Long Red Hair

by Meags Fitzgerald

Long Red Hair is Meags Fitzgerald’s follow up to her acclaimed Photobooth: A Biography. In this graphic memoir, Fitzgerald paints a lively childhood full of sleepovers, amateur fortune-telling and watching scary movies. Yet, Fitzgerald suspects that she is unlike her friends. She intimately takes us from her first kiss to a life sworn off romance.Long Red Hair alluringly delves into the mystique of sorcery and sisterhood.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, LGBT, Memoir, Queer, Nonfiction, Bande Dessinée

96 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2015

About the author

Meags Fitzgerald is a Montreal-based artist and an award winning illustrator, graphic novelist and animator. Her talents also include improv comedy and live storytelling. Fitzgerald is the author and illustrator of the non-fiction graphic novel, Photobooth: A Biography (spring 2014) and the graphic memoir, Long Red Hair (fall 2015), both published by Conundrum Press.

When she's not drawing or performing, Fitzgerald is learning aerial silks and trapeze with the circus.

Reviews

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 4 out of 5]

I first read Fitzgerald's non-fiction/memoir book Photobooth (which is mainly a historical but also personal exploration of her obsession with photobooths), which I liked quite a bit. Fitzgerald is young and clearly interested in everything: She's an illustrator, graphic novelist and animator. She does improv and performs as a storyteller. She's learning aerial silks and trapeze with the circus.

So this book feels like what I just described about Fitzgerald's life, a kind of circus of amusements. In this memoir Long Red Hair she has a supportive family that raises her on D & D and supports all of her choices: "I always wanted to be a father of a lesbian," her Dad tells her. She has supportive friends that help her talk through her attractions to men and women to the point where she declares she is bi-sexual. She's into red hair which she recognizes attracts people. . . it's a coming of age memoir where identity seems in flux and her life is all over the place and she isn't as a teller of her life all that deeply invested in any particular topic, really. Maybe the bisexuality emerges as the main topic, but do we learn very much about it or what it means for her in particular? Not really.

After the sort of scholarly Photobooth, this second book by Fitzgerald is pretty interesting, but so different than her first book in style and content and focus. She's trying out different forms and styles and . . . as she should do. Photobooth is almost obsessively focused, and Red is interestingly meandering. Pretty fun, for sure; the drawing and paneling style is loose and sketchy, maybe a little too much so for me in places. I thought it was very good, done by an up and coming talent, maybe not as great as some future project will be, I am sure. I hope to see her in the circus this time next year. Or as an airplane acrobat! But I liked reading this, getting to know her!

[Raina · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I was a kid, I remember playing "house" with my friends. As I got older, this game started consisting mostly of taking turns describing how we wanted to look as our new playtime characters. I don't remember doing much beyond monologuing a few paragraphs of that.

Fitzgerald's slim GN memoir is through the lens of her personal feelings towards the titular physical attribute. It starts with a scene of her childhood, consuming media depicting such a characteristic (va-va-voom). Then, she shows herself choosing it for a D&D character, which I imagine to be her version of my game of House.

As she gets older, themes of body image and perception of self meld into reflections on sexual identity. It's a wonderful example and depiction of the Questioning part of the LGBTQQIP2SAA+ acronym. Extra points for giving a gasp of air to bisexual and asexual identities. It has a lot of thematic similarity to MariNaomi's Kiss and Tell: A Romantic Resume, Ages 0 to 22, but leans even harder on the reflective end of things.

On top of packing a LOT of thematic and reflective content into 95 pages, it's a gorgeous piece. Fitzgerald uses a variety of drawing implements, layouts, and a muted color palette to create a striking piece of art. She even includes a page of works referenced!

Might need to own this one.

Read with:
Lena Finkle's Magic Barrel
Anything by Laura Lee Gulledge
Photobooth: A Biography, obviously

[Michelle · Rating 2 out of 5]

Graphic novel lovers, take my review with a grain of salt, because so far I only love wordy graphic novels like Fun Home and Diary of a Teenage Girl. My issue with Long Red Hair was that I didn't think it went deep enough. It's fairly thin, the story jumps around a lot, and the reader doesn't get as much depth to the character as I needed. We see a girl playing D&D, playing "witch" with her friends, getting interested in music, coming out as bi, learning a bit about open or poly relationships... but each of those moments is so short. It felt like tiny snapshots of a life, whereas Fun Home, for example, gave me so much more character development that when Alison comes out as gay you can understand why she feels like she does, why her parents respond as they do, etc. I also had some trouble with the drawings--sometimes the main character looks very old in the illustrations when she's supposed to be a teenager, and sometimes I had a tough time telling which female character was our main character. So, not for me, but obviously a lot of people love it, so I think the fault is partially with me here.

[CaseyTheCanadianLesbrarian · Rating 5 out of 5]

The drawings in here are so gorgeous!! I loved the sepia colours dotted with diluted green and orange. Also I don't think I've ever identified so much with a book!! Bisexuality, witches, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, teenage vegetarianism: it's like Meags Fitzgerald is writing about my life.

For more, see the review on my blog.

[George Ilsley · Rating 3 out of 5]

A simple, heart-warming graphic novel/memoir from a talented artist. However, the story kept jumping around, and it was hard to identify the main character, and to distinguish her from her friends.

This was certainly sweet, and earnest, but felt a little thin, like a series of anecdotes. A story doesn't always need a messy pile of conflict to be successful, but here I did crave a bit more of a narrative arc.

The art, though, was very skillful.

[Hayley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Really underwhelmed by this,it felt really fragmented and shallow.The art style was good although I felt like the characters looked really different at times which made it confusing.

[Rudy Russell · Rating 2 out of 5]

Cute drawings, but I found the identity stuff really basic. Also, I kept getting confused about who was the narrator and who was the person she was talking to. I did read it after taking solpadeine tho so maybe that is on me...

[Susie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a quiet little story, with an art style I adored. It served as an excellent diving off point into Meags Fitzgerald's work. <3

[Kelly Mellings · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked up my copy off of Meags when she was in Edmonton. This book is a lovely, personal reflection told in a careful and crafted manner. Meags has very innovative panel layouts and every element in the book feels considered and cared for. The lettering, the colouring, the choice of very earthy mediums all elevate the mood and themes reflected in the book. A short but enjoyable memoir by a bright young talent. I look forward to reading more by Meags and am glad that voices like hers choose this medium.

[nadia | notabookshelf · Rating 5 out of 5]

this is the first book i've read for my comic book class, and i already think i discovered a favourite autobiographical graphic novel. it's a read i know i'd want to pick up whenever i'm feeling particularly down. a lot of what the author is referencing, although simple and pretty universal, i still need to hear from time to time. so thanks for that, i guess. it's a nice mood-booster.

[Anne-Sophie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quelle surprise de retrouver une part de ma vie et de mes valeurs en Meags Fitzgerald, à travers ce joli recueil autobiographique. Un roman graphique que je garderai toujours près de moi. Certainement à relire dans de moments un peu moins jojo, car je sais que ses superbes dessins (et paroles réconfortantes à mes yeux) réchaufferont mon p'tit coeur.

[Cheriee Weichel · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is so much to admire about this book. The illustrations are gorgeous. Meags Fitzgerald's memoir deals with growing up in the 1990's and coming out as bisexual. She had strong loving parents who accepted and supported her. They introduced her to Dungeons and Dragons. (How cool is that) The book references all kinds of powerful women from Queen Elizabeth 1 to Buffy the Vampire Slayer. An interesting component is Fitzgerald's examination of celibacy. This book would be a good addition to our grade 7 shelf.

[Garconniere · Rating 5 out of 5]

I couldn't put this down. Meags Fitzgerald has crafted yet another beautiful graphic novel in which I see shades of myself. Intensely intimate at moments, but perhaps I read it that way because so much of it echoes my own experiences. I love how it is a book about sexuality but not at all, in the sense that it is not a book about sex, but desire, and how our desires shape who we are and how we are perceived by others.

[. (not active on this account stop adding me) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Long Red Hair is a graphic memoir chronicling one woman's sexual discovery throughout her life, often accompanied by dramatic hair changes. As a teenager, she identifies as bisexual but later changes this status to queer. It's a quick graphic novel to read, but I didn't understand the point behind most of her stories. If it interests you, consider picking it up, otherwise you're not missing much.

[Danika at The Lesbrary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this during the readathon, and although it wasn't as witchy/Octobery as I was expecting, I still really enjoyed it! I liked the discussion of sexuality and celibacy, and--of course--the Buffy references. The art style is beautiful. I love pencil crayon-style graphic novels.

[Rose Wh · Rating 4 out of 5]

quick 40 minute read. bi rep, a lot relatable, fun references and musings on history and nature. also DnD!

its not the perfect graphic novel, some of the time jumps were disorienting and the dialogue didnt always ring true, but I enjoyed it for what it is

[Dov Zeller · Rating 4 out of 5]

How to be across from others and still be and feel one's self? How to make sense of romance when it doesn't seem like a variation on connection and expressiveness but rather, like losing a hold of one's own whole voice--or, "diluting" one's voice as Fitzgerald's memoirish self says at the end of the book. How to navigate various kinds of attractions, none of which are necessarily compelling in a precisely sexual way? Or, at least, not conventionally so.

this strange little book explores these questions. It's jumpy, a little vague, and doesn't explore identity to the depths that it might have. And the art isn't really a style I love. And yet, Fitzgerald's willingness to be present with a kind of aimlessness and inexactitude of identity offers something sincere and meaningful and perhaps unusual. this is not a book about finding one's self by fitting into an identity category but a book about swimming in foggy, liminal spaces and working very hard to bring categorical landmarks into focus, and then, letting them go again because they don't have architectural might in a narrative of this sort.

I really liked and was a bit shocked by her little monologue about bats and hunting and gathering humans--she mentions the not uncommon (I am finding) theory that hunter-gatherer cultures were and are more egalitarian than agrarian cultures. this theme keeps coming up in so many books I'm reading lately (how agrarian culture kind of ruined much of the compellingness and fun of being a human animal and gave rise to the horrible and violent narcissism and addiction to wealth and power that are haunting us to the core at this point.) Strange and even a little worrisome to find it here (everywhere I look, it seems).

this is a short, meandering meditation on life for someone who hasn't found categories of a certain kind that work for them in an orienting way. And it is far from perfect, and it is not without magic.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

My critical brain wants to give this a 3-star rating, but my more emotive reviewing brain is demanding I give it 4. This is a comic that I sorely wish was available to me when I was in high school.

This is a very short memoir about Fitzgerald's coming-of-age in the 90s and dealing with all the things that come with that: mainly, discovering herself as a sexual being. It's a very straightforward memoir, though it also meanders quite a bit (very much in the same way real life does). It doesn't make for a compelling page-turner, but I'm sure it will be nostalgic for anyone who's grown up in the 90s. The art is nice, but I found the pseudo-realist style occasionally off-putting (ie. in one scene, laugh lines around a child's mouth looked more like wrinkles) and I had a hard time identifying characters sometimes.

Where this comic really resonated with me was Fitzgerald's struggles in defining and owning her sexuality. She eventually comes out to her family as bisexual, and her thoughts and worries about this mirrored SO CLOSELY to my own when I was around the same age and also realizing I was bi. I had a really hard time reconciling being attracted to both men and women, as my peers and my family were all (and still are) bi-phobic ("You can't bat for both teams!" <-- a real thing my mother told me once. Needless to say, I'm still closeted to my family). It didn't help that identifying as bisexual was seen as a "trendy" thing teenagers did to garner attention when I was in HS, which played into the harmful "it's a phase" rhetoric that young people (especially women) are bombarded with. Fitzgerald's example of Willow "turning" gay when she starts to date Tara, despite having been in a serious relationship with a guy, also struck me. Queer representation is great, but the bi-erasure and the fetishization of bi women in popular media fed my consternation and confusion over my own sexual identity.

There's no exploration of being bisexual or any of Fitzgerald's personal experience with it (outside of her coming out to her family and confessing to her friend) which I found mildly disappointing. Readers looking for that won't find it here, but given the brevity of the work, it makes sense.

So yea, a 4-star rating, but it's a very personal rating. I think Fitzgerald demonstrates a lot of potential in general as well - can't wait to see what she comes out with next (and I really want to check out Photobooth: A Biography now, though it looks very different from this).

[mica · Rating 5 out of 5]

It could be that I associated strongly with Fitzgerald's coming-of-age story, but I really enjoyed this comic book about realizing one's sexuality.

Fitzgerald's art is more realistic than most comics are, and while it had a loose, relaxed aesthetic it was pretty detailed. As an artist, I loved this book's visuals.

In terms of text, this book itself is pretty short, so it was an incredibly fast read (I think I burned through it in about an hour, give or take, in between doing a few other things). It contains a lot of references to the media that late gen-x (or y?) kids and early millenials grew up with, but I think that it would make a good, interesting read for either an adult with those cultural contexts or someone as young as 11 or 12. It is a quick, light biography of being a nerdy girl growing up in the '90s and coming to terms with one's sexuality.

I actually wish I knew a young girl to hand this book to. It would have been incredibly reassuring when I was younger to have read something like this - where the kid *is* alright.

[Abby · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars. I wanted to like this more than I did. Fitzgerald's drawings are expressive and compelling, but the narrative was too choppy and disjointed for my tastes. The switches between Fitzgerald's childhood and her young adult years felt too abrupt and didn't hang together for me. As a series of short sketches about growing up queer, the pieces are effective, but I don't think they make a full-fledged memoir.

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

More like 2.5 due to clunky use of comics form. The memoir showed a nice person, but wasn't all that compelling, and the realistic nature of the art made it awkward in places.

[Meghan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wish this was more ambitious. The artwork and layout really worked for me, but it was less than 100 pages, and ended up seeming overly impressionistic - scenes, but not enough follow through.

[Michaela Aisling · Rating 4 out of 5]

it's hard to review this particular graphic novel without spoiling it, as tender and breezy a read as it was, but i will say i really enjoyed it. fitzgerald's memoir flits back and forth between her childhood, teen years, and adulthood, a glimpse into some of the more impactful moments in her life, and times during which she struggled with her own image and identity - both within her sexuality, as well as her self worth. it was merely a flying visit into her mind and certainly doesn't act as any kind of monopoly on how we should view one thing or another, especially not her own experience and understanding of bisexuality/her ever growing and ever changing view of her sexual identity, but it made for a very nice read.
i enjoyed it a lot, and i particularly enjoyed the 80s/90s/early 00s tv & film references (sabrina/the princess bride/buffy/etc) , as well as the nods to anne rice, charlotte bronte, etc.
i also absolutely loved the art style here! it was gorgeous, and i often find it a little jarring when reading comics/graphic novels with only glimpses of colour (i usually prefer full colour or none at all, always one or the other), but the emphasis on the red hair, and the various shades of orange really made each page pop!

[Aude · Rating 4 out of 5]

J’ai bien aimé cette bd autobiographique dans laquelle l’autrice aborde plusieurs sujets importants. Elle s’ouvre sur son orientation sexuelle, ses relations familiales et ses amitiés avec une belle honnêteté. Le tout est bien représenté par des illustrations au style unique. J’en aurais cependant pris plus. J’aurais aimé qu’elle élabore davantage certaines tranches de vie dont celle où elle avoue sa pansexualité durant son adolescence. C’est un livre plaisant à lire. Petite mention spéciale pour tous les clins d’oeil à la culture populaire des années 90 que l’ont retrouve ici et là. Ça m’a fait baigner dans une douce nostalgie. C’était tout simplement parfait !!

[Tania · Rating 4 out of 5]

Longs cheveux roux est une vraie oeuvre d'art. Les illustrations sont magnifiques et précises, toutes en orange, vert et brun. Le récit aborde tout en douceur le sujet tabou de l'orientation sexuelle à l'adolescence à travers l'histoire et les références culturelles de l'auteure. Un BD d'ouverture qui fait du bien!

[Catherine Bond · Rating 4 out of 5]

Une amie me l'a conseillé en me disant : "HEY! Lis ça, ça va te parler!" C'est une excellente libraire, puisqu'elle a eu entièrement raison! Les références culturelles aux années 90 et début 2000, les sorcières, les cheveux roux et les questionnements identitaires, c'est très moi! Si un de ces éléments vous parle un tant soit peu, ce livre est également pour vous!

[Katy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this book. The art is gorgeous, the nostalgic rich. As with some memoirs, it felt a bit disjointed at points- with the threads of the story probably making much more sense to the author than to someone looking in, but it still worked. 3.75 stars/5

[Marty · Rating 5 out of 5]

The art style in this is so soothing! I love me a soft little queer story, even though there was a melancholy tone to this one.







(Plus I totally don’t have a thing for red haired women, don’t @ me)

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was so all over the place.

[Sandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice coming-of-age story about how the author comes out as bisexual.