Cancer Vixen

 

October is breast cancer awareness month. It's also Halloween countdown month. I try to stay relevant and set the mood by reading comics and graphic novels that fit the season or an event going on at around the same time. If you noticed the books I have reviewed this month, you'll see that I have done a decent job with the spooky stuff. But when it comes to breast cancer awareness, the best I could do was find a Batman-themed Save the Ta-Tas image for my Facebook page.

   That was until I hit my local library last week and found ‘ Cancer Vixen.’ When I thumbed through it, I thought it was about a woman’s account of her battle with lung cancer. It didn't quite meet the breast cancer awareness requirement I was looking for, but I took what I could get. When I started this a couple of days later and learned that the book’s creator was actually diagnosed with breast cancer; well I must have been the first person in history to cheer for someone getting the disease.

  But only cause I can paint my blog pink for October. I swear!

  The book opens in 2004 with the author Marissa Acocella, right before she becomes Mrs. Marchetto. She's considered one of the Big Apple’s hottest cartoonists, a thriving member of the in-crowd, and in 2 weeks about to get married. But when the artist finds a lump, that all appears to come crashing down. Especially, when she learns that her health insurance has lapsed.

  The book then jumps back and forth to 2001. In the past we see Marissa receive an assignment that will connect her with her future fiance. Then on a fateful day in September, we witness the tragic events that put Marrisa in the dust clouds of the World Trade Center and inspire her to pen a cartoon article that will blast her into the stratosphere as a hot talent in New York’s (magazine) publishing world.

Marrisa remarks that her time in the toxic clouds of Ground Zero could be behind her cancer. But she doesn't dwell on that. In fact, what this possibility does is it opens the reader to a new dimension. What the author does to much success is occasionally travel a parallel universe filled with an array of cartoons she created during her cancer fight such as the “ What Caused My Cancer? Board Game.”

   Cancer Vixen reminds me of another magazine writer making it big in Manhattan at about the same time- Candace Bushnell. Her columns in the New York Observer inspired the hit TV show ‘Sex & The City’ about 4 women who struggle to find love in the social circles of the city that never sleeps.

  

  Now I have never seen a single episode of Sex & The City. So to my knowledge, one of the characters might have battled cancer but I doubt it. However, if they ever did a storyline about one of the girls and their struggles to stay in the ‘IT’ crowd, this graphic novel is what I imagine the HBO hit to be like. ( While researching on this review, I learned that one character named Samantha gets get breast cancer in the final season which occurred in 2004. However, as Cancer Vixen is a true story, any similarities are coincidence more than likely.)

    Cancer Vixen is one of those stories I couldn't put down. Engrossing with a passionate account of a cancer survivor's fight against breat cancer. With inovative storytelling techniques and a no-holds barred approach, this is a graphic novel that while isn't considered a classic yet- it will be. I highly reccommend it.

   Worth Consuming

   Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.