Works by
Alison Bechdel
(Illustrator, Writer)
[1960 - ]

Dykes and Sundry Other Carbon-Based Life Forms to Watch Out For (2003) -- Finalist 2003 Lambda Literary Award for Humor
Change is afoot as the best-selling Dykes to Watch Out For series moves to Alyson. Alison Bechdel continues to illuminate the way we live through the comic strip serial that has become a national treasure. In the tenth book in the series, Mo, the curmudgeonly women's bookstore clerk, blithely rants about Dr. Laura, Donald Rumsfeld, gay Enron execs, and the pernicious effects of Frogger, while her cozy counterculture community is shifting beneath her feet. Her job is in jeopardy as Madwimmin Books's customer base defects to the chains. Her ex, Clarice, is displaying symptoms of soccer mom-itis. Her best friend, Lois, has announced her new name is Louis. And her old pal Sparrow considers whether having a baby with her boyfriend will compromise her identity as a radical lesbian feminist. Meanwhile, Toni doesn't know what do when Clarice's George W. Bush-induced depression lasts long after the inauguration and, in the wake of 9-11, her friends square off on questions of idealism, violence, compassion, patriotism, and dissent. As they hash out their ideological differences, a black-and-white world takes on surprisingly variegated shades of gray.

Invasion of the Dykes to Watch Out For (2005) -- Finalist 2005 Lambda Literary Award for Humor
Book 11 in the Dykes to Watch Out For series finds Alison Bechdel's beloved cast of characters discovering that nothing but change is constant in our multihued terror alert system world. Mo is working her way through library school by shelving bestsellers at Bounders Books and Muzak, Sparrow and Stuart face parenthood with a mixture of ambivalence and zeal, Clarice and Toni clash over the gay marriage debate while their 10-year-old son Raffi jacks cars and slaps hos on his best friend's computer, Sydney's mammogram yields very bad news, Ginger's love life is finally looking up, and is a Hello Kitty thong really the best gift Lois can give 13-year-old Jonas when s/he becomes Janis? Alison Bechdel is legendary for her ability to examine global politics through the prism of dinner conversations, and this book is no exception. Sydney's doctor insists in likening her malignant cells to terrorists, Stuart's home improvement project develops disturbing parallels to Operation Iraqi Freedom, and Ginger's best student turns out to be her most conservative, resulting in an ideology-busting clash of red- and blue-state values.

Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic (2006) -- Winner 2006 Lambda Literary Award for Biography (Lesbian); Finalist 2006 Lambda Literary Award for Arts and Culture
This breakout book by Alison Bechdel takes its place alongside the unnerving, memorable, darkly funny family memoirs of Augusten Burroughs and Mary Karr. It's a father-daughter tale pitch-perfectly illustrated with Bechdel's sweetly gothic drawings andlike Marjane Satrapi's Persepolisa story exhilaratingly suited to the graphic memoir form. Meet Alison's father, a historic preservation expert and obsessive restorer of the family's Victorian house, a third-generation funeral home director, a high school English teacher, an icily distant parent, and a closeted homosexual who, as it turns out, is involved with male students and a family babysitter. Through narrative that is alternately heartbreaking and fiercely funny, we are drawn into a daughter's complex yearning for her father. And yet, apart from assigned stints dusting caskets at the family-owned "fun home," as Alison and her brothers call it, the relationship achieves its most intimate expression through the shared code of books. When Alison comes out as homosexual herself in late adolescence, the denouement is swift . . . graphic . . . and redemptive.

What Do Cats Dream? (1999) by Louise Rafkin

Found Goddesses: Asphalt to Viscera (1988) by Julia Penelope and Morgan Grey with Alison Bechdel, Illustrator

Juicy Mother 2: How They Met (2007) -- Finalist 2007 Lambda Literary Award for Anthologies
Featuring new work by: Alison Bechdel  (Fun Home), Carlo Diego Quispe, Carrie McNinch, Chitra Ganesh, David Hooper, David Kelly, Diane DiMassa (Hothead Paisan), Erika Moen, Fly, G. B. Jones, Howard Cruse (Stuck Rubber Baby), Jamaica Dyer, Joan Hilty, Justin Hall, Karen Platt, Katie Fricas, Lawrence Ferber, Lawrence Schimel, Leanne Franson, Michael Fahy, Robert Kirby, Sara Rojo Parez,  Scott Treleaven, Serpilla, Tristan Cowen, and Victor Hodge

Juicy Mother: Celebration (2004)
Gleefully thumbing its nose at a field typically dominated by straight white men, Juicy Mother is an alternative-to-alternative comics. This cartoon anthology features work by and about queers, women, and people of color. Showcasing work by such well-known cartoonists as Alison Bechdel (Dykes to Watch Out For), Ariel Schrag (Definition, Potential), Diane DiMassa (Hothead Paisan), Howard Cruse (Wendel, Stuck Rubber Baby), Ivan Velez Jr. (Tales of the Closet, Blood Syndicate), Joan Hilty (Bitter Girl), and Robert Kirby (Curbside), and the collection also includes exciting new talents and inspired artist/writer collaborations. Highlights include comics about an older butch dyke and her Lolita, an African American gay man coming of age, an Arab Muslim dyke searching for her identity, two big hairy men getting married, and a cynical Latina teen’s encounter with aliens. The stories in Juicy Mother are not just exceptionally exuberant and carefree, they are a celebration of artistry and diversity.

Real Girl #3 (1992)