Mom's Cancer

by Brian Fies

Overview

Each year, approximately 1.5 million people in the United States and Canada are diagnosed with cancer. This is one family’s story. Brian Fies is a freelance journalist whose mother was diagnosed with lung cancer. As he and his two sisters struggled with the effects of her illness and her ongoing recovery from treatment, Brian processed the experience in his journal, which took the form of words and pictures. The story that came to be known as “Mom’s Cancer” first gained notice on the internet. It was posted anonymously, with the intention of sharing information and insights gained from his family’s experience. Thanks to the words and illustrations of Brian Fies, readers have already responded that they were surprised and gratified to realize that they weren’t alone. Abrams ComicArts is proud to bring this story to a whole new audience.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781613122419
Publisher:	ABRAMS, Inc.
Publication date:	05/23/2023
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	128
File size:	20 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

BRIAN FIES is a writer and cartoonist who lives in Northern California with his wife, twin teenage daughters, and three cats. Mom’s Cancer is his first graphic novel.

Editorial Reviews

As nearly every survivor knows, cancer is a shared experience. Soon after Brian Fies's mother was struck by lung cancer and a brain tumor, he began chronicling its effects on his entire family in an anonymous online graphic story. With rare candor, he documented his mother's denial; tension and rivalry between his two sisters; and his own complicated, sometimes unresolved emotions. In its original form, Mom's Cancer won the 2005 Eisner Award as the Best Digital Comic. As a graphic novel, it will resonate with the millions of American families who know firsthand what cancer means.

Don't let the title put you off: collecting the Eisner Award-winning Web comic of the same name, this story is more about how a life-altering event affects an entire family than another Lifetime disease-of-the-week story. When freelance writer Fies finds out his mother has both lung cancer and a brain tumor, her attempts to fight the disease-including rounds of radiation and chemotherapy-pull her entire family into the struggle. Fies is gentle but honest in telling his story. He refrains from painting his mother as a saint, depicting her instead as someone getting through a horrible situation by refusing to acknowledge just how bad it is. Nor does he shy away from the more complicated emotions his mother's health generates, including a sometimes heated rivalry with his two sisters (knowledgeable "Nurse Sis" and empathetic "Kid Sis"). Fies is most compelling when he finds insight in small details unique to his mother's experience, such as the strength she draws from a leather purse her father made while confined in a tuberculosis sanitarium. The clean, simple comic-strip quality of Fies's art fits the story perfectly, highlighting the gravity of the situation while cutting away undue sentimentality. Mom's Cancer is a quiet, courageous account of one family's response to a universal situation. (Apr.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

A deeply touching account of one woman's struggle with cancer; a story of heartbreak and hope told with sophisticated visual invention by her adult son. Originally serialized on the Internet during the ordeal, this won the 2005 Eisner Award for Best Digital Comic.
—Steve Raiteri

Library Journal