Mom's Cancer

On November 2, 2010, author Brian Fies visited our Design 001 class to talk about his comic-style book Mom’s Cancer. Fies explains that he wrote his book about his mother’s cancer in a comic-style because he wants make this hard and personal experience more relatable to other people whether they’ve experienced the struggles of fighting cancer or not. Comic is basically a mixture between art and literature. The words are equally as important as the images drawn, making them interdependent.

On page 10 of Fies’ book Mom’s Cancer, he depicts his mom’s experience of literally “drowning” in words when people try to explain to her the facts and process of cancer treatment. In this case, rather than seeing words and images, the words have basically become the background image for this particular strip. The form of the words and the images makes full use of the kinesthetic empathy, evoking our sense of emotion, to communicate to the audience a sense of being overwhelmed. The reader can try reading the background words, but the words do not form complete coherent sentences, thus further contributing to the content and idea of confusion. Fies allows his mother to become the center focal point of this slide simply by surrounding her with the mass jumble of words, making her the only “picture” used. Even though this slide creates mental disorientation, the repetition of the background words creates an allover pattern, a technique called crystallographic balance, and a sense of rhythm that brings harmony and visual unity to the overall context. Fies also uses only black and white hues in his comic on most of his pages to ensure that the audience focuses more on the content of the book rather than simply the aesthetics. There is also movement in the way Fies drew his mother; as a reader, we can imagine her drowning, and struggling to stay afloat.

Sources:

Fies, Brian. Mom's Cancer