Spent: A Comic Novel, a 272-page graphic novel by Alison Bechdel, is released by Mariner Books in the US and Jonathan Cape in the UK in May.
Alison Bechdel is the author of three internationally acclaimed graphic memoirs, Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic, Are You My Mother?: A Comic Drama and The Secret to Superhuman Strength.
Fun Home, which focuses on Bechdel’s family history and relationship with her father, which was shaped by his repressed bisexuality, was a New York Times bestseller, named Book of the Year by Time magazine in 2006. It achieved worldwide success and acclaim, winning an Eisner Award, and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. It was named a Best Book of the 21st Century by The Guardian, was adapted to a broadway musical which won five Tony Awards and is currently being adapted for cinema.
Alison also wrote and drew the comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For for 25 years, a visual chronicle of modern life – queer and otherwise – considered “one of the preeminent oeuvres in the comics genre”. This comic strip also introduced what later became known as the ‘Bechdel test’, a tongue-in-cheek way to assess gender stereotypes in cinema: A film is sexist if it does not feature at least two separate female characters, who talk to each other about something other than men.
Alison Bechdel is guest editor of Best American Comics, 2011, and has drawn comics for Slate, McSweeney’s, Entertainment Weekly, Granta, and The New York Times Book Review. In 2014 she was named as one of the recipients of the MacArthur ‘Genius’ Award.
In Spent: A Comic Novel, from her pygmy goat farm in Vermont, a cartoonist named Alison Bechdel wonders: Can she pull humanity out of its death spiral by writing a scathing memoir about her own greed and privilege?
But how can she just sit around writing a book when the world is hanging on a thread?
In this hilariously skewering comic novel, Alison is existentially pained by a climate-challenged world and a country on the brink of civil war.
Her first graphic memoir about growing up with her taxidermist father has been adapted into a highly successful TV series, Death and Taxidermy. It’s a phenomenon that makes Alison, formerly on the cultural margins, the envy of her friend group.
As the TV show racks up Emmy after Emmy, Alison’s own envy spirals. Surely writing her own wildly popular reality TV series wouldn’t be that hard? One that shows people how to free themselves from consumer capitalism and live a more ethical life?!
In Spent, this talented creator presents a laugh-out-loud and passionately political work of autofiction, and once again proves that “nobody does it better” (New York Times) than the real Alison Bechdel.
You can preorder Spent here from AmazonUK (Affiliate Link), or here from your favourite bookshop via Bookshop.org (Affiliate Link)
The new graphic coincides with a large solo exhibition of Alison’s art at the Cartoonmuseum Basel in Switzerland, running from 4th July 4th to 25th October 2025. Presenting Europe’s first ever major retrospective for Alison, ink drawings from all her works will be on display, complemented by originals from The Secret to Superhuman Strength, a surprisingly colourful self-reflective work about exercise, addiction, the search for meaning and the author’s efforts to slow down the clock of life. Plus, as a special treat for all fans, the exhibition will include pages from Spent.
• Alison Bechdel is online at dykestowatchoutfor.com | Instagram
• You can preorder Spent here from AmazonUK (Affiliate Link), or here from your favourite bookshop via Bookshop.org (Affiliate Link) | ISBN: 978-1787335394
• Alison Bechdel – The Cartoonmuseum Basel Switzerland runs from 4th July until 25th October 2025, Cartoonmuseum Basel, Centre for Narrative ArtSt. Alban-Vorstadt 28 4052 Basel
• Mariner Books | Jonathan Cape
With thanks to Paul Gravett
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John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.
He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.
Categories: Comics, Creating Comics, downthetubes Comics News, downthetubes News, Events, Exhibitions, US Comics
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