Graphic Medicine

Available in print at the Health Science Center Library
A cartoonist examines her experience with breast cancer in an irreverent and humorous graphic memoir. Engelberg was 43 and the mother of a 4-year-old when diagnosed with breast cancer. She underwent surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy in quick succession, and the cancer later metastasized to the brain. She lost her hair, experienced the seeming paradox of gaining weight on account of treatment, lost interest in sex, joined support groups in which she made new friends, and obsessed about what she might have done to bring on her illness or avoid it. She decided early on to make comics out of her travails, and if they are pretty rudimentary, they are very focused. Each one- to six-page helping of them centers tightly on a topic, incident, or such bits of fancy as an imaginary "Cancer Channel" and an infomercial for metastasis.

Available online
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.

Available in print at the Health Science Center Library
In vivid color and with a taboo-breaking sense of humor, Marisa Acocella Marchetto tells the story of her eleven-month, ultimately triumphant bout with breast cancer--from diagnosis to cure, and every challenging step in between. But Cancer Vixen is about more than surviving an illness. From raucous New Yorker staff lunches and the star-studded crowd at Silvano's restaurant to the rainbow pumps Marisa wears to chemotherapy, Cancer Vixen is a total original.

Available in print at the Health Science Center Library
When Jennifer Hayden was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 43, she realized that her tits told a story. Across a lifetime, they'd held so many meanings- hope and fear, pride and embarrassment, life and death. And then they were gone. Now, their story has become a way of understanding her story.

Available in print at the Health Science Center Library
Things to Do in a Retirement Home Trailer Park documents Nye's reconciliation with his father as he cares for him in hospice. Their daily schedule of pill counting and medical checks unfolds in an extraordinary world where the protagonist is a minotaur and his father a rhinoceros, social workers are sea turtles, and mobile homes move atop gigantic elephants. As the old man battles against emphysema, his shortness of breath becomes more evident until his speech bubbles, previously charged with pithy comment, are mostly filled with pauses.