Forty years of queer comic art by Alison Bechdel in Basel

"I wanted to show the damage that homophobia does to people," said Bechdel at the opening in Basel. Especially in view of the current policy under President Donald Trump, it is uncertain where America is heading in this regard.

Bechdel commented on her best-known comic book "Fun Home" (2006), which also made it to the Broadway stage as a musical. In it, she tells the story of her late father, who hid his bisexuality behind a bourgeois façade. This came to a tragic end.

Born in 1960, Bechdel's works are autobiographical and autofictional. Although she addresses serious topics, she always puts them down on paper with a pinch of humor and self-irony. Literary references also play an important role. While working on "Fun Home", for example, she caught up on reading the books that her father had always recommended to her in order to better understand the life of the deceased, said Bechdel.

The most challenging was the later volume "Are You My Mother?" (2013) was the most challenging because, unlike her father, her mother was able to look over her shoulders, the artist continued.

She does not see herself as an activist or "lesbian separatist", according to a quote from Bechdel on the wall of the Cartoon Museum. It is simply important to her to see an accurate picture of herself and society in a cultural mirror and that is why she decided to create it. The 250 or so original drawings on display in the exhibition provide an insight into this mirror.

"Alison Bechdel. The Essential" can be seen at the Cartoonmuseum Basel from July 5 to October 26, 2025.