awaiting GM review. BD in French Amazon.fr blurb: ‘Un soir, un clochard s’enfuit de la maison de repos où il a été placé pour passer l’hiver. Pieds nus, en pyjama sous la neige, il traverse la campagne glacée à cause d’une infirmière qui lui a servi une soupe froide. Pour lui, c’est pire qu’une insulte. La soupe froide est tout juste bonne pour les chiens, pas pour un être humain. Humilié, il préfère risquer sa vie que rentrer dans cet hospice si peu attentionné à son égard Inspirée d’un fait divers véridique, cette histoire prend le lecteur aux tripes pour… Read More
When David Lost His Voice
not reviewed by GM.org yet. Self Made Hero blurb: “A heartfelt portrayal of a family preparing for life after David” The moment his granddaughter Louise is born, David learns that he has cancer. But words were never his forte, and he’d rather keep quiet about his illness, the pain and the end that awaits him – much to the frustration of the women in his life. They wait, powerless, for the silent but inexorable end. “This is an amazing book, one of the best published by SelfMadeHero so far.” Rachel Cooke – The Observer
Seeds
Ross Mackintosh’s book Seeds (2011) describes the final couple months of his father’s life. His fun loving, pub going, sport loving but quietly philosophical ‘Dad’ died of disseminated prostate cancer in 2010 and Mackintosh, who had previously experimented with comic strips, felt inspired to embark on a full length narrative work. He states in the introduction how lucky he feels to live in the UK during a period of time in which healthcare is provided by the National Health Service (NHS). In contrast to nearly all the US graphic novels about cancer, in which significant themes seem to be the… Read More
The Death of Captain Marvel
Not yet reviewed. Want to write a review for us?
Stitches: A Memoir
How would you feel if you inadvertently caused your son’s cancer, then ignored the lump for a couple of years, resulting in an operation that left him mute? It isn’t really apparent what David Small’s father felt, because his family are not big on communication. Edward Small chose not to tell David that he had cancer at first, then, after a couple of years, took him out for dinner and gave it to him bluntly, before resuming the usual dysfunctional truculence. Davids father was a radiologist, and in those days X rays were heralded as a treatment for all sorts… Read More
My Diary
Beautifully designed, the minimalist structure of this sparsely laid out volume makes it feel more like an art book than a graphic novel. Mio Matsumoto is an artist from Japan, and was studying in London when she was found to have a cancerous growth on her tongue. She travelled back to Japan for treatment and documented her illness in this sketchbook diary. The scratchy, deliberately “inept” biro drawings are very of the moment (think David Shrigley) but convey little in the way of emotional depth, leaving the text to convey the authors thoughts. The the idiomatic narration and romantic preoccupations… Read More
Mom’s Cancer
Brian Fies originally chronicled his family’s struggle to come to terms with their mother’s metastatic cancer in an anonymous serialised web comic. He had no idea how the story would end when he started posting it, but he hoped that others similarly affected would find some comfort in knowing they were not alone. Reader numbers increased by word of mouth (or email) recommendation and the strip was picked up and published as a hardback book in 2006. It has subsequently won several awards, including an Eisner. It is a beautifully produced book, with understated graphics, mostly in black and white… Read More
Our Cancer Year
Our Cancer Year portrays the diagnosis and treatment of Harvey Pekar’s lymphoma against a backdrop of domestic upheaval and the momentous political and social events of the first gulf war. Frank Stack’s scratchy monochrome brush and pen work lend the panels an air of anxiety and disorder. A real-life file clerk in a Cleveland hospital, Pekar has been documenting the day-to-day idiosyncracsies of his life and work since 1976 in the cult comic series American Splendour. One of the first writers to think that everyday life could provide the basis for comic book stories, he hired various cartoonists (most notably… Read More