Mom's Cancer

Mom's Cancer is a webcomic created by writer Brian Fies. The webcomic is an autobiographical story dealing with his mother's fight against metastatic lung cancer, as well as his family's reactions to it. Although the story is mostly a serious, insightful depiction of the subject, the writing is lined with subtle humor. In 2005, Mom's Cancer won the comic industry's Eisner Award for Best Digital Comic, a new category that year. In 2006, Abrams Books published a hardcover edition of Mom's Cancer, which won the Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis.

Mom's Cancer
Author(s)Brian Fies
Websitewww.gocomics.com/moms-cancer
Current status/scheduleCompleted
Launch date2004
Genre(s)Autobiographical

Fies's mother died on October 1, 2005, from side effects of the drugs used to treat her cancer.

Characters

There are four main characters in the story, all of which are part of the family. None of the characters is ever referred by name, and the author uses his relationships to identify them.

  • Mom: the author's mother, she is in her 60s, and suffers from stage IV metastatic lung cancer.
  • Me: The author, a "self-employed writer" in his 40s, and the eldest child
  • Nurse Sis: One of the author's sisters, slightly younger than he, and a registered nurse
  • Kid Sis: The author's younger sister, an actress and writer who lives with her mother

Aside from the main characters, there are several secondary characters who appear several times, most notably the author's stepfather and his mother's head doctor.

Format

The story is divided into chapters, each one containing several multipanel pages. Although the webcomic is mostly presented in black and white, several chapters are done in full or partial color, primarily for effect or when color helps the understanding of the ideas that are presented. In total, there are thirty-three chapters, including an epilogue.

Legacy

Mom's Cancer was the first webcomic to receive an Eisner Award in July 2005, under the newly created category "Best Digital Comic". Fies noted on his website that medical professionals were using his story for their work. The webcomic was published as a graphic novel by Harry N. Abrams in March 2006.[1] The German edition of the graphic novel received the Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis in October 2007.[2]

Fies wrote the 18-chapter webcomic A Fire Story in 2017, recounting the devastation caused by California wildfires, due to which he lost his home.[3]

References
  1. Thorne, Amy (2010-04-19). "Webcomics and Libraries". Graphic Novels and Comics in Libraries and Archives. Literary Criticism. p. 211. ISBN 0786456930.
  2. Fies, Brian (2007-10-12). "Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis". Mom's Cancer Blog.
  3. Williams, David (2017-10-18). "He lost his home to the wildfire and poured his pain into a web comic". CNN.
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