Family Matters

Family Matters was much different then what I had expected. I was expecting something light and colorful but I was surely mistaken this Graphic Novel was dark and explored what it meant to be a family. The opening quote read. "Families are really physically indistinguishable from each other. They wear no badges. They are after all, tribal units to which their members belong by virtue of a biological event. And they are held together by a magnetic core that sometimes seems to be neither love nor loyalty." This quote in its essence describes Will Eisner's Family Matters.

The story begins with a man asking for a loan to go out of town to go to his fathers 90s birthday that on of his sisters is holding. As the story progresses each family member is introduced they each have there issues and back story and they are all headed to there fathers birthday party. As each family member shows up at there sisters house it becomes quite clear that none of the family members actually like each other, they are just obligated to be there because they are indeed family. Arguments and drama persists heavily through the family paying no attention to the reason why they have actually have gotten together to see their father. They have no concern of their father except when he will die so they will be able to collect on his will. Flash backs are also placed through the novel none of them being positive, all negative memories that each of them have with their father. The story ends with the family arguing over what to do with their father and they finally decide to place him in a cheap home because no one can take care of him. When they go to break the new to him they find that he has over dosed on his medicine and died. What they don't know is the quite nephew gave him to many pills to put him out of his misery and let him leave the awful family that he belongs to.

The style of this Graphic Novel was also very interesting it was black ink on white paper with an orange wash over it. The interesting part being that there are no distinct panels the entire page flows from one scene to another overlapping each other. This gives the graphic novel more of a modern feel and defiantly breaks away from the old tradition a rectangular frame around each panel.