Woke up at 7 AM. Finished the graphic novel I was reading, it was EXcellent. Really good, I highly recommend it. What graphic novels are all about. Though it occurred to me recently that if a graphic novel is a biography, should it really be called a graphic novel? Shouldn't it be a graphic biography? Graphic novel seems like the wrong catchphrase for this genre of literature, but it's too late to change! We should be calling them graphic books! Graphic literature! Aw hell, better go back to comics. Some people think "graphic novel" is just a term used by people too embarrassed to admit that American Splendor and Superman have the same genesis.
This is the review I put up on Goodreads about Fun Home, a COMIC by Alison Bechdel:
Autobiographical graphic novels are my favorite kind, and this one is excellent. Bechdel flashes through her youth, exploring her confused relationship with her father, trying to make some sense of him, and the choices he made, and her feelings about him. One of the strongest elements of the book is that Bechdel takes full advantage of the graphic novel form. For example, she often juxtaposes a book her father is reading with drama going on in the family, and illustrates it all with pictures of the father reading, with an image of the book's actual text, and with the family drama happening, complete with its own dialogue, united by her narration. That's the genius of the form--the way it can unite cinematic images with introspective narration. And beautiful illustrations.
Some images from & quotes about the book:
"For Bechdel, who did five or six successive sketches for each image in the book, scrupulous attention to detail is also part of her general approach to working in the visual medium of comics. For every pose in every panel of the entire book (and there are almost 1,000 panels), Bechdel created a reference shot by posing for her digital camera. In a panel, say, depicting a classroom of children sitting at desks, Bechdel posed for every child in the frame." (Village Voice)
"Just one look at Alison Bechdel’s mother’s face tells you all you need to know about her marriage. Therein lies the true source of the emotional heft graphic novels can carry: the ability to combine poetic, sometimes wrenching, text with a visualization that drives the point home subtly yet definitively." (Graphic Novel Reporter)
"It is a pioneering work, pushing two genres (comics and memoir) in multiple new directions, with panels that combine the detail and technical proficiency of R. Crumb with a seriousness, emotional complexity and innovation completely its own. Then there are the actual words. Generally this is where graphic narratives stumble. Very few cartoonists can also write — or, if they can, they manage only to hit a few familiar notes. But "Fun Home" quietly succeeds in telling a story, not only through well-crafted images but through words that are equally revealing and well chosen." (NYT)
