Alison Bechdel

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Alison Bechdel
Born	September 10, 1960 Lock Haven, Pennsylvania

Alison Bechdel (born September 10, 1960) is an American cartoonist. Originally best known for the comic strip Dykes To Watch Out For, she has recently become a best-selling author with her autobiographical graphic memoir Fun Home.

1 Biography
2 Books
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] Biography

Alison Bechdel was born in Lock Haven, Pennsylvania to a Catholic family of teachers. In 1981 she graduated from Oberlin College, having transferred from Simon's Rock College, and moved to New York City, New York. She applied to many art schools but was rejected and worked in a number of office jobs in the publishing industry.

According to The Indelible Alison Bechdel (see "Books", below), 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 newspaper, which began to publish the strip regularly beginning with the July-August 1983 issue. After a year, other outlets began running the strip.

Image:Alisonbechdel2.jpg

Alison Bechdel signing Fun Home, Brussels, 2006

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.

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 February 2004, Bechdel married her partner since 1992, Amy Rubin, in a civil ceremony in San Francisco. However, all same-sex marriage licenses given by the city at that time were subsequently voided by the California Supreme Court.

In 2006, Bechdel published Fun Home, an autobiographical "tragicomic" chronicling her childhood and the years before and after her father's suicide. 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. [1] [2]

In November 2006 Bechdel was invited to sit on the Usage Panel of the American Heritage Dictionary.

Bechdel's brother, John Bechdel, is currently the keyboard player for the industrial metal band Ministry as of February 2006.