3 Novels - Comm 343

            The three novels I have chosen to read for class are The Sandman Vol. 1 by Neil Gaiman , X’ed Out by Charles Burns, and Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel.  I chose each graphic novel for different reasons after doing a bit of research about each of them to find their summaries.  I feel that each graphic novel will assist me in my writing and creative process.
                The first novel I chose, The Sandman Vol. 1, is a New York Times best seller from a widely acclaimed writer.  I chose this in part for its popularity (having never read many American comics before like Watchmen or the Batman series, American comics are still somewhat novel to me) because I will be able to pick up on ideas and aspects of a successful comic that has had positive reviews.  Since graphic novels are such a diverse form of literature, being able to see what makes one so widely accepted and praised will be a good starting point on learning how to make my graphic novel more accessible to all audiences.  In all, I mostly picked this comic so I can see for myself what truly makes what critics would agree is a “best selling” graphic novel.
                The second novel I chose is X’ed Out.  From the little research I did (mostly consisting of looking up summaries that did not spoil any story for me), I came to find that this novel features “adolescence taking drugs and performing risky behavior”, which sounds like an interesting topic in itself.  As a young adult living in a liberal day and age it will be interesting to see an artistic take on these types of actions and use of drugs.  One reviewer commented that this novel was “similar to other works by Burns, but with more hallucinogenic scenes”.  I am very interested to see this art portrayed, and how he interprets the altered mind on paper.
                The last novel I chose, Fun House: A Family Tragicomic is actually an autobiography of sorts from the author Alison Bechdel.  The “fun house” is short for the funeral home that her father worked at, and this story tells of a young daughter living with her distant father and her inner struggle with her sexuality.  As a lover of sociology I am extremely interested in the roles of the family, and in particular dysfunctional families.  This will be a great insight on the communication between characters in a novel, as I am sure that there will be many heartfelt moments and inspiring scenes.  This will truly be a comic that will make me think on an emotional level, which I feel is a nice compliment to the reasons I chose the other two.