I am not a big fan of newspaper comics. But there are a few that I watch pretty regularly. The ones that tend to catch my eye are the ones where people age. I particularly like "For Better Or Worse," "Zits" and "Funky Winkerbean".

I am really struggling, though, with Lisa Moore's cancer struggle in Funky Winkerbean and what appears to be her inevitable death. I know it seems odd, and perhaps I need therapy to help me work through this, but I feel very close to the characters in that comic and Lisa's loss is very real to me.

I do not know the details but my understanding is that Tom Batiuk, the cartoonist, has had his own cancer struggle. That has undoubtedly made his voice very clear and strong on this subject.

Do you read Funky Winkerbean and, if so, are you being affected with an overwhelming sense of sadness for these ink-on-paper people? While many bloggers I have read are very dismayed by the way Batiuk is handling this storyline, somehow, I think that we can all come out stronger on the other end of this story.