Dyke Strippers: Lesbian Cartoonists from A to Z

by Roz Warren (Editor)

Humor, Lesbian & Gay Studies

Genres: Comics, Queer, LGBT, Graphic Novels Comics, Nonfiction, Graphic Novels

207 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 1995

About the author

Roz Warren writes for everyone from the Funny Times to the New York Times, has been featured on The Today Show and Morning Edition, and is the author of the books Our Bodies, Our Shelves: Library Humor and Just Another Day At Your Local Public Library, both of which you should buy immediately.

http://www.rosalindwarren.com

http://facebook.com/writerrozwarren

Reviews

[Joanna · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a pretty funny book, although it is about 15 years old and some of the humor now seems a bit dated. I would have gotten through it more quickly if it were all cartoons, but there are author interviews and profiles throughout the whole thing.

I often laugh out loud at my own thoughts or things that people say, but rarely when I am reading a book. This book did make me laugh so loudly that I scared the cat, at least three times.

It was strange to read an interview with Alison Bechdel where she says that she'll probably be drawing DTWOF until she keels over. Strange to read now, since the strip has been on indefinite hiatus for at least two years now.

It's also kind of funny to read interviews of lesbians by other lesbians from this time period (mid-90s). There were lots of processing type questions about diversity in the comic strips, and whether a white cartoonist would even be qualified to voice a Latina character. For reals, I don't think anyone ever gave Charles Schulz trouble about Franklin like that. I mean, some newspapers in the South boycotted the strip when he was shown attending school with Peppermint Patty, but no one was like - hey old white dude, you are not qualified to voice this racially diverse character. Goodness.

Also under the lesbians are kind of funny, even when they don't mean to be category - the book is arranged in the most egalitarian way, from A to Z. That's great and all, but I think it would be more cohesive if some of the strips were grouped thematically. Eh.

One of the best things about the book is that it is almost old enough to be an artifact, and reading it now highlights the progress that has been made and the overall changes to the LGBT community that are sometimes so gradual that you don't even notice them at the time. A lot of times, I wonder if we are losing the subculture as the mainstream culture becomes more tolerant and accepting. Which is progress, but also makes me a little sad. As more characters in books and movies are explicitly written as gay or lesbian, it kind of takes the fun out of always looking for secret signals and hidden codes to determine their identity. It's kind of like that with comics. Now that For Better or For Worse has shown Lawrence having a long term partner, what happens to the place on the margins that some of these cartoons used to occupy?

Overall, it was a good fun read. I like lesbians and I like comics, so it's not like this book was a hard sell.

[Laurah · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent source for you, and me, to discover new to us artists. Sure it was published in 95' and isn't exactly up to date, but it includes the bigs (Bechdel, Dimassa, Gregory) the best (Erika Lopez) and lots of women I'd never heard of, never seen their work, and didn't know I mildly want to marry. This book profiles thirty-five artists and includes samples of their work. This way you only have to hassle the comic book store about not carrying the artists you learned you like. P.S. YOUR LOCAL INDEPENDENT COMIC BOOK STORE CAN DEFINITELY ORDER MOST OF THESE ARTISTS FOR YOU; also ask them about Ariel Shrag, she's a genuis.

[Cpt Hawk · Rating 4 out of 5]

Did I enjoy this book immensely? Mmmmm unsure. Did I at least enjoy this? Yes. It's a shit ton of vintage lesbian and bi lady comics, I was eating it up. Also I loved seeing who finally made a lot of iconic comic strips that I've seen passed around on the inter-webs (the internet.) Also also this book interviewed every cartoonist they had in the book about their upbringing, their influences, their creative processes--it was great and people were hilarious. I knew about a few of these people but now I know about even more, and I will never say no to more knowledge. My beloved Alison Bechdel was in here. Ah ... Alison Bechdel ... <3 The dyke terrorist comics were also sooo ... soooooo .... mmm. Freed my brain a little. The lady who called herself Alison Bechdel's evil twin? Love your work, incredible.

I'm not even sure why I could say it wasn't an immediate 5 star for me because if it's LGBT and vintage, I'm pretty much immediately won over? Real people just talking about their lives and thoughts? Gay thoughts no less? Yuh. Slide me a plate of that, pretty please. Maybe it's become some comics were really good and thought-provoking and others I just ... the bit fell flat for me. I could just be picky IDK. But I mean--it's still a good read. I'm smug about it being on my shelf.

By far the most enamoring part about this book was that my thrifted copy looks distinctly chewed on. Like someone really went and solidly nibbled on it for a while near the top right corner. It's a half inch wide and 1.5-2 inches long, this whole big bitemark situation. And it leaves me with so many questions ... did it taste good? Did you want more? Did this paper meal inspire you in any way? Do you feel gayer? What was .... what was going through your head when you decided a 1980-1990s compendium of lesbian and bisexual comics was gonna be your next meal? Do you do this a lot? Are you single?? Anyways.

[N. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, the only comic that I really enjoyed was the first one--the rest were mostly mediocre, with a few exceptions. I scanned through all of them, but didn't have time to read the interviews. It's an incredibly old book, and I hope someone publishes another one soon (13 years old!). Until then, I'll just browse about on the internet for webcomics. Not a bad way to get acquainted with the community, but nothing special.

[mr. kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the Harvard Book Store! That's really all I have to say about this book, except it makes me laugh.

[Alexandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m giving this 5 stars not because I loved all the cartoons (I loved some, didn’t care as much for others) but because this is an incredible anthology of mostly lost 90s lesbian comic art. Yes, this is far from an up-to-date anthology, but it is a snapshot of this genre which was thriving in the 90s and has been pitifully and barely preserved. Loved loved LOVED.