Among the 12 titles that will compete for the Medici prize for foreign novels is the graphic novel by this cult author.

It's unprecedented, and a form of consecration for comics as a whole.

After twenty years spent developing a lucid work on her family and on the lesbian community, Alison Bechdel has become a world star of the 9th art.

"The Secret of Superhuman Strength" (Denoël Graphic) humorously addresses her special relationship with sport, an obsession that has pursued her throughout her life.

"I feel constrained, it forces me to practice against something," she told AFP during her visit to Paris.

"It must be my masochistic side," she laughs.

"But I like it. It's my way of resting," she adds.

It had been nine years since Bechdel had set foot in France.

However, his popularity has never ceased to grow there.

Nearly 600 people gathered at the beginning of September in a Parisian cinema for the presentation of its new title.

father's secret

Alison Bechdel works slowly from a script.

"I would like it to be more balanced between the text and the drawing. But the words come first. And once I have written them, the drawing comes," she explains.

It took him eight years to complete The Secret of Superhuman Strength, his first full-color work.

"I spent a lot of time just writing and being very busy in my life. My mother died, +Fun Home+ was adapted into a Broadway musical..."

The self-mockery in this volume on physical exercise is an excuse to take a look back at his life, his loves and his family demons.

#photo1

"I was born in an extremely decorated house and we had to be very careful of the objects around us. I could not arrange my room as I wanted. It was my father who had arranged it like a museum", says - she.

This father, Bruce, was a teacher and managed the funeral in his village in Pennsylvania (USA), a family legacy.

He married and had three children, while at the same time maintaining secret liaisons with other men, until being threatened with prison after approaching a minor.

When his wife asks for a divorce, he dies in an accident which, for his daughter, looks like suicide.

“As I see him today, he is someone who was born at the wrong time,” explains Alison Bechdel.

One of the ways to rebel against this family atmosphere was to do sport obsessively: running, mountaineering, yoga, cycling...

Designer, lesbian or not

Where his father did not have the courage to come out, Bechdel put his pen and his popularity at the service of the LGBT community and the women's cause.

For example, she created the Bechdel Test, a simple way to assess whether a film is feminist.

"When I was young and starting out, it was important for me to be seen as a lesbian designer. Now, as I get older, I realize that limits me. It's a trap . I would like to be recognized as a simple cartoonist," she says with a smile.

In sport, the debate around sexual orientation and transgender people has taken a very controversial turn.

Some teens who come out as transgender can compete with girls their own age.

This opening has been widely criticized, not only by the sportswomen affected, but also by certain feminists.

"I don't know what to think about it. I'm torn," admits the author.

"You should have the right to express your gender in any way you want. But on the other hand, it seems that there are inequalities."

© 2022 AFP