These two books have so much in common – deeply moving and personal accounts, metastatic cancer in women, individual comic strips presented as a continuous story – but I can’t choose a favorite because each is extraordinary. Both made me laugh. Both made me cry. Both made me see the world a little bit differently and appreciate life a little bit more.

Cancer Made Me a Shallower Person: A memoir in comics by Miriam Engelberg
Of course, cancer isn’t a funny topic, but Miriam Engelberg’s memoir in comics presents her experiences honestly, complete with doubts and sarcasm. She showcases her imagination and witticism with comics depicting her worries about the less obvious breast cancer questions: Was her cancer caused by eating too much cheese? Can the literary concept of irony cause cancer in otherwise perfect people? Had she used up her spiritual enlightenment too early in her life? Enjoy her enlightening comics and inspiring story as she confronts her cancer diagnosis and treatment while shamelessly watching too much television, working TV crossword puzzles, and drawing comics about her experiences.

Mom’s Cancer by Brian Fies
This powerful, poignant story follows a family coping with their mother’s lung cancer and brain tumor. The artist appears in the comics as the oldest child and only son, a forty-something writer raising his own family. His sisters are both very close to their mother. Nurse Sis has years of experience in intensive care treatment and Kid Sis lives with their mother when she is diagnosed. The fourth character is Mom, who is diagnosed with cancer in her early sixties after a lifetime of smoking and chooses aggressive treatment to fight the cancer and overcome unlikely odds. The author’s drawings capture his family’s perspective of their mom’s cancer and reinforce that the experience of supporting a loved one through cancer is becoming more universal. In 2005, the original Web version of Mom’s Cancer won the comics industry’s Eisner Award for Best Digital Comic.

Also check out Cancer Vixen : A True Story by New Yorker cartoonist Marisa Acocella Marchetto.