Alison Bechdel
Encyclopedia
Alison Bechdel is an American cartoonist
. Originally best known for the long-running comic strip
Dykes To Watch Out For
, in 2006 she became a best-selling and critically acclaimed author with her graphic
memoir
Fun Home
.
to Roman Catholic parents who were teachers. Bechdel's brother is keyboard player John Bechdel
, who has worked with many bands including Ministry
. Her family also owned and operated a funeral home
. She attended Simon's Rock College and then Oberlin College
, graduating in 1981.
and applied to many art school
s but was rejected and worked in a number of office jobs in the publishing
industry.
She began Dykes to Watch Out For
as a single drawing labeled "Marianne, dissatisfied with the morning brew: Dykes to Watch Out For, plate no. 27". An acquaintance recommended she send her work to Womannews, a newspaper, which began to publish the strip regularly beginning with the July—August 1983 issue. After a year, other outlets began running the strip.
In the first years, Dykes to Watch Out For consisted of unconnected strips without a regular cast or serialized storyline. Bechdel introduced her regular characters, Mo and her friends, in 1987 while living in St. Paul, Minnesota. She became a full-time cartoonist in 1990 and later moved near Burlington, Vermont
. She currently resides in Bolton, Vermont
.
Dykes to Watch Out For is the origin of the Bechdel test.
In addition to Dykes to Watch Out For, Bechdel has also written and drawn autobiographical
strips and has done illustrations for magazines and websites. In 1988, she began a short-lived page-length strip about the staff of a queer newspaper, titled "Servants to the Cause", for The Advocate
.
, an autobiographical "tragicomic" chronicling her childhood and the years before and after her father's death. Fun Home has received more widespread mainstream attention than Bechdel's earlier work, with reviews in Entertainment Weekly
, People
and several features in The New York Times
. Fun Home spent two weeks on the New York Times Hardcover Nonfiction bestseller list.
Fun Home was hailed as one of the best books of 2006 by numerous sources, including The New York Times, amazon.com
, The Times
of London, Publishers Weekly
, salon.com
, New York
magazine, and Entertainment Weekly
.
Time magazine named Alison Bechdel's Fun Home number one of its "10 Best Books of the Year." Lev Grossman
and Richard LeCayo described Fun Home as "the unlikeliest literary success of 2006," and called it "a stunning memoir about a girl growing up in a small town with her cryptic, perfectionist dad and slowly realizing that a) she is gay and b) he is too. ... Bechdel's breathtakingly smart commentary duets with eloquent line drawings. Forget genre and sexual orientation: this is a masterpiece about two people who live in the same house but different worlds, and their mysterious debts to each other."
Fun Home was a finalist for the 2006 National Book Critics Circle Award
in the memoir/autobiography category. It also won the 2007 Eisner Award
for Best Reality-Based Work. Fun Home was also nominated for the Best Graphic Album award, and Bechdel was nominated for Best Writer/Artist.
licenses given by the city
at that time were subsequently voided by the California
Supreme Court
. Bechdel and Rubin separated in 2006.
In November 2006 Bechdel was invited to sit on the Usage Panel of the American Heritage Dictionary.
Cartoonist
A cartoonist is a person who specializes in drawing cartoons. This work is usually humorous, mainly created for entertainment, political commentary or advertising...
. Originally best known for the long-running comic strip
Comic strip
A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....
Dykes To Watch Out For
Dykes to Watch out For
Dykes to Watch Out For was a comic strip by Alison Bechdel. The strip, which ran from 1983 to 2008, was one of the earliest ongoing representations of lesbians in popular culture and has been called "as important to new generations of lesbians as landmark novels like Rita Mae Brown’s Rubyfruit...
, in 2006 she became a best-selling and critically acclaimed author with her graphic
Graphic novel
A graphic novel is a narrative work in which the story is conveyed to the reader using sequential art in either an experimental design or in a traditional comics format...
memoir
Memoir
A memoir , is a literary genre, forming a subclass of autobiography – although the terms 'memoir' and 'autobiography' are almost interchangeable. Memoir is autobiographical writing, but not all autobiographical writing follows the criteria for memoir set out below...
Fun Home
Fun Home
Fun Home is a 2006 graphic memoir by American writer Alison Bechdel, author of the comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For. It chronicles the author's childhood and youth in rural Pennsylvania, USA, focusing on her complex relationship with her father...
.
Early life
Alison Bechdel was born in Lock Haven, PennsylvaniaLock Haven, Pennsylvania
The city of Lock Haven is the county seat of Clinton County, in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. Located near the confluence of the West Branch Susquehanna River and Bald Eagle Creek, it is the principal city of the Lock Haven, Pennsylvania, micropolitan statistical area, itself part of the...
to Roman Catholic parents who were teachers. Bechdel's brother is keyboard player John Bechdel
John Bechdel
John Bechdel is a keyboardist, and has been a part of many bands over the years including Ministry, Fear Factory, Abstinence, Prong, Killing Joke, Murder, Inc. and Brian Brain to name a few...
, who has worked with many bands including Ministry
Ministry (band)
Ministry is an American industrial metal band founded by lead singer Al Jourgensen in 1981. Originally a synthpop outfit, Ministry changed its style to industrial metal in the late 1980s. Ministry found mainstream success in the early 1990s with its most successful album Psalm 69: The Way to...
. Her family also owned and operated a funeral home
Funeral home
A funeral home, funeral parlor or mortuary, is a business that provides burial and funeral services for the deceased and their families. These services may include aprepared wake and funeral, and the provision of a chapel for the funeral....
. She attended Simon's Rock College and then Oberlin College
Oberlin College
Oberlin College is a private liberal arts college in Oberlin, Ohio, noteworthy for having been the first American institution of higher learning to regularly admit female and black students. Connected to the college is the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, the oldest continuously operating...
, graduating in 1981.
Career
Bechdel moved to New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
and applied to many art school
Art school
Art school is a general term for any educational institution with a primary focus on the visual arts, especially illustration, painting, photography, sculpture, and graphic design. The term applies to institutions with elementary, secondary, post-secondary or undergraduate, or graduate or...
s but was rejected and worked in a number of office jobs in the publishing
Publishing
Publishing is the process of production and dissemination of literature or information—the activity of making information available to the general public...
industry.
She began Dykes to Watch Out For
Dykes to Watch out For
Dykes to Watch Out For was a comic strip by Alison Bechdel. The strip, which ran from 1983 to 2008, was one of the earliest ongoing representations of lesbians in popular culture and has been called "as important to new generations of lesbians as landmark novels like Rita Mae Brown’s Rubyfruit...
as a single drawing labeled "Marianne, dissatisfied with the morning brew: Dykes to Watch Out For, plate no. 27". An acquaintance recommended she send her work to Womannews, a newspaper, which began to publish the strip regularly beginning with the July—August 1983 issue. After a year, other outlets began running the strip.
In the first years, Dykes to Watch Out For consisted of unconnected strips without a regular cast or serialized storyline. Bechdel introduced her regular characters, Mo and her friends, in 1987 while living in St. Paul, Minnesota. She became a full-time cartoonist in 1990 and later moved near Burlington, Vermont
Burlington, Vermont
Burlington is the largest city in the U.S. state of Vermont and the shire town of Chittenden County. Burlington lies south of the U.S.-Canadian border and some south of Montreal....
. She currently resides in Bolton, Vermont
Bolton, Vermont
Bolton is a town in Chittenden County, Vermont, United States. The population was 971 at the 2000 census.The principal transportation artery of the town is US Route 2, which follows the north side of the Winooski River...
.
Dykes to Watch Out For is the origin of the Bechdel test.
In addition to Dykes to Watch Out For, Bechdel has also written and drawn autobiographical
Autobiography
An autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...
strips and has done illustrations for magazines and websites. In 1988, she began a short-lived page-length strip about the staff of a queer newspaper, titled "Servants to the Cause", for The Advocate
The Advocate
The Advocate is an American LGBT-interest magazine, printed monthly and available by subscription. The Advocate brand also includes a web site. Both magazine and web site have an editorial focus on news, politics, opinion, and arts and entertainment of interest to LGBT people...
.
Fun Home
In 2006, Bechdel published Fun HomeFun Home
Fun Home is a 2006 graphic memoir by American writer Alison Bechdel, author of the comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For. It chronicles the author's childhood and youth in rural Pennsylvania, USA, focusing on her complex relationship with her father...
, an autobiographical "tragicomic" chronicling her childhood and the years before and after her father's death. Fun Home has received more widespread mainstream attention than Bechdel's earlier work, with reviews in Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
, People
People (magazine)
In 1998, the magazine introduced a version targeted at teens called Teen People. However, on July 27, 2006, the company announced it would shut down publication of Teen People immediately. The last issue to be released was scheduled for September 2006. Subscribers to this magazine received...
and several features in The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
. Fun Home spent two weeks on the New York Times Hardcover Nonfiction bestseller list.
Fun Home was hailed as one of the best books of 2006 by numerous sources, including The New York Times, amazon.com
Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. is a multinational electronic commerce company headquartered in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the world's largest online retailer. Amazon has separate websites for the following countries: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, and...
, The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
of London, Publishers Weekly
Publishers Weekly
Publishers Weekly, aka PW, is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers and literary agents...
, salon.com
Salon.com
Salon.com, part of Salon Media Group , often just called Salon, is an online liberal magazine, with content updated each weekday. Salon was founded by David Talbot and launched on November 20, 1995. It was the internet's first online-only commercial publication. The magazine focuses on U.S...
, New York
New York (magazine)
New York is a weekly magazine principally concerned with the life, culture, politics, and style of New York City. Founded by Milton Glaser and Clay Felker in 1968 as a competitor to The New Yorker, it was brasher and less polite than that magazine, and established itself as a cradle of New...
magazine, and Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
.
Time magazine named Alison Bechdel's Fun Home number one of its "10 Best Books of the Year." Lev Grossman
Lev Grossman
Lev Grossman is an American novelist and journalist, notably the author of the novels Warp , Codex , The Magicians and The Magician King...
and Richard LeCayo described Fun Home as "the unlikeliest literary success of 2006," and called it "a stunning memoir about a girl growing up in a small town with her cryptic, perfectionist dad and slowly realizing that a) she is gay and b) he is too. ... Bechdel's breathtakingly smart commentary duets with eloquent line drawings. Forget genre and sexual orientation: this is a masterpiece about two people who live in the same house but different worlds, and their mysterious debts to each other."
Fun Home was a finalist for the 2006 National Book Critics Circle Award
National Book Critics Circle Award
The National Book Critics Circle Award is an annual award given by the National Book Critics Circle to promote the finest books and reviews published in English....
in the memoir/autobiography category. It also won the 2007 Eisner Award
Eisner Award
The Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, commonly shortened to the Eisner Awards, and sometimes referred to as the Oscar Awards of the Comics Industry, are prizes given for creative achievement in American comic books. The Eisner Awards were first conferred in 1988, created in response to the...
for Best Reality-Based Work. Fun Home was also nominated for the Best Graphic Album award, and Bechdel was nominated for Best Writer/Artist.
Later work
Dykes to Watch Out For was suspended in 2008 so that Bechdel can work on another graphic memoir, with the working title Love Life: A Case Study. It will focus on Bechdel's relationships. Bechdel describes its themes as "the self, subjectivity, desire, the nature of reality, that sort of thing".Personal life
In February 2004, Bechdel married her partner since 1992, Amy Rubin, in a civil ceremony in San Francisco. However, all same-sex marriageSame-sex marriage
Same-sex marriage is marriage between two persons of the same biological sex or social gender. Supporters of legal recognition for same-sex marriage typically refer to such recognition as marriage equality....
licenses given by the city
San Francisco 2004 same-sex weddings
The San Francisco 2004 same-sex weddings took place between February 12 and March 11, 2004. Newly-elected San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom gained international attention and attracted controversy when he issued a directive to the city-county clerk to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples...
at that time were subsequently voided by the California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
Supreme Court
Supreme Court of California
The Supreme Court of California is the highest state court in California. It is headquartered in San Francisco and regularly holds sessions in Los Angeles and Sacramento. Its decisions are binding on all other California state courts.-Composition:...
. Bechdel and Rubin separated in 2006.
In November 2006 Bechdel was invited to sit on the Usage Panel of the American Heritage Dictionary.
Collections
- Dykes to Watch Out For (Firebrand BooksFirebrand BooksFirebrand Books, was established in the early 1980s by Nancy K. Bereano---a lesbian/feminist activist in Ithaca, NY. It is a feminist and lesbian publishing house and among the many which grew out of the Women's Press Movement. Other presses of that period include Naiad Books, Persephone and...
, 1986, ISBN 0-932379-17-6) - More Dykes to Watch Out For (Firebrand Books, 1988, ISBN 0-932379-45-1)
- New, Improved! Dykes to Watch Out For (Firebrand Books, 1990, ISBN 0-932379-79-6)
- Dykes to Watch Out For: The Sequel (Firebrand Books, 1992, ISBN 1-56341-008-7)
- Spawn of Dykes to Watch Out For (Firebrand Books, 1993, ISBN 1-56341-039-7)
- Unnatural Dykes to Watch Out For (Firebrand Books, 1995, ISBN 1-56341-067-2)
- Hot, Throbbing Dykes to Watch Out For (Firebrand Books, 1997, ISBN 1-56341-086-9)
- Split-Level Dykes to Watch Out For (Firebrand Books, 1998, ISBN 1-56341-102-4)
- The Indelible Alison Bechdel: Confessions, Comix, and Miscellaneous Dykes to Watch Out For (Firebrand Books, 1998)
- Post-Dykes to Watch Out For (Firebrand Books, 2000, ISBN 1-56341-122-9)
- Dykes and Sundry Other Carbon-Based Life-Forms to Watch Out For (Alyson PublicationsAlyson PublicationsAlyson Books, formerly known as Alyson Publications, is a book publishing house which specialises in LGBT fiction and non-fiction. Former publisher Don Weise described it as "the world's oldest and largest publisher of LGBT literature" and "the home of award-winning books in the areas of memoir,...
, 2003, ISBN 1-55583-828-6) - Invasion of the Dykes to Watch Out For (Alyson Publications, 2005, ISBN 1-55583-833-2)
- The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For (Houghton MifflinHoughton MifflinHoughton Mifflin Harcourt is an educational and trade publisher in the United States. Headquartered in Boston's Back Bay, it publishes textbooks, instructional technology materials, assessments, reference works, and fiction and non-fiction for both young readers and adults.-History:The company was...
, 2008, ISBN 0-618-96880-6), a compendium containing the vast majority of the strips in all previous collections as well as all 2005-2008 strips not previously published
Graphic memoir
- Fun Home: A Family TragicomicFun HomeFun Home is a 2006 graphic memoir by American writer Alison Bechdel, author of the comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For. It chronicles the author's childhood and youth in rural Pennsylvania, USA, focusing on her complex relationship with her father...
(Houghton Mifflin, 2006, ISBN 0-618-47794-2)
Stories
- "Oppressed Minority Cartoonist" and "The Party" in Juicy Mother edited by Jennifer CamperJennifer CamperJennifer Camper is an American comics artist, graphic artist and editor residing in Brooklyn, New York.Camper, who is openly lesbian, has been producing comics since the 1980s. Her work has appeared in many publications including The Village Voice, San Francisco Bay Times, Ms...
, Soft Skull PressSoft Skull PressSoft Skull Press is an independent publisher founded by Sander Hicks in 1992, and run by Richard Eoin Nash from 2001 to 2009. In 2007, Nash sold Soft Skull to Counterpoint LLC, where it continues to function as a division of the press...
, 2005 ISBN 1-932360-70-0 - "A Perfect Match" in Juicy Mother 2: How They Met, edited by Jennifer Camper, Manic D PressManic D PressManic D Press is an American literary press based in San Francisco, California publishing fiction , poetry, cultural studies, art, narrative-oriented comix, and alternative travel trade paperbacks...
, 2007, ISBN 978-1-933149-20-2) - "Vermont" in State by State: A Panoramic Portrait of America, edited by Matt Weiland and Sean Wilsey, Ecco, 2008, ISBN 978-0-06-147090-5