SECRET TO SUPERHUMAN STRENGTH HC

With her first two graphic meta-memoirs, Bechdel explored the relationships she held with first her father, (Fun Home) and then her mother (Are You My Mother?). Here, in her third book, she turns introspective and examines the relationship she has with herself. 

You could be forgiven for assuming this was a comic about exercise, but as with all her works, the immediate themes and ideas belie the true soul of the book. Bechdel explores the ideas of self-care and transcendance, coming to terms with mortality while dealing with her growing age and the level of fitness she’s always been able to maintain. As always, she’s generous with content and ideas while maintaining her characteristic, nimble style of line work, and this time beautifully water coloured in entirety by her wife, Holly Rae Taylor. 

If you’re a socialist lesbian cartoonist in your late 50s, this book is definitely perfect for you. But the beauty of Bechdel’s work is that anyone, with any level of literacy in the world of comics, can find inspiration, wisdom and joy in all of her works.