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Amazingness
May. 7th, 2012 11:06 amYesterday midday, we were sitting at home when Chris announced "Alison Bechdel will be at Left Bank Books today at 4." How'd he find out? Star Clipper's Facebook page, of all places.
We immediately reshuffled our afternoon and evening plans, because our Rosa has been a fan of Dykes to Watch Out For for years. I think she first started reading them when she was eight or nine. We had all been planning to go help with dog adoption day for Diana's Grove, but after a hard morning of yard work I was feeling pretty peaky, and Chris is still a bit tired from his recent adventure with the healthcare system, not to mention having caught something like my bronchitis, so Tammie went off to Chesterfield to do doggie assistance, Chris stayed home with the interminable laundry, and Rosa and I headed downtown.
We arrived a bit early, to be sure to get good seats. I had brought our copy of Fun Home and we bought the new book Are You My Mother?, then went to sit down. By the time the event started, there was a goodly crowd, about 80% female. People grabbed the kidsize chairs from the children's book section nearby, and when those ran out they sat on the staircase or stood at the back. Rosa was the youngest actual fan present, by about eight years at my best guess.
Ms Bechdel talked for a few minutes about the new book and what its themes and narrative strands consist of, and then read us two selections from the first and second chapters. I'd not been to a reading of a graphic novel before, but it worked quite well. They had a projector set up, linked to her laptop, and she projected the art while reading the interleaved text. Her style has a few lines of narrative between pictures, so while we looked at the pictures for any dialog, she read the narrative.
Then there were a few questions and an opportunity to have our books signed. I sent Rosa to the counter to buy one of the DTWOF books that we were missing, while I waited in line. Then I had each book signed to a different person: DTWOF to Rosa, Fun Home to me, and Are You My Mother? to Tammie. And I got a picture of Rosa and Alison Bechdel. Rosa told her "...amazingness, as my friend Breanna would say..." and AB thought it was a great word. She was repeating it as we moved away for the next person's turn.
We immediately reshuffled our afternoon and evening plans, because our Rosa has been a fan of Dykes to Watch Out For for years. I think she first started reading them when she was eight or nine. We had all been planning to go help with dog adoption day for Diana's Grove, but after a hard morning of yard work I was feeling pretty peaky, and Chris is still a bit tired from his recent adventure with the healthcare system, not to mention having caught something like my bronchitis, so Tammie went off to Chesterfield to do doggie assistance, Chris stayed home with the interminable laundry, and Rosa and I headed downtown.
We arrived a bit early, to be sure to get good seats. I had brought our copy of Fun Home and we bought the new book Are You My Mother?, then went to sit down. By the time the event started, there was a goodly crowd, about 80% female. People grabbed the kidsize chairs from the children's book section nearby, and when those ran out they sat on the staircase or stood at the back. Rosa was the youngest actual fan present, by about eight years at my best guess.
Ms Bechdel talked for a few minutes about the new book and what its themes and narrative strands consist of, and then read us two selections from the first and second chapters. I'd not been to a reading of a graphic novel before, but it worked quite well. They had a projector set up, linked to her laptop, and she projected the art while reading the interleaved text. Her style has a few lines of narrative between pictures, so while we looked at the pictures for any dialog, she read the narrative.
Then there were a few questions and an opportunity to have our books signed. I sent Rosa to the counter to buy one of the DTWOF books that we were missing, while I waited in line. Then I had each book signed to a different person: DTWOF to Rosa, Fun Home to me, and Are You My Mother? to Tammie. And I got a picture of Rosa and Alison Bechdel. Rosa told her "...amazingness, as my friend Breanna would say..." and AB thought it was a great word. She was repeating it as we moved away for the next person's turn.
