Rocking the Eisners
July 28th, 2007 | Travels and Appearances
Okay, it’s 2:37 in the morning, after the Eisner awards. I’m turning the blog over to Ellen Forney for her report (it’s a little fawning, but I couldn’t dissuade her):
Alison, Joan Hilty and I just had a long discussion by the Marriott pool,
geeking out about social politics and drawing and comics… and Joan and I skinnydipped
and Alison demurred, preferring to protect our bottle of Scotch. The Madonna/Britney kiss went over well! Thank you all for your support - yes, you’re right, I was very happy to have an excuse to give Alison a big kiss
on the lips. 
Here was my intro:
In honor of the largest number of female nominees this year, out of all other years, and in honor of the growing, fabulous prominence of queer comics [here I smiled at Alison], Alison and I are going to give a little nod to… Madonna and Britney Spears…
and then we stepped in front of the podium, I took her face in my hands, and we kissed.
[Joan adds: This is a placeholder photo taken seconds post-kiss, because apparently I can’t capture a historic moment on film for shit even when I’m told exactly when it’s going to happen and exactly how to operate the camera. If you’re really good, we’ll find the moment elsewhere, and update.]
If only I knew, when I was first starting out drawing comics in the early 90’s , that a moment like this would ever come about –
?? I just wouldn’t have believed it, I guess. Apparently, we even inspired Jonathan Ross to kiss Neil Gaiman during their presentation. Ha! Trendsetters!
[Joan adds: Alison won Best Reality-Based Work for Fun Home, and asked the audience: “Is that as opposed to faith-based? I’m proud to be part of the reality-based community.”]
46 Responses to “Rocking the Eisners”
July 28th, 2007 at 7:02 am
I’m the first one here but I can’t think of anything witty to say. It’s Saturday! I like the reality-based line…
July 28th, 2007 at 7:03 am
Oh, and the Mo-like refusal to get naked!
July 28th, 2007 at 7:05 am
I couldn’t sleep, and decided to check the blog, and I’m glad I did! What an awesome night! Congratulations on your award, Alison!You look really happy…
July 28th, 2007 at 8:24 am
wow–that’s wonderful, all of it–the award, the kiss, your smile after it, your partied-too-hard face later (what, your arm needed help holding up that big, heavy award?), cute nekkid girls. go alison–we like reality!
do we now have to start calling you the eisner award-winning reality-based novelist, alison bechdel (EARN, AB for short?)?
really, though, congratulations–it’s well-deserved!
July 28th, 2007 at 9:32 am
i wish i’d had this much fun last night!
July 28th, 2007 at 10:20 am
Glad you didn’t skinnydip…in this age of girls gone wild, it’s refreshing.
July 28th, 2007 at 10:42 am
Yeah! I’m so proud of you that I have tears in my eyes. And largest number of female nominees…that is so great. Female artists are the best! You are the best!! It is so painfully sexist in the art world (and particularly the comics world) and I’m happy that you continue to produce wonderful art for us all.
July 28th, 2007 at 12:51 pm
Whheeeee! I love Ellen Forney AND Joan Hilty (I look just like her main character in “Bitter Girl”, so this is a triple treat. And what I wouldn’t give to have seen someone playing tonsil hockey with Neil Gaiman….
July 28th, 2007 at 12:57 pm
Many congratulations ! Another well-deserved trophy for your ever-growing collection !
You must be part of that mythical organisation called “The Establishment” by now…
July 28th, 2007 at 1:12 pm
I’m such a nerd but is this Jonathan Ross the same Jonathan Ross from the Big Fat Quiz of the Year? Congratulations, Alison!
July 28th, 2007 at 1:31 pm
Woo-hoo! I am so thrilled for you! Congratulations on your utterly deserved award!
(fangirling over in the corner)
July 28th, 2007 at 2:50 pm
Pulitzer is in order, too.
July 28th, 2007 at 5:11 pm
Congratulations! (Not that we doubted that you’d be walking home with an Eisner — the only question was which one.)
It’s slightly unfortunate that the two of you were presenting an award to the illustrators of Fables, a comic book with a lot going for it but marred by its writer’s occasional misogyny. (When two lead characters got married, he had the woman swear to “love, honor and obey”, at which point my wife stopped reading the book.) On the other hand, the art is gorgeous, and at least you didn’t have to present to Bill Willingham.
Ellen Forney seems just as outrageous in person as she does in I Love Led Zeppelin! Count me in among those hoping for an update with photos of The Kiss.
Half a Beaner, yes, Jonathan Ross is the British television host. He and Gaiman have been friends for years — in his early ’90s comic Books of Magic, Gaiman had Zatanna refer to Ross as “that guy who does Letterman in Britain”. Ross’s wife Jane Goldman wrote the screenplay for the film adaptation of Gaiman’s novel Stardust, and Gaiman also wrote both Jonathan and Jane into his short story “The Facts in the Case of the Disappearance of Miss Finch”.
July 28th, 2007 at 5:19 pm
Neil Gaiman actually handed me my Eisner! And as he did so, he told me how much he liked my book. Holy Moses.
July 28th, 2007 at 5:38 pm
Woop! Congrats, AB!!!!
July 28th, 2007 at 5:47 pm
I was downright thrilled to read about your Eisner win. Fun Home positively blew me away both on an intellectual level (I haven’t seen an autobiography with a structure that complex since Delany’s Motion of Light in Water,) and emotionally (My own Father had passed away the previous year; much of the book has a strong connection for me and my own process of memory.)
Congratulations, you’ve earned it.
July 28th, 2007 at 6:20 pm
Neil is cool. He’s got a great blog, as does the Birdchick. What fun you are having, A.
http://www.birdchick.com/blog.html
July 28th, 2007 at 7:04 pm
Like Greg, I was also blown away by Fun Home’s subtlety and intellectuality. Well deserved, congratulations Alison.
July 28th, 2007 at 9:14 pm
You passed up a chance to go skinny-dipping with Ellen Forney?! Silly girl–your modesty made you lose out on some fun. She’s adorable. (I live in Seattle and I’ve seen her in person.) Maybe you should have had some of what they were drinking too, to loosen you up a bit…
Oh–and congratulations– was a well-deserved win.
July 28th, 2007 at 9:32 pm
I’m being really good, now please kiss ellen again. Whether or not someone takes a photo of it to post here. (but, yo, I wouldn’t complain about that)
July 28th, 2007 at 10:01 pm
oh, congrats! I am so happy for you!
July 28th, 2007 at 11:33 pm
Congrats Alison! You look sooooooo happy. Makes me smile looking at the big grin on your face.
July 28th, 2007 at 11:40 pm
Congrats on the award… and the kiss!
July 29th, 2007 at 1:21 am
Congratulations!
July 29th, 2007 at 2:52 am
Congratulations on the award!
July 29th, 2007 at 3:44 am
I know, I know. Ellen Forney is cute as a goddamn button. As is Joan Hilty. It’s pathetic that I didn’t get in the pool with them.
July 29th, 2007 at 3:47 am
Then you could have posted lesbian intellectual cartoonist pron! W00t!
July 29th, 2007 at 7:25 am
Naked chicks and scotch. You’re my hero.
July 29th, 2007 at 8:58 am
Alison, after years of strip creating, to know that you had a chance to actually “strip,” but instead . . .
seriously — Congratulations!
July 29th, 2007 at 10:59 am
Congratulations Alison!
July 29th, 2007 at 11:48 am
Aunt Soozie here…on vacation!!
Thanks for the inspiration! Congratulations and love seeing that glimpse of full out emotion after the kiss!! See Joan, it wasn’t all for naught…you caught an amazing moment…still…like riotllama I wouldn’t mind terribly if someone forwarded me a link to a you tube of the whole scene. Just for the sociological aspect…y’all know how I’m always doing that kind of research…when I’m not doing my research into what kind of undergarments folks enjoy porting.
July 29th, 2007 at 12:23 pm
Congratulations Alison! Your one of my heroes just because you do what you do so well!
I love your jab at the “faith-based” crap! You’ve been keeping it real for years!
July 29th, 2007 at 12:50 pm
Congrats on the Eisner!!!! I can’t wait to tell everyone in the office on Monday (Indiana University GLBT Support Office), we were all pulling for you and we LOVED the book.
July 29th, 2007 at 2:58 pm
Ellen-
Congrats from one of your TSA T.A.’s way back in the day. Rock on.
July 29th, 2007 at 3:10 pm
A simple, dignified…
WOO HOO!
July 29th, 2007 at 6:11 pm
way to go, Alison!
Jaibe, Alison *may* have gone skinny dipping if she’d met Ellen and Joan’s mothers at the award ceremony. where do you think Mo got the “don’t get naked until you see her with her mother”?
as it is, we got that great pic of Ellen . . .
July 29th, 2007 at 7:28 pm
Congratulations! Another well-deserved award. And to get it handed to you, with admiration, from Neil Gaiman! I wouldn’t expect any less from him than to admire the best.
BTW, he has his own tale of the day at his blog. With a link back right here. How cool is that?
July 29th, 2007 at 10:37 pm
nice edit.
July 29th, 2007 at 11:03 pm
Congratulations! Nothing like an Eisner to certify your superhero credentials.
Edit?
July 30th, 2007 at 7:51 am
Congratulations on the Eisner! I’m really thrilled for you.
The picture of Ellen in the pool is making my imagination run wild. I’d do anything to be around while she is skinny-dipping. She’s hot! You’re one lucky woman Alison to have kissed her.
July 30th, 2007 at 4:32 pm
I wish I could have seen the kiss! and the skinny dipping w/Alison of course! Congratulations!!!
July 30th, 2007 at 8:33 pm
Alison - not pathetic. You could sit back with the whiskey and admire. What an amazing trio!
July 31st, 2007 at 10:49 am
Hey, it’s me, from the plane! Congratulations times a million! You won because your book was the best. (I even pushed my mom to include it in her LGBT Young Adult Literature class.) I’m really glad you had an awesome time at the con… Now you can find out what happens to Harry Potter!
August 1st, 2007 at 7:33 am
Someone must have photographed Alison’s kiss, but while we’re waiting for them to come forward, here’s video of Neil Gaiman’s kiss:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIDTTKdxbT0
August 7th, 2007 at 7:11 pm
That is one SHARP haircut, AB. Nice!
August 10th, 2007 at 7:15 pm
Congratulations!