Nick Francis Cuts Into Grief, Pain & Survival With THE TUMOR IN THE CLAY | Comic Crusaders Podcast #757

WEPAAAA!  Comic Crusaders Podcast #757 goes deep as we welcome illustrator, animator and graphic novelist Nick Francis to discuss his haunting new graphic novel, The Tumor in the Clay, arriving September 29, 2026 from Driftwood Press.

Francis is not stepping into visual storytelling cold. His creative work stretches across music, animation and illustration, including projects connected to Fantastic Negrito’s Grammy-winning The Last Days of Oakland, PBS and ITVS’ animated documentary BROTHER, the Monterey Jazz Festival and more. With The Tumor in the Clay, however, he dives headfirst into long-form comics with a 232-page graphic novel that trusts images, silence and pacing to do the heavy emotional lifting.

The story follows an aging surgeon trapped inside a cycle of illness, isolation and desperation. After spending a lifetime helping heal others, he eventually turns his medical knowledge toward himself, sending the story into an increasingly surreal journey through pain, addiction, grief, memory and the overwhelming human need to regain control when the body stops cooperating. This is not a “flip a few pages while eating lunch” type of book, mi gente. This one grabs you by the nervous system and says, “Nah, you’re sitting with this.”

Nick spent roughly five years developing the project, using shifting visual styles, deliberate pacing and dramatic changes in color to make readers experience discomfort rather than simply observe it. The near-absence of traditional dialogue turns every expression, room, repeated action and transition into part of the storytelling language. Comic Crusaders previously gave The Tumor in the Clay a 4.5/5, praising Francis’ ability to transform chronic pain and grief into surreal visual storytelling.

During this episode, Nick and Al dig into the five-year creative journey, the decision to tell such a large story with almost no dialogue, how animation and music shaped Nick’s sense of comics pacing, the responsibility involved in transforming grief into art, working as a disabled artist, and the strange experience of finally releasing something that has lived with its creator for half a decade. Naturally, because this is Comic Crusaders, things also get into cats serving as editors, murderous revision schedules and whether graphic novelists actually sleep or just recharge next to a drawing tablet.

The Tumor in the Clay releases September 29, 2026 through Driftwood Press.

🔗 Learn more about Nick Francis and The Tumor in the Clay
🔗 Read the Comic Crusaders review

THE CRUSADE NEVER ENDS!