Editing Alison Bechdel (section)

== Career ==
[[File:Alison Bechdel in London.jpg|thumb|right|Bechdel at a London signing for ''[[Fun Home]]'' in 2006]]
Bechdel moved to [[Manhattan]] during the summer of 1981 and applied to several [[art school]]s, but was rejected and worked in many office jobs in the [[publishing]] industry.<ref name=SSC-MS-00633>{{cite web|url=https://findingaids.smith.edu/repositories/2/resources/992|title=Collection: Alison Bechdel papers|website= Smith College Finding Aids|access-date=May 15, 2020}}</ref>

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".<ref>{{cite book|title=The Indelible Alison Bechdel: Confessions, Comix, and Miscellaneous Dykes to Watch Out For|publisher=[[Firebrand Books]]|year=1998|isbn=978-1-56341-097-0}}</ref> An acquaintance recommended she send her work to ''[[WomaNews]]'', a feminist newspaper, which published her first work in its June 1983 issue.<ref name=SSC-MS-00633 /> Bechdel gradually moved from her early single-panel drawings to multi-paneled strips.<ref name=Queries>{{cite web|url=http://dykestowatchoutfor.com/frivolous-aimless-queries|title=Frivolous, Aimless Queries|publisher=[[Dykes to Watch Out For]]|last=Bechdel|first=Alison|access-date=February 22, 2012}}</ref> ''Dykes to Watch Out For'' began this process, developing into a series of posters and postcards, allowing for people to have a look into the urban lesbian community.<ref name=Bio97 /> After a year, other outlets began running the strip.

In the first years, ''Dykes to Watch Out For'' consisted of unconnected strips without a regular cast or serialized storyline. However, its structure eventually evolved into a focus on following a set group of [[lesbian]] characters. In 1986, Firebrand Books published a collection of the strips to date.<ref name=Queries /> In 1987, Bechdel introduced her regular characters, Mo and her friends, while living in [[St. Paul, Minnesota]]. ''Dykes to Watch Out For'' is the origin of the "[[Bechdel test]]", intended as a joke,<ref>{{cite news| last=Anderson | first=Hephzibah | title=Alison Bechdel: 'The Bechdel test was a joke... I didn't intend for it to become a real gauge' |newspaper=The Guardian | date=2 July 2023 | url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/jul/02/alison-bechdel-test-dykes-to-watch-out-for-cartoonist-interview}}</ref> which has become a frequently used metric in cultural discussion of film. In 1988, she began a short-lived page-length strip about the staff of a queer newspaper, titled "Servants to the Cause", for ''[[The Advocate (LGBT magazine)|The Advocate]]''. Bechdel has also written and drawn [[autobiography|autobiographical]] strips and has done illustrations for magazines and websites. The success of ''Dykes to Watch Out For'' allowed Bechdel to quit her day job in 1990 to work on the strip full-time.<ref name=SSC-MS-00633 />

In November 2006, Bechdel was invited to sit on the Usage Panel of the [[American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language|''American Heritage Dictionary'']].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://dykestowatchoutfor.com/dictionary|title=Dictionary|publisher=Dykes to Watch Out For|date=November 30, 2006}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Robertson |first=Mike |date=2013-10-22 |title=College to Host Award-Winning Cartoonist and Author Alison Bechdel |url=https://today.cofc.edu/2013/10/22/college-to-host-award-winning-cartoonist-and-author-alison-bechdel/ |access-date=2023-01-10 |website=The College Today |language=en-US}}</ref> In 2012, Bechdel was a Mellon Residential Fellow for Arts and Practice at the Richard and Mary L. Gray Center at the [[University of Chicago]] and co-taught "Lines of Transmission: Comics & Autobiography" with Professor [[Hillary Chute]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://graycenter.uchicago.edu/people/alison-bechdel|title=Alison Bechdel|website=Richard and Mary L. Gray Center for Arts and Inquiry – The University of Chicago|access-date=May 15, 2020}}</ref> On April 6, 2017, Bechdel was appointed as Vermont's third Cartoonist Laureate.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/story/entertainment/2017/03/28/alison-bechdel-vermont-cartoonist-laureate/99737676/|title=Alison Bechdel named Vermont Cartoonist Laureate|newspaper=Burlington Free Press|date=March 28, 2016|last=Hallenbeck|first=Brent|access-date=April 4, 2018}}</ref>

In 2014, she posted a comic strip based on her ''Fun Home! The Musical!''<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.sevendaysvt.com/vermont/fun-home-the-musical/Content?oid=2393463|title=Fun Home! The Musical!|newspaper=[[Seven Days (newspaper)|Seven Days]]|last=Bechdel|first=Alison|access-date=December 3, 2018}}</ref> After [[Donald Trump]]'s election as U.S. president she posted three new episodes of ''Dykes to Watch Out For'': "Pièce de Résistance,"<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.sevendaysvt.com/vermont/dykes-to-watch-out-for-piece-de-resistance/Content?oid=3841356|title=Dykes to Watch Out For: Pièce de Résistance|newspaper=Seven Days|date=November 23, 2016|last=Bechdel|first=Alison|access-date=December 3, 2018}}</ref> "Postcards From the Edge,"<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.sevendaysvt.com/vermont/new-dykes-to-watch-out-for-tackles-the-ides-of-trump/Content?oid=4598939|title=New 'Dykes to Watch Out For' Tackles the Ides of Trump|newspaper=Seven Days|date=March 14, 2017|last=Bechdel|first=Alison|access-date=December 3, 2018}}</ref> and "Things Fall Apart."<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.sevendaysvt.com/vermont/dykes-ponders-how-to-unify-a-divided-country/Content?oid=6581946|title='Dykes to Watch Out For' Ponders How to Unify a Divided Country|newspaper=Seven Days|date=July 5, 2017|last=Bechdel|first=Alison|access-date=December 3, 2018}}</ref>

Bechdel resides in [[Bolton, Vermont]], and works with the Vermont-based alternative weekly ''[[Seven Days (newspaper)|Seven Days]]''.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Alison Bechdel |url=https://www.sevendaysvt.com/vermont/Author |access-date=2023-01-10 |website=Seven Days |language=en}}</ref>