Often lauded as a groundbreaking work in the graphic memoir genre, Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic has garnered both critical acclaim and widespread readership. However, beneath the surface of its literary allusions and autobiographical narrative lies a work that, upon closer inspection, reveals significant shortcomings, particularly in its visual storytelling. This critique will delve into the artistic and narrative choices of Fun Home, arguing that its celebrated status is perhaps undeserved, especially when compared to other works in the medium that masterfully utilize the visual language of comics. We will examine specific examples from Fun Home, juxtaposing them with panels from Chris Ware’s Building Stories and Natsuki Takaya’s Fruits Basket to highlight the deficiencies in Bechdel’s approach.
To preface, this analysis stems from a reader’s perspective seeking effective visual communication in graphic narratives. While acknowledging the personal and literary merit of Bechdel’s story, this critique focuses specifically on the graphic execution of Fun Home and its effectiveness in conveying its narrative visually.
The Disconnect Between Text and Image in Fun Home
One of the most glaring issues with Fun Home is the frequent disconnect between its verbose text and its visually underwhelming artwork. Unlike graphic novels that seamlessly integrate words and images to create a richer, more immersive reading experience, Fun Home often presents text and image as separate entities, sometimes even working against each other.
Consider this two-page spread from Fun Home:
On this page, the eye is immediately drawn to the dark porch, which, while visually prominent, is textually secondary. The negative space around the window further distracts, pulling focus away from the foreground flowers, which the text emphasizes as central to the father’s character and obsession. The red arrows in the annotated image illustrate how the composition and lines of the artwork, combined with the text placement, create a confusing visual hierarchy, forcing the reader’s eye to zig-zag across the page without a clear direction.
Conflicting Visual Cues and Missed Opportunities
Furthermore, the images often fail to reinforce or enhance the narrative conveyed in the text. The text describes the father’s obsessive focus on flowers, seemingly to the detriment of his family. Yet, the floral elements in the artwork are consistently understated. In the second panel, the bushes are barely noticeable, overshadowed by the dark porch. Even in the panel where the father is supposedly admiring “twining tea roses” on an egg, these roses appear as mere scribbles, lacking the detailed, obsessive quality the text suggests.
The visual storytelling misses opportunities to amplify the narrative’s emotional core. While the text speaks of the father’s detachment and preoccupation with nature over family, the artwork rarely visually embodies this conflict. The middle panels on the right page offer a brief glimpse of this, where conflicting lines hint at the father’s distraction. However, these moments are fleeting and inconsistent.
Even when the text describes a moment of family harmony, as in the lines “We would be sure to find a yellow egg in a thatch of daffodils, a lavender, egg passing itself off as a crocus,” the visual representation falls flat. Instead of a close-up emphasizing the egg and daffodils, the reader is presented with another indifferent landscape, further diluting the intended emotional impact. Similarly, in the bottom right panel depicting the father’s funeral flowers, the coffin’s lines ironically lead the eye away from the flowers, making them an afterthought rather than the focal point.
Monotonous Paneling and Bland Visual Style
Beyond the compositional issues, Fun Home suffers from a visually monotonous style. Bechdel’s paneling is overwhelmingly predictable, relying heavily on a repetitive thirds layout – three horizontal panels, often bisected by text, with the middle panel sometimes further divided vertically. This lack of variation contributes to a sense of visual stagnation, making the reading experience feel static and unengaging.
The artwork itself is rendered in a drab, light-grey tone, devoid of texture and contrast. The compositions rarely utilize negative space effectively, resulting in pages that feel visually dense and bland. While simplicity can be a stylistic choice, in Fun Home, it translates to a lack of visual interest that undermines the narrative’s potential emotional depth.
Indistinct Character Design
Adding to the visual blandness is the indistinct character design. Apart from the father’s glasses, differentiating characters visually, even Alison at different ages, proves challenging. This lack of visual distinction hinders the reader’s ability to connect with individual characters and follow their emotional journeys throughout the narrative.
Contrasting with Masters of Visual Storytelling
To better illustrate the shortcomings of Fun Home‘s visual narrative, consider the masterful use of visual language in Chris Ware’s Building Stories.
In this spread from Building Stories, the large left panel immediately commands attention due to its size and vibrant green color. The horizon and tree lines naturally guide the eye upwards, creating a sense of awe and openness. Red arrows in the annotation highlight how panel layouts and character eyelines direct the reader’s gaze through the narrative, ensuring a clear visual flow. Color is used strategically to differentiate characters and settings; the protagonist is consistently associated with blue, visually establishing her subjective perspective. Even without reading the text, the visual narrative clearly communicates the character’s emotional state and her place within the depicted environment.
Similarly, Natsuki Takaya’s Fruits Basket, a manga known for its emotional depth, provides a stark contrast to Fun Home in its visual storytelling.
In this Fruits Basket spread, the reader’s eye is immediately drawn to the dark corner where a child cowers. Converging lines, negative space, and character eyelines converge on this point, creating a visually impactful representation of fear and confinement. The use of shadows, symbolic knots, and distinct character designs—Akito in stark black, Tohru in contrasting light—all contribute to a rich visual tapestry that amplifies the emotional weight of the narrative. The visual language in Fruits Basket works in perfect harmony with the text, creating a deeply moving and immersive reading experience.
Overworked Writing Obscuring Narrative Clarity
Beyond the visual deficiencies, Fun Home also suffers from labored and often convoluted writing. Bechdel’s narration is saturated with literary allusions, which, instead of illuminating the narrative, often obscure it. These allusions feel forced, serving as a substitute for genuine emotional exploration rather than enhancing it. The narrative structure itself is fragmented and meandering, jumping haphazardly through time and themes, often leaving the reader feeling disoriented and unsure of the central focus.
While literary references can enrich a narrative, in Fun Home, they become a crutch, hindering the story’s emotional resonance and clarity. The constant comparisons to classic literature feel less like insightful parallels and more like intellectual posturing, distracting from the raw emotional core of Bechdel’s personal story.
Conclusion: Re-evaluating Fun Home’s Acclaim
In conclusion, while Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic undoubtedly tackles complex themes of family, identity, and loss, its execution, particularly in its visual storytelling, falls short of its celebrated status. The disconnect between text and image, monotonous paneling, bland visual style, and overworked writing combine to create a reading experience that is often confusing and emotionallyUnderwhelming. Compared to graphic novels that masterfully integrate visual and textual elements to create powerful and immersive narratives, Fun Home reveals itself as a work that is, at best, serviceable, and at worst, a potent combination of artistic and narrative shortcomings. While the personal story at its core may hold merit, the graphic novel as a whole fails to fully realize its potential, earning a rating of 1 star for its ineffective visual narrative and labored storytelling.
