Two-Week Wait

June 28, 2021
The Jacksons, married educators and parents of two, partner with artist Wild to tell a compassionate story about the struggle to conceive based on their own experiences and interviews with other couples who have dealt with fertility issues. After a year of trying and failing to get pregnant, the fictional Joanne and Conrad seek medical help, discover that Joanne has endometriosis, and begin the long, difficult process of IVF. There are funny moments, as when Conrad tries to figure out how to get a sperm sample into a tiny test tube (“At what possible angle...?”), but also grueling medical procedures and emotional strain that threatens to tear their marriage apart. “It makes me feel like I’m broken,” Joanne confesses. They consider adoption and alternative medicine; spend time with children and think on how to be parents; and find that opening up to others helps them push through their isolation and frustration. Wild’s loose, fluid, warmly colored pencil art perfectly complements the script; in swooping curves and simple shapes, she draws emotive characters in domestic settings that look lived-in. Gentle and empathetic, this enters a growing trying-to-conceive graphic medicine genre, recalling Sarah Glidden’s and Lucy Knisley’s work, and offers a touchstone for any reader dealing with IVF.

March 11, 2021
This graphic novel is the delicately told story of one couple’s journey through the in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) process. Two-Week Wait is based on the IVF experiences of authors Luke and Kelly Jackson, and others like them. This grounding in lived experience enables the creators to combine convincing elements of everyday life and detailed information about the IVF process in an immersive and compelling way. The story of protagonists Joanne and Conrad is full of honesty and vulnerability. Both the Jacksons, as authors, and Mara Wild, as artist, are deft in their use of silent and reflective moments throughout the book. This works well for a story so much about self-reflection and finding answers to difficult questions, both individually and as a couple. Wild’s art is striking in its fluidity. The texture of her line lends it a sketch-like quality that complements the openness of Joanne and Conrad’s story. There is both a simplicity and a complexity in Wild’s ability to convey emotion using facial expressions and body language. Her strictly limited palette and minimal use of colour enhances the novel’s striking appearance and allows the linework to shine. Two-Week Wait will appeal to readers of memoir and graphic novels alike, particularly those who have enjoyed graphic memoirs like Mandy Ord’s When One Person Dies the Whole World is Over. Adam Ford is an editor and a published poet.