Trump's War on Cancer Patients

See after this for a reflection on process with more comix! Includes image intended in the middle of the draft. Brain drop from Bessie!

PROCESS: A Graphic Journey

Isn’t Ryan’s draft dope!!!

But first, so background…

“Trump’s War on Cancer Patients,” was born out of the Graphic Medicine Conference in Athlone where artist Ryan Montoya, MD and I first met. The comic below took over two years and I had epic journey myself— chemo, radiation, and awake surgery.

Before this remarkable illustration, I wrote the first real draft, which clocked in 8 pages. The scene with inspired by Gundam , a Japenese style comic, with a Trump machine inside it. While I pitched the general idea, Ryan fleshed out the vision — I nearly jumped out of seat, Ryan showed the lush detail even with a “thumbnail.”

Alas, we cut it. “Kill your darlings,” as it says.

One newspaper editor said it was excellent, but way too long. As much as we both loved the work, we needed to let go. They were right. It was just too long. We were writing in pages not panels.

I love pages and long form work, which is where I got my start, as got my inspiration from Will Eisner, Alan Moore, Art Spiegelman, and Marjane Satrapi (RIP).

But in the age of Instagram, most folks just won’t see it — or read it at all. The smartphone medium is made for scrolling with single images, which feels like a loss for my own work.

But this was not a loss for us. The panels made the work tighter, focusing it on the essence and urgency of the message. There isn’t the time for a long long form meditiaotn — it’s a time for action. This is especially true now, in my own battle with cancer along with the millions more who need our support now.

See the original publicion here, who MK got into the world!

Thanks much the many readers who supported the work, including those who rejected it kindly with very helpful feeback.

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