Available now from University Press of Mississippi!

Listen to commentary on The Comics of Alison Bechdel on a recent episode of the Professor LatinX podcast, hosted by Frederick Luis Aldama.

“In its entirety, The Comics of Alison Bechdel brilliantly functions in correlation with Bechdel’s works: the several chapters chart intersections between Bechdel’s diverse oeuvre and the dynamic relations in and between them, suggesting ‘closure’ yet ultimately defying it…The Comics of Alison Bechdel fills the gaps in existing scholarship on Alison Bechdel and points out how her comics may be read and reread anew.”  – ALH Online Review

“The Comics of Alison Bechdel makes a significant contribution to the study of comics in American culture.” – Journal of American Culture

“The impact of Alison Bechdel’s work is difficult to overestimate, yet there are no studies to date that focus entirely on her work. This timely collection aims to fill this gap. It provides a thorough investigation of Bechdel’s work, its genesis, and reception and makes a distinct contribution to the existing scholarship on comics by focusing on the full range and breadth of Bechdel’s work.”  – Heike Bauer, author of The Hirschfeld Archives: Violence, Death, and Modern Queer Culture

“Utell’s introduction provides a strong prologue for those new to Bechdel or unfamiliar with her texts…The entire book is useful, but the [last] two essays, and their images, alone [by Margaret Galvan and Susan Van Dyne] make the collection necessary for those interested in comics, gender, and sexuality studies.” – Choice

“The essays overall offer well-researched takes on this superlative comics artist, and identify fresh areas for future study.” – The Gay and Lesbian Review

 The Comics of Alison Bechdel:  From the Outside In contains an array of critical essays on the comics of Alison Bechdel, offering new examinations of her entire body of work.

The collection takes as its starting point the phrase “from the outside in,” and looks at Bechdel from several perspectives:  Bechdel as an outsider and her changing position in the world of comix/comics and beyond; her investigation of interior life and its relationship to the outside world; and her many modes of drawing, writing, and performing queerness.  Essays from interdisciplinary perspectives are on offer, including critical approaches from comics studies, art history, cultural studies, material culture, print culture, life writing, queer theory, trauma studies, psychoanalytic theory, history of sexuality, archive studies, and adaptation studies.