With Russian readers’ increasing acceptance of comics – for decades derogated as a “foreign” and half-literate medium – the amount of graphic narrative work by marginalized groups has grown as well, in particular since Putin’s 2012 return to the presidency. The accessibility (especially for the young), visceral impact and easy dissemination of comics (especially through the internet) has made them an attractive vehicle for voices and imagery otherwise occluded in contemporary life. This talk discusses comics by or about the disabled – themselves a population too long ignored by mainstream Russia. How do young artists like Tayana Faskhutdinova, Lyonya Rodin, Roman Sokolov and Ner-Tamin (Yulia Nikitina) represent the disabled body as site of contention and human dignity? How do their visions coincide with and complicate the rhetoric of disability rights movements in Russia? How do the visual-verbal strategies of comic art communicate the experiences of lives too often lived in the shadows? Finally, how does the 2017 publication of and national press devoted to Vladimir Rudak and Lena Uzhinova’s graphic novel “I Am an Elephant” signal a new phase in disability representation in Russia?