Fies - Moms Cancer

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Fies, Brian.
Moms cancer / Brian Fies.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-0-8109-7107-3
1. Graphic novels. I. Title.
PN6727.F483M66 2006
741.5'973dc22
2005021824

Copyright 2006 Brian Fies
This edition published in 2008 by Abrams ComicArts,
an imprint of Abrams.

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical, electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the publisher.

Abrams ComicArts is a registered trademark of Harry N. Abrams, Inc., registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Abrams ComicArts books are available at special discounts when purchased in quantity for premiums and promotions as well as fundraising or educational use. Special editions can also be created to specification. For details, contact special-sales@abramsbooks.com or the address to the right.

EDITOR
Charles Kochman

EDITORIAL ASSISTANT
Isa Loundon

DIRECTOR, ART & DESIGN
Mark LaRiviere

DESIGNER
Brady McNamara

PRODUCTION MANAGERS
Steve Baker, Stanley Redfern

www.abramsbooks.com

To Karen, Robin, and Laura
And Elisabeth, Brenda, and Barbara

Many people have been more supportive of my work on Moms Cancer than necessary, including Jennifer Contino, Otis Frampton, Michael Fry, Joey Manley, Malcolm McGookin, Wiley Miller, Ronnie Pardy, Mike Peterson, Ted Slampyak, Patricia Storms, and Arnold Wagner. Some of them may protest that they did very little; however, even a little at the right place and time can make a big difference. Dad, thanks for surprising me. Special thanks to editor Charlie Kochman.

Mom.
Cancer.

How could the juxtaposition of those two words not make us stop and take notice? Moms Cancer is a powerful combination of words and pictures that can unsettle, but in the hands of Brian Fies they inspire.

In a 2001 interview with Stefano Gorla, comics legend Will Eisner said, I write about what I know and what I have experienced. This keeps me an honest writer.

By the standard that Eisner brought to the field of comics, Moms Cancer is exceedingly honestand Brian Fies most assuredly writes about what he knows. Not only is his book honest, it is also smart, funny, cathartic, and brave. In the truest sense of the word, it is original.

The world of comics is continuously changing and evolving. Ever since the appearance of Richard F. Outcaults Hogans Alley in 1895, practitioners like Winsor McCay, Harvey Kurtzman, and Alan Moore have been reinventing the medium along the way. The publication of Will Eisners seminal graphic novel A Contract with God and Other Tenement Stories in 1978 paved the road for all others to follow: Art Spiegelmans Maus: A Survivors Tale (1986), Harvey Pekar and Joyce Brabners Our Cancer Year (1994), Howard Cruses Stuck Rubber Baby (1995), and more recently Marjane Satrapis Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood (2003), have all tested the definition of comics and redefined its subject matter.

Whether Moms Cancer gets added to that list remains to be seen. However, its distinction comes from the fact that it was first created as a Web comic. It was posted anonymously and found its audience online, outside the system of mainstream comics, through word of mouth. A little more than a year later, on July 15, 2005, Scott McCloud presented Brian Fies with an Eisner Award at the San Diego Comic-Conthe first-ever award for Best Digital Comic. Moms Cancer became the Little Web Comic That Could, and it signified a shift in the way comics were made, read, even published.

Although it could have easily continued its existence in cyberspace, passing from one Googled link and forwarded e-mail to another, the story has now coalesced on paper, sold in the traditional arena of book publishing. Our intention is to give Moms Cancer a sense of permanence, and perhaps make it even more accessible, expanding its audience in ways its author/illustrator could never have imagined.

If this is your first graphic novel, we hope you are encouraged to explore the countless others waiting for you to read. Or perhaps youll be inspired to create your own.

All stories, if they are honest, are universal. Sadly, few things in life are more universal than illness. Each year, approximately 1.5 million people in the United States and Canada are diagnosed with cancer. This is one familys story. In many ways, it is also everyones story.

Charles Kochman

Charles Kochman is the executive editor of Abrams ComicArts, and editor of the bestselling Diary of a Wimpy Kid series by Jeff Kinney. Prior to joining Abrams in January 2005, Kochman was editor of Licensed Publishing at DC Comics and MAD Magazine for twelve years, and before that he was an editor at Bantam Books and PlayValue books, an imprint of G.P. Putnams Sons. A graduate of Brooklyn College, Kochman is a member of the National Cartoonists Society, and is on the board of advisors for MoCCA (the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art).

You are not alone.

I created Moms Cancer because I wish someone had created it for me. I began serializing Moms Cancer on the Internet in early 2004 as a kind of underground journalism: dispatches from the front lines of a battle into which my family stumbled unprepared. I worked anonymously to protect my privacy and my family, who never asked to become cartoon characters, and also to suggest that the story could be about anybody anywhere. Readership grew by word of mouth. People who needed it found it.

Although Moms Cancer is very specifically about my family and our experience fighting my mothers metastatic lung cancer, I was astonished by how many readers saw their own stories in ours. I was also gratified to get letters from medical professionals and educators saying that Moms Cancer helped them understand their patients perspectives and asking permission to use it in their curricula. That was an unexpected privilege, as is the opportunity to reach even more readers through print.

When I started writing and drawing Moms Cancer, I didnt know how the story would end. I resolved to be a good reporter and tell it as squarely as I could. Moms Cancer is not a nuts-and-bolts medical manual. Tests and treatments vary; the emotional and practical impacts of a serious illness are nearly universal. Members of my family remember some of these events very differently, and my portrayals of them arent always flattering. The fact that my mother, father, and sisters still graciously and even enthusiastically support Moms Cancer means everything to meanother unexpected privilege.

Moms Cancer is an honest, earnest effort to turn something bad into something good. Although I distrust stories with lessons, here is one: No one will care more about your life than you do, and no one is better qualified to chart its course than you are. You are the expert.