'Sam Calgary'.
Sam Hester is a Canadian graphic artist and indie cartoonist, who started out making autobiographical comics for her own blog and several anthologies. She later became a prominent artist in the fields of graphic recording and graphic medicine, using comics and graphics to tell stories about people's lives and their healthcare experiences. In her local community of Calgary, Alberta, she is also known for her comics about real-life stories in the newsletter The Sprawl.
Early life and education
Born in 1973, Sam Hester completed her General Studies at the University of Calgary. In 1995, she received her B.A. in English literature from the University of Toronto, after which she studied Fine Arts for one year at the Ontario College of Art and Design. During this period, she was also actively picturing her life in comic strip format, for instance how she and a friend followed the 1996 Bob Dylan tour around.
'The Drawing Book'.
The Drawing Book
Between 1997 and 2012, Hester worked as a flight attendant on Air Canada's Calgary-Frankfurt route, making comics in her spare time. Grouping her art activities under the banner The Drawing Book, she self-published autobiographical comic stories in small press comic books and later also online. Some of her stories also appeared in anthology publications, including the much publicized 2002 collection '9-11: Emergency Relief' by Alternative Comics in support of the Red Cross. Hester also appeared in 'Project Telstar: A Spacial Robotic Anthology' (2003) by AdHouse Books.
In 2006, Hester was a "top finalist" in the Portrait Society of Canada's annual international portrait competition at the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto. As a freelancer, she took commissions for painting portraits and murals in her local Calgary community, including a four-story-high mural of 2600 square feet. In addition, she did proofreading and editing for corporate, academic and private clients. When in 2009 her son Alec was born, Hester didn't have much time left to spend on big art projects, so instead she began writing and drawing a simple strip about life with her son. Creating about 40 strips each year, she collected these comics in her self-published 'Alec's Year Book' series.
From Sam Hester's contribution to '9-11: Emergency Relief' (2002).
The 23rd Story
In 2012, Sam Hester quit her flight attendant daytime job to focus on a new artistic career in "graphic recording" with her business 'The 23rd Story'. In this capacity, she was hired to attend an event or meeting and capture its keynotes and highlights in a large words-and-graphics poster. In her own words: "Graphic recording is an innovative way of creating interest and engagement at just about any kind of event. The visual record creates a collective memory of the event and promotes validation among project participants."
Health care comics
While working for government, corporate, non-profit and educational organizations, Hester got involved in the emerging field of graphic medicine, in which pictures help with health care. Since the term was coined in 2007 by the British doctor/cartoonist Ian Williams, the graphic medicine genre has become widespread among scholars, health care practitioners and artists as both a way to communicate with caregivers and a teaching tool at medical schools. In her earlier autobiographical comics, Sam Hester had written about health care before, for instance about her dealing with postpartum depression and her care for her mother with Parkinson's Disease. Especially her experiences as a caretaker of her mother - who lived with her for about six months before moving to an independent living residence - made her realize the possibilities of graphic medicine. To create awareness about what her mother's specific needs were, Hester began making drawings for the hospital staff. Since then, she has expanded her work in graphic recording by specializing in graphic medicine jobs. Her work includes making visual stories that capture the experiences of patients and families, but also graphic maps to help people navigate their own personal health care journey. A strong advocate of the graphic medicine movement, Sam Hester promotes this intersection of comics and health care on stage, in articles and as guest in podcasts.
Graphic recording made during the Leduc Living Library for Overdose Awareness Day in 2021.
Local work
Based in the Ramsay neighborhood of Calgary, Alberta, much of Hester's activities are dedicated to her local community. She is an annual exhibitor at the Calgary Comic Expo, and a driving force behind several neighborhood arts initiatives and community-building projects. Together with journalist Jeremy Klaszus and urban affairs writer Ximena González, she forms the core team of The Sprawl, an independent online Calgary journalism outlet. Since 2018, she has collected real-life local stories and personal thoughts in her comics column 'The Listener'. Her more personal contributions include chronicles of conversations with her mother and life during the COVID-19 pandemic. In November 2022, she teamed up with her son Alec to create a cartoon series with facts about Calgary's transit system. Besides work for The Sprawl, Sam Hester has made comics for the monthly Ramsay newsletter and the Calgary Herald. In 2022, she also appeared with a story in the 'Alberta Comics: Home' anthology, published by Renegade Arts Entertainment.
'The Listener: Climate Action, The Calgary Way' (The Sprawl, 25 September 2019).