Friday, January 26, 2007

Fun Home

I haven't read many graphic novels, but a review of Fun Home by Alison Bechdel drew me in and I'm glad it did. This was probably the best book I read all last year. The fun home of the title is the funeral parlor where Bechdel grew up with her mother and closeted father. The book follows Alison's coming of age touching on her coming out and her father's suicide, among other subjects. I think my mild aversion to graphic novels has been the somewhat choppy nature of the writing due to it being broken up in panels. Bechdel's writing flows beautifully from one panel to the next and the gorgeous drawings enhance the story. I particularly loved the interplay between father and daughter about their love of books. Inspired by Bechdel, I will definitely try other graphic novels in the future. What is your favorite graphic novel?

2 comments:

Shuttsie said...

The only graphic novels I have really gotten into were Art Speigelman's Maus books

John said...

Oooh, I love graphic novels. :D So hard to chose my favorites though. I really like Warren Ellis (The Authority, Planetary), Garth Ennis (Preacher, Punisher), Brian Michael Bendis (Alias, Powers, Ultimate Spider-Man), Ed Brubaker (Sleeper, Captain America), Mark Millar (Ultimates, Ultimate X-man, and tons of other stuff), Grant Morrison (Invisibles, JLA, New X-Men, 7 Soldiers of Victory, etc), Alan Moore (V for Vendetta, Watchmen, he League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, etc), Frank Miller (Sin City, Batman, etc)...

I could go on... :)