The Plague and Doctor Caim
By G.E. Gallas
A darkly humorous graphic novel about a doctor grappling against the Black Death.
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The Plague and Doctor Caim follows the life of a 17th-century plague doctor: an Everyman with a beak. One day, Doctor Caim is hired by a village to treat both the rich and the poor. The doctor readily accepts this position, but goes about the work with much trial and error. Doctor Caim encounters patients from all walks of life, experimenting with treatments while monitoring his own health and watching the stars for omens.
Research is the integral foundation of both the script and design of The Plague and Doctor Caim. Each medical treatment Doctor Caim tries and every situation Doctor Caim finds himself in is based on historical facts. With the aesthetic of a medieval illuminated manuscript, this graphic novel finds macabre comedy within the history of the bubonic plague.
I was inspired to make this book because people are fascinated by the plague doctor, his costume and beak mask (just as I am), but many are unfamiliar with the history behind them. The plague doctor appears in many supernatural-themed comics, is a favorite among numerous cosplayers, and adorns many bodies as tattoos. But none of these delve into the reality of the plague doctor’s life.
Furthermore, Doctor Caim is a compelling character to write and draw. I made a deliberate decision that the doctor should never be seen without a mask. This way, the character is truly an Everyman: an average human being that could belong to any race, ethnicity, gender and so on. But, at the same time, Doctor Caim is not anonymous. The doctor has a distinct personality, ethos, and set of habits, making Doctor Caim a multidimensional character that readers will care about.
About the Book
The Plague and Doctor Caim will be a 100-page, full-color, hardback graphic novel.
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G.E. Gallas
G. E. Gallas is a writer and illustrator best known for her graphic novel The Poet and the Flea about the poet-painter William Blake. After studying Japanese language and culture for many years, she spent a year abroad in Tokyo, Japan. She graduated from New York University: Gallatin School of Individualized Study with a major involving cross-cultural storytelling. She has spoken upon invitation to The Blake Society (London), Yale University School of Drama, and Germanna College (Virginia). Her illustrations are also featured in Scared Stiff: Everything You Need to Know About 50 Famous Phobias, Age of Saints, Welsh in the Old West, Do More Good. Better. and Magic Bullet (Washington, D.C.’s free comics newspaper).
- 31st December 2019 25% Funded! Happy New Year! Bloodletting!
Happy New Year to Doctor Caim's Backers! We're 25% funeded!
Thank you so much for all your support this year. I haven't been very good about posting updates, but posting more updates is one of my 2020 New Year's resolutions.
For this update, I thought I'd talk a bit about bloodletting...
BLOODLETTING was the go-to treatment for most plague doctors (and Doctor Caim is no exception). This…
3rd September 2019 Check out this "Doctor Caim" interview!Alex Dueben of Smash Pages recently interviewed me about The Plague and Doctor Caim! You can read the interview here: http://smashpages.net/2019/06/25/smash-pages-qa-g-e-gallas.
19th July 2019 Check out this "Doctor Caim" review!Matt Ligeti, The Comic Book Yeti, recently reviewed The Plague and Doctor Caim! You can read his review here: www.comicbookyeti.com/post/the-plague-and-doctor-caim.
13th June 2019 Where does the name "Caim" come from?(Illustration from the "Dictionnaire Infernal" by Collin de Plancy.)
You may be wondering where the name "Caim" comes from. Page one of this graphic novel goes into a little detail about the name, but I will expand upon it here.
Firstly, Caim is a variation of "Cain," as in the biblical Cain and Abel. As you may know, Cain and Abel were Adam and Eve's first sons and Cain kills Abel…
These people are helping to fund The Plague and Doctor Caim.
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Ericka Schenck
Tricia Miller
Alysia Viscanti
Caroline Pulver
Charlotte Altass
Louise Schoenhult
Kelly Connolly
Deborah Wood
James Rider
Stephen Lazotte
Mary Jane Fahy
Anna Le
Jamie Smythe
Leonardo Gada
Tony Borek
Veinity Fair
Nicola Rimmer
RYC Comics
Becky Chantry
Addison Scott
Angel Beckett
Hildegunn Traa
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