Dr. Nathan Gray’s new graphic novel The Human Remains: Drawing Out Compassion in Medicine explores the brutal schedule and workload of doctors along with a reminder that the human being at the heart of medicine can’t be out of mind for a good doctor. As a student, Gray saw the human body unfold for him and his fellow students thanks to a donated cadaver they nicknamed “Opal.” Through residency, exams, hours that seem inhuman, and endless tests, Dr. Gray learned what it meant to be a doctor in the American healthcare system.
The Human Remains uses muted colors throughout a wealth of not only personal cartoons, but detailed images of the human body including muscles and organs. Dr. Nathan Gray’s work is accessible. While he makes references to the professional terms and detailed anatomy work, he makes his message clear to the reader. One of his best tools is reminding the reader that the cases he discusses could be your grandmother or the neighbor down the street. In one series of panels, he discusses a patient with Diabetes struggling to get his sugars under control. After speaking with the patient in depth, he discovers that financial insecurity meant that the man was purchasing his prescriptions, but that the refrigerator used to store them was broken, meaning the medication was ineffective. While it can be easy to jump to conclusions about whether or not a patient is being compliant, Dr. Gray reminds readers that there may be much more going on than a simple check list of symptoms.
The Human Remains: Drawing Out Compassion in Medicine is set for release on November 10, 2026 from Graphic Mundi.
