Secret to Superhuman Strength HC

Comics and cultural superstar Alison Bechdel delivers a deeply layered story of her fascination, from childhood to adulthood, with every fitness craze to come down the pike: from Jack LaLanne in the 60s ("Outlandish jumpsuit! Cantaloupe-sized guns!") to the existential oddness of present-day spin class. Readers will see their athletic or semi-active pasts flash before their eyes through an ever-evolving panoply of running shoes, bicycles, skis, and sundry other gear. But the more Bechdel tries to improve herself, the more her self appears to be the thing in her way. The gifted artist and not-getting-any-younger exerciser comes to a soulful conclusion. The secret to superhuman strength lies not in six-pack abs, but in something much less clearly defined: facing her own non-transcendent but all-important interdependence with others.

A heartrendingly comic chronicle for our times.

"The book is certainly light and fun in parts, but like 2006's Fun Home and 2012's Are You My Mother?, the new work is a wonderland of literary allusions and introspection. The delight of reading an Alison Bechdel book is in watching the author make mind-blowing connections from seemingly disparate sources, and feeling like you're soul-searching right along with her . . . The Secret to Superhuman Strength . . . is a wondrous exploration of how an obsession with exercise--'the sweat, the endorphins, the gear, the togs, the next new thing!'--can be self-care and a means of connecting with the world at large."--Oprah Daily

"The Secret to Superhuman Strength is Alison Bechdel's third graphic memoir and, amazingly, her third triumph." --Vulture

"Engrossing, pensive." --The Cut

WINNER of the 2022 Eisner Award for Best Writer/Artist!