silent graphic novel uses metaphors and the feature of the gutter to illustrate a story around the connections between health, environment and toxicity. The written component is organized around the contribution of this research to the four modes of research-creation as described by Owen Chapman and Kim Sawchuk. The topic of toxicity is analyzed with a deconstruction of health impacts and legal implications, environmental health justice with a reading of Foucault, fiction and graphic media making, and a short autobiography.