Stitches (2009)

by David Small
From Amazon: Reading Stitches may feel unexpectedly familiar. Not in the details of its story--which is Small's harrowing account of growing up under the watchless eyes of parents who gave him cancer (his radiologist father subjected him to unscrupulous x-rays for minor ailments) and let it develop untreated for years--but in delicate glimpses of the author's child's-eye view, sketched most often with no words at all. Early memories (and difficult ones, too) often seem less like words than pictures we play back to ourselves. That is what's recognizable and, somehow, ultimately delightful in the midst of this deeply sad story: it reminds us of our memories, not just what they are, but what they look like. In every drawing, David Small shows us moments both real and imagined—some that are guileless and funny and wonderfully sweet, many others that are dark and fearful—that unveil a very talented artist, stitches and all. --Anne Bartholomew

Lucy Grealy's The Autobiography Face covers similar territory.

Just read "Stitiches." Powerfully moving and sensitively drawn. Not self-pitying but the picture of a troubled family and a child with cancer. Raises many questions and makes many points in images and few words.