I’m Charlie Manzano, a student at SF State minoring in comic studies. Melahomos is a comic I wrote this past Spring for a Queer Comics class final. It’s about my experience meeting a fellow young trans person with melanoma during the pandemic, Lex. It shows some of our experiences building a friendship while navigating the medical system and “cancer culture.” It’s about dealing with the ins and outs of navigating facial cancer microaggressions, transphobia in medicine, and a social and medical framework that blames patients for their disease – especially commonly “blameable” cancers, like melanoma. I chose this topic because I … Continue reading Spotlight: Melahomos