Week #12: Comics by Women

Women making comics isn't new, but topics that talk about women issues is fairly recent.

One of the comics I really liked is "Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic" by Alison Bechdel. I can't remember when was the last time I read it, but it stuck with me, and I took this opportunity to revisit this interesting story with twists and cynicism.

The way the panels flow and are laid out is also an interesting element to me as a comic artist. She has interesting shots and arrangement of actors, and while the scene-to-scene seems an ellipsis, it feels bound together like two sides of a coin. The storytelling isn't linear at all. This sequence of panels, for example, are two different memories of Bechdel. The first one is when she was much younger, while the second one is a few years later.

The flow isn't the only element that is disrupted in the timeline. The next sequence of panels also shows an ellipsis of memories from a similar timeline. A scene-to-scene sequence showing the difference between her escaping during the day and returning at night.



Almost all panels are accompanied by Bechdel's narration and description of his father. We can say the text and the image are parallel. One expands more information about the other.



The narrator has no trouble in telling the twist of the story early on. This in itself is pretty rare, as comics usually give a cliffhanger or suspend the reader in mystery until the end. This story is sincere, a recount of events.







The flow seems to be fast because of all the jumps in time where we see her in the present, then back in her memories, reflecting, then again in the present to reminisce. Ellipses have been seen before in old literature, but to see it in a comic is not an easy fit to achieve because it might confuse the reader. This is what we call a flashback.





From all this, what I get is that ellipses and flashback aren't a bad thing if it's the point of the comic you're making. The pace of the story changes based on what she draws and how many panels it takes to finally come to the key panel of information. This taught me that successful stories aren't necessary linear or surreal.