Two of my favourite graphic novelists have published new books on the subject of parenting (kind of a big deal in my life, as the mother of a four-year-old). Although the parent/child relationship is the subject of both books, Alison Bechdel and Guy Delisle approach the topic from two very different perspectives.
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The title of
Bechdel's Are You My Mother?: a comic drama (
M) reworks P.D. Eastman's classic children's book by the same name. Applying ideas developed by the 20th-century psychoanalyst
Donald Winnicot (perhaps best known for his concept of the "good enough mother"), Bechdel tries to make sense of her mother's life and their complicated relationship. It's a touching and satisfying follow-up to her last graphic memoir,
Fun Home: A family tragicomic, which focused on Bechdel's relationship with her father.
Guy Delisle may be best known for his g
raphic travelogues, in which he records his unique outsider's perspective of places like Pyongyang (2005), Burma (2008), and Jerusalem (2012). When I noticed that he had published a parenting memoir, I was quick to suggest that the Library purchase a copy.
A User's Guide to Neglectful Parenting (
M) is appalling, shocking, hilarious and entirely too short; a great antidote for any parental guilt you might be carrying. Anything you've done to your kids is unlikely to top Delisle's chainsaw prank!
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Although not new, I would be remiss not to mention another "family" favourite, the comic
Cul-de-Sac (M), by
Richard Thompson.
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