Project Parasite II - Malaria

I've been a bit quiet over the last few months since the release of Filmish 3, for which I can only apologise.  I can now announce that I have been commissioned to create a second parasitology comic, this time by the European Virtual Institute for Malaria Research (EVIMalaR), and the preparation for the project has been eating up all my spare time.

© Edward Ross / EVIMalaR 2011

You can still download our first comic for free here.  This time round we've got much bigger plans, with a 16 - 24 page comic envisioned as the final product.  There's room this time to really get down to the complex, interesting details, as well as give more scope to discuss various angles of the disease, including its history, biology and its social impacts, etc.

© Edward Ross / Wellcome Trust 2010

What's cool too is that we're creating a 'modular comic' - so while it will be available as a printed, complete item, we'll also make it available as a resource to teachers, lecturers, students and charities when they need to explain or illustrate a given concept that has been covered in the book.  So for example, if a charity needs to explain to funding bodies why research takes a long time, or the social impact of malaria, they'll be able to take those specific chapters or illustrations and provide them on their own.

Last week my collaborator Jamie Hall and I travelled to the EVIMalaR conference in Heidelberg, Germany to begin research.  We met with scores of researchers working on some of the many facets of malaria research, from those investigating the Plasmodium parasite, to those looking at the mosquito vector.

In the coming months I'll be working on this full time, as we move through research and writing to illustration.  As we go forward, I'll be posting details of our progress, and some samples of the work in progress.

And don't worry, I'll still be keeping time aside to work on some other projects, including more Filmish and some short comics pieces for anthologies and self-publication.