Heroes by Day and Night
Psychiatrist Omar Mirza’s Secret Identity
One of the biggest challenges and probably shortcomings of physicians is that we have learned to treat people as diagnoses and not as people. The essence of what really brought me to TouroCOM is the concept of really addressing the patient as a whole. I provide psychiatric consultation to our solid organ transplant service, and our hope is to provide early intervention for psychiatric illness that can complement the medical treatment in a way that would address the patient as a whole. That is what I hope to really do as a psychiatrist is to touch people a little bit more deeply and in a way that's more personal than simply just treating the illness.
A lot of what I do is listen to people's life stories, and what I do as a comic book writer is create life stories. I've always loved comic books, even as a kid. I always thought it would be so great to write my own comic book. And this was sort of a dream that got shelved for many years, because the dream of becoming a real life hero and a doctor sort of took front seat.
My writing partner Khurram was my first roommate at TouroCOM. Khurram and myself are extremely passionate Pakistani-Americans, and we really wanted to capture something that romanticizes and reflects our history. Our comic book is called Zindan, and it's an action fantasy series based in the Mughal and Persian Empire.
When we go to these conventions people's minds are totally blown. They're like how does this even connect? How can you be a doctor and write comic books at the same time? They seem like on opposite ends of the spectrum.
A lot of what I do is the art of communication, and the art of understanding, and the art of relating to people. And that's an art. There's no science for it, it's an art. I'm really just exploring people's narratives, and exploring people's experiences.
I'm not a doctor by day and a comic book writer by night. I'm all of those things. At the end of the day, we just want to create some positive impact on somebody's life.
Growing up, Omar Mirza’s life was filled with heroes.
His personal hero was his father, a general surgeon. “He did everything,” explained Mirza, a 2012 graduate of TouroCOM Harlem. “We all looked up to him.”
His other heroes were found in the pages of Marvel and DC comic books, characters like Superman, Captain America and the Incredible Hulk who travelled the world fighting evil and helping those in need.
As for his own superhero origin story, Mirza decided to become a doctor and made TouroCOM Harlem his first headquarters.
“I realized that one of the shortcomings in medicine is that we have learned to treat people as diagnoses not as people,” Mirza said. “The essence of what brought me to TouroCOM was addressing the patient as a whole.”
He chose to become a psychiatrist.
“I wanted to touch people a little more deeply and in a way that’s more personal than treating illness,” Mirza explained.
Mirza currently serves as a psychosomatic medicine fellow at Mt. Sinai hospital. He provides psychiatric counseling to solid organ transplant patients.
“Our hope is to provide early for psychiatric illness that can complement medical treatments in a way that would address the patient as a whole,” said Mirza.
While he was busy fulfilling one dream, Mirza also decided to pursue another, that of becoming a comic book creator.
“I always wanted to create my own comic books, but it was something that I put off, since becoming a real-life hero, a doctor, took precedence.”
Mirza believes that both his career as a psychiatrist and a comic book creator are linked.
“A lot of what I do is listen to people’s life stories and what I do as a comic book creator is create life stories,” he said.
Together with fellow TouroCOM alumn, Dr. Khurran Mehtabdin, the two created Zindaar: the Last Ansaars, an action-adventure comic set during the Mughal Empire. Both Mirza and Mehtabdin are proud Pakistani-Americans and hope to use their comic to showcase their unique history as well as challenge stereotypes about Pakistanis.
“I’m not a doctor by day and a comic book writer by night,” he acknowledged. “I’m all of those things. At the end of the day, all we want to do—both as comic book creators and doctors—is create a positive impact on someone’s life.”
