5 Alison Bechdel first editions are documented on this shelf, from Dykes to Watch Out For (first collection) (1986) to The Secret to Superhuman Strength (2021) across 4 different publishers. Each linked guide gives the points of issue that separate a true first printing of that Alison Bechdel title from later printings and book-club copies — the publisher and year to expect, the number-line or edition-statement conventions, and the tells that show up in online listings.
Identification only, per the house rule: no prices and no appraisals here. Checking a Alison Bechdel copy in hand? Type the title into the First-Edition Checker or photograph the copyright page with Snap & Sort.
- Dykes to Watch Out For (first collection) — 1986 · Firebrand BooksFirst edition, first printing softcover, Firebrand Books, Ithaca, New York, October 1986 (ISBN 0932379176), a slim volume of roughly 78 pages in a small landscape format about 14 by 19 cm. The full title on the book is Dykes to Watch Out For: Cartoons; this first collection gathers non-serialized strips drawn 1983 to 1986. The strip began in the early 1980s and was syndicated by the mid-1980s; the 1986 Firebrand softcover is the first book collection and the first appearance of these cartoons in book form. Numerous later Dykes to Watch Out For collections are each first-thus of their own content. A mass-market softcover with no book club edition; later printings and later collections are each first-thus of their respective content, and the 1986 first printing bears the original Firebrand imprint without later-printing indicators.
- Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic — 2006 · Houghton MifflinFirst printing hardcover, Houghton Mifflin, Boston and New York, June 8 2006, ISBN 0-618-47794-2 (978-0-618-47794-4). First printing carries the full descending number line ending in 1 (10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1) on the copyright page with no later-printing statement. Bound in neon-orange decorative paper boards under a pictorial jacket showing the family house; price present on the jacket flap. US true first by an American author published first in the United States. Distinguish from the UK Jonathan Cape edition and from the later trade-paperback issue, which is a separate later printing. No notable book-club edition; the common trap is later printings under the same ISBN, so confirm the number line ends in 1. The paperback (2007) is a separate later issue.
- The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For — 2008 · Houghton Mifflin HarcourtHardcover, Houghton Mifflin (Mariner imprint), Boston, 2008, ISBN 978-0-618-96880-0, number line ending in 1 for the first printing. A 392-page career-spanning collection of the comic strip with a new cartoonist's introduction. The strips were first self-syndicated and earlier gathered in Firebrand Books collections (1980s into the 2000s), which are the true first appearances; this 2008 Houghton Mifflin volume is the first edition of this best-of compilation, a first thus. The US Houghton Mifflin edition (November 2008) precedes the UK Jonathan Cape edition (ISBN 978-0-224-08706-3, December 2008), so the US printing is the true first of…. No book club edition.
- Are You My Mother? A Comic Drama — 2012 · Houghton Mifflin HarcourtFirst edition: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt hardcover with dust jacket, dated 1 May 2012, ISBN 9780618982509 (ISBN-10 0618982507). A first printing shows a full number line ending in 1 on the copyright page. Sewn binding in paper over boards, about 286 pages, illustrated with black-and-white and some color line drawings; the jacket carries its printed price. The US Houghton Mifflin Harcourt hardcover (May 2012) is the true first edition. The UK Jonathan Cape edition also appeared in 2012 and followed the US issue. No book-club edition; the later Mariner trade paperback under the same ISBN family is a reprint, not a first thus.
- The Secret to Superhuman Strength — 2021 · Houghton Mifflin HarcourtFirst edition hardcover, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2021 (ISBN 9780358554844 for the trade issue), full color with color art by Holly Rae Taylor. First printing carries a full number line ending in 1. An all-original graphic memoir; the 2021 HMH hardcover is the true first book edition. Later printings remove the 1 from the number line; the first printing shows a complete descending line ending in 1.
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