Tag Archives: Comic Book

Cartoonist Alison Bechdel Countered Dad’s Secrecy About His Sexuality By Always Being Open About Hers

Since coming out as at the age of 19, graphic novelist Alison Bechdel has made it a point to be open about her sexuality.

It was a decision she made consciously as a reaction to her father – who was gay and closeted – who sadly died four months after Bechdel came out.

alison-bechdel-photo-credit-elena-seibert-01

Talking Fresh Air‘s Terry Gross, Bechdel says

In many ways my life, my professional career has been a reaction to my father’s life, his life of secrecy. I threw myself into the gay community, into this life as a lesbian cartoonist, deciding I was going to be a professional lesbian. In a way, that was all my way of healing myself.”

Also read: ‘My Old Flame’ by Alison Bechdel

In 2006, Bechdel’s “healing” took the form of a graphic novel called Fun Home, in which she details her own coming out, and how she grappled with her father’s death, which she suspects may have been a suicide.

Alison Bechdel 03

Fun Home has since been turned into a Broadway play, which recently won five Tony Awards, including the award for best musical.

Bechdel says seeing her life story put to music was a visceral experience:

I was kind of blown away. I was not at all prepared to hear the music. … It was much more emotional than I had been anticipating.”

Listen to her interview below, where Fun Home lyricist Lisa Kron and composer Jeanine Tesori join Bechdel in a conversation about the play.

Broadway To Have its First Ever Lesbian Lead Character Next Month

Broadway is to have its first ever lesbian lead character from next month.

Award-winning musical Fun Home, about family, sexuality and acceptance will open at the Circle in the Square Theatre on April 19, following an extended run off-Broadway.

The musical is based on the graphic memoir Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel. The coming-of-age musical revolves around Bechdel’s dysfunctional family and relationship with her late father, who as a closeted gay man who ran a funeral home and taught English in rural Pennsylvania.

The musical, a finalist for the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for drama, begins previews at the Circle in the Square Theatre on April 19 after a sold-out, extended run Off Broadway.

Also: Book Review | Fun Home – A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel

Director Sam Gold told Reuters:

“It is the first lesbian lead character in the history of musical theater and that is a story that needs to be told. It feels like a very good time in our culture to give voice to that character.”

Tony nominee Lisa Kron has adapted the book and provided lyrics to Jeanine Tesori’s music.

The non-linear play will star three actresses as Bechdel. Beth Malone will play the adult version, while Emily Skeggs and Sydney Lucas will play younger versions.

“All of these things are swirling around Fun Home as we tell the story of the detrimental cost of shame, and that is ultimately what this is about, and the redemption that comes from forgiveness and living in truth.”

Beth Malone

Tony winner Michael Cerveris will play father Bruce Bechdel.

“I think people are able to identify with the struggles of these characters, the aspects of being a family. They are not focusing solely on Alison’s or Bruce’s sexual orientation.”

Michael Cerveris

So What Does it Mean to Have a Gay Green Lantern? DC’s Iconic Character to Come Out in Upcoming Comic

Simply put, if you’re anything other than straight, white, male and cis-gendered, the representation of your identity across all forms of media is going to be pretty abysmal. Because of the changing readership of comics, though, thing are slowly becoming better in the superhero space.

Even so, the big two comics companies – DC and Marvel – could always do better as both are quite poor at presenting their female heroes in a non-objectifying light.

DC recently made headlines after the creative team of Batwoman jumped ship because higher ups wouldn’t let the character get married to her female partner. So, after Marvel Comics character Northstar (of Astonishing X-Men fame) proposed to his boyfriend, DC are following suit with Green Lantern set to get a boyfriend too.

The announcement comes as somewhat of a surprise to Green Lantern fans as the character has been around since before the Second World War, after which the character behind the Green Lantern persona changed in an effort to ramp up the character’s declining popularity.

It’s the original Green Lantern, Alan Scott, who is going to come out as gay in an upcoming issue and not the Hal Jordan version of Green Lantern who was played by Ryan Reynolds in the film. And that’s quite important too as with other characters like Batman and Superman, we only know these as one person (Bruce Wayne and Clark Kent, respectively) but with Green Lantern, the ‘gay version’ of Green Lantern is just another version of the character in a group of many others and so fans can overlook or avoid the superhero’s sexuality in favour of whichever straight Green Lantern that they like best.

While it would be wrong for us to completely turn our noses up a representation especially with a storyline so sweet as this (Green Lantern is set to come home to his boyfriend and give him a welcoming hug and kiss) in the back of my mind, the comics fan in me sees this as somewhat of a cop-out on DC’s part. As mentioned with the Batwoman debacle, they don’t exactly have a brilliant track record either. Nonetheless, it will be nice to see Green Lantern’s storyline and relationship with his boyfriend progress over the next few issues so we’ll keep you posted once we know more.

Green-Lantern-02

Why Scarlett Johansson’s ‘Lucy’ Is Not Worth Your Time or Money

It’s a sad, sad thing that although we are quite a few movies into the recent Marvel heroes movie surge we have yet to see Scarlett Johansson kick ass, take names and save the world as Black Widow the way her male Avengers counterparts (Thor, Captain America et. al) have in their own movie franchises.

While Johansson’s public support of people like Woody Allen and her sponsorship of oppressive companies have been abrasive at best, there’s no denying that people are hungry to see her play a badass female superhero. Directed by Luc Besson, ‘Lucy’ hoped to be Johansson’s turn to party with the boys.

It may not be within the Marvel universe but playing the titular character after she is forced against her will to transport a package of drugs within her body, before then accidentally absorbing those drugs and gaining advanced mental and physical powers, Lucy had the potential to be a superhero that all of us could support. So it’s a shame that the film turned out to be a racist amalgamation of stereotypes and tropes instead.

The first time the queasy feeling will settle in your stomach whilst watching Lucy is when the character (remember, she’s white) is placed into Taiwan and tasked with the unsavoury job of killing exclusively Asian male villains in the name of liberation and justice. Is there a feminist cause to be championed in there somewhere – that this female hero is getting her revenge by taking on men?

Yes. Is there also an overt racist trope of the ‘vulnerable’ white woman (remember, she’s already smarter and stronger than the majority of the people on the planet by this point) taking on the scary, brown man? Check marks all round for Lucy on this one. While I could entirely focus the remainder of these piece on asking why a film set in Taiwan has a white lead, since I can answer that succinctly with ‘Hollywood is racist’ and link you to this HuffPo article and this one from TIME to prove it, I’ll move onto my next point.

What may seem like a minor problem actually reflects ‘Lucy’ as a whole. Peep this screengrab of Chinese writing in the background of the film. It translates as ‘Keep Clean. Apple, scallop & ginger, orange, tomato, grape’. ‘Ha!’ I hear someone say in the distance ‘what a wonderful Easter egg for those who understand Chinese characters’, but they’re wrong, this isn’t an Easter egg at all.

Rather, it’s a further example of someone on this movie’s staff not doing their research or not caring enough to do the language spoken the inhabitants of the film’s Taiwan setting justice. They cared enough to make this sci-fi thriller (or crime thriller, no one is really sure) about the very real fact that humans only use about 10% of their brain power and stick it in a country full of people of colour that would make Lucy’s plight for revenge seem so much grittier, but not enough to Google Translate some scarier phrases than the contents of my fruit bowl.

But, I say, knowing full well that there are so many more column inches I could dedicate to this God awful movie, the very worst example of racism in Lucy is this scene (tw: violence at the link). A country predominantly made up of non-English speakers, Lucy goes up to a man and shoots him dead because he does not speak the language that she does.

Newsflash: Lucy, there are more people who don’t speak English in the world than those who do. Statistically, it’s moronic for her to expect that a person in a mostly non-English speaking country is going to share her dialect. but more than that, the film perpetuates the idea that it’s ok to murder people in cold blood if they speak with an accent or don’t speak the same language as you.

In short, maybe it’s action scenes are shocking, maybe the concept of a female superhero is a good one but this film is so vividly offensive, so undeniably racist that I implore you not to support it. I know we as feminists want women to be the leads of all media, especially those like superhero films in which men have typically reigned, but for crying out loud if this is the example of a ‘female lead’ that we’re willing to accept then maybe we don’t deserve it.

Gay Women In Comics, and There are Plenty

Here are some of my favourite lesbians and bisexual women Super heros.  The characters cover the full range of heroes, anti-heroes, villains, and supporting cast.


tank-girlTank Girl

Real name: Rebecca Buck
Comic: Tank Girl

My first comic crush, Tank Girl is a tank driving, bounty hunted bad-ass. Her character is well-known for her lack of manners, bad behaviour, and carelessness with the hearts of her lovers. Besides this, she can usually fight her way out of any pickle.


MystiqueMystique

Real name: Raven Darkholme
Comic: X-Men

Mystique’s first made an appearance X-men universe in the comic Ms. Marvel. One of the most famous X-villains, Raven had a lifelong on-again, off-again affair with fellow mutant Destiny. Writer Chris Claremont stated that he originally planned to have Mystique and Destiny be Nightcrawler’s biological parents, but due to the Comics Code Authority, Marvel refused to do this. However, years later Mystique and Destiny were confirmed to be a lesbian couple.


Miss-AmericaMiss America

Real name: America Chavez
Comic: Young Avengers

Miss America story starts when her mothers sacrifice their lives to save their home planet, Utopia, forcing her leave home to fight injustice in more crime-ridden dimensions. She teams up with other superheroes including Loki, Hulkling, and Wiccan. In Young Avengers #12 she flippantly mentions that she is a lesbian.


Scandal-SavageScandal Savage

Real name: Scandal Savage
Comic: Secret Six

One of the most bad ass characters around, Scandal is the daughter of immortal caveman Vandal Savage. She was dating Knockout at the time of the other’s death, and is currently involved with Liana Kerzner. She has a healing factor, and wields her Lamentation Blades with deadly skill.


BatwomanBatwoman

Real name: Kate Kane
Comic: Batwoman 52

Easily the most prominent lesbian character in superhero comics, Kate’s backstory is tragic and includes the loss of both her mother and twin sister at the hands of a terrorist organisation. As an adult, she joins the Marines to please her father, but is eventually outed as a lesbian and is dishonorably discharged. Upon her return to Gotham as a socialite, she parties and binge drinks every night until an encounter with Batman incites her to begin fighting crime.


Renee-MontoyaRenee Montoya

Real name: Renee Montoya
Comic: Batwoman 52

One time girlfriend to Batwomen, and former Gotham City police officer, Renee picked up the legacy of her friend Vic Sage after he passed away from lung cancer, becoming the second Question. As her desire to fight the good fight intensifies, she reconnects romantically with Kane. Unfortunately, in recent iterations of Batwoman, Montoya is no longer a superhero and simply a member of the police force. Although her big relaionship was with Batwoman, she has also had a long term relationship with Darla Hernandez. Currently she has the co-feature/back-up in DC’s flagship title, Detective Comics.


Maggie-SawyerMaggie Sawyer

Real name: Maggie Sawyer
Comic: Batwoman 52

Created back in the 1980s when the comic code prohibition against lesbian comic characters was in effect, Maggie was as ‘out’ as one could possibly be, even getting a girlfriend named Toby Raynes. Originally created as a supporting character for Superman, Maggie was later shifted over to the Batman universe, first as a cast member in Gotham Central and more recently as a potential love interest for Batwoman in Detective Comics.


Ramona-FlowersRamona Flowers

Real name: Ramona Flowers
Comic: Scott Pilgrim

Ramona Flowers is a subspace-traveling, mallet-weilding, endlessly desirable bisexual woman. How else would someone end up with seven evil exes? She’s guarded and maybe a bit cold, but she isn’t particularly interested in how most people feel about her. However, when she’s jealous or upset her head glows.


GwendolynGwendolyn

Real name: Gwendolyn
Comic: Saga

Gwendolyn is the most enigmatic characters in new Saga series. Her story, well Gwendolyn is on the hunt for her ex-fiancé, Marko. She doesn’t want him back, but he stole a family heirloom from her, a set of rings that allow languages to be translated between two speakers. After becoming infected with Heroine (a parasite that alters brain chemistry), Gwendolyn sees a naked mirage of the first woman she ever slept with, Velour.

‘My Old Flame’ by Alison Bechdel

Alison Bechdel is a cartoonist, best known for the long-running comic strip ‘Dykes to Watch Out For’.

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”.

Over the years Bechdel’s comic strip involved into multi-paneled strips introducing a regular cast of lesbian characters – Mo and her friends, and a serialised storyline. ‘Dykes to Watch Out’ For was the origin of the “Bechdel test,” which has become a frequently used metric in cultural discussion of film.

Since Dykes to Watch Out For, Bechdel has produce other graphic memoirs, ‘Fun Home’ and ‘Are You My Mother?’. The focus of ‘Are You My Mother?’ was Bechdel relationship with her mother, and ‘Fun Home’ chronicles the her childhood in rural Pennsylvania, United States, focusing on her complex relationship with her father.

Bechdel is featuring in the The New Yorker, and their love-stories-themed Summer Fiction Issue.

This new comic – ‘My Old Flame’, has Bechdel reflecting on an old flame. Bechdel came out as a lesbian at age 19 and her sexual identity are a large part of the core message of her work.

“The secret subversive goal of my work is to show that women, not just lesbians, are regular human beings.”

Alison Bechdel

Alison Bechdel 01 Alison Bechdel 02