Mom's Cancer
Mom's Cancer is a webcomic created by writer Brian Fries. The comic is an autobiographical story dealing with his mother's fight against metastatical lung cancer, as well as his family's reactions to it. although the story is mostly a serious, insightful depiction of the subject, humor (mostly subtle) is present in the writing.
Characters
There are four main characters in the story, all of which are part of the family. None of the characters are ever referred by name, and the author uses his relationships to identify them.
Mom: the author's mother, she is in her 60's, and suffers from Stage IV metastatic lung cancer caused by cigarrette smoking.
Me: The author, a "self-employed writer" in his 40's, and the eldest son.
Nurse Sis: One of the author's sisters, slightly younger than him, and a certified nurse.
Kid Sis:The author's youngest sister, an actress and writer who lives with her mom.
Aside from the main characters, there are several secondary characters who appear several times, most notably the author's stepdad and his mother's head doctor.
Format
The story is divided into chapters, each one containing several multipanel pages. Although the comic is mostly done 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.
Chapter Titles
Chapter 1: How to Diagnose Lung Cancer, Step One
Chapter 2: How to Diagnose Lung Cancer, Step Two
Chapter 3: A Family Meeting
Chapter 4: A Game of Luck and Skill
Chapter 5: Nurse Sis
Chapter 6: Impressive Hospitality
Chapter 7: A Terrible Thing to Waste
Chapter 8: Told You So What
Chapter 9: Kid Sis and Hollywood
Chapter 10: Never Tell Me the Odds
Chapter 11: Arrangement in Grey and Black
Chapter 12: Dad
Chapter 13: Chemo Gut
Chapter 14: The Usual Unusual
Chapter 15: Rx Kryptonite
Chapter 16: Hope Against Hope
Chapter 17: After the War, Part One
Chapter 18: Mom in Mathemagic Land
Chapter 19: Just Deserts
Chapter 20: P.E.
Chapter 21: No Man Deserved Less at Her Hands
Chapter 22: Puzzlement
Chapter 23: One Night at the Condo
Chapter 24: Whose Life Is It Anyway?
Chapter 25: After the War, Part Two
Chapter 26: A Universe Inside Her Head
Chapter 27: Many Heroic Returns
Chapter 28: We Learn By Doing
Chapter 29: Autumnfall
Chapter 30: The Five Percent Solution
Chapter 31: Waiting for My Wife to Get the Minivan
Chapter 32: Deus Ex Machina (An End)
Chapter 33: An Epilogue