logo
Alison Bechdel makes a welcome return to fiction in ‘Spent'

Alison Bechdel makes a welcome return to fiction in ‘Spent'

Washington Post20-05-2025
No artistic border is more poorly defended or muzzily mapped than the wavy line that separates self-consciousness from self-parody. Too many of the greats stumble unintentionally across the divide, and when they do they rarely return. The wisest artists are those who make the journey with eyes open and head held high. How else would we know when they're winking?
Witness Alison Bechdel in her charmingly shaggy new graphic novel, 'Spent,' her first proper work of fiction since she ended the 25-year run of her beloved comic strip 'Dykes to Watch Out For' in 2008. Here she is once again her main character, as she was in her graphic memoir 'Fun Home,' but the fictional Alison is the creator of a series called 'Lesbian PETA Members to Watch Out For.' Like the real Bechdel, this one lives in Vermont and is married to a woman named Holly (based on the artist Holly Rae Taylor, who is responsible for the vibrant colors of 'Spent'), but her friends are almost all fictional characters drawn from the cast of 'Dykes.' They're older now than they were when Bechdel last checked in on them, but they remain recognizably themselves as they aspire to thrive in the interregnum years of the covid-19 pandemic and the Biden presidency.
Bechdel's return to fiction — even in an autobiographical key — is welcome, not least of all because graphic memoir yielded increasingly diminishing returns for her. 'Are You My Mother?,' her follow up to 'Fun Home,' was a denser book in every way — intellectually, narratively, formally — than its predecessor. Cluttered with lengthy quotations from British psychoanalytic theory across pages sometimes overcrowded with panels, it resembled an endless footnote appended to an already abstruse tome. 'The Secret to Superhuman Strength,' in which Bechdel retold her life story by discussing the kinds of physical exercise she did in different decades — call it a bildungsmuscleroman — aimed for a lighter tone but still overloaded the bar with plates. Both books are really about Bechdel's attempts to follow up 'Fun Home,' which lends them an exhaustingly self-referential tone.
'Spent' satirizes that impulse from the start. The fictional Alison is the author of 'Death and Taxidermy,' a memoir that reimagines the real Bechdel's schoolteacher father as a rogue taxidermist. (An excerpt from the book within the book demonstrates that it looks an awful lot like 'Fun Home,' though its themes are much sillier.) As 'Spent' begins in 2022, an acclaimed television series adapted from 'Death and Taxidermy' is increasingly going off the rails — its own version of the protagonist has just eaten a burger, to the vegetarian Alison's horror. Seeking to reassert herself, Alison is struggling to write her follow-up, '$um: An Accounting,' a book that will, she modestly hopes, 'put the final nail in the coffin of late-stage capitalism.' One problem: She's not entirely sure what 'late-stage capitalism' actually is.
Alison's creative frustrations are less the spine of 'Spent' than one recurring gag spilling out of a horn of plenty. With its cast of familiar, aging lesbians, 'Spent' sometimes reads as if Bechdel had relaunched 'Dykes to Watch Out For' in AARP: The Magazine, its story ambling peripatetically between characters and situations. The results are often wry and sometimes raunchy. In one plot strand, a married, barely heterosexual couple from 'Dykes' cautiously opens their relationship to another woman. As things heat up ('Spent' is refreshingly graphic about postmenopausal sex), they settle on the term 'throuple' to describe their arrangement, on the grounds that 'polycule' sounds 'like a skin disorder.' Alison, meanwhile, has to push down jealousy after Holly, who becomes an internet celebrity when a video of her chopping wood goes viral, starts flirting with the alluring veterinarian who keeps stopping by.
As Bechdel knows well, queer enclaves in liberal college towns are all alike in their insistence on difference, and she skewers those routine eccentricities as lovingly as ever. When almost all the characters gather for an 'anti-colonial Thanksgiving,' one is delighted to find that the old electric carving knife still works. 'Is that really necessary for Tofurky?' another asks. Alison and Holly are perpetually preoccupied with their finances, but they still spend on groceries with comedic profligacy, partly because they can't imagine going anywhere other than the organic co-op, where three bags of provisions run them $480.
Despite its self-reflexive conceits, 'Spent' largely eschews the smirking pomp of metafiction. Yes, the fictional Alison is friends with the real Bechdel's characters, but no one ever comments on that fact — she seems to have simply slid into the place that Mo, her longtime alter ego, occupied in 'Dykes.' Lois, Ginger, Sparrow and the rest are here instead, one senses, as stand-ins for Bechdel's real friends, and the veneer of fiction gives Bechdel that much more permission to go broad as she takes aim at the proclivities of lefty Vermonters, herself included, who long to reclaim their old activist passions but can't quite escape the comforts of Burlington and its environs. Alison's artist's block, similarly, seems to have less to do with Bechdel's own attempts to repeat the triumph of 'Fun Home' than it does with — to put it both earnestly and hyperbolically — the struggle to do anything worthwhile in a dying world.
Despite that, Bechdel's visual style is freer and lighter than it has been in years. Panels flow fluidly into one another and occasional splash pages vividly capture the communal tempo of Vermont life at cookouts and farmers markets. Her characters are crisply rendered, but her linework has a slightly wavy quality that imbues her drawings with the improvisatory tone of life as it is lived rather than plot as it is planned.
Not much happens, but you don't need it to: The real pleasure of 'Spent' derives from watching its characters go about their lives, and imagining that Bechdel might continue their stories for the rest of her career. To the extent that there is an organizing story here, it is a book about people who need to get over themselves so that they can better look after one another. Holly slips into egomania as she watches her view counts on social media rise and fall, formerly revolutionary parents grapple with the radicalism of the next generation, Alison tries to respect her MAGA-minded sister.
Ultimately, the very thing that threatens to grate in 'Spent' — the self-involvement of its characters, Alison in particular — is what makes the book so rewarding. In teasing herself and her friends, Bechdel finds a new way to have fun with both. That attitude, in turn, opens up forms of sweet-minded sincerity, and 'Spent' shines most in fleeting moments when its characters tenderly push one another, often with simple acts of care, to overcome their obsessive impasses and paralyzing dreads. We may not, Bechdel suggests, be able to help ourselves any more than we can save the world, but we can always look after those we love.
Jacob Brogan is an editor with Book World.
A Comic Novel
By Alison Bechdel
Mariner. 257 pp. $32
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

‘Together' Director Explains How that Wild Final Shot Was Made (Without AI)
‘Together' Director Explains How that Wild Final Shot Was Made (Without AI)

Gizmodo

time05-08-2025

  • Gizmodo

‘Together' Director Explains How that Wild Final Shot Was Made (Without AI)

Ever since its debut at Sundance earlier this year, fans of horror have had Michael Shanks' new film, Together, on their radars. Neon picked it up out of the festival and, after some really creepy trailers and marketing, opened it in theaters last weekend with solid results. It's a provocative, surprising, and incredibly disgusting movie with an ending viewers will not soon forget. An ending that was achieved through traditional methods of visual effects and without a hint of per that spoiler warning above, we're about to explain what happens at the end of Together, so if you haven't seen it and want to, we urge you to look away right now. In the film Tim and Millie (Dave Franco and Alison Brie) get infected by this unexplained force that wants their bodies to become one. The how and why behind it is pretty weird, mysterious, and fun, but eventually, the couple realize the only way to defeat this force is to give in to it. And so we watch as their bodies combine from two into one, and, in the film's final shot, a completely new person, the amalgamation of both of them, opens the door to Millie's visiting parents. Speaking on Indiewire's Filmmaker Toolkit Podcast, Shanks explained that both the blending of the bodies and the new character were achieved without the use of AI. 'The amount of screenings I've gone to now, and people come up to me and say, 'Was that AI at the end?' It's just so crazy that people assume AI is now the cause. We've used absolutely none of it on this film,' Shanks said. 'As a VFX guy, as somebody that's worked with all these teams that put in so much work, it's so frustrating now that people look at something that looks interesting or good, and they [assume] just a computer made it. It's like, 'No, no, no, no, no.'' Instead, the 'Tillie' character was created using makeup and visual effects compositing by Genevieve Camilleri. 'In pre-production, Gen just went up and took photos of Dave and Alison and then in Nuke, she made a bunch of variations on which elements to take from which of their faces to figure out what is essential to seeing both of them in that final image,' Shanks said. Then, on the day, the director shot the scene with both actors. 'After we shot the scene with Alison, we moved in Dave, with a bunch of dots on his face,' he continued. 'Gen has taken his jaw and his lips and stuck that onto the bottom [of the face]. It's really a combination of makeup and, you wouldn't call it CGI, because nothing's computer-generated, but it's compositing.' Stepping back a bit from the specifics of Together, it's wild that Shanks has to defend that his film didn't use generative AI. If it had come out even just 3-4 years ago, it would not have even been a thought. We all would've just assumed it was one of them dressing up as the other or visual effects. Ultimately, it's kind of both. But the whole conversation changed when we began living in a world where you can put 'Dave Franco and Alison Brie as one person' into a program and get something back in seconds. Basically, props to Shanks for doing something right, working hard at it, and making something memorable. And boo to the world for making us forget that the real magic of filmmaking comes from the human touch. Together is now in theaters. Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what's next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.

'Together' is sexy & hilarious — it's also, accidentally, the queerest horror film of the year
'Together' is sexy & hilarious — it's also, accidentally, the queerest horror film of the year

Yahoo

time31-07-2025

  • Yahoo

'Together' is sexy & hilarious — it's also, accidentally, the queerest horror film of the year

Together might not have started out as an interrogation of gender, but it accidentally became the queerest horror film of the year anyway. It also happens to be one of the year's best, too The film, which comes from first-time feature director Michael Shanks and stars Alison Brie and Dave Franco (who also produced the movie), introduces audiences to Tim and Millie (Franco and Brie, respectively), an outwardly happy, middle-class, unmarried couple on the eve of a big milestone in their relationship. Millie, a teacher, has taken a new job outside the city, and Tim has agreed to come along, potentially leaving behind his dreams of rock stardom. Tim is also wracked with grief over the loss of his father, which has taken a toll on their intimacy — something Millie is willing to look past, but that secretly gnaws at her. In other words, just beneath the surface of this relationship simmers a stew of resentment and insecurity. The question at the heart of the film is whether they really want to commit to a lifetime together — flaws and all — or if they should, wait for it, no longer be together . Germain McMicking/Neon Moving away from their friends and Tim's gigs only puts more pressure on the fault lines of their already fractured connection. To reconnect, they go for a hike, only to stumble — quite literally — into an underground chamber where something they encounter sets off a chain reaction. What follows is a feverishly toxic bond that only grows more intense... especially when their very flesh seems to want to fuse — once again — together. It's a concept born from Shanks' own romantic history. Like his principal characters, he and his partner have been together since they were quite young, and the film reflects his own anxieties around commitment, toxic enmeshment, and loss of identity. 'It's about how crazy it is in any relationship to kind of fully commit to somebody, to share a life with somebody,' he tells PRIDE. 'It's a weird and scary kind of thing to do.' Ben King/Neon Michael Shanks directs Alison Brie and Dave Franco in 'Together' It's a dynamic that anyone, regardless of sexuality or gender, can relate to — but how it's expressed in the film is where things take a surprising left turn into a post-gender world. It's challenging to discuss without revealing the film's many twists and turns. But without venturing too far into the weeds, the film presents a mythology that renders gender obsolete and even a symptom of something fundamentally broken in humanity. It also features a pivotal queer character who serves as both witness and confidant to Millie and Tim as their life transition becomes more of a — shall we say — transformation. Brie is proud of the way the character's presence is treated casually, and she emphasizes the importance of that approach. 'You don't always have to be making a commentary on it — really, just reflecting the way the world is, where we have all types of couples,' she tells PRIDE. Germain McMicking/Neon Although the film takes a darker view on the subject, in Together, love really is love. As a result, couples of all varieties will see their anxieties and emotions reflected in the story — even Brie and Franco, who are married to one another and creative partners together, found themselves reflecting on their own dynamics while making the film. 'We had a lot of discussions about the differences between toxic codependency and maybe sort of like mild codependency,' says Brie. 'I think we came to realize that we have some codependent tendencies in our relationship, but because of our jobs, we actually end up spending a lot of time apart, so we're able to cultivate really good independence and social circles away from each other. Then, when we come back and work together, it feels really nice.' 'It's healthy to kind of miss each other from afar every once in a while,' adds Franco to PRIDE. 'We don't really have many boundaries, and it might kind of become the toxic version of codependency,' he jokes. Although the film is doubtlessly body horror, it's a rare entry in the subgenre that offers some lightness. Part of that comes from the sharp comedic edge of its cast — and it makes great use of more, shall we say, visceral moments for some shockingly funny sight gags. 'We were debating the other day if this is the first feel-good body horror movie. You do kind of walk away wanting to, like, dance and move your body and you're feeling good,' says Franco. Although he also admits with a laugh, 'We've also heard from single people who've seen the movie who have said, 'This is a strong argument for staying single.'' Germain McMicking/Neon Regardless of where audiences fall on that spectrum, they will undoubtedly also be presented with some fascinating questions about gender, what a post-gender world would look like, and if we're better off without it all. Intentionally or not, the film presents those fascinating questions and leaves you with plenty more to chew on — which is the sign of a great horror film. Together is the most romantic, queerest, and funniest body horror film in recent memory. Brie and Franco are perfectly cast, and their real-life chemistry shines through. It's a rom-com for sickos and queer folks — and that's the highest compliment I can give a film. Together is out now in theaters. Check out the trailer below. Years into their relationship, Tim and Millie (Dave Franco and Alison Brie) find themselves at a crossroads as they move to the ... - YouTube This article originally appeared on Pride: 'Together' is sexy & hilarious — it's also, accidentally, the queerest horror film of the year

"You May Get Wet": Dave Franco And Alison Brie Talked Threesomes, Foursomes, And Graphic Sexual Fantasies While Reading Some Thirst Tweets
"You May Get Wet": Dave Franco And Alison Brie Talked Threesomes, Foursomes, And Graphic Sexual Fantasies While Reading Some Thirst Tweets

Yahoo

time30-07-2025

  • Yahoo

"You May Get Wet": Dave Franco And Alison Brie Talked Threesomes, Foursomes, And Graphic Sexual Fantasies While Reading Some Thirst Tweets

In 2023, Alison Brie and Dave Franco joined us to read some thirst tweets. And let's just say, it was iconic. Now, to celebrate the release of their new movie, Together, they're back for more. Related: OK, if you've watched Part 1, you'll know Dave and Alison are pros at this whole thirst tweets thing. So, for their second time around, we wanted to take things to a whole new level. They discussed the complications of inviting a third — and a fourth — into the bedroom. Related: They did some hands-on research to get to the bottom of what Alison's spit tastes like. (A very commonly asked question, it would seem.) There were even some 21 Jump Street and Mad Men throwbacks in the mix. Related: And then there was whatever this was… The vid is funny, dirty, and educational, too, as they finally discover the true meaning of 'bussy.' Related: Interested? You can watch the whole thing here. Thank me later. Together is in theaters now! Also in Celebrity: Also in Celebrity: Also in Celebrity:

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store