Comics roundup #9: outcast <- genetics

Since I’d yet to read any of the comics I received on Free Comic Book Day back in May, I decided to try a few of them in an attempt to clear my comic TBR. Two of the comics I received for free/discounted was the first issue of Boy-1 and Oddly Normal. I knew nothing about them when I picked them up, which is different for me because so far the majority of comics and graphic novels I’ve read were either recommended to me by a person or through a blog or video, or were based on a topic or person I was familiar with. However, this plunge into something new wasn’t bad.

Advertisement

“When Breath Becomes Air” by Paul Kalanithi

I tend to stay away from books about death, dying, sickness, leaving, abandonment. I don’t see it as me having a problem with others leaving or the permanence of a person who is gone, but maybe it is.

I grew up on a small island with my extended family. My parents were always away. They would visit or I would visit them; but no matter how long those visits were, they always seemed short to me. I hated saying goodbye and I still do.

Earlier in the year, Paul Kalanithi’s memoir When Breath Becomes Air was one of the most popular books. The buzz caught my interest and made me want to read it, but when I heard it’s about the author’s battle with cancer and that he later died, I procrastinated on picking up the book. Heavy emotions. I didn’t want to deal with it. I didn’t want to cry. Life was heavy enough without the fall of my tears adding to it. So I avoided the book.