happy new year, everyone!

I am going to start my year by reading Issue 31 of my DFC, which arrived a couple days early. Whoo hoo!

Lots of love and snuffly rabbit and sheep kisses in 2009 from Lettuce, Vern and the bunnies.

Edit: I just noticed that Alison Bechdel has a double-page spread in the latest edition of Granta magazine of new writing, on the theme of Fathers. She’s based her submission very much on the material in her recent book, Fun Home, but the strip has a few new things to say, so it’s not just an advert for her book. It’s great to see Granta taking up comics as a form of new writing, I hope they do more!

I’ve seen Bechdel give two talks, and they were so inspiring, partly for what she said and party for the way she used comics to do most of the talking for her. Once was at Bryn Mawr College in, oh, ’95(?), when making comics wasn’t even slightly on the cards (although she may have given me a glimmer of a plan). And the other time was a couple years ago, when I was at art college with Ellen Lindner, and we trundled up to the venue in central London. I think I looked especially threadbare and studenty that night, because the cashier at Prêt-a-Manger looked at me rather pityingly and wouldn’t let me pay for the muffin I had for dinner.