Humour and Comics

Fun Home

"A Family Tragicomic", so der Untertitel, ist die perfekte Bezeichnung für Alison Bechdels 2006 veröffentlichte und mehrfach ausgezeichnete Graphic Novel "Fun Home". Die Großartigkeit der Geschichte liegt dabei definitiv in Bechdels Darstellung ihres wundersamen Vaters, der vieles ist: Englischlehrer und Bestatter, pedantisch und mit einer Vorliebe für viktorianische Architektur. (In der Erzählerin kommt nicht nur einmal die Vermutung auf, sie seien vielleicht gar nicht die Bechdels, sondern die Addams Family. Leichen im Fun Home, Funeral Home, bestätigen diese Vermutung.) Was mit einem Augenzwinkern, einer karrikativen, sympathischen Darstellung beginnt, in der es nicht mehr als ungemein komisch ist, dass besagter Vater auch irgendwann eine Affäre mit Roy, dem männlichen Babysitter der Familie, hatte, dass er ab und an zum Psychologen geht, bekommt im Laufe der sieben größeren Kapitel eine sehr ernsthafte Note, und wird von der Autorin immer mehr mit ihrer eigenen Coming-Of-Age-(Coming-Out)-Geschichte verknüpft. Die gemeinsame Leidenschaft von Vater und Tochter, die Literatur, spickt die Graphic Novel zusätzlich mit Bezügen zu Proust, Joyce, Salinger und wird so zu einem grandiosen emotional-intellektuellen Leseerlebnis.

A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again

The titular essay in this collection is one of the funniest bits of writing you will ever read (full stop). Foster Wallace may be beginning to descend into the realms of the unfashionable but that should not stop you reading his account of a grim holiday on a cruise ship. From the name he gives the ship to his feelings of pure hatred for a small boy who sits at the table with him each evening and his endless stream of snide footnotes, I don't think there are many funnier examples of the essay form in English. The rest of the collection (like all collections) has some major highs and a few lows but the cruise ship is worth the cover price alone.

Letting It Go

I should at the start of this review admit to an embarrassing amount of prejudice towards graphic novels. In long night shifts, I have occasionally flicked through them and been titillated, occasionally amused but never gripped. I have read one of two (honest) in their entirety but had generally more or less ruled them out as a genre, until a professor of mine including Miriam Katin's "Letting it Go" as a text for a course.
It tells the story of Katin's relationship to Germany, and to Berlin, after her son decides to move here - something she, as a Holocaust survivor finds almost impossible to take.
What struck me (partly thanks to the course) was how much this medium could do that I had not necessarily considered. Throughout reading the book, I was struck by how many layers Katin builds her narrative out of, and how much she plays with conventions of written and pictorial narration. A wonderful, moving, complex story and an advert (for me at least) for the genre!

A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again

Persuasion

Jane Austen is a writer ruined by TV adaptation (before you all start writing letters, I know there are good ones). Despite two centuries of inclusion in the canon, there are still many (and I am afraid they are mostly men) who dismiss her as 'frivolous', 'saccharine' or 'unserious'. This means it is only worth continuing to discuss Austen with people if they either don't use any of the aforementioned adjectives or if, by the latter, they mean, she is one of the funniest writers in English (full stop). If you don't know this already, the first page of 'Persuasion' will convince you, and then her biting, satirical commentary on Georgian society will show you that far from reverently writing about it out of admiration, she irreverently lambasts it and its eccentric snobbish hierarchy (people who write her off will probably say John Oliver likes Trump because both wear suits). If you don't believe me (and even if you do), read her (and start with 'Persuasion') before you watch her.

Dragman

When putting on women's clothes, August Crimp can turn into Dragman a.k.a Dolly Marie, a flying superhero. These days, Dragman has retired, August is a loving husband and father. His family doesn't know anything about his past, because he is ashamed of his desire to dress up as a woman as a result of ongoing humiliation and his wife is afraid of superheroes due to trauma. Meanwhile, a dirty business with souls is on the rise: A scientist has located the human soul, so companys trade souls for huge amounts of money. Unfortunately, people without souls turn into (rich) unscrupulous meanies. Then, Dragman's former superhero-companion pops up and while they try to save people's souls, August's secret life starts getting really complicated...

A gripping, emotional, thought-provoking, beautifully drawn graphic thriller and superhero comic!

Wendy, Master of Art

10/10 recommend! Such a fun graphic novel, cannot wait to read the first two Wendy books!

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