Italian comic artist Paolo Bacilieri mixes the history of the crossword puzzle with a mystery, while jumbling time, memories, a love of the city of Milan, and some occasionally stunning art.  Fun is very much a graphic novel.  While the whole thing is wrapped around the fascinating story of the crossword puzzle, from its inception through its spread across the 20th Century and the world, the book is also a slow-burn mystery about a budding friendship between an old star writer and a middle aged and somewhat depressed Disney comic writer.  Throw in a mysterious college student with a gun and plenty of non sequitur vignettes, and you’ve got a fascinating, but sometimes difficult read.

Though the “now” part of the story takes place from around 2009 to 2011, there’s something about the overall vibe of the book that makes me feel like I’m reading something from the 1970s or early 80s.  Of course, the sense of time is also skewed by the frequent flashbacks, both within the lives of its protagonist and back through the historical snippets that span a hundred years.  Time, age, the passing of batons, memories, loss, and every marching time seep into everything.

There is almost a genre of semi-autobiographical stories about artists/authors/filmmakers that are also (sometimes tragic) love letters to the cities that shaped them.  I think of Scorsese’s many visions of New York City and Paolo Sorrentino’s take on Naples in The Hand of God as just a few examples.  It feels like Fun is that for Bacilieri, too.  While telling all these other stories, there are frequent moments that are simply devoted to Milan, looking at its beautiful and ugly sides in the way a local does.  It certainly makes me want to learn more about Milan’s local history, as there are references to things, particularly political movements and such, that I know very little about.  Other than knowing that Europe generally had a lot of social and political upheaval in the 1960s (as did most places, I suppose), I know little of the specifics, and most of what I do know is tied to the film industry.  Reading this also makes me want to visit Milan.  I’ve spent all of 30 minutes in a train station waiting for a connection, so all I’ve seen of the city is what you can see from the tracks, rolling in and rolling out of town.  Gun to my head, I couldn’t tell you anything about the city.  So, now I want to go back and spend some time. 

There are lots of references, some of which I understood, some not.  Some, I’m sure I didn’t even realize were happening.  In the historic moments, we see plenty of notable figures.  But in some of the other bits, there are characters from comic books and such.  Along with this, there are several times when the book breaks and goes off on a different story.  I don’t want to say an unrelated story, because perhaps they are related.  I often wasn’t really sure how, or why they were included.  Sometimes, I enjoyed these little sidequests.  Sometimes I read them and was left scratching my head or shrugging.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book.  I’ve never given much thought to the crossword or its historic or cultural significance.  As a life-long terrible speller who’s no good with word games, they existed slightly outside of my life.  Like the sports section in the newspaper, or a Country station on the radio.  I enjoyed learning about them.  Also, some of the panels and pages in this book are simply magnificent.  When Bacilieri occasionally indulges in hyper detailed illustrations of cityscapes.  Tasty.  And the occasional bits of color are nice, too.

This is one of those books that serves as a reminder of what you can do with comics, or that you certainly can do more than the medium is often given credit for.  This is the kind of book that should probably be up for awards in circles outside of the comic industry.  That said, I could imagine someone who is not used to reading comics might find it occasionally challenging.  Hell, I read quite a few, and there were a handful of times where I got lost on the page.  It does not hold your hand.

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