Cancer in comic books? Aren’t comic books supposed to be funny? Well, it depends who you ask. Some people think comics are light entertainment, other people argue that graphic novels are like any other form of writing and can be serious or light hearted.
You might be surprised to learn there are some comic books/graphic novels on cancer. Just like in real life some of the stories end happily and some don’t. So don’t read them expecting light reading. All these books are aimed at adults.
The first comic book I heard of was “Cancer Vixen“, which if you are local to Huntly you can borrow from the Brander Library, as part of the Relay for Life display (until June 2009) or you can get it from amazon. “Lisa’s Story – The Other Shoe” is also about an American woman with breast cancer, which doesn’t have a happy ending. When it was first published in America, many people thought it was inappropriate to read about cancer in a comic. You can read part of Lisa’s story online (this guide to the main characters might help you pick up the story a bit quicker, but you’ll need Flash to view it). Another comic strip dealing with terminal breast cancer can be found on Mybreastcancernetwork.com.
Another couple of comic books look at the effect cancer has on a family, one book, about lung cancer is called “Mom’s Cancer” (which is also available on Amazon) another is “Our Cancer Year” about a man diagnosed with lymphoma.
What do you think about discussing cancer in comics? Is it appropriate? Does it help? Let me know by leaving a comment below.
If you are more impressed with the images than the text “
[...] in Blogs on Cancer by Avril Aug 04 2009 TrackBack Address. I have previously written a post on cancer in comic books, I thought I’d write a little more about the subject and tell you about some of the links I [...]