‘Fun Home’ author Alison Bechdel named Vermont’s cartoonist laureate
An illustrator known for a memoir and graphic novel about her dad being bisexual has been selected as the Vermont cartoonist laureate.
‘Fun Home’, published in 2006, depicts Bechdel’s growing up in Pennslyvania with her bisexual father who killed himself, and was adapted into a Tony Award-winning musical.
Bechdel has been named as Vermont’s third cartoonist laureate.
She will be honoured at the Vermont Statehouse next month.
The Center for Cartoon Studies in White River Junction made the announcement about the honour this week.
The iconic “Dykes to Watch Out For” comics are set to return after eight years.
Bechdel in December confirmed that fans of the comics will be able to rejoice once more as she plans to re-invent the characters.
In her eight-year absence, Bechdel worked on Fun Home.
Last year’s presidential election sparked her creative flow to bring the comics back.
“Since I stopped drawing Dykes to Watch Out For at the tail end of the Bush administration, people have asked me many times if I thought about my characters, and if so, what they were up to. And I would have to be honest. No, I didn’t think about them, and I had no idea what they were doing,” Bechdel wrote in a blog titled “Same as it ever was, only much worse.”
Following the results of the election Bechdel’s characters came flooding back to her and she was inspired to pick up her pen once more.
“But last week,” Bechdel continued, “they all started flooding back.”
She has already published a new comic in Seven Days, a former long term publisher of Bechdel’s comics.
“Like many Vermonters, Bechdel has been feeling distraught about the election results,” Seven Days cofounder Pamela Polston wrote.
“While others have taken to the streets, Facebook and/or the liquor cabinet, she went back to the drawing board. And she emailed Seven Days to see if we’d be interested in publishing this strip.”
In addition to “Piéce de Résistance,” the new comic available on Seven Days’ site, Bechdel also agreed to do a special comic for the newspaper’s cover.
“Working on it made me feel a little less awful,” Bechdel said.
The writer made headlines this year as her book, Fun Home, was banned.
Bechdel’s award-winning autobiographic comic Fun Home ranked in at 7 for purported “graphic images”, presumably referring to the depiction of her early sexual experiences with women.
