Bitter Pill: Randy Shilts and the Dawn of the HIV/AIDS Epidemic - Hardcover

Xavier, Clément

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1419788698 ISBN 13: 9781419788697

Publisher: Abrams ComicArts, 2026

Synopsis

A deadly mystery and one reporter’s fight to expose the truth during the earliest days of the AIDS epidemic. With hospital beds filling up, the clock was ticking. . . . What would it take to wake up the nation? A masterful and eye-opening historical graphic novel.

San Francisco, 1981. Randy Shilts—biographer of Harvey Milk and the first openly gay journalist hired by a major U.S. newspaper—receives a chilling call at the San Francisco Chronicle: a Los Angeles patient is being treated for a rare and aggressive cancer.

As Shilts digs deeper, a disturbing pattern emerges. The illness seems to strike only gay men, with early cases linked to a Castro-district bathhouse. A meeting with an infectious disease researcher confirms his worst fear: this so-called “gay cancer” is neither rare nor isolated—it’s the beginning of a national health crisis. Barred from reporting on it directly, Shilts resorts to sensationalist tactics to force attention on the unfolding HIV/AIDS epidemic.

His relentless pursuit of the truth would change history, exposing a catastrophe the world tried to ignore. In this vivid graphic biography—at once urgent, insightful, and unapologetically bold—the creators bring to life a story that remains as vital as ever.

Randy Shilts’s groundbreaking reporting and books (The Mayor of Castro Street, And the Band Played On, Conduct Unbecoming) became cornerstones of journalism and LGBTQ+ history. This is the first graphic novel to spotlight this pivotal figure and the transformative moment that defined his legacy.

About this title

About the Author

Clément Xavier was born in 1981 in Mozambique. After studying comics in Angouleme, France, he cofounded Na, an award-winning publisher of comics and photo stories. He has written numerous graphic novels, with a focus on history and biographies, including The Bodyguard Unit, about the women’s suffrage movement in England. He currently lives in Marseille. Héloïse Chochois was born in France in 1991. She studied the graphic arts and has dedicated much of her young career to the worlds of health and science. She started with topics ranging from transhumanism to artificial intelligence, before expanding to broader societal subjects including the September 11th terrorist attacks. She currently lives in the Paris region.

Edition details

• Publisher: Abrams ComicArts
• Publication date: 2026
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1419788698
• ISBN 13: 9781419788697
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Chochois Héloïse
• Number of pages: 160