I used to love comic books. Back in the day I was a big DC Vertigo fan – Sandman, Hellblazer, Animal Man, Doom Patrol – less spandex and more existential angst.

So, I’ve been going back to catch up with some good stuff I missed.

So, Alison Bechdel – she of the Bechdel test – wrote this back in 2013. It’s a witty, melancholic and endearing insight into grief, sexuality and a search for happiness.

My favourite pages recall a conversation between Bechdel and her father in the car on the way to the cinema. The panels are 12 to a page, choppy and brief, emphasising the claustrophobia of awkward, stilted communication in a moving vehicle. Their conversation is based around a previously illustrated event – the gift of a book with obvious homosexual themes – and the halting, confessional dialogue is interspersed with Bechdel's own reflection: "I kept still, like he was a splendid deer I didn't want to startle."

I loved this book.