Mom's Cancer

Lore & Background

The story features four unnamed main characters identified only by their family roles: Mom (the author's mother, in her 60s with stage IV metastatic lung cancer), Me (the author, a self-employed writer in his 40s), Nurse Sis (a registered nurse and one of the author's sisters), and Kid Sis (the youngest sister, an actress and writer living with their mother). Secondary characters include the author's stepfather and the mother's head doctor. The narrative is not a scientific discussion or guidebook but a personal documentation of the family's experience, including contradictory medical advice, the mother's struggle to understand her illness, and the pain and fear patients face outside the hospital.

Reader's Guide

Mom's Cancer holds significance as a pioneering work in the graphic medicine genre, being the first webcomic to win an Eisner Award. Its print collection, published in 2006, also won a Harvey Award and the Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis (German Youth Literature Prize) in the Non-Fiction category. The work has been cited in scientific papers examining medical humanities, doctor-patient interactions, and illness narratives. Medical student Samantha Estevez, writing for the blog Graphic Medicine, recommended the work to anyone in medicine, stating it may help physicians become better friends to their patients. The comic originally appeared on its own website and later on GoComics; it is no longer hosted on its original site but is available at the Internet Archive. The story is divided into 33 chapters, mostly in black and white but with some full or partial color used for effect or clarity.

Did You Know?

• Mom's Cancer was the first webcomic to win an Eisner Award, in 2005.
• None of the four main characters are ever referred to by name; they are identified only by family roles.