Second frame of third section: (“New Year’s Eve, 2004”, from Monsters by Gabby Schulz [Ken Dahl]):

I picked this up when I was in Portland in 2016, and somehow forgot to log it in my system, but realised that it was still on my shelves, years after I had read all the other books I got in 2016. I should not have left it so long; it’s a great collection of work by a very diverse group of creators, and literally the only piece I had read before was an extract from Joe Sacco’s Footnotes in Gaza, which was my book of the year last year.

There is a lot of very strong work here, starting with Bechdel’s editorial introduction, about her own relationship with comics over the years and her criteria for choosing. The very first piece, “Manifestation” by Gabrielle Bell (a new name for me) is a hilarious and pointed account of her research into the political thought of Valerie Solanas (best remembered, alas, for her attempt to murder Andy Warhol). Joe Sacco’s piece is also very strong. There’s an interesting format-breaking story, “Soixante-Neuf”, about Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin by David Lasky and Mairead Case. Lasky is back for the single-page “The Ultimate Graphic Novel (in Six Panels”, which closes the book. I must also mention Jeff Smith’s “The Mad Scientist”, about Nikola Tesla, and Paul Pope’s “1977” about encountering David Bowie in the early days. But really, it’s all pretty good stuff, and the above named are excellent. Glad I finally got around to it. You can get The Best American Comics 2011 here.

Second frame of third chapter:

This jumped off the shelf at me when I saw it in a London bookshop last month. Alison Bechdel, who we have met in three previous books, is now running a sanctuary for abandoned goats in rural Vermont, while her partner Holly is becoming an internet influencer thanks to her use of power tools for carpentry. Meanwhile Alison’s successful first memoir, Death and Taxidermy, has become a hit TV series starring Benedict Cumberbatch as her father, but veering further and further from Alison’s own lived experience. Her old friends live down the road and are going through their own emotional transformations – there’s a fair bit of over-sixties sex in this book – and incidentally the world is going to hell, with Trumpists threatening civil war, climate catastrophe looming, and incidentally Alison’s MAGA sister writing her own autobiography to set the story straight.

I loved this, and laughed out loud several times on the London Underground and the train while reading it, much to the dismay of fellow passengers. The funniest scene perhaps is when the goats… no, I won’t spoil it for you. There are some serious points as well, both about the state of the world and the limited effect that one individual can have (which doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try), and also about Life as Art and Art as Life. Recommended. You can get Spent here.