Paco Roca’s Graphic Novel La Casa (2015) as Architectural Elegy

This article explores Paco Roca’s graphic novel La Casa (2015) with attentionto the structuring role of architecture at two interrelated levels of analysis.At the level of theme and represented content, the comic employs architectureas a mediator of emotional connections and familial grief. At the levelof comics form and visual narrative structure, artistic choices underscorethe architectural properties of La Casa’s own construction. Repurposingthe notion of ‘iconostasis’ from Andrei Molotiu provides a way of bringingtogether the reader’s self-directed perusal of the comic’s page and the characters’self-directed navigation of their grief. The characters’ collaborativeconstruction of a pergola as an architectural addition to their father’s households two meanings. It provides a degree of emotional closure, further contributingto the architectural theme of the comic, and it pulls the architecturalstructure of the work towards a cathartic narrative resolution.