I was privileged to be able to interview Tom Batiuk himself, the creator of Funky Winkerbean, both about his own experiences with cancer and also his strip. I have received many many comments about the post I did regarding Lisa's cancer story in Funky Winkerbean, and I have addressed the concerns of the commenters to Mr. Batiuk, and he has responded for us here.

Jen: Obviously, you are a cancer survivor. Did you decide to have one of your characters have cancer largely to explore you own experiences further, to raise awareness about the experience of cancer, or did Lisa's cancer occur more organically? Or is there something else?

Tom Batiuk: There are so many conscious and unconscious elements in the creative process that sometimes it's impossible to untangle them all. My own experience showed me that there was still much more to be examined regarding this subject. This time when I reached inside, I was able to draw from the pieces of me that felt that scared, that angry and that powerless. The insights were deeper and more hard won. I also realized that revisiting Lisa's Story would push my characters to new extremes and reveal what kind of character my characters really had.