At 62, the American author Alison Bechdel, known for Les Gouines to follow Y funny house, and initiator of the famous Bechdel test, collects the honors. She is thus the first cartoonist nominated for the Prix Médicis de The secret of superhuman strength, last September. And his work was the subject of a course at the College de France. Alison Bechdel, also appears with Catherine Meurisse and Riad Sattouf among the finalists for the Grand Prix of the Angoulême festival.
A role model for generations of queer designers, Alison Bechdel was crowned “the potato of feminist and LGBT comics” in August by The world. As discreet as she is modest, she admits to feeling embarrassed by this title, which she prefers to attribute to Howard Cruse (1944-2019), pioneer of LGBT comics and creator of the magazine gay comicthat inspired her in the 1980s to tell her own stories.
“It should have had this title,” he insists to BFMTV. “There was a whole movement [d’artistes]. It wasn’t just me. I was influenced by the artists. We work together to change the system. If it hadn’t been me, it would have been someone else.”
“I am an exhibitionist in my work”
Alison Bechdel is a paradox. If this author born in 1960 cultivates secrecy around her life, each one of her books explores in the smallest details the key moments of her existence: the discovery of her father’s homosexuality after her death (funny house), his complex relationship with his distant mother (Are you my mom?), his taste for bodybuilding (The secret of superhuman strength).
“I was raised Catholic,” she says. “I really liked going to confession. I loved the feeling. I felt pure, like a saint. As an adult, I became a memoirist and started writing about my life. It’s a similar exercise: I have the impression that I have to confess.” above all that I have done, in a very scrupulous way, with great honesty.
And the designer to add: “I am an exhibitionist in my work, but not in my private life. I would rather publish a book and not have to talk about it. But that’s not how things work. It’s a curse and a blessing.” I feel like I have to justify my actions, but it’s also a lot of fun trying to understand a real situation and putting it into a comic.”
“Best Feeling in the World”
The autobiography fascinates her. “I love telling stories from reality. There is no logic or meaning in our lives. It is a very fun puzzle to solve. I dare not imagine myself doing fiction. Drawing is for her a “vital activity”: “It’s the best feeling in the world. You enter a moment of intense concentration where you only do that and it’s a delight.”
Alison Bechdel is a hard worker. She often takes several years to finish her books. funny house was published in 2006 in the United States, Are you my mom? in 2012 and The secret of superhuman strength in 2021. “For The secret of superhuman strengthI needed time and experience”, justifies Alison Bechdel. Then there were the things of life: “My mother died when I started this book.”
“I wanted to make a fun book, but my mother’s death changed the background of the book a bit,” continues the designer, who needs an almost religious calm to write. “After my mother died, it took me a long time to calm down to work.” When he draws, instead, he needs the noise of television, where he looks “in the mouth”. control your enthusiasm Y sex and the city.
If your latest comic claims to reveal “the secret to superhuman strength,” the designer doesn’t have it. “This book speaks precisely of the fact that no one is superhuman”, slides the designer, animated by a perpetual doubt. A doubt that manifests itself in his books where he draws himself on each page: “I always try to prove that I exist. I hope that one day I no longer need to assert my existence in this way.”
“At peace” with the Bechdel test
The restraint shown by Alison Bechdel lives up to the crushing shadow of funny house. “Nobody warns you about the dangers of writing a bestseller,” she laughs. “I am very grateful, but afterwards it was difficult to write another autobiographical story. My mother’s book disappointed the public, who wanted something similar to funny house. It was tough, but I’m proud that I stayed true to my vision.”
References to the Bechdel test -which aims to highlight the underrepresentation of female characters in the cinema- also poison her life. “I try to distance myself from it. I’m glad it’s become important, but I don’t need to talk about it all the time.” Because this famous test, mentioned in a 1985 strip, had been imagined mostly as a joke.
“I never thought it would become this big,” she says. “I’m at peace with that now. I had envisioned it to celebrate female characters. It’s one of the main themes of my work.”
“I only drew men”
She herself began portraying female characters late in life. “Until I was 19, I only drew men. It was when I came out of the closet that I thought it was strange to only draw men. Guys who did interesting things in my childhood! I didn’t want to draw a woman ironing, but a policewoman!”
Drawing female characters has long been “difficult,” she reveals: “I had to practice to get there. If I thought she was a lesbian, it was better to draw her. I couldn’t believe I was talking about this publicly, but that’s how I work! !” The discovery in the 1980s of lesbian comics (as Come Out Comix of Mary Wings) was “a thunderclap”.
Having become an icon of the LGBTQIA+ community 40 years later, Alison Bechdel only regrets not addressing major issues of her time, such as AIDS in Les Gouines to follow, humorous strip that tells the daily life of lesbians between 1983 and 2008. “It was a mistake,” he admits. He, too, was criticized for not addressing domestic violence. “It was too dark a subject, which I also did not know.”
Soon Bechdel in animated series?
With only three books in fifteen years, she might also regret not being more productive. “It’s good to take some time! What’s the rush?” Money, often, we answer. She’ll also make him the subject of an upcoming book that she bills as less autobiographical and more autofictional. There she introduces herself as a designer, leaving comics for television, out of greed.
Alison Bechdel is also considering giving her a revival dikes to follow, which he would like to include in this new comic. A project that excites him more than the Hollywood adaptation of the musical funny house by Jake Gyllenhaal. Alison Bechdel is not involved in the project, the evolution of which continues by far (two years after the announcement of the project, shooting has not been announced).
Finally, Bechdel has been working for several months with actress Carrie Brownstein on an animated series adaptation of dikes to follow. “We have to submit our script. We’ll see what happens,” says Bechdel, who would like to see the project succeed after years of aborted projects. “That would be great. We’ll see.”
Source: BFM TV
