Comic books have the power to bring readers to tears — especially when they see themselves on the page.
It's not something Tanika Bryant, a 42-year-old East Liberty resident who has spent almost 23 years as a Pittsburgh paramedic, ever expected to see. But there she was, uniform and all, enshrined in ink as part of "The Vitals: True EMS Stories," the second comic-book collaboration between Marvel Comics and Allegheny Health Network.
"It means the world to me," Bryant told the Post-Gazette. "It helps to know that someone recognizes us, especially someone as big as Marvel. To see me in it, I'm so speechless and so thankful. I'm still crying now."
Bryant was one of three Pittsburgh emergency medical services workers who was chosen to have their stories featured in this sequel to last year's "The Vitals: True Nurse Stories," which was one of 2020's most-read digital titles on Marvel.com.
The new comic book was announced Monday to coincide with National EMS Week and is currently available in digital form through AHN's website. It shines the light on EMS workers, who have been performing "uncontrolled work" in the field outside the confines of a hospital throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Robert Twaddle, AHN's vice president for pre-hospital care services.
"This past year was such a challenge," he said. "Our providers stepped up, made changes to their routines both professionally and personally, and just persevered. It was a reminder of how much EMS providers mean to their communities, and we want to make sure they know we appreciate what they do every day."
The other two EMS workers who received the honor of being comic-fied were Gary Cockroft, a paramedic who talked a psychiatric patient off a parking garage's edge, and Deb McNamara, a LifeFlight staff nurse who battled breast cancer during the pandemic before coming back to work.
McNamara, 56, of Green Tree, was diagnosed the week before everything shut down in March 2020 and went through chemotherapy and a mastectomy before being declared cancer-free and returning to full service in January.
"EMS is kind of almost like an invisible caretaker," she said. "You meet people on their worst days. They might remember your uniform or your hair, but their memories are often foggy or they have none of us. A lot of times they don't remember a face or a name."
And that's where the comic book comes in, reminding Pittsburghers of who they are and what they do. Sean Ryan returned to write "The Vitals: True EMS Stories" after also penning the first one. It was illustrated by artists JL Giles, Zé Carlos and Ramon Bachs, with cover art drawn by Carlos and Rachelle Rosenberg.
McNamara, a Pitt nursing school graduate, was also blown away by her comic-book alter ego. Though she doesn't see her job as being particularly heroic, she enjoyed being acknowledged after months of helping patients who were generally "far sicker than they have been" in the past and staying away from much of her family to avoid spreading COVID-19.
"You look at it and you're like, 'Wow!'" she said. "You grow up reading those and seeing them, and they're heroes and they're special. And there I was, in with them."
She was nominated for "The Vitals" by Matt Lambert, an AHN pre-hospital business development specialist, who called her "an exceptional flight nurse" and said her superpowers would be "super strength or healing/regeneration." Bryant was nominated by Mary Kovac, an AHN pre-hospital care coordinator, who lauded her charity work outside her day job and wrote that her superpower would be "selflessness — encouraging others to take care of one another for no other reason that it being the right thing to do."
Bryant, who was inspired to pursue being an EMS by John Moon of the now-defunct Freedom House Ambulance Service, joked that the comic book "took off an extra 5 pounds, which was nice." She said her fiancé became emotional after she told him about becoming a Marvel superhero because he had been so moved by the first comic highlighting nurses' stories.
The last year-plus has been "extremely mentally and physically exhausting" for Bryant, and she's grateful to her coworkers, Kovac, Marvel and AHN for the roles they all played in immortalizing her and her fellow EMS workers.
"Who would've thought little me would be in a comic book or recognized for who I am?" she said. "I was excited, happy, so emotional in a good way. It was so beautiful."
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