Word and Image with Brian Fies

   The lecture given to us by Brian Fies was rather inspirational and completely honest. It was refreshing to experience an artist that was unrehearsed, unafraid of his failures and willing to share every experience with a huge lecture all of eager design students.
   Fies is a comic book artist. That is is drug of choice. Yes, he has a "real" degree and worked for years in the science industry but when life gave him a terrible situation he turned to the comics as a therapy. Cancer.  Scary, unknown and confusing. Can anyone that has not experienced cancer ever understand? Does it even matter if they do understand. For Fies these questions didn't influence his choice of expression. A project that began as a tool of coping with his life situation opened more doors than he ever expected, many that brought their own disappointments. Mom's Cancer started on the web, turned into a book, won awards and allowed Fies to do his real self piece What Ever Happened to the World of Tomorrow.
  Comics are basically just words and images. According to McCloud they are sequential juxtaposed words and images. Fies is a success because he stays true to the comic book concept as he set it up for himself. He said he strives for a 50/50 balance between words and images. Comparing them to rock and roll music he wants neither to be able to stand alone. The full message is only possible when the two are combined. This method of balance is perhaps why he so successfully told his mothers story.
  The experience of a family member going through cancer is a communal experience. You are no longer  a family of blood relatives, you now have doctors, medical staff, fellow cancer sufferers, families of sufferers, support groups, councilors, and many many other people who are there no matter what you do. You are thrown into a vast new world of mystery that is packed with advise, stories and medical banter. With all of this floating around Fies as he recorded his experiences it would have been easy to simple write a book or magazine article. But he choose to distill the experience to a small, short, simple, clear, combination of words and images. The simplicity is what makes it work.