Way too academic for me. I guess I just like reading graphic novels a lot more than I like reading about them. ( )

I found this book on NetGalley, and I immediately requested it. I've been on a feminist comics kick lately. I've been reading all the feminist comics I can track down, and I've devoured the few examinations of this genre that I could find.

Graphic Women discusses the works of five female cartoonists: Aline Kominsky-Crumb, Phoebe Gloeckner, Lynda Barry, Marjane Satrapi, and Alison Bechdel. Before reading this book, I'd read works by Marjane Satrapi and Alison Bechdel. I was vaguely familiar with Lynda Barry, and completely unfamiliar with Aline Kominsky-Crumb and Phoebe Gloeckner.

The book opened with a brief history of the underground comics movement. This section was primarily about the men who were prominent within the movement, but it gave a context for the women the book examines.

The first chapter focused on Aline Kominsky-Crumb, wife of R. Crumb. The chapter provided a summary of her work with a number of excerpts, so I was able to follow the argument even though I'd never read anything by her. I thought I would come out of the chapter with a list of books to read, but the opposite happened. This chapter convinced me to never read anything by Kominsky-Crumb. Nonetheless, the information was useful. A number of other female cartoonists reference Kominsky-Crumb as an influence, and now I am able to see that in their work.

I'd also never heard of Phoebe Gloeckner. The chapter about her work hooked me on this book. Chute examined how Gloeckner's art supported her disturbing quasi-autobiographies. The disturbing nature of Gloecker's story is emphasized by art that is realistic, and both alluring and intensely disturbing. This chapter examines the interplay between fiction and memoir, and how that interplay can be used to effectively tell womens' stories.

I have a passing familiarity with Lynda Barry, so I was able to follow her chapter more than the first two. I really enjoyed the discussion of the materials Barry uses in her mixed media pieces, and how those relate to the stories she tells. Lynda Barry's chapter suffered from the lack of color more than the others.

I am more familiar with Marjane Satrapi's work than any of the other cartoonists covered in this book. This chapter focused on the narrative of women as witnesses to history. Unlike the others, Persepolis is more than a personal narrative- it is the narrative of a country. Graphic Women examines how Satrapi blends personal and political histories.

The chapter is about Alison Bechdel, who has been a figure in underground comics for decades. She gained some prominence with her comic Dykes to Watch Out For. (Which, these days, is most often referenced when discussing the "Bechdel Test.") Her more recent work, Fun Home, has made waves outside the tradition comics readership. Graphic Women examines the ways in which she, like Lynda Barry, integrates items from her past into the graphical landscape of her narrative.

Ultimately, Graphic Women is an examination of a particular genre of graphic novel- autobiographical comics penned by women. It studies how the art supports the narrative differently than prose would. It also traces the evolution of this genre from the underground work of artists like Aline Kominsky-Crumb to the internationally recognized works of Marjane Satrapi and Alison Bechdel. I'd recommend Graphic Women to anyone interested in the history of comics in general, or especially in feminist or underground comics. ( )