Graphic Nonfiction Coming to Beacon Press

Today's post is from Allison Trzop, an Assistant Editor at Beacon Press.

As someone who grew up a comic book fan—and who grew into graphic books—I'm thrilled to be the acquiring editor of graphic nonfiction for Beacon Press. This is a new field for us as a publishing house, but it's certainly not a new field. Stories told in a book-length graphic format have their own deep history, pieces of which are deftly told in two books I have sitting on my desk: David Beronä's Wordless Books and Douglas Wolk's Reading Comics.

For those at all unfamiliar with, or perhaps unconvinced of, the power this form of storytelling holds, I'd encourage you to begin with Art Spiegelman's Pulitzer Prize-winning Maus or perhaps with Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis, which was an outstanding book before it was an outstanding movie. And if you haven't already read Alison Bechdel's Fun Home, nominated for a National Book Critics Circle Award, you're missing one of the best representatives of its genre, and one of the best books published in the last five years.

Given the number of Alison Bechdel fans at Beacon Press, it's a great privilege to note that Beacon found its first graphic book through her thoughtful recommendation. Our search for someone who could take Beacon's reputation for publishing LGBT-themed books into a new field led us to cartoonist Dylan Edwards, and we asked him to focus on the "T." As he developed a proposal for Beacon, Dylan narrowed the focus of his book to a community of gay transsexual men—their extraordinary individual stories and their linked outward experiences. In his long-running comic strips, "The Outfield" and "Politically InQueerect," as well as in his other work, Dylan excels at representing queer characters, and offering queer takes on current events. Among other publications, his work has appeared in Sojourner: The Women's Forum, The Antioch Record, FTM International, and Transhealth.

As you can see from the sample included here, Dylan will be writing about those whose lives lend themselves so easily to visual representation, but who are incredibly underrepresented in mainstream media, as well as in the LGBT rights movement. In his hallmark style, Dylan will be capturing these lives with a sense of integrity, nuance, and humor. I'm greatly looking forward to working with him, and hope that everyone reading this—longtime fans and newcomers to graphic books alike—will offer their support not only to Dylan's forthcoming book, but to future Beacon acquisitions in this field!

Dylan Edwards was kind enough to share a sample of the book-in-progress, and will contribute future posts on Beacon Broadside about the process of developing the book. (Click on the image to see a it at a higher resolution.)

Comments

[Steve]

I for one will be happy to see the Edwards as soon as it's ready-- the storyboard looks cool.

More on the emerging "canon" of graphic novels here. And yes, Fun Home is on that must-read list!

[Jess]

I'm really looking forward to reading an ftm graphic novel. I read a lot of comics, but the non-fiction arena is really lacking. Maus, Blankets, and Fun Home got great critical acclaim--I can't wait to see how Edwards' book is received. I, personally, will buy it for all my friends.

[Marty]

I can't wait to see this book on the shelves at Million Year Picnic! (That's Boston's foremost graphic novel retailer, for you out-of-towners). This sounds like a fascinating biography of some of our hometown boys.