logo
livingroom

decorative bar

biographies


corner Last update of this page: June 10th 2004 corner
Alison Bechdel
(1960 - living) U.S.A.

Alison Bechdel

Cartoonist

separator

Bechdel grew up in rural Pennsylvania, and after graduating from Oberlin College, moved to New York City. It was there that Dykes To Watch Out For began in 1983, as a regular feature in the feminist monthly, Womanews. She started self-syndicating the comic strip in 1985, and it now runs in over 70 lesbian/gay, feminist, and alternative publications in North America.

She knew she wanted to be an artist from an early age, and pursued her dream at Oberlin by majoring in studio art and art history. It was while doodling on letters to a friend that the prototypes of her first strip emerged. Dykes treats life in a closely knit community of lesbians (and their friends) which is perplexed and bemused by the changes in what it means to be queer.

The main character is a bookstore employee named Mo and she is surrounded by a cast of characters that for almost twenty years has been living out the queer experience in all its variance, from the confusions of fluid sexuality to the complications of transgenderism. Bechdel has been taken to task for having "politically correct" characters, but she has said that since the idea behind PC is being nice to people, this is criticism she'll live with.

Alison BechdelThe strip has become a classic of its kind and has spawned a number of collections such as Post-Dykes to Watch Out For , T shirts, and a yearly calendar. Bechdel also travels around doing slide presentations about the strip and queer culture. She has turned down offers of a non-Dykes syndicated strip because her relationship with the mainstream is ambivalent, and she prefers to be "a pervert in the twilight."

The 'comics-obsessed' cartoonist has also published The Indelible Alison Bechdel, an autobiographical work in cartoon form with other comics and some Dykes material. Of her strip Bechdel says "The secret subversive goal of my work is to show that women, not just lesbians, are regular human beings."

Nine collections of her cartoons, including Spawn of Dykes To Watch Out For (1995), Hot, Throbbing Dykes To Watch Out For (1997), and Post Dykes To Watch Out For (2000), have been published by Firebrand Books. Three of these volumes have won Lambda Literary Awards for humor. The Indelible Alison Bechdel (1998) won a Lambda Literary Award in the biography/autobiography category, and the strip has also won two Vice Versa Awards for Excellence in the Gay and Lesbian Press.

She was recently featured on the PBS gay and lesbian newsmagazine In The Life, and in its February 2001 issue, the Utne Reader listed Dykes To Watch Out For as one of the "Greatest Hits of the Twentieth Century."

Bechdel has done exclusive work for a slew of publications including Ms., Slate, The Village Voice, The Advocate, Out, and many other newspapers, web sites, comic books, and 'zines. Her work has also been widely anthologized.

She lives near Burlington, Vermont.

separator

Alison Bechdel

"I think of myself as a lesbian cartoonist, rather than as a cartoonist who happens to be a lesbian, because it's who I am and what I do and they're totally intertwined ... As lesbians, we're not used to seeing ourselves represented anywhere. And I think we're all basically starved for images of ourselves. I think it's such an important, nurturing thing to see yourself reflected in the world.

In a way I see my job as being kind of an archivalist. I want to create a reflection of our community that's as true and clear as possible ... But probably more than an archivalist, I'm a propagandist. And my stuff is total, left-wing propaganda. I promote this kind of feminist, anti-nuclear, vegetarian way of looking at the world.

But most of all I want to draw women who are lovable and who love other women. Because the most amazing thing to me about being a lesbian is how we're able to unlearn all this garbage and defy all the stereotypes, how we're able to see beyond them till we can see ourselves and love ourselves as women. And I think that's pretty important, so that's why I try to draw it."

separator

Click on the letter A to go back to the list of names

corner © Matt & Andrej Koymasky, 1997 - 2008 corner