Vermont comic book offends Utah students

How very odd.

A few students at the University of Utah are protesting the inclusion of the graphic novel, "Fun Home," on the reading list of an English class there.

"Fun Home" is, of course, the award-winning graphic novel by Burlington cartoonist Alison Bechdel. The comic - probably one of the best I read last year - is the true-story of Bechdel's bizarre father, his hidden homosexuality and her own eventual coming out. TIME magazine called it one of the best books of 2007 and it's been a huge success for Bechdel (her comic strip, Dykes to Watch Out For, runs weekly in the Seven Days newspaper).

The offended students are gripping about a handful of erotic scenes in the comic. But isn't this a college class? Did everyone forget about Faulkner and other literary greats who got a bit spicy in their writing?

-Dan Barlow