Illness in Illustration: Graphic Medicine in Japan and North America with Onmae Moka, Kosaka Tsubasa, Gianna Paniagua, and Kriota Willberg

How do serious topics like living with a heart transplant or cancer translate into comics? And how are do those reflected experiences compare and contrast when it comes to North American comics and Japanese manga? Moderated by graphic medicine comic artist Kriota Willberg, Japanese manga artist Moka Onmae, her editor Tsubasa Kosaka from AKITASHOTEN, and American comic artist Gianna Paniagua discuss graphic medicine and how their personal experiences with illness shaped the stories they tell.

This event will take place in person and online at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library on the 7th Floor. 

To join the event in person | Doors will open 30 minutes before the program begins. For free events, we generally overbook to ensure a full house. Priority will be given to those who have registered in advance, but registration does not guarantee admission. All registered seats are released shortly before start time, and seats may become available at that time. A standby line will form 30 minutes before the program.

To view the livestream | Whether you're attending in person or online, you must register with your email address. You will need a device with audio and/or video and an internet/cellular connection to view the livestream.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Onmae Moka is a former flight attendant who utilized her extensive experience in first-class service and leadership roles, including chief purser and instructor, to create a realistic portrayal of a flight crew’s world in her debut workplace manga CREW de gozaimasu! (We are CREW!) in 2015. This 4-volume series vividly portrays the real lives of the cabin crew while emphasizing the importance of aviation safety and is currently on sale. A sequel, CREW de gozaimasu! kyokanhen (We are CREW! Instructor Edition), is being serialized in Champion Cross on an irregular basis. In 2023, Moka’s story about a woman living on her own and her life after being diagnosed with cancer, Ohayou, oyasumi, mata ashita. (Good Morning, Good Night, and See You Tomorrow.), began serialization in Akita Shoten’s online manga platform Souffle—volume 1 of the English edition will be published by Seven Seas Entertainment in November 2026. Coming from a family where everyone is experiencing their own battle with cancer, the author included, Moka’s Ohayou, oyasumi, mata ashita. breaks new ground in illustrating her own personal struggle with health. With “don’t isolate yourself” as its theme, each of the modern-day characters are set to overcome their health challenges and survive. Moka’s favorite foods are pizza, sushi, and gyoza, but she enjoys most foods in general. Recently, she enjoys playing with the dogs of fellow customers at her local cake and coffee shop.

Kosaka Tsubasa joined Akita Shoten in 2023 and is in the Princess Bonita editorial department. She currently oversees Ohayou, oyasumi, mata ashita. (Good Morning, Good Night, and See You Tomorrow.), Kanoyo no kemono ga miru yume wa (The Dreams the Otherworldly Beast Sees), Usoyomi to gishoku no ojo (The Girl of Perception and the Princess of Deception), Itsuka shinu nara e o uttekara (If I’ll Die Someday, It’ll Be After I Sell My Art), Shirayuki Yume to n nin no yume kareshi (Shirayuki Yume and Her Many Dream Boyfriends), and more.

Gianna Paniagua is a two-time heart transplant recipient of 33 years, papercutting sculptor, and graphic medicine artist who is from and based in NYC. She utilizes her lifetime of experiences in medicine to create artwork about the dualities of the human body, as well as comics that propose questions about the chronic illness patient experience. In 2014 she received the Grand Prize for the Emerging Young Artist award from The Kennedy Center, and has collaborated with The Smithsonian, Genentech, and SFMOMA to exhibit her handcut paper sculptures. Her lifelong goal is to find creative solutions to problems that exist in the field of transplantation for young adult patients. Her comic “Are We Ever Really Recovered?” was published in the Johns Hopkins medical journal, Literature and Medicine, and she regularly collaborates with the Columbia Surgery social media account for comics meant for an audience of medical professionals. Gianna publishes the Comics Corner article in Bonus Days Magazine, which depicts stories around organ transplantation. In her free time, you can find her somewhere in the city on a bus sketching while on her way to buy more fountain pen ink.

Kriota Willberg (Moderator) is a graphic medicine cartoonist, interdisciplinary artist, and an anatomical illustrator, known for Draw Stronger: Self-Care for Cartoonists and Visual Artists (Uncivilized Books). She’s working on a memoir that Fantagraphics will publish in 2027. Her other comics have appeared in: 4PANEL.ca, SubCultures, Comics For Choice, The Graphic Canon, Strumpet 5, and Meandering Realms, among others. Her comic Silver Wire was nominated for a 2019 Ignatz Award and is included in the BCALA and ALA Black Lives Matter Reading List. She’s been Artist in Residence for the: New York Academy of Medicine Library; Center to Advance Palliative Care at Mount Sinai: and Humanistic Medicine department at NYU Grossman School of Medicine. Willberg teaches art to scientists and science to artists.

Manga at NYPL

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ACCESSIBILITY NOTES

In-Person

• Assistive listening devices and/or hearing loops are available at the venue.


• ASL interpretation and real-time captioning (CART) are available upon request. Please submit your request via this form or contact SNFL at least two weeks in advance.


• This venue is fully accessible to wheelchairs.

Livestream

• ASL interpretation and real-time captioning (CART) also available (see previous).


• Captions and a transcript will be provided.

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