Graphic Images
May 1, 2020 I had heard a lot about graphic novels but until recently had never read one. Now I come away impressed with the way words and images, working in tandem, can express a more powerful truth than either could alone. Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home (2004) is actually a graphic memoir, not a novel. It’s a coming-of-age tale amidst family dysfunction in small-town Pennsylvania. With minimal text and sparse drawings it manages to convey sadness, humor, tragedy and confusion, all while being inspirational. It made me think about the materials for a graphic narrative that might work today to explain what it’s been like to live through and with the Coronavirus pandemic. Wisconsin voters. I think back to the sight of the Wisconsin primary on April 7. Voters withstood long lines, miserably cold and wet weather, and inexcusable statewide reduction of available polling stations simply to exercise a basic right. The imagery was compounded by knowledge of the political manipulations that preceded it; a lame duck state house session where outgoing Republicans clipped the powers of the incoming Democratic governor; a long history of Republican-led efforts to disenfranchise urban and minority voters; and a scandalous state court decision...Read more