Check-Up

James Sturm's Check-Up (1991–present, Fantagraphics) is a single-issue comic that distills a lifetime of medical anxiety into a stark, wordless narrative. Sturm's clean, expressive linework guides readers through a surreal and unsettling examination room, capturing the quiet dread and vulnerability of an annual physical. This debut issue stands as a potent, self-contained work from a cartoonist known for his thoughtful, historically-minded graphic novels.