This year at Los Angeles Comic Con, panelists are doing their best to raise awareness for cancer as well as inspire people with their love of comics. We got the pleasure of speaking with the panelists of the Cancer and Comics panel and they let us have insight to how creativity and comics have helped them on their personal cancer journeys. We also talked about the power creativity has to heal. 

Marisa and Jason have both been through cancer, they have been through treatment and now they advocate for the importance of early screening. These brave cancer survivors used creative outlets and comics to get through their diagnosis and treatments. We asked what started their comic book journeys;

Marisa was not new to the comic book scene. She had already written a graphic novel called Just Who the Hell is She, Anyway? “Right before I got married I was working at a women’s magazine and when my monthly deadline came up my editor called me and heard about my diagnosis. Her second reaction (her first being, what was your diagnosis and are you okay?) was do you wanna write about it?” 

Jason had grown up with comics and comic book movies. When he and his friends get together there are only two topics of conversation up for grabs, sports and comics. 

One of the most powerful questions asked was, do you think creative outlets have the power to heal? And of course everyone has different ideas of what healing is and what creativity can do but Marisa put it in a unique way. She said, “I never use the word My in front of cancer because I didn’t want to own it, so I put it on the page and off of me. I would advise anybody to write things down and keep it off of you. It’s great therapy, I got to write all my feelings down and what I was going through.”

Jason had other thoughts, “100% when I was diagnosed originally I was given a 50/50 chance to live and this was right before Endgame was released and my only thought was ‘[l]et’s just make it to Endgame and then decide what we’re gonna do from there’ It was a huge inspiration. Whenever I was going through treatment I would just think I was in a comic book becoming a mutant.”

The team of panelists hopes that anyone who sees or hears about this panel remembers to screen early. Early screening is the difference between life and death. Dr. Christina, who also served on the panel, would like to remind those in their 40s that they are more at risk and should be screened and that anyone with a family history of cancer should screen even earlier than that. 

For screening information and resources you can visit cancerscreenweek.org and cancer.org. And remember, even the greatest heroes need help.

For more on LA Comic Con, check out our interview with LA Comic Con CEO Chris DeMoulin.