Dear GMC,
How are you? I don’t expect you to answer that – this is a letter, after all!
Let me start off by introducing myself. I’m a comic book writer and have been writing comics for over 40 years. It all started when I was a young lad living in the Ukraine. I used to draw caricatures of the teachers to entertain my classmates. One day, I drew the headmaster, which got a big laugh from everybody, but because I’d drawn a massive picture of him on the side of the school with a spray can. I got expelled. A couple of years later, I moved to the UK, armed with little more than a small pencil, a big dream and a forged passport (one thing the Ukrainians are very good at is forgery).
A human and accessible way to showcase what you do at the GMC
Over the years, I have created such comic book classics as ‘Scab’, a graphic novel in the vein of Alan Moore, which follows the adventures of a hooded crime fighter who suffers rom horribly itchy eczema, ‘Asteroid 2010’, which has nothing to do with asteroids! And Captain Crabs, which was used by the East Anglian health board to successfully promote the use of crab cream in the 18-25 year-old age group.
And now I come to the GMC. I see that you’ve had a lot of bad press recently, but I might be able to help. Each month, I want to draw an informative yet entertaining comic strip for you. I think it would be a very human and accessible way to showcase what you do at the GMC, and perhaps you could even publish it in your magazine! I’ve included an example of my idea below.
PS: It took me ages to draw this, and it cost me a whole felt-tip pen. So please feel free to send me some money. £2.99 should cover it.
Yours Sincerely,
Mr Strugatsky
Dr Kevin Hinkley is a GP in Australia who previously practised in Glasgow and Aberdeen
