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Alison Bechdel

Alison Bechdel is an American cartoonist best known for her long-running comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For and her graphic memoir Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic.

Bechdel was born in Lock Haven, Pennsylvania to Roman Catholic parents who owned and operated a funeral home in addition to working as teachers. In 1981, she graduated from Oberlin College and moved to New York City. She applied to many art schools but was rejected and worked in a number of office jobs in the publishing industry.

According to The Indelible Alison Bechdel, she began Dykes to Watch Out For as a single drawing labeled "Marianne, dissatisfied with the morning brew: Dykes to Watch Out For, plate no. 27". In the first years, Dykes to Watch Out For consisted of unconnected strips without a regular cast or serialized storyline. Bechdel introduced her regular characters, Mo and her friends, in 1987 while living in St. Paul, Minnesota. She became a full-time cartoonist in 1990 and later moved near Burlington, Vermont.

Bechdel married her partner since 1992, Amy Rubin, in a San Francisco civil ceremony in 2004. However, all same-sex marriage licenses given by the city at that time were subsequently voided by the California Supreme Court. Bechdel and Rubin separated in 2006.

In 2006, Bechdel published Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic, an autobiographical "tragicomic" chronicling her childhood and the years before and after her father&apo;s death. Fun Home has received more widespread mainstream attention than Bechdel's earlier work, with reviews in Entertainment Weekly, People, and several features in The New York Times. The work was a finalist for the 2006 National Book Critics Circle Award, in the memoir/autobiography category and won the 2007 Eisner Award for Best Reality-Based Work. Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic also garnered nominations for Best Graphic Album and Best Writer/Artist.