A Comic Visualising the Experience of Video-conferencing with Aging Parents During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Comic by Peter Wilkins, commissioned and edited by Ernesto Priego. An output from the Parables of Care project.

The comic is the result of autoethnographic, participatory narrative design methods. It depicts two middle-aged brothers (one of them the illustrator himself) having a FaceTime call with their parents during the COVID-19 lockdown in Vancouver, BC, Canada.

We know that it is tempting to flout "stay at home" guidelines to visit parents, but we also know that the risks to people over 70 in such visits is significant. The subtext of the comic is to encourage people to use video conferencing software to connect with aging parents rather than take the risk of physically visiting them during the COVID-19 crisis.

The comic has been deposited here so it can be cited and referenced in other academic outputs currently under review.