In the webcomic and graphic novel Mom’s Cancer, Brian Fies told the story of his mother’s diagnosis and treatment for cancer, and its effect on his family.

Mom's Cancer began as a serialized Internet comic, with new installments added throughout 2004. Readership grew by word-of-mouth. People who needed the story found it and told their friends about it.

The story won the comics industry's Eisner Award for Best Digital Comic, the Harvey Award, and the German Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis (Youth Literature Prize) and became a pioneering work in the new field of “graphic medicine.”

Brian will talk about why and how he created Mom’s Cancer, and the wider social communities he’s entered as a result. The event includes a book signing and books will be for sale.

Brian Fies is a writer and cartoonist who lives in Northern California with his wife, twin teenage daughters, and three cats. Mom's Cancer is his first graphic novel.

This event is co-sponsored by the following U-M Departments in the College of Literature, Science and the Arts: The Department of American Culture; Instructional Support Services; Office of Undergraduate Education; and the Program in Biology.

For more information about this event, call the Library at 327-4555 or visit our website at aadl.org.