From the author of Fun Home -- the lives, loves, and politics of cult fav characters Mo, Lois, Sydney, Sparrow, Ginger, Stuart, Clarice, and others...
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Jan 24, 2009
Chris
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First, an Alison Bechdel story. Last year at the NYC Comic Con, Bechdel was signing copies of Fun Home, and Mulzer and I stood in line to get our copy signed. As she was adding a quick drawing to the title page, I told Bechdel how I had bought three volumes of her "Dykes to Watch Out For" to share with the students of the GSA I'd started at my high school in the Bronx. Every one had been borrowed and never returned, so she could be happy knowing that her work must be very appreciate
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Dec 15, 2008
Jessica
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How spectacular to finally find nearly all of Dykes to Watch Out For in one volume (there are omissions, but not very many, and the exclusions were carefully chosen so as not to disrupt plot lines). Alison Bechdel hits the perfect balance of lovingly depicting her community and its concerns, exploring the inner lives of her characters, while also cheerfully skewering political posturing, blind spots, and self-righteousness. Her drawings are playful (check out the endlessly amusing t-shirt slogan
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Nov 29, 2008
Erik
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After reading and loving every single panel of Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic, her National Book Critics Award finalist, I jumped on the Bechdel-bandwagon and queued myself up for this recently published 400-page hardback collecting the greatest hits of her long-running series. I first heard of this strip years back; although I didn’t get to read it as it was published in alternative rags that I neither read nor subscribed to. Humorously enough, I did co-opt the title as a catch-phrase whenever r
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Nov 16, 2009
Joseph
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I confess to having little interest in lesbian writing and graphic novels. As a male, I find it hard to connect with text that is processing an anger directed at my gender (i.e. me) simply for having been born a male.
I don't disagree with the need for the anger - the patriarchy tends to screw things up - but it doesn't make the work inviting. It's like reading Frantz Fanon's Black Skin White Masks. Its an amazing work, but as a pasty guy it's hard not to take parts of it personally. More...
I don't disagree with the need for the anger - the patriarchy tends to screw things up - but it doesn't make the work inviting. It's like reading Frantz Fanon's Black Skin White Masks. Its an amazing work, but as a pasty guy it's hard not to take parts of it personally. More...
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Jul 20, 2010
rachel
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The lesbian soap opera that preceded The L Word is, unsurprisingly, much better. Bechdel's sense of humor is all over the histrionics of her hyper-learned and hyper self-aware characters, but there are also serious and important conversations to be found here.
The collection is overwhelming in scope: 20 years in the lives of seven women, with major and minor recurring supporting characters coming in and out of their world. Their many romantic affairs and infidelities share the focu More...
The collection is overwhelming in scope: 20 years in the lives of seven women, with major and minor recurring supporting characters coming in and out of their world. Their many romantic affairs and infidelities share the focu More...
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Jul 28, 2011
For any fan of Bechdel's graphic novel, or her many years of DTWOF strips, this is heaven-on-a-strip.
The collection covers all the years of annual output, plus a few catch-up inclusions from 07-08 which handles the McCain/Obama presidential stoush, and assorted liberal panic reactions to the events of those years.
Plus all the usual characters of her world, living with open eyes and hearts, and dealing with the consequences of post-Millenial adulthood in the queer-verse.
It was in a library colle More...
The collection covers all the years of annual output, plus a few catch-up inclusions from 07-08 which handles the McCain/Obama presidential stoush, and assorted liberal panic reactions to the events of those years.
Plus all the usual characters of her world, living with open eyes and hearts, and dealing with the consequences of post-Millenial adulthood in the queer-verse.
It was in a library colle More...
Mar 10, 2010
Kat
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http://tinyurl.com/kjjoqt
I've never reviewed a collection of comic strips before, and it's quite possible I never will again. But I feel it's my duty to proselytize this particular strip for two reasons: a) it reflects a lifestyle that too many people know next to nothing about and b) it is invigorating and eye-opening.
This comic is far from one-sided, and I believe that's one of its strengths. As a heterosexual myself with not as many gay friends as I might like, I'm sur More...
I've never reviewed a collection of comic strips before, and it's quite possible I never will again. But I feel it's my duty to proselytize this particular strip for two reasons: a) it reflects a lifestyle that too many people know next to nothing about and b) it is invigorating and eye-opening.
This comic is far from one-sided, and I believe that's one of its strengths. As a heterosexual myself with not as many gay friends as I might like, I'm sur More...
Aug 12, 2009
Jennifer
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What a blast from the past. I started reading Dykes to Watch Out For when I was sixteen. I'd purchase copies of Off Our Backs from Books & Co. in Dayton, back when it was the largest independent bookstore in Ohio, before it was bought out (and subsequently closed) by a megalochain. The comic was one of my favorite parts of this radfem newspaper; it showed me a world full of interesting women, women who were a lot more like me than the backwoods-new-money types I went to school with, and who f
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Jul 27, 2011
Tabitha
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The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For is a compilation of Bechdel's comic of the same name. The book spans over 2 decades, through which the reader sees characters fall in and out of love, get married, have children, have affairs, and wax and wane political. Perhaps this last element is the most interesting to watch develop from the late 1980s, when the book begins, through to the years of Bush the second. The character are introduced as very political beings, attending marches and protests, b
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Jul 02, 2010
Purlewe
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Have you ever read something for so long you felt like you were friends with the characters? I used to read all of the DTWOF books and would be so pleased when I came across one in a alternative newspaper. Reading this was like catching up with old friends.. I knew the first 2/3rds of the book.. but I will admit that after 2002 I dropped them off my radar.. so the last 1/3 was completely new to me. I think Bechdel's drawings are so rich and interesting. Her style has changed, the characters have
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Apr 20, 2010
Rachel
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I loved it. Bechdel's drawing style is so likable that I have been compulsively doodling journal-comics for the past week while reading DTWOF. Through the lives of more than a dozen well-realized characters, Bechdel takes us through the last 30 years of gay/lesbian culture, documenting the movement's progression from a radical uprising to a more mainstream, if no less passionate fight for civil rights. As with any compilation, it's great to watch the author's art and storytelling sharpen over
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Oct 11, 2009
Ciara
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believe it or not, i had never read "dykes to watch out for" before. i mean, i'd seen a strip or two in my day, but that's it. so i check this 400-pound behemoth (not the entire collection, but close) out of the library & spent alike a week plowing through it. fabulous! can't recommend it enough. the only reason it got four stars instead of five is because i found mo so insufferable, & all the couples cheating on one another over the years, while perhaps realistic, made me have a few i
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Aug 07, 2009
Angela
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Alison Bechdel's distilled collection of her comic strip spanning 20 years is a tricky one to rate numerically. As a weekly comic strip, it's top notch, managing the rare combination of being both intensely funny at times and presenting characters that the reader comes to really care about. As a collection it's wonderful to see the strip evolve over the course of years in a way that is rarely so evident in comics - the characters age, the political and social events of the time are a constant un
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Dec 15, 2010
Sarah Pi
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This volume collects several hundred of the DTWOF comics, covering twenty years' worth of major story arcs. I lost track of DTWOF about four years ago, so it was fun to get reacquainted, even if there were only about two years' worth of material that I hadn't read at the very end of the book. I also felt like it ended a little abruptly, as if the last pages of the book were chosen arbitrarily. Still, those are minor complaints. Bechdel has created a universe populated by characters with complex
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Jul 21, 2009
Matthew
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The graphical introduction to this book provides a interesting contrast between Bechdel's mature and early style, which is one of the nice things about seeing over two decades of her work collected in one place. If you, as I have, eagerly waited for each next issue of your local gay rag to read Dykes to Watch Out For, the compressed experience of reading them one after another may feel something like eating ice cream too fast. Delicious, but you're really better off pacing yourself before you ge
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Jul 28, 2011
Sarah
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Ok, overall, you just have to love this collection. It is amazing to sit and read through 20 years of politics, relationships, children, and dyke drama. Bechdel is an amazing artist and author, and this collection is like reading a time capsule of queer history. It is a joy to read and a must have for anyone interested in GLBT fiction, comics, or graphic novels.
However I do have a few complaints. Not every strip could be included and some of the greats are left out. Most significant is To More...
However I do have a few complaints. Not every strip could be included and some of the greats are left out. Most significant is To More...
Oct 23, 2009
Charlotte
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I loved reading this strip when I was at Smith. It almost felt like Bechdel was living in Noho and just reporting on the daily dyke drama/ political activism/ fluid gender norm/ alternative family scene. Reading through the strip from start to finish (in 4 days) gave me a fresh look at the evolving queer leftist political scene. It was like readingsome one's life story in hyper drive.
The artwork is phenomenal in it's ability to make dozens of female characters distinguishable from each oth More...
The artwork is phenomenal in it's ability to make dozens of female characters distinguishable from each oth More...
Apr 22, 2009
Adrienne
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I've resisted this series for a long time--whenever I ran across it, it seemed like all the characters ever did was kvetch.
That was a few years ago. Now, I'm less involved in the gayness of it all--I no longer live the constant drama of the recently outed and also no longer pick up the lgbtqia periodicals (and so stopped seeing this little strip). Instead, I listen to NPR and read the NYT, obsess over the state of the economy, and am prone to ranting about the corruption of governmen More...
That was a few years ago. Now, I'm less involved in the gayness of it all--I no longer live the constant drama of the recently outed and also no longer pick up the lgbtqia periodicals (and so stopped seeing this little strip). Instead, I listen to NPR and read the NYT, obsess over the state of the economy, and am prone to ranting about the corruption of governmen More...
May 15, 2011
dejah_thoris
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Having caught this strip only occasionally throughout my college years, I was extremely excited to find an anthology of it in the stacks at EMU. Finally, I have had a chance to meet and understand each of the characters individually instead of just getting short glimpses at random intervals. I sympathize with Mo and many of my friends may see me in her though I'd rather be Lois. (Too bad nobody else will help me achieve that!) But I'm probably closest to Sydney and unlike Mo I completely underst
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Sep 26, 2010
Heather
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All the story strips of Bechdel's defining work, Dykes to Watch Out For, gathered in one place. This isn't a comprehensive collection by any means, but it covers all the important character strips and events to follow this (decade-spanning!) comic. In it, we see a multitude of gay/lesbian relationships and friendships happen surrounded by a backdrop of politics, history, and global events. Aside from being a sensitively drawn strip about touchy issues like gay parent adoption, gender, sex, and d
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May 01, 2011
Andy
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I decided to take a break from my usual hyper-masculine, blood-soaked science fiction and picked up this volume that collects 25 years of Alison Bechdel's "Dykes to Watch Out For."
Bechdel's "Fun Home" was one of my favorite reads of 2006, and I knew that the real bulk of her career and the reason anyone knew about her was for DTWOF. And I wasn't disappointed. Yes, it's about lesbians. But it's really about people, and how they navigate a world that can at times be More...
Bechdel's "Fun Home" was one of my favorite reads of 2006, and I knew that the real bulk of her career and the reason anyone knew about her was for DTWOF. And I wasn't disappointed. Yes, it's about lesbians. But it's really about people, and how they navigate a world that can at times be More...
Dec 09, 2010
Sarah
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A fantastic, funny, poignant, and true to life collection of 25 years of comics. This book is definitely a journey, and a brilliant one at that. I was distressed when I discovered I had finished it, as I wasn't ready for it to be over. A wonderful collection of an excellent strip.
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Dec 11, 2011
Mikael
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Presenting most of Alison Bechdel’s “Dykes to Watch Out For” comic strips from the course of 25 years, this collection forms into a beautiful ongoing saga of sassy, interesting characters while commenting boldly on politics and the development of the American culture from the point of view of liberal feminism.
The strip has been called a political column of sorts, and that dimension of the storytelling makes the book extremely effective, illustrating how much and how little things have More...
The strip has been called a political column of sorts, and that dimension of the storytelling makes the book extremely effective, illustrating how much and how little things have More...
Jul 04, 2010
Caroline/Carl
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I loved this graphic novel. As a compilation of (most) of her 25 years of this comic strip, the book told the story of the generation of lesbians before me -- women who became adults in the 90's and by the new century had begun to have children and get married. Bechdel does an amazing job of interweaving the personal and the political -- each strip centers the lives of these women squarely in the zeitgeist. I loved experiencing their world and the changes in it, and Bechdel writes women, their p
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Jun 27, 2009
Darrell
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i remember my sophomore year of college being made more interesting with books and comics from the campus LGBT club's library...that is how i got into Alison Bechdel's strip...it was packaged just like the Garfield books i got for birthday presents in elementary school...the Pogo like messages on character's shirt fronts, the political dialogue, the Af Am characters (Ginger, Clarice, Carlos, Audrey and Jezana)and the overall laidback attitude pulled me in.....Bechdel is on par with the For Bette
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Apr 29, 2009
Casey
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This book is kind of like the L Word and kind of like Milk (I'll explain in a second), but most of all it's just a really unique and essential contribution to the world of queerness that I can't believe I didn't discover until now. It's filled with drama like the L Word, but it's better because the lesbians actually look and act like they're gay. And it helps me to understand why some older lesbians have mullets (because they looked really hot with mullets when they were younger). Bechdel began
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Jun 21, 2010
Sue
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Stole the book from A while we were camping (pic on her blog, actually, of me reading it), and liked it so much that I stayed up waaaaaaaaay too long last night to finish it.
I know the references to current events and GLBT issues throughout the strip have been mentioned already by scads of people, so I will only say that I enjoyed going back in time and seeing how things have changed (some for the better, some for the worse) in the events she mentions.
The real pull of the book for m More...
I know the references to current events and GLBT issues throughout the strip have been mentioned already by scads of people, so I will only say that I enjoyed going back in time and seeing how things have changed (some for the better, some for the worse) in the events she mentions.
The real pull of the book for m More...
Dec 07, 2008
Kate
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I am really loving this. Got into a great conversation with the folks at Market Block Books in Troy, NY about how beautiful her last book "Fun Home" was while I was buying it. This is a collection of her strip from the last 25 years. Evidently dykes (and people) have not changed much. It's actually creepy to hear the characters talk about Bush and realize it's not W, but it all sounds exactly the same. And you just can't beat food co-op humor! Ha!
Final thoughts as I fi More...
Final thoughts as I fi More...
May 12, 2009
Marissa
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I was so excited when I learned that they finally compiled a full collection of all the Dykes to Watch Out For. Definitely an engrossing read and at a much higher quality of lesbian soap opera drama than the L Word. It made me wish I had more feminist friends around me to hang out with these days. You definitely get to know and love the characters and identify with all that they go through. In some ways, I enjoyed reading the inserted political news just to realize how many scary similarities th
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Feb 22, 2009
Sarah
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I really didn't expect to like this book. I was all "Oh, psh! Lesbian comic strip, I'm SO not into it. I'm much too queer and post-lesbian for that." But actually I really like it. And it's actually really relevant and I'm not cooler than it after all. Ooh, snap!
The documentation of changes within the queer community is fascinating, although the more I read the later strips, the more depressed I get. It's like wow, we're having the same conversations over and over again, only More...
The documentation of changes within the queer community is fascinating, although the more I read the later strips, the more depressed I get. It's like wow, we're having the same conversations over and over again, only More...
