Hmmm, this could just as easily go in the literary thread.

I read Alison Bechdel's graphic novel / memoir Fun Home yesterday and it's amazing. She credits Howard Cruse (and his growing up gay graphic novel Stuck Rubber Baby), but really it's more like whackaloon memoirs of growing up in the seventies with overeducated, fucked up parents like The Squid and the Whale or Running With Scissors or The Ice Storm.

Also, it has a strong dose of Six Feet Under since the Fun Home in question is the Bechdel Funeral Home, and the style owes a great deal to Chas. Addams cartoons (which she cites specifically in the text).

It's not just the typical gay coming out story, since it's all tied in with her father coming out to her after she came out (while in college) and his death (probably, though not certainly, suicide) shortly thereafter. Plus lots of literature (their mutual bond).

It's beautiful and skewed and melancholy. Not much like her Dykes to Watch Out For strip. (Which I also enjoy, but this is just very different.)

Ooh, thanks for the reminder, Hec -- I've been meaning to read Fun Home and then not getting to it for ages now.

I read Alison Bechdel's graphic novel / memoir Fun Home yesterday and it's amazing.

FAQWife read that a couple of months ago and loved it! Like amych, I've been meaning to check it out, but keep forgetting.

Thanks for the heads-up -- that sounds very interesting.

Strega and Hec, thanks for the head's ups/revviews.

Also, I need to get some DYKES TO WATCH OUT FOR collections and I keep forgetting.

Also, I need to get some DYKES TO WATCH OUT FOR collections and I keep forgetting.

Yes, you do. And everyone needs to get Diane Dimassa and my friend Daphne Gottlieb's new graphic novel, "Jokes and the Unconscious."

Yes, you do.

I'm still pissed that when the Boston Phoenix did away with their "1 In 10" gay lifestyle section and never brought DYKES... over to the regular paper.

Hec, I think you'd really like House of Sugar. It was published in the local weekly and is soon coming out in book form. The author is often talks about music and 40s movies: [link]

[link]

Everybody'd probably like it, but it often made me think of Hec.

Hec, I think you'd really like House of Sugar. It was published int he local weekly and is soon coming out in book form. The author is often talks about music and 40s movies: [link]

Thanks, Sue! That's a great strip. Reminded me of early Lynda Barry, but with a very distinct slant. I have to say I concur with her wistfulness about 40s hairstyles and rats.

Yeah, it definitely reminds me of Lynda Barry, but more with wistful than dark turns.