Years before she was diagnosed with cancer, Miriam Engelberg had planned on creating comics featuring her life as a mother. Instead, at the age of 43, when she was diagnosed with breast cancer, she used cartooning as a way to cope with the shock of diagnosis, surgery, chemotherapy, support groups, and a second cancer diagnosis. A collection of her comics can be found in Cancer Made Me a Shallower Person: A Memoir in Comics.

Reviewers described her book as "a fusion of the deadly serious with the absurd, in the finest tradition of black humor." Readers described her book as an insider's humor for survivors -- funny, heartbreaking and totally relatable in her refreshing take on living with cancer.

The world has lost some of its humor and light and spirit today with the loss of Miriam Engelberg. She took the mundane moments and the challenging trials of breast cancer and through her delightful perspective, encouraged us to see the lighter side. She exposed our private and sometimes silly thoughts and gave us a chance to laugh at ourselves.

There is nothing funny about cancer. It is scary. It is heavy. It is dark. It is full of terror and it steals lives. But, through Miriam's extraordinary talent with pen and ink and cartoon conversation bubbles, we were somehow allowed a brief reprieve from the grim reality of the frightening struggle to survive a profane and inequitable disease that ordinary time makes impossible to escape. In the company of her delicious creativity, we found solace from and in our all too real and immediate reality.

Gina, a close friend whom Miriam trusted to continue her online mail and weekly cartoon publication after she entered hospice care, wrote this evening, "Miriam had her family and close friends with her and was not in a coma. As far as I can tell, she didn't suffer and was spared the intense pain many go through with cancer. I like to think the love, humor and good karma she shared with everyone protected her from the worst aspects of dying."

Our hearts are broken for the loss of the transcending spirit that will always be uniquely Miriam Engelberg. Our hearts are broken for the undefinable loss her family and close friends will endure in her passing from this life. Tonight, our laughter is muffled in a far away place, with Miriam. A part of who we are has gone, with Miriam. In the morning, we will keep her love, humor and good karma close to us in everlasting memory of Miriam. Tonight is full of tears.

Cate Blanchett is set to star as Marisa Acocella Marchetto in Cancer Vixen: A True Story, the cartoonist fashionista for Glamour and the New Yorker who discovered, while planning her wedding to celebrity restaurateur Silvano Marchetto, that she had breast cancer. Marchetto also realized she had let her health insurance lapse right before being diagnosed with cancer.

With stylish aplomb, she has become phenomenally popular for her colorful personality, and the telling of her breast cancer diagnosis, treatment and survivorship with a sense of humor and fashion flair that included wearing her favorite high heels to chemotherapy and noting that her hospital gown reminded her of Diane von Furstenberg designs.

Amazon features an exclusive cartoon on the Cancer Vixen: A True Story book page and portrays Marchetto as a "self-described shoe-crazy, lipstick-obsessed, wine-swilling, pasta-slurping, fashion-fanatic, single-forever, about-to-get-married big-city girl cartoonist with a fabulous life." Blanchett is reportedly in talks to produce the film as well, with her husband, Andrew Upton, through their company Dirty Films.

One of our bloggers and breast cancer survivor Jacki Donaldson, in a previous post featuring Marisa Acocella Marchetto, recommends Cancer Vixen: A True Story as a "must read." For all women facing breast cancer, I agree. Never underestimate the positive benefit of a spunky attitude -- sense of humor -- and a really sexy pair of high heels when it comes to facing the struggles with breast cancer.

Marisa Acocella Marchetto is a self-proclaimed "shoe-crazy, lipstick-obsessed, wine-swilling, pasta-slurping, fashion-fanatic, single-forever, about-to-get-married big-city girl cartoonist with a fabulous life." Until she receives a breast cancer diagnosis and her world is turned upside down. But with grace and style and a bit of wild spunk, Marchetto takes on 11 months of treatment -- often attending chemotherapy appointments in rainbow pumps -- and she emerges victorious. This fun-loving Manhattan girl is no cancer victim -- she is a cancer vixen.

Cancer Vixen: A True Story is Marchetto's story -- a powerful comic-book memoir of one woman, a cartoonist for The New Yorker and Glamour, who at the age of 43 encounters the dreaded depths of breast cancer. A woman who cartoons her way through personal crisis. A woman who marries her prince charming. A woman who is now living happily ever after.

Evelyn H. Lauder, Founder and Chairman of The Breast Cancer Research Foundation, says "Marisa's willingness to share her experiences in such an honest, personal way is an incredible inspiration -- whether you have experienced breast cancer or love someone who has endured its many challenges."

Cancer Vixen is a must read. And for a must-see teaser that will keep you wanting more, click here.

10.18.2006: We are deeply saddened that Miriam Engelberg has lost her battle with breast cancer.

Our favorite cartoonist, Miriam Engelberg, who blogs Cancer Made Me A Shallower Person, and publishes the weekly Cartoon of the Week, titles her latest post Bad News. The lack of balance she has been experiencing has been confirmed to be due to a brain tumor, and she will be entering hospice home care.

Miriam Engelberg was diagnosed with breast cancer when she was 43 and decided to chronicle her breast cancer journey in a series of comic strips that have now been collected in the book, Cancer Made Me a Shallower Person: A Memoir in Comics. Engelberg, mother of a then four-year-old, used cartooning as a way to cope with the shock of diagnosis, surgery, chemotherapy, support groups, and a second cancer diagnosis.

She has made arrangements with her web designer to see that her cartoons still appear each week. Engelberg warns they might be in black and white. Normally she colors them in on her computer. Here is her latest cartoon.

Cancer just sucks.

In a cancer survivor's life, there are no simple aches and pains. A headache is a potential brain tumor -- sore joints bone cancer -- stomach ache liver cancer. These dramatic leaps to immediate and certain dire conclusion are not the workings of a rational mind. Cancer tends to leave this sticky free-floating inner residue of terror behind.

Trying to talk yourself down from the internal tree of irrationality is a process each cancer survivor must do time and time again.

Only Miriam Engelberg, author of book and blog Cancer Made Me a Shallower Person, could take this affliction of cancer-altered reasoning and make it as funny as she does with all things cancer-related. While Miriam was away on vacation she got an attack of gas. Her new Cartoon of the Week tells the cartoonist's pen-and-ink tale.

She just makes me feel better about being me in sharing the who of who she is.

Over a month ago we introduced you to Miriam Engelberg, breast cancer survivor and author of Cancer Made Me a Shallower Person: A Memoir in Comics. Years before she was diagnosed with cancer, she had planned on creating comics featuring life as a mother.

Instead, she used cartooning as a way to cope with the shock of diagnosis, surgery, chemotherapy, support groups, and a second cancer diagnosis. Today I discovered her blogging at Live Journal about her current cancer treatments, adventures in the world of being a published author and every day life as Miriam Engelberg.

In addition, at her Miriam Engelberg website, she features a weekly cartoon. Engelberg is simply delightful and deliciously funny. You'll enjoy the blog and the featured weekly cartoon.  

Miriam Engelberg, was diagnosed with breast cancer when she was 43 and decided to chronicle her breast cancer journey in a series of comic strips that have now been collected in the book, Cancer Made Me a Shallower Person: A Memoir in Comics. Engelberg, mother of a then four-year-old, used cartooning as a way to cope with the shock of diagnosis, surgery, chemotherapy, support groups, and a second cancer diagnosis. The reviewers like her and the way she handles the subject matter of being a cancer survivor, and the readers all seem to love what she has done in cartooning the perils and reality of being a cancer patient and cancer survivor. Some of the reviewers describe her book as "a fusion of the deadly serious with the absurd, in the finest tradition of black humor." Some of the readers describe her book as a fresh look at how someone's life changes with a cancer diagnosis -- an inside humor for survivors -- funny, heartbreaking and totally relatable and a refreshing take on living with cancer. If you find value in humor as a healing tool, or simply enjoy humor, visit Amazon's page for more information about her new book. They are selling it with Mom's Cancer, another cartoonist's take on the experience of cancer.