The graphic memoir is a type of graphic novel that is aimed for an adult audience. One of the fastest growing literary mediums in America, graphic novels can be attributed to creator’s choice of wide-ranging and worthwhile themes (Will Eisner Studios Pg. 149). Graphic Memoirs depict the life of the author through pictures, lines, color tones, proportion scales, and the text within the work. Like a graphic novel, a graphic memoir has art and narrative that capture a reader. Eisner says, “The format of comics present a montage of both word and image, and the reader is thus required to exercise both visual and verbal interpretive skills. The regimens of art (e.g., perspective, symmetry, line) and the regimens of literature (e.g., grammar, plot, and syntax) become superimposed upon each other. The reading of a graphic novel is an act of both aesthetic perception and intellectual pursuit” (Will Eisner Studios. Pg. 2). The styles and designs of a graphic memoir allow readers to fully understand thoughts, concepts, and stories about an author and their past. Two graphic memoirs which demonstrate different styles and viewpoints are Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel, and The Quitter by Harvey Pekar.

The graphic memoir Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic chronicles Alison Bechdel the relationship she had with her Father growing up. This memoir as a whole, the drawings and writing, was done solely by her. Through humor, literature references, and graphic detail readers encounter the story of a lesbian who finds out about her father being gay several weeks before his death. Fun Home composes of a storyline in which events are told out of chronological order. The reason for the storyline jumping around is put best by the book Will Eisner: Comics and Sequential Art, “The story, rather than follow a straightforward narrative, is constructed like memory itself-jumping back in forth in time” (Will Eisner Studios Pg. 28).Memories for people skip around, flow based on similarities of random thought. The memoir jumps around from Bechdel’s childhood, to her life after her father’s death, and to the interactions with her father right before his death. Still there is a theme that stays within the text even as it jumps around. Her father and her have the bond of both being homosexual. This idea stays within the text, as she is discovering the hints of his homosexuality, as well as her own.

The characters in Fun Home that are of most importance to the story are Alison, her Father, and her Mother. The narratives text does detail events that went on in Bechdel childhood, but it did not always depict emotion or inform the reader of the characters personalities. It was through the drawn dialogue bubbles, the facial expressions and the body postures that the memoir came to life and showed these characters personalities. The interaction between the father and Mother is slim, but when there is contact, the facial expression and dialogue say it all. They dealt with each other but seemed to be happier when they were not with one another in a panel. Whether the memoir shows the mother looking sad and darkly shaded in the corner after her father coming home late, or the bronzing of her fathers face before church with Alison telling him that her mother is getting impatient, one got a vivid perception of the relationship between the parents. There is interaction between Bechdel and each of her parents, but usually never with both, which furthers the fact her parents where rarely together. Still, Bechdel and her Father were of the most importance to the memoir as they made the book come alive because of how strong their appearances where in each panel.

Another graphic memoir that is just as entertaining as Bechdel’s memoir is Harvey Pekar’s childhood memoir, The Quitter. The Quitter, published by Vertigo in 2005, is about Harvey Pekar as a young child, growing up in Cleveland with major insecurities. With memorizing drawings by Dean Haspiel, the book wouldn’t be the same without his creative craft. The title says it all, drifting through events in Pekar’s childhood, where he had quit many activities growing up if they did not come easy to him. What differs this memoir from Alison Bechdel’s is this is a collaborative graphic memoir, and from a male perspective. Pekars memoir also follows a chronological order, with brief interruptions occasionally from his current self throwing in opinions and explanation.

The memoir shows Pekars self-discovery. A big part of the story is Pekar’s gift for street fighting. He seems to take sadistic amusement in showing off his skills at the slightest irritation. Pekar seems to loath any problem he cannot solve by beating it up, and with each increasingly savage victory he comes closer to a painful lesson about the consequences of his brutal behavior. He is never happy with the outcome of his aggressive and outlandish behavior. The graphic memoir shows Pekar’s self pity as well as self promotion. We learn about his athletic ability, or rather his opinion of it, but we also learn about how he feels the whole world was against him.

Haspiel’s alternative graphic style, with the help Lee Loughridge, uses solid lines and shades of gray that makes The Quitter have a film noir atmosphere with shadows expressing uncertainty and self-loathing. The lighting effect reveals emotions and feelings that which the text and dialogue cannot convey as strongly. What is known as atmospheric lighting makes it very clear to the reader the emotions that Pekar is feeling. Realistic rendering is done for this memoir as well, only the artist did not pose for the pictures like Bechdel. Both memoirs demonstrate techniques that have been used in graphic memoirs and other comics since the 1930’s, the great comic era. While the collaborative memoir seems to have more complex detail, it is the steps which Bechdel did to create her work that shows the authors true personality within the memoir.

What makes a graphic memoir great to read is the adult content, with flashy graphics. Both of these graphic memoirs are different in artistic style and are from the perspective of two different genders. They do share the some of the same style of visuals with dialogue. Interestingly, graphic novels, memoirs and comics are primarily done and made up by men; however Alison Bechdel el proves that with a juicy concept, hard work, and peculiar task and style of drawing, there is a possibility of more females rising to the challenge. Perhaps, she will inspire more female graphic memoirs in the future.