“Glad” all over
Maurice Vellekoop An interview with Maurice Vellekoop GREGG SHAPIRO | Contributing Writer GreggShapiro@aol.com LGBTQ graphic — as in illustrated — memoirs are nothing new.
But it took Alison Bechdel’s award-winning 2006 Fun Home to bring the genre to mainstream audiences. Since then, books such as Maia Kobabe’s Gender Queer and Alice Oseman’s graphic novel Heartstopper have brought increased attention to both non-fiction and fiction LGBTQ works.
Maurice Vellekoop’s marvelous graphic memoir, I’m So Glad We Had This Time Together, (Pantheon, 2024), out in February, is a perfect addition to the genre.
A powerfully rendered personal story of growing up in a religiously conservative home in Canada, being the artistic one in a straitlaced family, finding necessary creative outlets for expression and, eventually, self-acceptance.
