Cancer in the Comics

Like Harvey Pekar's Our Cancer Year, Marisa Acocella Marchetto's Cancer Vixen: A True Story details, in comic form, the author's battle with illness. Unlike Pekar's 1994 book, Marchetto's cartoon account doesn't wallow in its own misery. "You could look at it as a really negative experience, go into the abyss, and never pull yourself out," she says. "Or you could learn from it. I tried to make this a positive experience." The cartoonist for Glamour and The New Yorker documented her disease from diagnosis to surgery. Along the way, she frets over her upcoming nuptials and which shoes to wear to chemo. "I couldn't think about my pain," she says. "I had a wedding to plan."
Mon., Oct. 23, 7 p.m.