"In an era where everyone shares the duty and the effort of public health, what we need are exactly these accessible, impossible-to-put-down health and wellness popular-science works."
—Reader review

"What makes this comics series so appealing is that, on one hand, it tackles lofty, aloof knowledge, and on the other, every title dons a 'comic and humorous' costume. Dry, obscure knowledge thus becomes vivid, and the power of communication shines through."
—Global People (huanqiu.people.com.cn)

★ The latest popular-science work from the mega-brand "Half-Hour Comics," backed by an IP with 64 million fans. Chen Lei (pen name: Erhunzi), the pioneer of comic-style popular science, follows his Half-Hour Comics Chinese History and Half-Hour Comics Economics with another major science title—a brand with formidable pulling power.

★ Reviewed by a practicing physician, so the science is rigorous and reliable. The book was personally reviewed by Chen Mingquan, Chief Physician of the Infectious Diseases Department and Director of the Emergency Department at Huashan Hospital, ensuring medical accuracy while keeping things fun.

★ Hilarious comics unpack twelve common diseases and make "behavioral prevention" effortless. Covering twelve everyday illnesses—from flu and diabetes to COVID-19 and breast cancer—plain-language explanations paired with comic visuals make difficult medical knowledge crystal clear.

To everyone who wants to protect their own health and that of their family. Twelve common diseases, unpacked in laugh-out-loud comics—get to the bottom of what causes them and be your own doctor.

To everyone who wants to protect their own health and that of their family.

When the flu hits, should you take medicine or not? Is diabetes caused by eating too much sugar? Can staying up late really kill you?—these health puzzles everyone has encountered to some degree, yet few can clearly explain the science behind them. Half-Hour Comics: Preventing Common Diseases uses laugh-out-loud hand-drawn comics to make complex medical knowledge as easy as reading a joke.

The book introduces the onset mechanisms and prevention methods of twelve common diseases: flu, avian influenza, AIDS, polio, hand-foot-mouth disease, diabetes, rheumatism, anemia, the novel coronavirus, alcoholic liver disease, cervical cancer, and breast cancer. For each condition, comics clarify "how the disease arises," "how the body fights back," and "what lifestyle changes to make"—wash your hands once before meals, after using the toilet, and when returning home, and you lower the infection risk of hand-foot-mouth disease and COVID-19; to prevent polio and avian influenza, never eat raw food or drink unboiled water; don't eat and drink recklessly, or diabetes and alcoholic liver disease may come knocking; don't stay up late—get enough sleep to boost immunity and the flu will give you a wide berth. The book also vividly explains how the immune and nervous systems work, and how T cells and B cells operate.

The book carries on the Half-Hour Comics signature style of "lofty knowledge plus a funny costume," turning dry medical jargon into side-splitting comic scenes. This is not a medical textbook that makes you sit up straight, but a book that lets you easily fold health into your daily life. Open it, get to the bottom of what causes common diseases, and be your own doctor.

Chen Lei (pen names: Erhunzi / Hunzi Ge)
A pioneer of comic-style popular science, Chairman of Shanghai Hunzhi Culture Communication Co., Ltd., holder of a master's degree from Northwestern Polytechnical University, and a senior science-communication researcher.

After earning his master's from Northwestern Polytechnical University in 2009, he joined Shanghai Volkswagen as a designer and began publishing original popular-science comics online in 2012. In 2014, with 1.47 million yuan in angel investment from CCTV host Zhang Quanling and an additional 15 million yuan from Xu Xiaoping, he founded a comics studio. In 2015 he launched the "Hunzhi" WeChat account; by 2025 its cross-platform following reached 64 million, with total reads surpassing 500 million. In 2017 his Comic Chinese History sold out within seven hours of release, driving history books to the top of national sales for three consecutive years. In 2021 he won the Best Comics Publishing Award at the China Animation Golden Dragon Awards. In 2022 he was appointed Online Integrity Ambassador. In 2023 he opened the Hunzhi cultural complex at Shanghai Tower. In 2024 he was named one of the Top Ten Innovative Figures among Shanghai Cultural Enterprises (5th edition) and received the 16th Shanghai Outstanding Public Science Communicator title. He serves as a member of the All-China Youth Federation, a member of the Shanghai Youth Federation, and vice president of the Shanghai Youth Literature and Art Federation, among other public roles.

His representative works include the Half-Hour Comics Chinese History series (cumulative sales exceeding 30 million copies), the Half-Hour Comics World History series, the Half-Hour Comics Science History series (winner of the 2022 Shanghai Excellent Popular Science Book award), Half-Hour Comics: The Big Bang (selected among the 2022 National Excellent Popular Science Works), and Comic Centenary of the Party: The Founding.

1. Flu Runs Rampant—Have You Caught It?
2. How Does a Perfectly Fine Person End Up with Avian Flu?
3. The Story of AIDS
4. What on Earth Is Polio?
5. Get to Know Hand-Foot-Mouth Disease
6. Why Diabetes Is So Dangerous
7. If You Skip Long Johns, Will You Really Get "Rheumatism"?
8. Don't Dose Up for Anemia Before You Even Know What It Is
9. Just What Exactly Is the Novel Coronavirus?
10. There Was No Such Thing as Alcoholic Liver Disease, Until Drinking Made It So
11. You Hear "HPV" Every Day—Do You Actually Know What Cervical Cancer Is?
12. How Can You Prevent Breast Cancer Without Knowing the Breast?