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

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.

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E-bog: 14. april 2026