Chemo Freak

Written & Drawn by Olly Duke

What do you do when you have cancer, you’re going through an
emotional roller-coaster, you’re in and out of hospital, you’re having
chemotherapy and you’re a cartoonist with a bent for black humour?
Answer: you create your alter ego and his nightmare best friend. And
so Chemo Freak and Ratzo were born.
This little comic book will take you through the lows and (sometimes)
highs of living with the disease. The Freak needs Ratzo like a hole in
the head, but without the ridiculous fucking rodent he’d surely sink
into a black hole of despair and nothingness.
Cancer is not a whole lotta fun but, as Ratzo says: Always look on the
bright side of life!

Olly Duke has been a cartoonist and illustrator for as long as he can
remember, which happens to be a very long time. He sold his first
toon to the Times Educational Supplement at the tender age of 16
for the princely sum of £16 (that was in 1968!). He drew anti-
apartheid strips for his student newspaper while at university in
South Africa, which eventually got his work banned, and went on to
illustrate and cartoon for numerous newspapers and magazines after
his arrival in the UK, including Socialist Worker, African Business, The
Guardian, Motorcycle News, Bike magazine and a whole lot more.