Our Cancer Year

Published in 1994 by Four Walls Eight Windows, Our Cancer Year (an offshoot of the cult favorite comic book series American Splendor) relates the story of Pekar's harrowing yet successful treatment struggle to overcome lymphoma, as well as serving as a social commentary on events of that year. Co-author Brabner described it as a "book about activism and cancer and being married and buying a house, about being sick at a time when we feel the whole world is sick." It was, says Brabner, written "together from our different points of view, in the different way we experienced Harvey's illness."Wiater, Stanley & Bissette, Stephen R. (eds.) "Harvey Pekar & Joyce Brabner By the People, For the People" in Comic Book Rebels: Conversations with the Creators of the New Comics (Donald I. Fine, Inc. 1993) {{ISBN|1-55611-355-2}} pp. 129-141

In a contemporaneous review, Publishers Weekly described the book this way:

{{blockquote|In 1990, Pekar was diagnosed with lymphoma and needed chemotherapy. By the time the disease was discovered, the couple was in the midst of buying a house (a tremendous worry to Pekar, who fretted about both the money and corruptions of bourgeois creature comforts). Brabner, a self-described "comic book journalist," had to oversee both the new house and a sick and very difficult husband. Pekar's cancer treatment and suffering will take your breath away, but there's a happy ending; and the book (and their marriage) is distinguished by Brabner's great tenderness and determination in the middle of Pekar's medical nightmare. Stack's brisk and elegantly gestural black-and-white drawings wonderfully delineate this captivating story of love, community, recuperation and international friendship.[https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-56858-011-1 "Our Cancer Year,"] Publishers Weekly (Sept. 1993). Accessed Jan. 10, 2019.}}

Pekar and Brabner discussed their unusual domestic/creative partnership in an article in the Los Angeles Times:

{{blockquote|They're an odd couple, Pekar and Brabner. They quibble constantly, with Brabner interrupting or berating Pekar for seemingly every other thought, while he sighs in resignation and moans "Yeah, sure, Joyce, whatever you say," in his most condescending tone. The book is scripted in the same fractious manner. "We wrote the book in the same voice we use when we tell people what happened," Brabner said. "We step on each other's lines, we interrupt each other, we contradict each other. That's the way it is. The book sounds like the way we talk."Seigal, Buddy. [https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-01-26-ls-24725-story.html "A Survivor's Story : In 'Our Cancer Year,' Cartoonist Harvey Pekar Chronicles His Struggle With Lymphoma,"] Los Angeles Times (January 26, 1995).}}

Our Cancer Year won the 1995 Harvey Award for best original graphic novel.[http://www.harveyawards.org/awards_1995win.html Harveyawards.org] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100716172409/http://www.harveyawards.org/awards_1995win.html |date=2010-07-16 }}

The creation of Our Cancer Year and many elements of its story were incorporated into the 2003 film American Splendor, based on the life and career of Pekar and his relationship with Brabner.Ebert, Roger. [https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/american-splendor-2003 "AMERICAN SPLENDOR,"] RogerEbert.com (August 22, 2003).

In 2011, Purdue University's Cancer, Culture and Community program published Lafayette: Our Cancer Year, a 141-page book inspired by Our Cancer Year.

Edited by Rosanne Altstatt, the book featured true stories by "cancer patients, survivors, caregivers, friends and relatives" from the Lafayette-West Lafayette community. Brabner wrote the book's introduction."Purdue Cancer Culture & Community program to celebrate release of graphic novel 'Lafayette: Our Cancer Year'," Purdue University News Service (August 24, 2011).

{{Reflist}}

• [https://www.purdue.edu/newsroom/general/2010/101018NagelCancerCulture.html "Graphic novelist, illustrator to speak at Purdue Cancer Culture Community event,"] part of Purdue University's Oncological Science Center's Cancer Culture & Community Colloquium (October 18, 2010)
• [https://www.graphicmedicine.org/comic-reviews/our-cancer-year/ Our Cancer Year review] at Graphic Medicine

Category:1994 graphic novels

Category:Autobiographical graphic novels

Category:Harvey Award winners for Best Graphic Album of Original Work

Category:Literature about cancer

Category:Graphic novels about diseases and disorders

Category:Graphic novels set in the 1990s

{{1990s-graphic-novel-stub}}