ajandmagnus

Q&A: What Is Pop's Health Problem

Added 2019-11-08 14:01:53 +0000 UTC

Honestly I love your work since years but there is THAT question that i keep wondering about, since I am sick myself...I would like to know what is Pop's health problem and it's it's a reflection for yours too like I put at times into my novels

-Karma.

Hey Karma,

So I often refer to our comic as a fictionalized version of our life. The reason for that is while there is often similarities to our life experiences represented in the comics, most everything is made up or exaggerated for the sake of being entertaining. That being said, I feel it's important that our characters be authentic and that means showing they have their own problems, in one case with Pop, that he takes medication he needs to live on.

The reason I kept it vague is because it was less about specifically what his medication/condition was, but a representation to the reader that could be whatever they imagine it to be; especially those who also have conditions or take medications daily.

It's hard for me to share this publicly, but hey, sharing is how we relate, right? Earlier this year I was diagnosed with a condition called Atrial Fibrillation or "Afib" which means my heart beats irregularly, out of sync, and sometimes rapidly. It was caused by years of undiagnosed sleep apnea. So now I do take daily meds to keep things working. Funny enough, I wrote the comic about Pop way before I was diagnosed so I guess this was a case of life imitating art ;)

Now that being said, while some things in our comic will correlate with our real life, that doesn't mean everything the Parkers go through is our experience. We try to expand beyond our own personal experiences and incorporate the life challenges many others go through as well. More often than not I recommend people always assume we've made up the stories rather than worry they're about what we're going through.

I'm sorry you're dealing with your own health issues and I hope you're doing well. We just gotta keep plugging, right?

Big hug <3