Chicago cartoonist turns cancer journey into comic book
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"Tough Shit" comic. Photo: Courtesy of Iona Fox.
Chicago cartoonist Iona Fox wanted to help answer some of the questions people might have about an increasingly common cancer. Questions she had, too.
- So, she made a comic book.
Flashback: In 2020, Fox was fairly new to Chicago, living with roommates she found on Craigslist and newly diagnosed with stage 3 colorectal cancer.
State of play: Fox wasn't initially thinking about documenting her life with cancer through her art.
- But in 2021, after chemo went well, the artist started working on "Tough Shit."
What they're saying: "My cartoon self came back up. I started taking notes and doing little sketches, and I was like, 'Oh, this is me. This is my way of being alive, engaging with what's happening,'" Fox tells Axios.
Between the lines: Fox didn't want to shy away from the hard parts of cancer and rely on overly positive messages people lean toward. "What a swirl of taboo, like illness, poop, sex, I just wanted to have a clear, calm, specific story out there because I had brought so much fear and assumption to it," Fox says.
For example: A former boss who was a breast cancer survivor told Fox, who was 35 at the time, that her cancer could trigger menopause, something she hadn't considered.
- She was able to do IVF to freeze her eggs, and doctors moved her ovaries to her ribs so they wouldn't be damaged by radiation.
The latest: Fox is cancer-free.
Worthy of your time: "Tough Shit" was published in Newcity last summer and is available at Radiator Comics and Women and Children First bookstore in Andersonville.