Alison Bechdel (Photo by Elena Siebert)
MELISSA WHITLER
Melissa@DallasVoice.com
Alison Bechdel is back with her first work of fiction since her cult classic comic series Dykes to Watch Out For. Her new graphic novel, Spent, weaves reality and fiction to examine what it means to live in a capitalist society today.
Bechdel’s new novel revisits some recognizable characters past to see where they are in their lives in 2020. Everyone is a little older and a little tired but still fighting for change.
Filled with Bechdel’s usual wit and humor, Spent is an enjoyable call out that interrogates the ways we all, including the author, fall short of our ideals.
Ahead of the book’s release, Bechdel took some time to discuss her writing and experience in the LGBTQ rights movement.
Dallas Voice: Where did you get the idea for Spent? Alison Bechdel: Originally it was going to be a memoir. I’ve gotten into a mode of looking at my own life and thought I was going to do that with this book. It was going to look at living in capitalism and the ways we’re all complicit.
But that started to seem daunting, and I would have to read a bunch of books about economics. Then I had a flash of inspiration and thought I could write a book about someone trying to write a book. It collided with my earlier work and really had things come full circle.
I let the story spool out as it wanted to. It was a way to riff on my own career arc and talk about what it’s like to have your work adapted. It was fun to play up or exaggerate my own personality foibles.
What was it like venturing back into the lives of your comic characters? It was fun and surprisingly just sort of happened. It was interesting to see how they’ve changed and the ways they haven’t changed. While they look a little different, they’re basically all still themselves. They’re doing the same community-based work they’ve always been doing.
With this I also got to explore Stewart and Sparrow’s kid and imagine what they would be like as an adult.
How has your writing process changed since Fun Home? I feel like I definitely had a different process between creating comic strips and memoirs. For Dykes to Watch Out For, I was writing another episode of a running story. I wove those stories into the news and what was happening at the time. With memoirs it was a different process because I was writing in order to discover something, to figure something out about my life. It was unpredictable.
For Spent, it was more predictable because I’m just making it up. It was actually very refreshing.
What was your favorite thing you took artistic liberty with? Maybe the goat farm. I didn’t learn anything about goats; I just let myself make it up. I felt like I got it close enough.
I didn’t find out until later that I have goats in my background. My grandfather herded goats and told my mother stories. My wife, Holly, also herded goats in Vermont, so I guess they’re miniature goats for a miniature state. The goats are cute but not enough that I would want to raise any.
How did your wife react to being included in the book? She gave me a lot of notes. She was working on it with me, and actually did the coloring of all the pages. Everything passed through her, so we had some discussions. I’d gotten used to not collaborating, doing my work in the basement alone, so it was appealing to have someone in the trenches with me.
What is your evaluation of the current state of the LGBTQ rights movement? I came out in 1980, so this is more progress than I ever expected to see. But now it feels like the government is doing everything they can to divide people, and we could easily lose all of that progress. I feel like we really need everyone to come together to fight.
The way change happens is from people working in coalitions. We all need to do this together, which means getting over our minor differences. I haven’t been on the forefront of the struggle since I’ve been caught up in my work. I want to do more direct action because I know that it works.
I was just at a demonstration with an old friend who I hadn’t seen in a long time. There are lots of people who have never demonstrated before coming out and taking action. When these people come out, they’re really angry and want things to go back to normal. We need to educate these new activists in real substantive change and find a way to make this bigger. We must get as many people out as possible and unite over a common goal.
If you could, what would you tell younger Alison? I would want to say don’t get too comfortable in your life, don’t get too attached to comfort and safety. Keep putting yourself out there. If we had been doing that all along, I think things would be different. Living in a capitalist society we’ve lost some sense of meaningful connection with others. The more we have the less we think we need others, but it’s vital to connect and work together.