You might think that there's nothing funny about cancer-and you might be right-until you read "Cancer Made Me A Shallower Person: A Memoir in Comics (Harper Paperbacks, $14.95).

Author Miriam Engelberg's offbeat and darkly humorous account of one very funny woman's battle with an uncertain and often fatal illness provides some sanity-saving humor.

Engelberg is a wife, mom and a talented cartoonist who was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 43. Unable to find release in support groups or journal writing, she harnessed the black humor she used to cope and wrote a graphic novel.

Following in the footsteps of artists like Art Spiegelman, who grapple with serious subjects in graphic novels, Engelberg takes readers through every emotional and physical stage of the disease. Her down-to-earth tone and bold drawings give recently diagnosed patients and their families the laughs they so desperately crave.

Cancer is not funny but sometimes humor is simply the best way to cope, says author Miriam Engelberg in her new book.