Comics of Alison Bechdel

<p>Contributions by Michelle Ann Abate Leah Anderst Alissa S. Bourbonnais Tyler Bradway Natalja Chestopalova Margaret Galvan Judith Kegan Gardiner Katie Hogan Jonathan M. Hollister Yetta Howard Katherine Kelp-Stebbins Don L. Latham Vanessa Lauber Katherine Parker-Hay Anne N. Thalheimer Janine Utell and Susan R. Van Dyne</p><p>Alison Bechdel is both a driver and beneficiary of the welcoming of comics into the mainstream. Indeed the seemingly simple binary of outside/inside seems perpetually troubled throughout the career of this important comics artist known for Fun Home Are You My Mother? and Dykes to Watch Out For. This volume extends the body of scholarship on her work from a range of interdisciplinary perspectives.</p><p>In a definitive collection of original essays scholars cover the span of Bechdel's career placing her groundbreaking early work within the context of her more well-known recent projects. The contributors provide new insights on major themes in Bechdel's work such as gender performativity masculinity lesbian politics and representation trauma life writing and queer theory.</p><p>Situating Bechdel among other comics artists this book charts possible influences on her work probes the experimental traits of her comics in their representations of kinship and trauma combs archival materials to gain insight into Bechdel's creative process and analyzes her work in community building and space making through the comics form.</p><p>Ultimately the volume shows that Bechdel's work consists of performing a series of selves--serializing the self as it were--each constructed and refracted across and within her chosen artistic modes and genres.</p>