Use of ephermera as documentary

I love the details put into"Fun Home," both visual and otherwise.  Confronted on the first page, we are immediately introduced to Alison and her father.  The first panel is cramped and uncomfortable, like their practice of physical contact.  Her father's face is so emotive in his lack of emotion, Tolstoy's "Anna Karenina" laying next to him, the elaborate rug framing his body.  Their relationship is so clearly represented, both through her descriptions and though her visuals.

For me, it is the most successful graphic novel we have read so far, just for that fact- the visuals work congruently with the text, and furthermore the text is so well written (it is clear that Bechdel is the product of two English teachers).  Yet neither the text nor the visuals act as a crutch the to other- rather they stand strong as independents.  There are moments throughout where the visuals are more powerful than the text, and vice verse.  On pages 30 and 31, the overview maps of her father's "narrow compass... [of] provincialism" and that of his family's is captivating and telling, and yet if it were to have been written as a traditional novel, I feel that description would have read tedious.

Bechdel also plays with the chronology, flipping throughout the pages of her life.  She pushes the experience of the reader, the outsider, to place them, us, in her shoes.  On page 28, shortly after we learn that her father has died/ is to die, we are thrust, almost in a "Being John Malcovich" manner, to read the "While You Were Away" note from the day of her father's accident.  The stern and cold "Your Mother" written with the date and time juxtaposed with the seemingly causal delivery of the real message itself- "Call home as soon as possible- it's an emergency."  The details in the note, which may not be so incredibly important that without them the memoir would be unsuccessful but they certainly add a depth to the story that makes me want to lick the pages (possibly inappropriate, but nonetheless true).  We are reading the note for the first time, just as Alison had read it for the first time.

She does it again on the first page of Chapter 3 (page 57).  Although this panel has less impact because rather than reading the note as she does, here we read the edited (read, highlighted) definition of the word queer.  But what makes this memory so influential is the following two panels, when the frame withdraws and we see Alison standing over the large dictionary that appears to have it's very own table.  She's holding a glass of sherry, placed in the Daedalusian maze built by her father and forced to use the props provided, she explores her truths and those of her father, those same embellishments she calls lies.

On a whole, I found "Fun House" to be a rich harmony between text and image that enhanced my experience as a reader.  The way Bechdel moves through time, simultaneously presenting the results and the process, helped me relate to, understand, and respect her experience.  Furthermore the way she embodies characters and moments by framing and highlighting found text and differentiating handwriting only adds more depth and interest.  I complained endlessly with "Lucky" that Bell's depiction of her journey was left stagnant on the surface.  I was pleased to find "Fun House" to be brimming with details and background.