Alison Bechdel Biography

Alison Bechdel is a cartoonist whose 2006 memoir Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic was a smash in the comics world as well as in the establishment literary world. It even became a stage musical.

A graduate of Oberlin College (1981), Bechdel began her career in New York City, working office jobs while publishing single-panel cartoons in feminist publications.

Her strip Dykes to Watch Out For grew from random panels to a cast of characters, with national distribution to mostly feminist and lesbian press.

Fun Home was her breakthrough, a graphic novel of self-discovery and Bechdel’s attempt at understanding her father. National publications listed it as one of the best books of the year, a triumph for a book of cartoons.

After cranking out more Dykes to Watch For, Bechdel took a break to produce her second book, a graphic novel about her relationship with her mother, 2012’s Are You My Mother? A Comic Drama.

Bechdel followed that with a third memoir, 2021’s The Secret to Superhuman Strength.

She is also credited with popularizing “The Bechdel Test” for movies, a feminist ranking for feature films. To “pass” the test, a film must feature at least two women — who talk to each other — about something other than men.