Schulz Event Report

 

Shot by Karen from the back of the museum's intimate theater while I talked about the original Mom's Cancer webcomic.

I think my Mom's Cancer: Anniversary Edition book talk and signing at the Charles M. Schulz Museum yesterday went very well, and folks who attended seemed to agree.

About three dozen people came, just about the size museum staff and I anticipated, with both friends and strangers in the mix. It's a weird collision of worlds having cartooning friends, old high school friends, Facebook friends, long-time social friends, neighbors and family gathered in the same room but I'm grateful to them all--maybe especially to those who didn't know me at all but came anyway! They asked good questions at the end and then bought enough books to make Leo from Copperfield's Books glad he came. 

Speaking from behind a lectern that has Charles Schulz's name on it never gets old.

Signing books for folks out in the museum's Great Hall. Copperfield's had copies of all of my books on hand, which is rare and greatly appreciated. I didn't really clock that I'd been seated directly beneath the gaze of Charles Schulz until the friend who took this photo, Mike Harkins, pointed it out to me. That' ain't bad, either.

Many thanks to Copperfield's and everyone at the Schulz Museum, who know how to run a good event and always make me feel very welcome (including sending me home with an unexpected bag of swag)! It all made for a great day.

Signing at the Schulz

Friends! I'm giving a talk and signing books at 2 p.m. next Saturday, May 16, at the Charles M. Schulz Museum in Santa Rosa, Calif., and I hope you'll come! Over the years the Schulz Museum has been like a second home to me--I've done a ton of events as a cartoonist and been a charter member since it opened--and Jeannie, Gina, Jessica, and other management and staff have always been supportive and terrific. I love the place!

I'll be talking about the Mom's Cancer: Anniversary Edition in the museum's theater at 2 o'clock, then signing books provided by heroic local independent bookseller Copperfield's in the Great Hall as long as they'll let me. The talk is free with admission, and the museum itself is worth a visit if you have any interest in comics and "Peanuts." 

This is the final public book event currently on my calendar (I do have some radio and podcast stuff coming up and will keep you posted). It'd mean a lot to see you there! 

Speaking at Stanford Med School

Bryant Lin and I before the class started.

I had a terrific time at Stanford University yesterday, talking about Mom's Cancer with a class of mostly medical students at the invitation of Dr. Bryant Lin. 

The class is a speakers series on the broad topic of narrative medicine. Bryant is in the unique position of being both a narrative medicine practitioner--his book Sunshine: An Exploration of Living When You Are Dying, will be published by Penguin Random House later this year--and, as that title hints, a husband and father with Stage Four lung cancer. Bryant is incorporating his diagnosis and treatment into his medical school curriculum. He is his own case study. That's a crazy kind of brave that only a great teacher would attempt.

It was a small class, about 14 students. I love lecturing to medical students because they're all smart, confident, and eager to perform well (having gotten straight A's most of their lives), so they play along with silly workshop exercises that, by the end of the class, have them drawing their own four-panel graphic medicine comic. A few of them really lit up, and I'm often surprised by how thoughtful and touching some of their work is considering that an hour earlier they'd never tried to make a comic. 

I've been a guest lecturer for this class a few years in a row. As I was leaving, Bryant said he was sorry he'd forgotten to bring his copy of The Last Mechanical Monster for me to sign. I replied, "I'll be back next year--and so will you." "Thanks," he said quietly. "That's the plan."

My opening slide, showing the sketch that inspired me to tell our family's story in the form of a comic and later because a page in Mom's Cancer. Photo by the class T.A., Cyril Sebastian.

Copperfield's Report

In the window at Copperfield's Books in Santa Rosa, Calif., my favorite heroic local independent bookseller.

Last night's Mom's Cancer talk and signing at Copperfield's in Santa Rosa was terrific! One of the best I've had in a long time. I didn't get a head count but would guess a few dozen...? As Karen said, you know it's going well when the bookstore has to roll away bookcases and find more chairs to handle the standing-room audience.

What made it great were the people who came: friends, neighbors, former coworkers, fellow cartoonists, an artist I haven't seen since we were in high school art class together, my sister Brenda (who had someone ask her to autograph their book, which I loved!), and even some people I DIDN'T know! They comprised a real "world's collide" cross-section of my life that showed up to support me, and that meant a lot.

Thanks to Leo from Copperfield's for hosting the event, glad we could sell a few books for you. Leo will also be selling books for my next scheduled public event on Saturday, May 16 at 2 p.m. at the Charles M. Schulz Museum. If you couldn't make this one, I hope to see you there!

Leo gave me a warm and flattering introduction. He and I have been through a few books together.

A different angle from the audience as I was getting started.

Monty Monty is a local assemblage sculptor who does beautiful work. We were in high school together but only really connected on Facebook in recent years. This was our first face-to-face in mmfty decades. He's one of two people I knew back then who've gone on to become a professional fine artist, which I respect tremendously. Check out http://www.montymontyart.com/

I was very happy to see my cartooning pal Lex Fajardo, creator of the "Kid Beowulf" comic and editor at the Schulz Studio. We don't exactly have a pact, but I think we try to show up for each other when we can, and I appreciate it! Check out https://kidbeowulf.com/

Interview with Publishers Weekly

Here's an interview with me about Mom's Cancer posted yesterday by Publishers Weekly, THE industry journal of the book business. Writer Dean Simons and I had a good, long conversation that he condensed into this article that hits the high points.

I didn't mention it earlier because it appeared to be behind a paywall, and when you click that link you, too, will hit a paywall that reads "PW Pro Content." But I think I stumbled onto a glitch: if you click on the "Questions?" prompt on that pop-up screen, it opens a new tab while revealing the article on the original tab! So just click back to that first tab and it should/might be there.

If you want to go to the trouble.

Getting a write-up in PW is a big deal because booksellers, librarians, critics, and other people in publishing pay attention to it. I'm grateful! 

Copperfield's Book Event, April 9

North Bay Friends! A reminder that I will be doing a talk and book signing for the Mom's Cancer Anniversary Edition Thursday night, April 9, 7 p.m. at Copperfield's Books in Santa Rosa, Calif. Copperfield's is a terrific independent bookstore chain, and my event will be at their Montgomery Village shop.

I don't have many personal appearances on the calendar, so take advantage of the rare opportunity! I'll be happy to sign any of my books, or even anyone else's. I'm not too picky or proud.

Copperfield's is asking people to RSVP at this link, although I promise that nobody who shows up without a reservation will be turned away. Hope to see you there, thanks!

Mom's Cancer in the Press Democrat

My hometown newspaper, the Santa Rosa Press Democrat, published a feature today about me and the Mom's Cancer Anniversary Edition. Writer Dan Taylor has been a real champion of local arts in general and comics in particular, and it was good to talk to him again.

Dan also interviewed my friend MK Czerwiec, who did me the favor of writing a new foreword for my book. I wasn't surprised that Dan quoted MK, since I asked her permission to give Dan her contact info, but I was surprised he also reached out to librarian, teacher, and graphic medicine wrangler Matthew Noe, who luckily for me also said nice things. Thanks to them both!

Two quick stories about the photo. Photographer John Burgess, who is a pro's pro, came to my studio and tried to wring some liveliness out of me. He was joking "Work it, work it!" and got me laughing, until I said to him, "Here's the thing. I don't want to look like I'm yucking it up promoting a book about my mother's cancer." John immediately switched gears. "Got it. Mona Lisa smile." Click.

Second story about the photo is that in the top left corner you can see an out-of-focus stained-glass hummingbird hanging in my studio window. Mom made that, and my sisters graciously gave it to me after the fire. If you'd like to interpret that as Mom literally watching over my shoulder, be my guest.

Book Launch by the Bay

Evidence of how beautiful a day on the Bay it was. This was on the ferry to San Francisco (if you're not familiar with the geography, the skyline of S.F. is just out of frame to the left). Alcatraz is on the right and the Golden Gate Bridge is in the background. Clear skies to the horizon.

Had a pretty good event at the Book Passage Bookstore in the San Francisco Ferry Building yesterday. Turnout was light--fewer than a dozen--which the store manager warned me might happen. It was a beautiful, warm, sunny day in the City, and she explained that in her experience people would rather enjoy a blue-sky afternoon on the Bay than in a bookstore. 

Still, I got to take my new Mom's Cancer: Anniversary Edition talk for a spin (verdict: solid!), sold a few books, and met some good people. In addition, as my friends and readers may recall, yesterday was my daughters' birthday so we made a whole family day out of it.

Stack of books by the door. Book Passage actually stocked copies of ALL my books for people to buy, which is unusual. They went the extra mile.

My introduction. Most photos by my wife, Karen (thanks!).

Cartoonist/teacher/fellow-Abrams-author Justin Hall showed up to interview me as part of the program. I’ve met Justin a few times but don’t really know him, but his questions were so good and thoughtful, and our discussion so lively, it was like we’d planned and rehearsed it for weeks. I wish I could take him everywhere. Thanks so much, Justin! I owe you.

Justin Hall really did a fantastic job with this Q&A. As a cartoonist himself, he asked all the right questions and built thoughtfully on my answers without getting too deep in the weeds for "civilians." I could have talked with him for hours, and wouldn't mind a chance to do that sometime.

Book Passage had a nice display of Abrams books, which I was happy to see.

When you write a book like Mom's Cancer (or A Fire Story), you meet some extraordinary people in the signing line, and yesterday was no exception. My last was an older woman who’d just happened into the store while waiting for her ferry, and explained that her daughter had died of cancer three months ago and left her to care for her two grandsons. She cried, I almost cried, and she bought the book to help explain to the kids what had happened to their mother. 

Other graphic novelists don’t make those connections.

Thanks to Book Passage and Justin for a good launch on a great day.

The Book Passage store is inside San Francisco's historic ferry building, which for several months has been guarded by a giant woman made of steel and chicken wire. This sculpture was controversial when it was installed but I think people have come to appreciate her. I do.

Here's how hard my day's transportation was: the ferry that we took from Larkspur Landing to San Francisco, the "Mendocino," is on the right. The Book Passage store, as shown by the sign above the pedestrian walkway, is on the left. That's a short commute. When we were done we had dinner nearby and then caught the same ferry back toward home.

See You at S.F. Book Passage, Sunday at 2 p.m.

S.F. Bay Area Friends! If you find yourself near the San Francisco Ferry Building this Sunday, March 15 at 2 p.m., I'd sure appreciate it if you'd drop by the Book Passage Bookstore, listen to me talk, and maybe even buy a copy of Mom's Cancer: Anniversary Edition. I can think of worse ways to spend a beautiful day in a beautiful city! Thanks.

https://www.bookpassage.com/event/brian-fies-mom%E2%80%99s-cancer-anniversary-edition-ferry-building-event

Review: "I Felt Myself In It."

Here's an insightful review from writer Susan Palmer, shared with my thanks. Nobody's opinion of Mom's Cancer means more to me than that of someone who's been through it themselves. 

"I didn’t understand until I read Fies’s book the kind of deep skill it takes to bring the right words and the right images together. His mother’s journey was quite different than mine. Yet I felt myself in it. For anyone in any stage of that landscape, I imagine the book may have that effect."

Review: Near Mint Condition

Here's an extraordinary take on the new edition by a YouTuber who reviews comics under the banner "Near Mint Condition" (I know his name but am not sure he wants it public). 

In more than 20 years of having my work scrutinized, I don't know if I've received a review this detailed, thoughtful, and compassionate. The reviewer read the story closely and brought his own life experience to it. That connection is what writing and reading is all about.

Thanks to my friend Chris Sparks for bringing it to my attention. If you have 13 minutes and are interested, I think it's worth a look! 

A Book Launch Q&A

Timed nicely with yesterday's launch of my new anniversary edition of Mom's Cancer, here's an interview with the Substack pub Autobiographix. This was a Q&A I did a few weeks ago with Amaris Ketcham, who I thought asked some good questions on topics I don't usually get asked about, such as my origin story and stylistic development. For being relatively brief, it goes pretty deep!

Thanks to Amaris and Autobiographix! It's a nice way to mark the occasion of putting a new (or at least updated) book into the world. 

T-Minus One Week and Counting

Friends, very rarely do I post for naked promotional purposes, but my new/old book--the 20th Anniversary Edition of Mom's Cancer--is being released in exactly one week, on March 3. If you have any interest in owning this update of my first graphic novel, now with 32 more pages of content including 22 pages of new art, this would be an excellent time to order it.

As always, I encourage everyone to support their local heroic independent bookseller. Failing that, it's also available from the usual multinational corporations, and I won't think less of you. Make sure you get the new one with the pink spine. 

By way of encouragement, I'll repeat my offer of mailing a free signed bookplate to anyone who asks. Just send me your postal address (brianfiesATgmailDOTcom should do it), tell me how/if you want it inscribed, and I'll pop it in the mail. Honestly, I haven't yet received the bookplates from my printer, but I will soon and they'll look like this. Meanwhile, I've started a list.

I have some book signings and podcast appearances coming up, and will be sure to mention them as they get closer. 

Many thanks!

It's Real

Maybe the most magical moment of making a book is when the abstract thing you've been working on for a long time--until now a jumble of ink on paper, Word files, Photoshop files, PDFs, proofs, and many many emails--becomes a solid object. Editor Charlie just sent me the first copy of the 20th Anniversary Edition of Mom's Cancer, still warm from the printing press (metaphorically), and it's a beauty.  

Y'all will get to see it in a few months, and I hope you'll take a look. We added 32 pages of all-new content, including 22 pages of comics, a new foreword from my graphic medicine pal, MK Czerwiec (thanks again, MK), and a long afterword by me on What It All Means. It's the definitive edition that you definitely need on your shelf!

BIG ANNOUNCEMENT! Mom's Cancer Anniversary Edition

In 2006, Abrams ComicArts published Mom's Cancer, about my mother's treatment for metastatic cancer. The story had already gotten some notice as a webcomic, for which it won an Eisner Award, and it's been in print ever since. The book has had a life I couldn't have imagined when I wrote and drew it, including being taught in medical schools.

To mark its 20th (!) anniversary, Abrams and I are publishing an updated edition with 32 pages of new material. That includes 22 pages of comics that tell the rest of the story after the events of the 2006 book, plus a new foreword by my friend and Graphic Medicine co-founder MK Czerwiec, as well as an author's note with background, sketches, ephemera, and my perspective on "what it all means." We didn't touch the original story, just expanded it to bring it up to the present.

The first page of new material.

If you're familiar with the original book, the new cover looks subtly different. I painted it with watercolors rather than digitally this time, which I think gives it a tad more life. We added the "Eisner" seal. Notably, the spine will be pink cloth instead of navy blue to differentiate it from the original. It echoes the pink that symbolizes women's cancer and the stripes in Mom's shirt. Also, a few years ago, a Brazilian publisher put out a Portuguese edition of Mom's Cancer that had a neon pink cover, and we all looked at it and thought, "Gee, I wouldn't have done that in a thousand years, but it's kinda cool!" So it's also a nod to that.

The very pink cover of the Portuguese translation from a few years ago.

My editor, Charlie Kochman, and I are very proud of this new edition. It was his idea to do it and I'm grateful. I hope/think this will become the definitive version of the story. In my mind, it gives Mom's Cancer the ending it deserved but never really had. 

The 20th anniversary edition of Mom's Cancer will be out in March 2026. We're actually reviewing printer's proofs now. You can find it at the Abrams website and, soon, wherever books are sold. Please patronize your local heroic independent booksellers!

Big thanks to my friends and readers (not to mention my editor and publisher!) for 20-plus years of support! It means everything. 

Color in Practice

I've been corresponding with a student doing a master's dissertation who asked me about the use of color in Mom's Cancer. Honestly and immodestly, this isn't the first time an academic has asked about that. I liked my reply enough I thought it would make a good post about how I approach making comics.

The question was basically: why is so much of the story black-and-white, and how did I decide where and how to use color? I said: 

I have a lot of respect for black-and-white art as a medium, in the same way that critics respect black-and-white photography or movies. It’s a different medium with a long tradition, with its own rules of visual storytelling that are different than those of color.

Honestly, it was also faster and easier to not color all the pages. Back then, trying to document my Mom’s illness and treatment as it happened, I was in a hurry. 

Color has a very specific meaning and purpose in Mom’s Cancer. It is similar to the way color is used in the movie “The Wizard of Oz,” where Dorothy famously walks out of the black-and-white ordinary world of Kansas into the Technicolor fantasy world of Oz. In my book, color indicates that something out of the ordinary, subjective, or unreal is happening. It is first seen during Mom’s transient ischemic attack (TIA) as light blue spots that are meant to suggest the phenomenon is happening inside her head rather than actual blue bubbles floating through the room. Fantasy sequences, like the superhero fight, are likewise in full color. 

I also used golden-brown sepia color in the sequences that looked back at Mom’s past, to instantly signal to readers that this flashback was different from the regular storyline. My favorite use of color in the book is a very subtle example toward the end, when my grandmother’s casket is colored sepia, indicating that the past is being literally and metaphorically buried, and the flashbacks are done.

In general, color is an often ignored and underutilized tool in graphic storytelling. If you’re just coloring the sky blue and grass green, you’re missing half the fun! Different palettes can set a mood, establish character and place, convey emotion, and guide a reader’s attention and feelings in ways they don’t even realize. More cartoonists should think harder about color and do more with it!

Mamae esta com Cancer

I just replied to an extremely long and detailed e-mail interview for Folha de São Paulo, which I'm told is one of the leading newspapers in Brazil, about the forthcoming Portuguese edition of Mom's Cancer.

Also: there is a forthcoming Portuguese edition of Mom's Cancer! Talk about burying the lede . . .

This was one of the most exhaustive interview of any sort I've done: 24 questions that took me nearly seven pages to answer. I hope they use some of it.

That's the Portuguese cover above. I did not design it, and Editor Charlie was very dubious when he first saw it. But I kinda like it, and the pink color ties in with Brazil's nationwide anti-cancer campaigns. Bottom line: I trust the Brazilian publishers know their market better than I do, and if they think hot pink will sell the book, it's OK with me!

This will be the eighth language for Mom's Cancer. In addition to English we've got German, French, Italian and Japanese already out, with Spanish and Slovenian (!) in the works. 

Seriously, when I began all this, I had no idea.

Good News/Bad News

I have good and less-good publishing news today.

GOOD: A Spanish-language edition of "Mom's Cancer" is forthcoming! I've seen the pages and it looks like the translators and designers did a beautiful job, particularly with the graphic elements where text is integrated with the art. I'm honestly surprised there wasn't a Spanish version years ago, but am astonished and gratified that a book that's now about 15 years old still has a lot of life left in her. That's incredibly rare.

LESS-GOOD: My publisher, Abrams, and I have been working on a paperback version of "A Fire Story," with 32 new pages of art describing our rebuilding process and fleeing yet another wildfire, to be released in the fall. It now looks like Covid-19 has pushed that release into spring 2021.

Here's the deal: the publishing industry releases books in two seasons, spring and fall. Because bookstores are closed, authors can't tour, etc., many of the books that were supposed to be released this spring--right now--are being pushed into the fall. Editor Charlie felt that it would be better to delay my paperback's launch so it doesn't get drowned in the glut of books gushing from the pipeline after the clog is cleared. Besides, there's no guarantee that bookstores will be open by this fall, either!

Compared to everything else the pandemic has screwed up, my book launch is trivial. Abrams's strategy makes sense. But I'm still disappointed.

Mom's Cancer Notes: Page 19

I'm annotating individual pages from my book Mom's Cancer as they're posted on GoComics.com. These are my notes on Page 19 (July 2).

Yeah, we really got that reaction from Mom's medical team. They couldn't believe her osteopath's incompetence. But we were making progress, zeroing in on a diagnosis and a plan.

I mentioned this a few months ago but will repeat it here: I was watching TV recently when I saw a face in a commercial that brought me to an abrupt stop. "Hey, I know her!" Given the commercial's subject matter, it only took me a moment to remember how.



That's her younger version caricatured in the comic above. She was a terrific doc then and it's good to see her still working hard and getting it done.

Mom's Cancer Notes: Page 18

I'm annotating individual pages from my book Mom's Cancer as they're posted on GoComics.com. These are my notes on Page 18 (June 29).

From time to time, people ask if pages from Mom's Cancer are available as prints or posters. (No, sorry.) This is almost always the page they're interested in. We used this image for the cloth bags given to participants of the 2011 Graphic Medicine Conference in Chicago (with, as I recall, a kind donation from my publisher Abrams to help pay for the bags).

It depicts a long day at the hospital. The different colored backgrounds suggest that these exams are happening in a variety of times and places. Different tests, repeated tests, different docs and nurses. They also make a visually interesting checkerboard pattern.

The day and the page begin with recognizably drawn features: hands, feet, arms, legs. As the day goes on, the features become less concrete. Everything becomes an exhausting abstract mush. By the time Mom's given the final command to "feel," it's impossible for her to feel anything.

I'm surprised how strongly some people respond to this page. I think maybe I captured something many folks have felt but didn't quite know how to express.