Word & Image: Brian Fies and Mom's Cancer

Last week, our design class was treated to an intriguing lecture by Brian Fies, an author and illustrator who rose to fame through his webcomic Mom's Cancer. Although the topic of cancer can be a sensitive subject for most individuals who have either experienced it or witnessed it, Fies takes his mom’s battle with metastatic lung cancer and creates a compelling personal autobiography that achieves to reveal and relieve with subtle humor the seriousness and the emotional and physical stress associated with illnesses within families. However, if one were to contemplate the effectiveness of Fies’ work, it would come down to the basics of comics, a medium in which words and images interact to form meaning and a story.

In the words of Brian Fies, “words convey half the meaning; pictures convey half the meaning. Neither has meaning without the other...Neither fully tells the story without the other.” Certainly, he makes this idea clear throughout Mom’s Cancer. Take the following page panels as examples.

Fies uses these images as metaphors for certain experiences his mother had to endure. For instance, the first panel above depicts a confined laboratory where a “mad” scientist is passing a strong electrical current through a patient bounded to a table. The black shadows cast on the bottom of the panel add to the sense of insanity and fear. The meaning behind this picture is clarified by the words included in the panel; Fies’ mother underwent radiation treatment for her cancer, a process that helps to destroy tumors while also inevitably destroying healthy tissues surrounding the area. The risk involved with treatments that seek to prolong patients’ lives is definitely insane, an idea that is clearly expressed through Fies’ combination of words and images in this single panel.

Similarly, in the second panel above, Fies portrays his mother as a tightrope walker, a metaphor that represents how fragile her health is and how dependent she is on balanced medications. Even when treatments seem to be beneficial, complications arise, causing all established stability and balance to cease to exist. In the picture, a vulture settles on his mom’s balancing pole and a crocodile tank appears below her; one extra medication can literally knock her off balance health-wise, requiring her to go through another round of painful and unpleasant treatments. “It’s a spectacular trial-and-error balancing act,” says Fies.

Overall, Brian Fies succeeds tremendously in Mom’s Cancer due to his mastery of the use of words and images. The combination of such basic tools allowed him to convey meaning that interacts with his audience’s minds and emotions. Certainly, Brian Fies is right - neither words nor images have meaning without the other.

*Images taken from: guardian.co.uk and Sequential Tart