This past November, xkcd creator Randall Munroe posted a comic explaining that a family member had become ill. Although a handful of his comics since then have alluded to illness – the frustration of a sick person being told they just need a positive attitude, the promise science holds as a weapon against disease – he has not focused much of his comic on that aspect of his life.
Last week, Munroe decided to share precisely what he has been dealing with these past eight months. His fiancée was diagnosed with stage III breast cancer and she is still undergoing treatment. Munroe shared this in part to explain why he has missed some comic deadlines – although I’m sure his fans, like everyone here, care far more about Munroe and his fiancée’s physical and emotional health. But Munroe also announced that he is interested in making comics about cancer science, a topic he has obviously learned a great deal about in the last year.
The last two decades have seen several powerful (and, yes, sometimes funny) comics about cancer and other long-term ailments. In 1994, comic autobiographer Harvey Pekar and his wife Joyce Brabner released Our Cancer Year, their account of Pekar’s struggle with lymphoma. In 1999, the syndicated newspaper strip Funky Winkerbean brought breast cancer to America’s breakfast tables when the character Lisa Crawford Moore is diagnosed with the disease. The strip’s creator, Tom Batiuk, is himself a prostate cancer survivor. Lisa’s cancer recurred in the strip in 2006, and in 2007, she succumbed to the disease. Although some fans of the comic decried the plotline as too depressing (but let’s be honest, what Funky Winkerbean story arc isn’t?), the strip won high praise from many who work with cancer patients and foundations.
More recently, we’ve also seen memoirs from cartoonists who have watched loved ones cope with illness. The first-ever Eisner for Best Digital Comic went to 2005’s Mom’s Cancer (now available only in print), in which Brian Fies detailed his mother’s treatment for lung cancer and its effect on their family. Documentary cartoonist Stan Mack wrote Janet & Me, about his partner, YA nonfiction writer Janet Bode, and her battle with, and eventual death from, breast cancer. Polish graphic novelist Frederik Peeters writes about his relationship with his girlfriend and her son, both of whom are HIV-positive, in Blue Pills: A Positive Love Story. In Epileptic, French cartoonist David B. recounts his childhood with his severely epileptic brother.
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This was a wonderful article. Thank you.
I would also suggest the graphic novel I Kill Giants.
“xkcd has always championed the awesome power of science.” .. except when it’s spreading lies about type 1 diabetes. xkcd likes to think it’s scientific but its really just arrogant geeky pop culture.
Is there any other kind of geeky pop culture?
@Joe R: …link?
great article, thx for the read.
I think maybe Joe R is referring to: [xkcd.com]
Not sure how that’s type 1 though.
Hey, I have read just about all of these!
A couple of additions:
[www.amazon.com]
[www.amazon.com]
[www.amazon.com]
While I enjoy these stories, cancer still sucks. Information (and humor) can be great coping mechanisms. But as one of 150,000 people in the US living with metastatic breast cancer there are really no “glorious weapons” for us. Chemotherapy is like using a machine gun to kill an ant.
Metastatic breast cancer (Stage IV) is incurable in 2011. Treatment is literally for life. When a treatment fails you move on to the next one.
It would be awesome if Randall can help people understand that breast cancer isn’t just one generic disease. Also, as he alluded to in one of his comics, recurrence is unfortunately a threat–up to 30 percent of people treated for an earlier stage cancer will go on to join the metastatic ranks.
While it would be great if everyone had a treat-it-and-beat-it scenario, that’s not the case.
All the best to Randall and his finance. I can tell he really gets it and will look forward to additional comics.
This article wreaks of the romantic notion that because it is science it is good, almost holy. What a load of crap. Western medical science, do some research, had a very rocky start and exists today under that umbrella. If you want to cure cancer move as far away from the cutting, poisoning and burning to cure; because it usually doesn’t. I can’t for the life of me understand this ‘fighting’ cancer mentality or why after billions of dollars in research medical SCIENCE doesn’t have a clue as to what creates cancer. It’s complete BS. Only 15% of all research monies actually go to research. It’s a business. It was started as a business in the beginning of the 1900′s and continues that way. Science is not the holy grail. It is limited like everything else. People control science it isn’t it’s own entity. Especially in medicine the dollar rules. There have been several cures for cancer, that were founded and proved through science (just not western medical science) and they were destroyed and when other people who worship science hear about these cures they pooh pooh them. Very interesting and very unscientific. What is science after all but research and development and proof. Well, my friends, medical science has done none of these when it comes to cancer. They have instead systematically destroyed the cures and promoted a system that follows the money. Don’t believe me; do your own research. Luckily for me I am more open minded then most people dealing with cancer and after being poisoned and cut open – A LOT…I decided to stop the madness and look somewhere else. The next 2 times I had cancer it was dissolved in one month. No pain, surgery or traditional nonsense. As the doc who did my mastectomy said: Don’t let anyone tell you we know anything about cancer because we don’t. How do u cure a disease you know nothing about? Then he said statistics are doctored and many groups of people are never included in the statistics so don’t believe what we are telling you as truth. And then he said, Whatever you think will cure you I strongly suggest you do it. Because that, more than anything else, will save your life. This man was at one of the major cancer research institutes in the country; University of Miami Cancer Research Center. Science is not the holy grail, it is controlled by money and people. Keep that in mind.