Tom Batiuk is creator of "Funky Winkerbean."

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"Funky Winkerbean" character Lisa Moore can blame her breast cancer's return, in part, on strip creator Tom Batiuk's real-life bout with prostate cancer.

The "emotional landscape" of the times led to Lisa's initial bout with breast cancer in 1999, says Batiuk, author of "Funky Winkerbean." His own cancer, diagnosed three years ago, triggered Lisa's to return and metastasize in a story line that began this spring.

In bringing her cancer back, Batiuk delivered what, in the real world, would amount to a death sentence for one of his favorite characters in the syndicated newspaper cartoon strip he introduced in 1972. Today, "Funky Winkerbean" runs in more than 400 other newspapers around the world.

Batiuk won't say whether or when Lisa will die from the metastasized cells discovered six years after the character underwent surgery and chemotherapy.

He knows metastasized breast cancer eventually proves fatal, however, and should claim Lisa's life at some point.

Putting Lisa's life on the line hasn't been easy. Batiuk feels emotionally attached, personally involved in the fictional lives of his "Funky Winkerbean" characters, "but particularly Les and Lisa," he says. "I think they're my stand-ins sometimes."

To reveal whether cancer will claim Lisa's life in this latest series would be "sort of like picking up a mystery book and reading the last chapter," he says.

The prognosis is brighter for the 59-year-old cartoonist's own prostate cancer, discovered and treated three years ago.

"I'm very lucky I had early diagnosis, and so far, so good," Batiuk says. "Hopefully, things will stay that way."

His own cancer brought a new realization and a renewed mission for the cartoonist, however.

When he introduced Lisa's cancer in "Funky Winkerbean" in 1999, it wasn't as personal an issue.

"We knew friends at the time who were going through this, and so we were aware of what was happening. That was the genesis for 'Lisa's Story.' "

"Lisa's Story" is the title of a bound collection of 1999 strips on Lisa's initial battle with cancer.

If Lisa's cancer prompts somebody to get checked and discover an early cancer, "that's great," Batiuk says.