DTWOF: The Blog

The blog has moved!

2006-05-17T22:55:00.000-05:00

Go to dykestowatchoutfor.com. I'm merging the blog with my website in a whole new package. Still a little buggy, but check it out.

Some Fun Home news

2006-05-10T09:19:00.000-05:00

An interview at AfterEllen.com. A rave at Buzz, Balls & Hype

Unstrung

2006-05-05T22:17:00.000-05:00

The UPS guy delivered a copy of my new book, “Fun Home” yesterday. In all my years of publishing books, I’ve never had a hardcover one. It’s pretty beautiful. The book designer and the cover designer did a very elegant job. I opened it with some trepidation, because whenever I look at a new book all I can see are the mistakes. And I did find one straight off, but it was a pretty minor continuity detail. I’m deeply pleased, but not elated, for some reason. I feel a bit like Mr. Earbrass, the protagonist of my favorite Edward Gorey book, The Unstrung Harp. When he spots a copy of his latest novel in the window of a bookseller’s, Mr. E. is overcome by “a state of extreme and pointless embarrassment.”

Episode 487

2006-05-04T08:56:00.000-05:00

A most grateful tip o' the nib to Nichael Cramer, who has kindly posted the enlarged artwork in a pan-browser friendly version. To see the large-print comic strip, click here.. This episode is based on an incident that actually happened in a town near where I live in Vermont.

driving around new england

2006-04-27T22:27:00.000-05:00

Man! 88 comments on that last post...I haven't even had time to read through them all yet. But thank you. I'm a bit crazed. I was out on the road again this week, which I meant to announce before I left, but of course didn't have time for and now my laptop has croaked, making everything infinitely more difficult. I talked about my comic strip at Wesleyan University Tuesday evening. That's where I took this picture. And here's Ben Sachs-Hamilton, a student at Wesleyan who I've known since he was a little kid. Interesting milestone: I've now officially been drawing this comic strip for longer than college students have been alive. I forgot to take a picture at Mt. Holyoke last night because I was having so much fun. This morning I had breakfast in Northampton, MA with Hilary Price. She does the excellent comic strip Rhymes With Orange. Here's Hilary working on the drawing we did together.

Latest Episode, #486

2006-04-22T14:18:00.000-05:00

Jeez, I finished this almost two weeks ago, and forgot to post it. I'm used to washing my hands of a strip once I've emailed it off to the newspapers, so it's hard to remember that now I still have to put it online. Here's the large print version for people without bionic eyesight. Episode 487 will go up on May 3. Okay, what do people think of this possible revenue scenario: for a modest subscription fee, I email you the strips as soon as they're done. That means you'd see them when they're still fresh, and the current events they touch on are not yet yesterday's news. Then I'd delay posting them online for a month or so--that way people who can't afford to pay could still read them eventually, and people who pay could have steaming hot episodes delivered right to their in-box. What do you think of that? What about a dollar an episode? Is that reasonable? It's a biweekly strip. so that's two bucks a month. Hey, and what about this? The email version could be like HBO. I could leave all the swear words in, and perhaps even have occasional frontal nudity. Instead of the #@&*'s and artful drapery that I employ in the newspaper version.

Spring

2006-04-21T22:59:00.000-05:00

Don't worry, I won't start inflicting my home movies on you. But this evening I was out walking in the woods and heard a thrush sing, and I got this idea for a short video. Whenever I hear the first thrush of the season, I think of a line from Gerard Manley Hopkins' poem "Spring," which my friend Sarah Van Arsdale taught me years ago. It perfectly captures the piercing flutelike song. So I typed the line into iMovie as separate titles, then imported a short audio clip I'd recorded last year--for which I didn't even use a mike, I just took my laptop out in the woods. And voilà! It's like a cartoon, but with a soundtrack instead of drawings.

our books, our shelves

2006-04-20T19:37:00.000-05:00

Does it make sense for bookstores to put graphic memoirs about war, cancer, and domestic violence on the same shelf as Batman? An article in today's Philadelphia Enquirer ponders this searching question, and in the process makes a brief mention of my forthcoming book "Fun Home."

Telling serious stories through cartooning is not novel, of course. Art Spiegelman's Maus, about his father's experiences during the Holocaust, won a Pulitzer Prize in 1992. And Persepolis, by Marjane Satrapi, about a girl's life in Iran during the Islamic revolution, came out in 2003 and has become required reading for cadets at West Point. "But what is new is that now graphic memoirs are beginning to show up on the lists of traditional publishers' releases," says Calvin Reid, an editor at Publishers Weekly who specializes in comics. In other words, the big boys of the book world have come to comics and, Reid says, that is likely to change how graphic literature is shelved in bookstores, marketed by publishers, and, ultimately, received by the public. In March, Abrams Image published Mom's Cancer by Web cartoonist Brian Fies, and this month, Harper Paperbacks will release Cancer Made Me a Shallower Person by Miriam Engelberg. Houghton Mifflin will release Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel, about her closeted gay father, in June, and in September, Knopf will launch Cancer Vixen: A True Story, by New Yorker cartoonist Marisa Acocella Marchetto. "Bookstores have embraced graphic novels, but until now they've stayed in the graphic novel section, alongside science fiction and supernatural stories," says David Roth-Ey, editorial director of Harper Perennial Paperbacks. "I think Cancer Made Me a Shallower Person will be put in the health section, and that's a first for us. This could be a new wave."

videoblogging

2006-04-18T19:13:00.000-05:00

Okay, I'm just hurling myself into a whole new technological plane here. This is a short video of me working on my graphic novel "Fun Home" last summer, and explaining a little bit about my peculiar obsessive-compulsive process. Video shot by Amy Rubin.

Queer Comics exhibit in San Francisco

2006-04-15T23:10:00.000-05:00

Queer_Comics
Originally uploaded by Alison Bechdel.

If you're gonna be in Frisco between now and June 22, check out this great exhibit at the Cartoon Art Museum. There's work by Craig Bostick (Go-Go Girl), Paige Braddock (Jane's World), Tim Fish (Cavalcade of Boys, Strugglers), Leanne Franson (Liliane, Bi-Dyke), David Kelly (Steven's Comics), Robert Kirby (Curbside, Boy Trouble), Ariel Schrag (Potential), Jennifer Camper (Rude Girls and Dangerous Women, subGURLZ), Tristan Crane with Ted Naifeh (How Loathsome), Diane DiMassa (Hothead Paisan), Roberta Gregory (Bitchy Bitch), Justin Hall (Glamazonia, The Uncanny SuperTranny), Eric Orner (The Mostly Unfabulous Social Life of Ethan Green), Eric Shanower (Age of Bronze) and David Wojnarowicz with James Romberger and Marguerite Van Cook (Seven Miles a Second).

The show will also feature "individual spotlights" on yours truly and Howard Cruse, creator of the series Wendel and the award-winning graphic novel Stuck Rubber Baby.

cavalcade o'guys

2006-04-11T23:16:00.000-05:00

I went down to White River Junction today to hear a panel discussion with Chris Ware, Seth, and Ivan Brunetti at the Center for Cartoon Studies. I forgot my camera so I had to draw. Here's Seth. And Chris Ware. And Ivan Brunetti. And James Sturm, the director of the school.

Episode 485

2006-04-07T13:55:00.000-05:00

Here's the latest strip, hosted on Flickr again until I get something better figured out. Apologies to everyone whose browsers won't enable them to read it. Soon, one way or another, I'll have a functional setup for everyone.

Smith College

2006-03-31T10:48:00.000-05:00

burrito
Originally uploaded by Alison Bechdel.

I spoke last night at Smith, for I think the fourth time in my career. God, I love that place. I meant to take a picture of the campus, or the audience, but I was so frazzled I didn't even remember I had my camera with me until after it was all over and I was getting a burrito to eat on my drive back home from MA to VT. Thus this irrelevant photo in the burrito shop.

But what a great audience those Smithies were! They laughed at everything and indulged my discursive pointy-headedness. The student who brought me discovered my work on PlanetOut when she was ten. Ten! Every time I go back to Smith College, I'm a thousand years older. But the students are all still ten. Well, maybe twenty.

Before my presentation I had a lovely visit with my friend Susan Stinson. We talked about writing and she let me ride her awesome trike around campus in the lovely spring afternoon.
When did I start bandying about the word "awesome" like this? I'm sorry to contribute to its utter devaluation by overusage. But Susan's trike really did inspire awe.

Update on the new site

2006-03-28T14:56:00.000-05:00

I have a new, more integrated website in the works and am continuing to strategize about the best way to make the strip available online. Thank you so much to everyone who’s been begging to give me money—I could weep. One person actually just mailed me a check for $30! You might very well get a chance to dispose of some of your hard-won cash here soon. It’s looking like I’m going to go with a subscription-model site—though rest assured that if I do, there will be some kind of sliding scale. But I’m also exploring the possibility of hosting the strip on Advocate.com. They approached me about this, but I’m not exactly clear yet on how it would work, or if it’s something I want to get into. It would mean the strip would remain available for free, but on their site and with ads. Sorry to everyone who’s having trouble with the Flickr image of the last episode. It sounds like that’s a browser issue, and I’m not going to bother sorting it out just yet because it was just a temporary solution anyway. And here are direct links to episodes 481 and 482 on PlanetOut in case you missed them.

Experiment

2006-03-14T09:11:00.000-05:00

I know this isn't the best way to do this, but I'm just experimenting with using Flickr to post the strip. Here's the latest episode, hot off the drawing board. To go to a larger, legible version, click here.

Steal This Book

2006-03-05T21:52:00.000-05:00

My friend Judith Levine just wrote this kick-ass book about the year she spent not buying anything. It's smart, radical, hilarious, and beautifully written. But don't take my word for it. Barbara Ehrenreich says, "“With great wit and spirit, Judith Levine tackles a profound question: Why do we buy and what do we get out of it? Clue: the answer is not just things. Outside the marketplace, the author travels from Simplicity self-help meetings to the terrorism marketplace, from confrontations with private longing to celebrations of the public good—and from consumer to citizen. If you have to do without, or just want to do with less, Levine is the person to do it with.” If you live in New York, catch Judith reading on March 14 at 7pm at McNally Robinson Booksellers, 50 Prince Street (between Lafayette and Mulberry) (212) 274-1160. Or in Brooklyn on March 23 at 7:30pm, Barnes & Noble Park Slope, 267 Seventh Avenue (at Sixth Street) (718) 832-9066

Slacker

2006-03-03T17:52:00.000-05:00

I’m sorry, but because of my February jaunt to the UK I was too busy to do new strips for this month. I sent out “archive” episodes from 1996, featuring Toni and Clarice in happier times. I don’t know if PlanetOut will bother posting them. Here’s a little glimpse. It was a good month not have to follow the news, though. Is the world hurtling hellward even faster than usual, or is it just me? At any rate, I’m back at the drawing board trying to make sense of it all, and will have fresh comics soon.

Mo' Mo

2006-03-01T11:03:00.000-05:00

Thanks, everyone, for the huge response to my last post. I’m really grateful for all your thoughtful, practical, and supportive comments. You’ve helped me to clarify my thinking about DTWOF online, and now I’m getting all excited about it. There was a gratifying consensus that PlanetOut sucks and we’re all better off without them. There were several good examples of other comics sites that I might want to model mine on. There were lots of suggestions about how to generate income from the site. And there was a lively debate on print media vs. the web. Much as I love newsprint, and much as I’m indebted to the LGBT press, the media landscape is changing. I see web delivery of the strip as supplementing print readership, not eroding it. I also think that hosting the strip myself, rather than trying to find another web publication to carry it, makes much more financial sense in the long run. I already have a strong community of readers, why not ~~exploit them~~ interact with them directly? I could make a really great site. I’d like to integrate this blog with the strip more, for example. And I’ll find a way to put up a neater, higher-res version of the artwork than PlanetGout did. The big challenges are time and money. I made about $350 a month from PlanetOut, which I really need to find a way to recoup. Blog ads don’t sound worth the bother. People seemed pretty positive about the idea of paying for subscriptions, but I need to think about this some more. I’m less reluctant than I used to be about paying for online content—I can’t bring myself to pay for Salon, for example, but for some reason I shell out for the NY Times. The bigger cost to me will be the time it’ll take to set up and administer the site. I’m already working constantly, and I’d rather be drawing than fiddling with a website. But I’ll figure it out. I’m definitely moving forward with this, and would love to keep getting your input.

No more Dykes on PlanetOut

2006-02-24T00:01:00.000-05:00

I just got the news that PlanetOut, currently the only source for Dykes online, is dropping the strip. I don't know why. I assume it's some sort of fallout from their acquisition last fall of LPI media, which has made them the “World's Largest Gay Media Company.” I'm surprised. I thought I got pretty decent traffic. I've been thinking for a while now about hosting the strip on my own site, and I guess the time has come. I'll keep you posted as I figure out how I'm going to go about this. And I'd love to hear any suggestions anyone has, particularly about ways to cover the cost.

Wild Dick Cheney

2006-02-13T09:28:00.000-05:00

Ah, it's good to be back in the States. If those pansy Brits had a vice president, I doubt that he'd ever have shot anyone.

Baby

2006-02-13T09:06:00.000-05:00

My erstwhile assistant Cathy Resmer and her partner just had their baby! Astonishing. Um...guess maybe it's time to take Cathy's name off the blog, now that she has better things to do.

UK Scheming

2006-02-11T09:46:00.000-05:00

My “associate fellowship scheme” at the University of Kent’s Centre for Law, Gender, and Sexuality is over, and I’m heading back to the States. It did feel like a scheme, as if I was impersonating someone who knew what they were talking about. My favorite part of the experience was getting my own office for a week. I never get to go to an office, or have colleagues. It was a novel sensation. Academics would drop by and ask if they could take me for a cup of tea. (I think I may have tea-poisoning.) They would want to discuss things like the auto-immunity of democracy, or the sociology of risk, or discrimination within the queer anti-discrimination movement, or whether constitutionality is law or politics. I sipped my tea. Here I am teaching a cartooning workshop to some legal scholars. That’s Emily Grabham on the right, who made the whole Scheme happen. And in London last week, I took part in a roundtable discussion with UK cartoonists Kate Evans, Kate Charlesworth, and Suzy Varty, moderated by Carol Bennett, who has run the comics distributor Knockabout for over 20 years. This was jointly presented by the Kent Centre and the Cartoon Museum Trust. I got a tour of the Cartoon Museum, which is frantically under construction and set to open later this month in a great space near the British Museum. Along with their permanent collection, which includes comic art from Hogarth and Cruikshank to superhero stuff, they’ll have a shop and gallery and classes. Amid the chaos of workers putting up sheetrock and wiring, cartoonists were working on a mural. Here's Martin Rowson recreating a famous old British cartoon by James Gillray about William Pitt and Napoleon carving up the world like a plum pudding. Above this is a cartoon of Bush as Adam, with Tony Blair as his figleaf.

The Danish Cartoon Row

2006-02-10T09:51:00.000-05:00

I’m still in the UK, where it’s been a very exciting time for cartoons. I don’t know how much play this story has gotten in the US, but it’s been in the headlines here for over a week. Muslims all over the world have been protesting a series of cartoons about Mohammed published by a Danish newspaper. It’s all very complicated, and if you want the whole story, the Guardian has a comprehensive special report The gist is that the cartoons were commissioned as part of a debate about freedom of speech in a climate where the press has felt a certain amount of fear and self-censorship around critiquing Islam. In 2004, a Dutch filmmaker who’d just made a film about violence against women in Islamic culture was murdered by a fanatic, and it’s had a predictably chilling effect on discourse. The cartoons were actually published last September, but it took a while for the protests to build up steam. First the newspaper refused to apologize, then the government stepped in and apologized after Muslims called for boycotts of Danish products. It escalated last week with increasingly violent protests from Europe to Iraq to Indonesia. Danish embassies have been set on fire, and yesterday four demonstrators were killed in Afghanistan. But there’s some question about whether the cartoons were deliberately provocative, or an earnest effort at opening a dialogue. No one was reprinting them, for obvious reasons, so it took me a while to see what the fuss was all about. Then the Guardian posted this link to them on Wikipedia. Some are tame, some are offensive, most are mediocre. but part of the problem is that in Islam, you’re not supposed to show ANY visual images of the prophet. So negative images are exponentially offensive. Ted Rall has a good column about the ensuing diplomatic crisis on the Common Dreams site. He quotes a Kuwaiti oil executive who says, “America kills thousands of Muslims, and you lose your head and withdraw ambassadors over a bunch of cartoons printed in a second-rate paper in a Nordic country with a population of five million? That’s the true outrage.”

The Night Watch

2006-02-03T14:18:00.000-05:00

Last night I went to the launch party for Sarah Waters’ new book, The Night Watch. Yes, strictly speaking, that has nothing to do with my comic strip. But it has something to do with lesbian culture, so I don’t think I’m going too far afield to mention it here. It was cool to see ads for the book in the Tube. The novel takes place during and just after World War Two, so the launch was a costume party, “forties attire optional.” People wore amazing things. Old WAC and RAF uniforms, vintage dresses and suits and hats. Sarah’s book is stunning, even more gripping, in my most humble opinion, than Tipping the Velvet, Affinity, or Fingersmith, which is saying quite a lot. You should read it as soon as possible. This is my girlfriend Amy Rubin with Sarah Waters and our pal Helen Sandler. These women were kids during the war, and advised Sarah as she was writing the book. This is my girlfriend, me, and our friend Jane Hoy, looking very queenlike. The book launch was held in the Cabinet War Rooms at the Churchill Museum in London, the nerve center from which Churchill directed the war. That's why there are all those important looking gauges and levers and things in the background.

London in black and white

2006-02-03T09:15:00.000-05:00

The south side of St. Paul’s is being repaired, so they’ve got this massive tarp up that’s printed with an antique drawing or etching of the building, for a sort of trompe l’oeil effect. It’s weirdly cartoony. Here’s a self-portrait I took of me looking at a Franz Kline painting in the Tate Modern, before I was accosted by a guard and told to stop taking photographs. I’ve never been big on painting, but I love Franz Kline’s black-on-white stuff because it looks like ink on paper. There’s an installation up in the Tate Modern’s vast turbine hall called “Embankment.” It’s stacks and stacks of these translucent plastic boxes. That’s me on the left looking up at the biggest pile.

My Morning at the BBC

2006-02-01T18:30:00.000-05:00

I've had quite a busy day in Londontown. It began with an interview on the Woman's Hour on BBC Radio 4. I didn't know what a fancy important show this was until after it was over. I was on for about five minutes, between the director of that film about the women iron range workers, North Country, and a lovely woman who'd just written a novel about chronic fatigue syndrome. They made me draw a cartoon about my BBC experience for their website (click 'photo gallery'). You can also listen to the very brief interview there. I did a lot of other exciting, blogworthy things today but I'm too tired to write about them now. It's time for bed.

wands and nibs in London

2006-01-30T13:22:00.000-05:00

This morning I went to an art supply store on Great Russell Street, which looked like the wand shop in Harry Potter, lined from floor to ceiling with rows and rows of mysterious black drawers labeled in gold lettering. I spent £15 on a selection of Gillot pen nibs, which I can never find in the US. Edward Gorey used Gillot nibs, a kind that he referred to as “tit quills,” but the ones I got didn’t have exotic names, just numbers. I also got a very appealing mini eraser. I have an eraser fetish.
I also went to the British Museum, which was great fun. The other museum-goers were wildly international and hardly anyone was speaking English. So if people were saying trite, annoying things, I couldn’t tell. Indeed, I was suffused with an uncharacteristic wave of philanthropic feeling. Here’s a mummified Egyptian hand, with my live hand in the foreground. An Italian couple in black cowboy hats was kissing obstreperously in front of this exhibit, but because they were doing it in Italian, I didn’t mind. I saw the fragments of sculpture from the Parthenon that Lord Elgin ripped off from Greece in the early 19th century. The British Museum’s line is, at least he protected the stuff from further damage. And the pieces were so stunning that I’m inclined to agree. Here’s a close-up of a centaur’s elbow. Look at that vein over his bicep, and that crease of skin in the crook of his arm!

Going to England

2006-01-26T23:20:00.000-05:00

Sorry I haven’t been posting. My longtime and esteemed assistant Cathy Resmer recently left my employ because her partner is about to have a baby any second now. Cathy would always remind me to put something on the blog. She was my blog prod. Without her prods, I nod. Also, I’ve been recovering from my own recent delivery of a massive, 240 page graphic novel to my publisher, after seven years of labor. No big loss, though, because there hasn’t been much to report. But now I’m going to the UK for two weeks, as part of something called an Associate Fellowship Scheme with the University of Kent’s Research Centre for Law, Gender, and Sexuality. See? I’m also doing a roundtable with some other cartoonists in London, a joint event with the Kent Centre and the Cartoon Museum. I’ll try to blog from the road. I like blogging while traveling, because all the fuss about finding internet access and downloading photos and keeping my devices charged fills up that annoying empty time that I would otherwise spend relaxing and observing the world around me.

Finishing Fun Home

2005-11-26T13:36:00.000-05:00

finishing Fun Home
Originally uploaded by Alison Bechdel.

This is Cathy writing, using Alison's flickr account. I just snapped this photo of her putting the finishing touches on her graphic memoir.

"I'm shading the line art with ink wash," she explains.

Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic has its own entry on Medusa.com — er, Amazon — though it's not coming out until next spring. Alison's hoping to finish work on it in the next week. She's been slaving over it in her basement for six years now, so this is a real milestone. Alison also wants me to add that she's unnerved by the premature Amazon link, seeing as how she's not actually done with the book yet.

She'll be taking a short break on Wednesday night to do her slideshow presentation at the University of Vermont — 5 p.m. in Memorial Lounge, Waterman. Stop by if yer in town!

thai food in texas

2005-11-06T11:16:00.000-05:00

elisa durrette, annette lawrence, me, and sharon bridgforth
Originally uploaded by Alison Bechdel.

On Thursday and Friday I was back in Texas for a seminar at the University of North Texas called "Developing Multicultural Leaders: Women who are Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender and their Allies." For some reason, the words “leadership” and “multicultural” make my mind go blank, but I had a good time and met lots of nice people. Thursday evening I did a slide show about my cartoons, and the poet/performance artist Sharon Bridgforth read from her work. She was rather awe-inspiring. I had read some of her stuff before, but in performance it took on a whole other dimension. There was an interesting conversation with the audience afterward, about how Sharon and I both work with words, but in Sharon’s case there’s the additional medium of sound, and in my case, of visuals. This was facilitated by UNT art professor Annette Lawrence.

I’ve always had a chip on my shoulder about fine art, which is too complicated to go into here, but I think meeting Annette may have finally disabused me of this attitude. She talked about her art in an unpretentious, matter-of-fact, yet passionate way that was riveting. She does monumental installations--with string!

After the presentation, I went out for Thai food with Sharon, Annette, and their writer/business consultant/young-genius friend Elisa Durrette. God, that was fun. A person could get attached to this crazy outside-the-basement lifestyle.

A Mighty Fortress Indeed

2005-10-30T23:15:00.000-05:00

This morning I went to church! I was invited to do a book signing at a big LGBT church in Dallas, the Cathedral of Hope. Frankly, as a godless heathen recovering Catholic crypto-Buddhist, I was a little apprehensive. But boy, did I get my blue state socks blown off. First of all, I haven’t seen such a huge, diverse crowd of gay people all in one place since…well, since the Halloween parade the night before. But here they were all sober and fully clothed. This place is amazing. It’s a buzzing hive of activity. There’s a bookstore, there are people tabling about the state anti-gay marriage amendment, there’s a Day of the Dead altar with candles and skeletons, there’s a whole kids’ wing, there’s a choir and musicians and big video screens and the joint is packed. Four hundred at the early service, six hundred at the later one. Plus they have a very politicized, progressive mission. As it says in their bulletin, “Jesus was the ultimate liberal.” I hung out for a while as the first crowd left and the second one assembled. In between meeting lots of lovely people and signing books, I looked on slack-jawed at the stunning spectacle of community. Then I stayed for the beginning of the second service. And when the processional began, with people in robes and the organ booming and the stained glass and everyone singing “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God,” I was ready to crawl to the altar. The pastor was very moving. She talked about the church as a refuge from the busy activity of our daily lives, and from our inevitable suffering, and I almost wept. I think the guy next to me DID weep. At the end of the Lord’s Prayer, he definitely gave his boyfriend a loud kiss. Then I had to leave for the airport, and in the lobby I ran into Lucie Blue Tremblay, who was there to promote The Breast Exam Project. Who knew that all this stuff was going on? I have to get out more.

Doing Dallas

2005-10-29T18:59:00.000-05:00

lovely librarians
Originally uploaded by Alison Bechdel.

This afternoon I did a slide show at the Dallas Public Library about my cartoons. And now I’m blogging about it. Because I can. I was part of an LGBT authors series that the library produces. Here’s Karyn and Leonardo, two of the lovely librarians who made the event happen. Here’s Nicole, who gave me this hand-painted Texas flag on recycled barnboard. After my presentation I went and signed books at the Crossroads Café, where I met this lovely gentleman in the poodle skirt and had a nice time hanging out and talking to people. It’s Halloween here, and I’m staying in the gay neighborhood. There’s some kind of giant parade/block party explosion about to happen. It’s not quite dark yet but the streets are barricaded off, thundering bass emanates from a sound system somewhere, and there are portable toilets everywhere. Looks like it should be a good time.

Alison Does Dallas

2005-10-25T14:59:00.000-05:00

Attention DTWOF fans deep in the heart of Texas: Alison will be in Dallas this weekend and next. On Saturday, Oct. 29, she'll be speaking at the Oak Lawn Branch Library from 2-4 p.m. Afterwards, she'll be doing a booksigning for Invasion of the Dykes To Watch Out For at Crossroads Market Bookstore and Cafe. On Sunday, October 30, she's doing a signing from 10:15-11:30 at Cathedral of Hope. Then, on November 3-4, she's appearing at the University of North Texas, where she'll be speaking at a seminar called "Developing Multicultural Leaders: Woman who are Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender and their Allies." The keynote speaker at that conference is none other than Lupe Valdez. Never heard of her? Here's a snippet about Valdez from an article in Salon.com: In an upset brought about by local scandal, demographic evolution and personal chutzpah, Lupe Valdez, the daughter of a Mexican immigrant farmworker, became the first-ever Democrat and woman to head the county's sole law enforcement office, which includes Texas' second largest city. "Since I won, every time I go to a Democratic meeting, they go crazy," Valdez, 57, told the New York Times. The story's sub-head also notes that the pioneering copper is a lesbian. But you Texans probably already know that.

Plamegate, for visual learners

2005-10-25T08:50:00.000-05:00

If, like me, you’re having a little trouble wrapping your mind around the details of this case, here’s a very educational illustrated account.

My pal Phranc

2005-10-19T13:13:00.000-05:00

also known as the Cardboard Cobbler, is artist of the day at Gothtober.com. Open up the October 19th door to see her animated cardboard sailor suit, and listen to her song “The Handsome Cabin Boy.” It loaded kind of slow for me, but was well worth the wait.

Me blathering on and on

2005-10-17T12:31:00.000-05:00

This woman Kerrie from the excellent lesbian blog Hothouse interviewed me last week about my new book. Alarmingly, she seems to have written down everything I said, and quite accurately. If you have several hours to kill, check out the interview.

New book

2005-10-02T08:39:00.000-05:00

Well, Invasion of the Dykes to Watch Out For is hot off the press. I'm holding a lovely, inky smelling copy in my hands, but a cursory search of the web indicates that it's not on the shelves yet. Nor, inexplicably, is it on my publisher Alyson Books' website. But hopefully it will be soon. If you've been following the strip recently, you will have learned that both Toni and Sydney have engaged in some extramarital activities at some indefinite point in the recent past. If you'd like to see the very definite details of their indiscretions, you have to buy my book! Isn't that a clever marketing device? I rather thought so.

Alison at Burlington Literary Fest

2005-09-20T13:29:00.000-05:00

Alison's immersed in work again, so I'm stepping in to toot her horn, if you will. Those of you who live in the Burlington area (that's Burlington, Vermont, not Burlington Iowa — sorry, corn huskers!) might want to check out the Burlington Literary Festival this weekend. It's happening Friday through Sunday, and features readings and workshops with Galway Kinnell, Russell Banks, and a host of local literati. Alison's speaking on a panel on Saturday night with New Yorker cartoonist Harry Bliss, and cartoonist L.J. Kopf. I think she's also going to be signing some newly released copies of Invasion of the Dykes To Watch Out For, the 11th DTWOF book. The official release date is Oct. 1, but Alison should have some copies available Saturday night.

Bless this

2005-09-07T07:12:00.000-05:00

If you’re inexplicably reluctant to send hurricane relief donations to Pat Robertson’s “Operation Blesssing,” as FEMA has suggested, or bushclintonkatrinafund.org or even the Red Cross (like my mom, who’s still mad at them for planning to use some of the money they collected after 9/11 for other purposes), check out the Sparkplug Foundation’s site. It lists grassroots community organizations that would probably make better use of your money, though of course I can’t guarantee that. Thanks to Susie Day for letting me know about this.

George Bush doesn’t care about black people

2005-09-05T09:50:00.000-05:00

That’s what rapper Kanye West said on the NBC hurricane benefit concert Friday night. This was a departure from the approved script, and his comments were axed from the west coast broadcast, but to anyone who wasn’t stranded on a desert island last week, or similarly insulated from reality, like, say, by being the homeland security secretary or the Director of FEMA, West was only stating the obvious. It was interesting to watch the national conversation evolve during the week. First no one mentioned the fact that the people abandoned in New Orleans were overwhelmingly African-American. Then gradually there was an acknowledgment that class was a factor—people were stranded because they had no cars or other resources to get out of town. Then by the end of the week, race started being mentioned openly in the mainstream media. I haven’t been able to bring myself to monitor Fox News, but Frank Rich reports that even Bill O’Reilly was forced to acknowledge the truth by Thursday night. Unfortunately, we can’t blame this horrific social collapse solely on George Bush. We live in a deeply racist society, and openly acknowledging that fact is the first step toward changing it. I know we all have quantum-particle-sized attention spans these days, but I don’t think the Republicans will manage to sweep the shameful Katrina fallout under the rug anytime soon. Not even with Bush’s ridiculous distraction ploy of nominating of John Roberts for chief justice.

Thanks for the incisive commentary...

2005-09-05T09:40:00.000-05:00

...that followed my Holy Shit post.

PlanetOut is like two episodes behind with my strip

2005-09-05T09:36:00.000-05:00

Sorry about that. I don't know what's going on.

Holy Shit

2005-09-01T12:58:00.000-05:00

Well, don’t I feel presidential, rhapsodizing about my Town Car ride while the entire Gulf Coast was sinking into unimaginable chaos? Could something constructive possibly come of this not-so-natural disaster? A tidal wave of get-the-fucking-national-guard-home-now and fucking-stop-global-warming-while-you’re-at-it sentiment washing the Bushcons out to sea without a paddle?

My big day

2005-08-31T08:32:00.000-05:00

I’ve been working for the past six years on a graphic memoir about my father. Houghton Mifflin is publishing it in the spring, and they flew me to NYC yesterday for a meeting. I’ve quite literally been sitting in my basement working on this project since 1999, except for one day a week when I go out for necessities like groceries and therapy. So turbopropping to Manhattan was a change of pace, to say the least. The assistant director of publicity, Whitney, and her assistant, Michael, took me to lunch at the Union Square Café. Here they are in front of the restaurant. I had to be told that this was a very trendy destination. My lunch was lovely (see photo), but I was much more impressed by the fact that Whitney turns out to be the daughter of Clyde Peeling, of the eponymous Clyde Peeling's Reptiland--a major local attraction in central Pennsylvania, where I grew up. After dining, we had a meeting with the Marketing and Publicity directors. One guy attended from the Boston office via video conference. Unnervingly futuristic, but in an oddly comforting glitch, he was all out of focus. After the meeting I was whisked off in a Town Car to the photographer’s studio. Until now, I have never understood Americans’ automotive fetishism. But I could live in that leather-upholstered thing. If it weren't a root cause of terrorism. Here I am with Greg, the photographer, on Bleecker Street. Spent a grueling 4 hours posing for my book jacket photo, then another Town Car back to LaGuardia. It was quite a day. Now I’m in my basement again, with 34 pages of the memoir left to ink in soothing, rustic solitude.

The Rule

2005-08-16T13:37:00.000-05:00

This is Cathy writing, not Alison, despite what the author tag says. Julie from Portland, OR, kindly emailed us to let us know that lefty blogs like Pandagon have been discussing the Mo Movie Measure a film-going concept that originated in an early DTWOF strip, circa 1985. We were excited to hear that someone still remembers this 20-year-old chestnut. But alas, the principle is misnamed. It appears in "The Rule," a strip found on page 22 of the original DTWOF collection. Mo actually doesn't appear in DTWOF until two years later. Her first strip can be found half-way through More DTWOF. Alison would also like to add that she can't claim credit for the actual "rule." She stole it from a friend, Liz Wallace, whose name is on the marquee in the comic strip, reprinted below.

Trademark This Part II

2005-07-19T13:00:00.000-05:00

The folks at the National Center for Lesbian Rights sent us a copy of the 2004 decision denying Dykes on Bikes' motion for reconsideration. Apparently, the US Patent and Trademark office has concluded that the word dyke is "considered vulgar, offensive and/or disparaging" and is therefore unacceptable as part of a trademark. For proof, they attached some links to online dictionaries, and to a list of Spanish to English slang that includes the word "dyke." The list also tells you how to say lots of other useful things in Spanish, such as "cunt," "asslicker" and "69." So bizarre that this is part of a government document! But did anybody think to check Google? Type in the word dyke and this is what you get. The first thing on there is a site called Classic Dykes, "a cybernetwork for lesbians in midlife and beyond." The other links relating to lesbians on the first page are all gay sites, like one for the Dynamo Dykes volleyball team in the UK. And the sponsor ads that pop up are all personals ads for people seeking "womyn" like them. Presumably, womyn who call themselves dykes. Google is a much more credible arbiter than some wackjob list of translations.

DTWOF: gURL's love it

2005-07-19T11:33:00.000-05:00

Got an email recently from someone at gURL.com pointing out a mini-review of DTWOF on the site. According to their bio page, "gURL is a different approach to being a teenage girl," geared toward girls 13 and up. Which means that you can find a positive review of DTWOF and other comics, like Ariel Shrag's Potential, and you can find fast facts about abortion, abstinence, acne, dry humping, orgasms, etc. You can even get tips on hair removal methods. Yep, this is the newly plucked face of feminism. Here's what they have to say about DTWOF: "Alison Bechdel creates a tiny perfect world in her drawings, jam-packed with visual jokes and characters who grow up over time. When we say it's like watching TV, we mean that in the best possible way." Go figure.

Trademark this

2005-07-15T17:26:00.000-05:00

The San Francisco Dykes on Bikes organization has been trying to register their name with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and recently got their second rejection. The delicate sensibilities of these patent pinheads are offended by the word "dyke," despite the best efforts of the National Center for Lesbian Rights to explain it to them. The NCLR got a bunch of activists, scholars, and linguists, including yours truly, (I'm not sure which of those three categories I fall under, though I have been told I'm good with my tongue) to submit declarations outlining the evolution and significance of the word “dyke,” but to no avail. For what it’s worth, “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy” had no problem registering their name. Here’s a SF Chronicle article explaining the whole irksome affair in more detail.

Um...checking her for deer ticks?

2005-07-14T22:36:00.000-05:00

I just got this email from a reader: "My 3 year old loves your strip. Unfortunately for him, his prudish parents agree we're not ready to be answering questions like 'what is Mo doing to Harriet's vagina?'" This thoughtful person went on to suggest that I might want to consider doing a series called Children of Lesbians and Gays to Watch Out For, presumably G-rated.

Tease

2005-07-01T13:45:00.000-05:00

madeleine
Originally uploaded by Alison Bechdel.

Here's a sneak preview of Madeleine (speaking to Sydney) from the next Dykes book due out in October. Thanks to Amazon.com's hellish spirit of unceasing industry, they already have Invasion of the Dykes To Watch Out For listed on their site. But don't order it from them. Order it from an independent bookstore like Powells.com, which is so mellow they don't have the cover art up yet.

Blast from the past

2005-06-22T13:28:00.000-05:00

Alison's up to her eyeballs in her graphic novel right now, so she didn't write any new strips this month. Instead, she sent two archive episodes to the newspapers (and the website) that publish DTWOF. She chose two strips she thought might help put current events — like recent mentions of "Madeleine" — in context. So this month you can re-read #222 ("Indiscreet," 1995) and #252 ("The Trouble With Sydney," 1996). Both appeared in the tantalizingly titled Hot, Throbbing Dykes To Watch Out For, and neither is available online, at least until Planet Out puts them up. Guess you'll just have to buy the book. Or read 'em in the newspaper like in the olden days.

Kudos from Harvey Pekar

2005-06-14T10:50:00.000-05:00

I love seeing Alison embrace the whole blogging thing — you'll notice she's written every post for the past couple of months. I'm only butting in again because I want to point out that she got mentioned in this article about graphic novels in Sunday's Cleveland Plain Dealer. Thanks to an alert reader for the tip. The story revolves around a panel discussion on graphic novels. Here's the relevant exchange: [It] attracted acolytes and skeptics, alongside hundreds of booksellers who lined the walls and scrunched onto the floor... Frank Miller, the macho creator of "Sin City," made a dramatic late entrance, anointed by applause. Cleveland's Harvey Pekar hunched and held forth in an orange T-shirt from one end of the table....First question: Why no women on the panel? Charles Burns, author of "Black Hole," a graphic novel that mines his own tortured adolescence, pulled the microphone to his chin. "Some of my best friends are women," he offered, trying mild humor. The acolytes - young guys with backpacks who hang out in comic-book stores - thumped the rug in approval. "Alison Bechdel - she's one of the best, one to watch for," Pekar said. "Well, where is she?" grumbled the skeptics, young women in sleek black. Answer: she was at the Boston Dyke March.

dyke march

2005-06-12T21:23:00.000-05:00

dyke march
Originally uploaded by Alison Bechdel.

Well, I crawled out of my rural seclusion and went down to Boston for the Dyke March. (Waving like the queen is my girlfriend Amy on the right, our niece Lena in the pink pro-choice t-shirt, and Lena’s boyfriend Matthew in the middle.) I was rather startled, but pleasantly so, to find myself in such a multifarious crowd of lesbians and sundry lovely others. It’s been a long time since I’ve been to a big city march. I’ve grown so disaffected with the whole depoliticized, Bud-Lite Pride Parade scenario, but the Dyke March was a most refreshingly radical assembly.

I spoke after the march, and I think it went over okay, especially after the hulking Lesbian Avengers Discipline Team surrounded the mentally ill and/or drunk guy who was yelling, and distracted him. I talked about the whole marriage thing, and how if I had charted the progress of this civil rights movement, I wouldn’t have picked marriage to be the deciding issue in our attainment of legal and social equality. But now that it is, let’s keep fighting for it. But more importantly, once we get it, let’s not sit back and lapse into a coma of orthodoxy, but work to undermine the false equation of marriage with citizenship. No one should have to have a state-approved sex partner to be considered legitimate, or to get health insurance. I didn’t have any practical suggestions on how to go about this undermining, but I have no doubt that everyone in the crowd was already on the job.

Anyhow, it was very overstimulating and I met lots of nice people. One of them took a picture of my shoes for her website, female sneaker fiend.com. Scroll down to “Boston (Sneaker) Pride” and there I am.

Boston: Panties on a stick

2005-06-04T21:05:00.000-05:00

Come to the Boston Dyke March Friday June 10. I'll be speaking. About something coherent, I hope. Here's a recent article about the event from Bay Windows, the Boston LGBT paper.

On conservative turf

2005-05-25T09:54:00.000-05:00

SAF
Originally uploaded by Alison Bechdel.

Imagine my surprise when I saw David Horowitz’s name in my in-box the other night. He’s the once-radical-now-conservative force behind Students for Academic Freedom—an organization that is more or less to academic freedom what Bush’s Clear Skies Initiative is to reducing mercury emissions.

David was asking for permission to reprint a recent episode of my comic strip on the SAF website. It’s the one where the conservative student Cynthia is tabling for SAF, and Ginger, her professor, engages her in a little Socratic dialogue about the merits of teaching “theories” like creationism and holocaust denial. That episode was inspired by an excellent article called The New PC: Crybaby Conservatives in The Nation.

SAF is worried that the sizeable majority of college professors who are left-leaning democrats are indoctrinating their students by exposing them only to liberal ideas and not to conservative ones. Horowitz is also behind something called the ”academic bill of rights” which Republicans are introducing in various state legislatures. Here’s an informative piece on the Democracy Now! Site about how that effort is going down in Florida.

Anyhow, I told David Horowitz that absolutely, he could reprint my comic strip. And here it is on the SAF site. (Not sure how long they’ll keep it up—this is their home page, and they have a regular slot for a cartoon.)

I suppose that out of context like this, the strip could be read in such a way that Ginger appears to be the bad guy—for mocking Cynthia’s intellectual heroine, Ayn Rand. But I think that’s a small risk to run in the face of this opportunity for my comics to engage in a little Socratic dialogue of their own with Students for Academic Freedom. What do you think?

Here’s the strip in its own, cozy progressive context, should you care to peruse it.

Anyway, SAF is paying me a hundred bucks. I’m accepting suggestions on who to donate it to—preferably an organization that really is working to protect freedom of expression and promote intellectual honesty.

I'm speaking at the Boston Dyke March

2005-05-23T13:57:00.000-05:00

Friday June 10, 6pm, Boston Commons. They promise me there will be puppets, bikes, panties, boxers, and thongs. Come join the fray. For more info.

Hufu, the healthy human flesh alternative

2005-05-22T13:54:00.000-05:00

haddock
Originally uploaded by Alison Bechdel.

I thought an old college chum had rounded the bend when he told me he was going to start marketing a human-flavored meat substitute. But if there were an award for the most compelling realization of the most repugnant concept, www.eathufu.com would definitely be on the short list.

Gitmo Quran

2005-05-17T08:06:00.000-05:00

Damn that Newsweek! If only they’d stop telling people what was going on, we’d have world peace!

The good people of Ithaca

2005-05-12T08:34:00.000-05:00

It looks like Dykes To Watch Out For has been reinstated to The Buzz in Ithaca, thanks to some really great person who got a petition going. Heartfelt thanks to whoever that was, and everyone who signed.

Bearish

2005-05-05T14:24:00.000-05:00

bear damage
Originally uploaded by Alison Bechdel.

Bears tore down my birdfeeding setup last night. Can you see how they bent that cast-iron pipe? Man! The feeder itself is lying strewn across the lawn in many pieces. I know this has nothing to do with Dykes To Watch Out For, but I felt compelled to share it with you.

I am, therefore I blog.

DTWOF dropped in Ithaca NY

2005-05-03T13:18:00.000-05:00

I can’t say I was surprised recently when The Buzz, a weekly in Ithaca, dropped my strip. More surprising was the fact that the Gannett media conglomerate-owned paper wanted to pick it up in the first place. But they did. They ran it for a few months. And then the publisher decided to pull it. I've heard that 250 people have signed a petition to bring the strip back, which is great. But I’m wondering if maybe the Ithaca Times, the alternative weekly there, might be a better forum for a latte-sipping, Volvo-driving, New York Times-reading, left wing freak show comic strip about a bunch of lesbians. I e-mailed the editors of the Ithaca Times to suggest this, but inexplicably they have not yet replied. So if you’re an Ithacan, feel free to let the people at the Buzz know that you miss the strip (if indeed you do), or ask the Ithaca Times to pick it up. I’d really love for my work to continue to be available in Ithaca, especially since the erstwhile Ithaca-based Firebrand Books published my books for many years.

Sorry

2005-04-28T15:41:00.000-05:00

PlanetOut is behind in posting the strip. Episode 464, which is all about the judicial filibuster hullaballoo, should have gone up on April 21st, and they're still on 463. This frustrates me. It's hard enough keeping the strip timely when it only comes out every two weeks, and Jon Stewart has already made every possible joke there is to make before I even sit down to write. But to have it run a week or more late is maddening. That's all. Just had to vent. Thank god I have a blog, or I would have been doing something constructive in the ten minutes it took me to compose this.

DTWOF in the halls of academe

2005-04-12T13:40:00.000-05:00

Just found out that tomorrow, Allison J. Kelaher Young, a professor in the College of Education at Western Michigan University, is presenting a paper about Alison's comics during a panel at the American Educational Research Association conference in Montreal. The paper's called "Presentation of Self in Not-so-Everyday Comics: Curricular Implications of the Comics of Alison Bechdel," and it's part of a panel entitled, "The Performative Discourse of Identity in Queer Studies." This isn't actually the first time somebody's written a paper about Alison's work. We know of a few others, including "Humour in Alison Bechdel's Comics," a thesis penned by Finnish student Tuula Raikas in 1998. Anybody know of some we should add to our list? We also know that sometimes professors put Alison's books on their syllabi. Anybody ever take a class where they had to (got to) read DTWOF? I want to compile a list for posterity.

Sprechen sie Lesbisch?

2005-04-07T12:09:00.000-05:00

skipper magazine cover
Originally uploaded by Alison Bechdel.

I recently did an interview for a Swiss lesbian magazine called "Skipper." The interviewer translated my answers from English into German. One of her questions was, "With regard to the re-election of Mr. George W. Bush, I wish to extend my condolences to you and the entire homosexual community in the United States of America. Do you not get nervous and suffer sleepless nights in light of your continual criticism of the Republican Party?"

I answered, "Thank you for your condolences. Thank you, in fact, for letting an American sully the pages of your magazine. I would still rather believe that the election was rigged than that a majority of voters here are idiots, but either possibility is pretty horrifying. Surprisingly, I don't lose sleep. My comic strip is a very good catharsis for all my anxiety. Without that outlet, I would go start raving mad."

I just received the issue in the mail, and although I don't speak German, I could make out enough to tell that she'd deleted my comment about "letting an American sully the pages of your magazine." Maybe she thought I was joking.

Interview with a blogger

2005-04-05T09:09:00.000-05:00

Genia V. Stevens posts a new interview with Alison on her site, SistersTalk. Genia, a professional blogger, writes for Blogs By Women and for a site run by the The Wisconsin State Journal. Blogs by Women looks interesting. It's a directory of, you guessed it, blogs by women. Add your site for free. We're gonna add ours.

Bush Woman Dreaming

2005-03-17T13:05:00.000-05:00

More revealing fan art from bonnieslashfiend. I agree, that Cynthia sure is a compelling character. Check out the details of Cynthia's bedroom — Mel Gibson poster, crucifix, and a copy of Ann Coulter's Treason. Very dtwof-esque, indeed.

Say What?

2005-03-15T13:22:00.000-05:00

scene from Invasion
Originally uploaded by cresmer.

The last couple weeks, Alison's had me erasing her pencil sketches on the art for the long piece that appears in the back of DTWOF book 11, Invasion of the Dykes to Watch Out For. I use a special eraser that gets rid of the pencil marks but leaves the ink intact.

I've gotten a sneak peak at the whole sordid story. Lucky me, right? Just one of the many perks of being a cartoonist's part-time minion.

Alison hasn't inked in the dialogue yet, so I've only seen the drawings. I thought I'd post one of the panels with a blank speech bubble and invite you to put some words in Mo's mouth.

I didn't want to give anything away (and I had to be careful, because there's a lot to give away), so I picked one of the more innocuous panels. This is Mo, Sparrow, Carlos, Stuart, and JR getting ready for a rally of some sort.

Have fun with it. More to come in the months ahead...

Bitch Fest

2005-03-05T21:07:00.000-05:00

breast exam
Originally uploaded by Alison Bechdel.

I feel like the cool girls invited me to sit at their lunch table. Bitch Magazine asked me to give something to their eBay fundraising auction. You can bid on this drawing I did to promote breast exams, or on stuff from Lynda Barry, Rebecca McBride, Hugh D'Andrade, Trina Robbins, the Guerrilla Girls, Michelle Tea, Ophira Edut, Nellie McKay, and lots of other kids who sit at that intimidating table at the other end of the cafeteria.

DTWOF Fan Art

2005-03-03T13:41:00.000-05:00

Apparently, bonnieslasher from the DTWOF livejournal community thinks there's some sexual tension between Ginger, Samia, and the earnestly conservative Cynthia...

Behind the Scenes from Book 11

2005-02-23T16:56:00.000-05:00

# 11 drawings
Originally uploaded by Cathy Resmer.

Here's a draft of some panels from the long piece in Book 11. Alison emailed them to me yesterday. She asked me to snap a few pictures like this of me and my car, and email them to her so she could see what this would look like in real life.

I'm not really sure who these characters are, but I guess we drive the same kind of car. Perhaps they'll end up looking a bit like me in the final version. FYI, this mode of support is sadly not tip-of-the- nibb-able.

Alison Leaves the House

2005-02-15T14:00:00.000-05:00

alison feeding the birds
Originally uploaded by Cathy Resmer.

I snapped a picture of AB when she went out to feed the birds this afternoon. She said it was the first time she had left the house all day. No, she's not sick--merely chained to her drawing board in the basement working on DTWOF #11 and her super secret, nearly complete graphic novel.

Catablog

2005-02-05T10:37:00.000-05:00

chicken
Originally uploaded by Alison Bechdel.

Okay. I know blogs are an amazing new paradigm and all that, but there's one thing I don't get. Who has time to read them? I mean, no offense, but don't you have something more important you should be doing right now? I don't even have time to read THIS blog, let alone make newsworthy entries to it. In case you haven't noticed.

But here's something. Diane DiMassa just sent me...well, sent my cat, her new zine "Chicken Rules" and it's frickin' brilliant. Here we are reading it. (See how EXTREMELY busy I am?) All people who live with a cat should purchase it immediately.

Juicy Mother

2005-01-18T01:03:00.000-05:00

That's the title of a new comix collection from Jennifer Camper and Soft Skull Press, available here. Alison's "Oppressed Minority Cartoonist" panel is in there, along with a comix jam she did with Camper, Howard Cruse, Diane DiMassa, Rupert Kinnard, and Ivan Velez, Jr. From the publisher's blurb: "Juicy Mother includes comix about an older butch dyke and her Lolita, an African-American gay man coming of age, an Arab Muslim dyke searching for her identity, two big hairy men getting married, a cynical Latina teen encountering aliens and a wild cartoon jam. In a genre especially known for being dominated by straight white men, Juicy Mother is an alternative to alternative comix. The collection places emphasis on the voices least represented in the comic world. As such, the stories within are exceptionally exuberant and carefree."

Book 11 Update

2005-01-11T13:02:00.000-05:00

We have a title: Invasion of the Dykes to Watch Out For . Descending on an independent bookstore near you this October [cue spooky body snatcher music.]

New Web Format Thingy

2005-01-11T11:40:00.000-05:00

Those of you who read the strip regularly on Planet Out will have noticed this by now, by for anyone who hasn't figured it out yet, here's a tip: if you want to see the whole DTWOF episode at once instead of clicking through it panel by panel, scroll down the page and you'll see some options. Click on "see the whole comic strip." Not sure why they changed it. Perhaps the comments here and on the Planet Out message board made an impression...?

Cool Quiz and Question

2004-12-21T13:45:00.000-05:00

The enterprising and cyber-savvy "taxishoes" over at the DTWOF Livejournal Community has created a DTWOF quiz which asks the whimsical question, "Which dyke in Dykes To Watch Out For are you most like?" Anyone can take it. Feel free to post your results here. Also, we've encountered several complaints on-line regarding Planet Out's new strip multi-screen format. Is it really that bad? They didn't consult us about it. What do you think?

Comix Fix, Part II

2004-12-21T12:07:00.000-05:00

Wow — so exciting to read everybody's comments about where they read DTWOF. Thanks for your input. Nice to see so many people are keeping tabs on this evolving blog. A suggestion for those of you who said you can't find the strip in your local paper, but would like to: I submit Alison's cartoons to editors all the time, but my cover letters and sample strips are probably less effective than a few smartly worded emails from some local readers. I think DTWOF is perfect for alt. weekly audiences (Burlington's alt. weekly, Seven Days, runs the strip). But alt. weekly editors are more likely to listen to their readers than to me. Feel free to write to them and demand (yes, demand!) that they carry the country's most interesting comic strip with the word "dyke" in the title. And fyi — as far as we know, Between the Lines in Michigan is still running the strip. They still pay for it, anyway. Remember, it comes out every other week, so sometimes there will be an issue without a strip. I think Washington Blade is still carrying it, though they tend to print it sporadically. If you want more regularity, send 'em an email. Can't hurt, right?

Pssst...wanna buy some comic art?

2004-12-14T19:06:00.000-05:00

Alison's been too busy working on a lifeblood-sucking graphic novel to take on her usual freelance work and speaking engagments this year. So now, in a flagrant attempt to drum up some cash, she's selling a batch of recent comic stips at the low, low, bargain price of $200 each, plus shipping. (Normally, when she's not so desperate, these go for upwards of $450.) These are hand-drawn, signed originals. Each strip is drawn in india ink on two separate pages of 9x14 archival bristol board. Eminently suitable for framing. Start your own art collection! If you're interested in purchasing a strip, contact us at dykes@dykestowatchoutfor.com. Here's a short description of each piece, and a link to it on the PlanetOut archive. #419, "The Candidate." In which Lois strategically pads her Bush flightsuit, and we meet Ginger's future dog. #426, "Breastiality." In which Ginger dons a wonderbra and Stuart ponders becoming a stay-at-home dad. #437, "Betrothal or Betrayal." In which Clarice and Toni stand in line to get married at City Hall and Mo makes a nuisance of herself. #445, "A-lyin' in the sand." In which Mo's friends stage an intervention. #450, "What is the first part of politics? Education." In which Ginger expounds on the timeliness of Orwell's "1984." UPDATE (12/16) Wow. All of these have been purchased. Or claimed, anyway. Thank you, everyone! The sales haven't been finalized yet, though. If you're interested in a strip, feel free to let me know in case something falls through.

We've got attitude, too.

2004-12-14T13:08:00.000-05:00

In 2002, Ted Rall included Alison and 20 other cartoonists in his funny and insightful indie comix anthology, Attitude 2: The New Subversive Alternative Cartoonists. I got a free copy, but I would have gladly paid for it. Mind you, I'm employed by one of the contributors, but I think it's a great resource for anyone who's bored with Garfield, Hi and Lois, and Family Circle. It includes sample strips and interviews from cartoonists like Mikhaela Reid, Keith Knight, Aaron McGruder, David Rees, Tak Toyoshima, and Shannon Wheeler (and Alison). Last Sunday, Roger Sabin of the Guardian, UK, published a generous write-up of Attitude 2 in his Books of the Year 2004 column. He specifically cites Alison's work, and calls the book a "spiky affair." Money quote: "This is satire in an angry-youth-with-piercings mode. The spiritual forebears are the cartoonists of the 1960s-70s underground (Robert Crumb et al) but the use of clip art and scratchy line techniques mark this out as a very contemporary collection, and happily the humour is of high quality." Happily indeed. Here's a link to the book on Powells. They've also got it on that other on-line book-buying site, but I can't remember the name of it. Starts with an A... Ama-something?

Fascinating

2004-12-10T13:03:00.000-05:00

Hey, thanks to everyone who responded to the question about where you read the strip--in print or online. It was really interesting and useful to get all that information. Not sure what I'm gonna do with it yet, but you gave me a thought-provoking glimpse into the evolving media landscape. For now, I'm just psyched you're all reading it, whatever the source.

Mission: Buy

2004-12-02T13:49:00.000-05:00

This is the mission statement of the Center for New Words: “To use the power and creativity of words and ideas to strengthen the voice of progressive and marginalized women in society.” You can support this noble aim and at the same time get some gift-shopping out of the way by going to their online celebrity auction. You can bid on an original DTWOF strip. Or perhaps you would rather have Katha Pollitt edit your manuscript. Or Dorothy Allison record your answering machine message. It all ends on December 8, so go check it out.

Comix Fix

2004-11-30T11:56:00.000-05:00

Browsing the website for the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies, I found this interesting story from Wired magazine about the decline of newspapers. Wired's Adam Penenberg references a focus group conducted by the Washington Post in September. Participants, all of them 18-34, said they wouldn't accept a Post subscription even if it were free. Why? Penenbeg says, "The main reason (and I'm not making this up): They didn't like the idea of old newspapers piling up in their houses." The Post, fyi, is losing 4000 paid subscribers a month. The article goes on to say that these younger readers are consuming news via the Internet, by visiting blogs and using news aggregators and other filters to digest news. Now, obviously Alison and other indie cartoonists aren't relying on papers like the Post for their livelihood, but they are relying on glbt papers and alternative weeklies, who pay to feature comics. I wonder how this trend is effecting those alternative news sources, and how it will effect indie cartoonists like Alison. All of which leads me to ask where all of you read DTWOF. Do you flip through a gay paper? An alt. weekly? Do you find the strip on-line? Wait until the books come out? Where's the ideal place to read a lively, engaging comic strip, particularly this one?

Bechdel on Spiegelman

2004-11-24T19:54:00.000-05:00

Last Thursday, Alison attended an Art Spiegelman lecture at the Center for Cartoon Studies in White River Junction, Vermont. Burlington's excellent alternative weekly Seven Days commissioned her to draw a comic about the event.

Life Lessons from Melissa

2004-11-23T14:27:00.000-05:00

In case you missed it, here's a link to a story in The Advocate about Melissa Etheridge's battle with breast cancer. Alison is quoted because, as alert readers know, Mo's partner Sydney was recently diagnosed with breast cancer and is now recovering after a lumpectomy, chemo and radiation. Roughly 216,000 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in 2004. FYI, The Mautner Project in D.C. is a great clearinghouse for lesbian-specific information about breast cancer. Update: The above link has been fixed and is now correct. Thanks!

RSS Feed

2004-11-09T13:42:00.000-05:00

A number of readers have requested that we activate an RSS feed, and I think I've finally figured it out, with help from Jessamyn, the local radical, anti-capitalist librarian blogger. Try this out, see if it works. If not, please post here or email us (dtwof at dykestowatchoutfor dot com) and let us know. We appreciate any tech tips you may have. The feed URL is http://feeds.feedburner.com/DtwofTheBlog.

The Big Day

2004-11-02T11:00:00.000-05:00

Yes, I am, in fact referring to today, November 2nd, when our fine country elects its next leader. But I'm also referring to the pub date of Alison's next DTWOF collection. We've received several queries recently asking when exactly that big day will be. My source tells me sometime in the fall of 2005.

The lame duck episodes

2004-10-26T16:32:00.000-05:00

If you’re curious about how the DTWOF characters handle the election results (or lack thereof), you’ll have to wait until December 1, when episode 454 comes out. I just finished and sent off episodes 452 and 453, which are scheduled to run during the weeks of 11/3 and 11/17 respectively. Because I had to write these well before the election happened, they obviously could not be about the election. I couldn’t even write about the pre-election anxiety we’re all seething with, because that’ll be old news by 11/2. This was a frustrating prospect, like not being allowed to mention the elephant (or please god, the donkey) in the living room. In the end, I decided to use these two episodes to do some much needed exposition. I’ve devoted so much space to the depredations of the Bush administration lately that I’ve been neglecting the characters’ lives and relationships.

Required Reiding

2004-10-26T15:15:00.000-05:00

Alison says she's going to post something later, but in the meantime, here are some links to another awesome feminist cartoonist blogger, Mikhaela Reid. If you haven't seen her work, do check it out. Mikhaela draws political cartoons for the Boston Phoenix and for Bay Windows. Her work also appears in Women's eNews, In These Times, Ms., and the Funny Times. She was featured, along with Alison and some other kick-ass strip artists, in Ted Rall's recent book, Attitude II: The New Subversive Alternative Cartoonists. As you can tell by her blog, she's clearly more web savvy than either of us.

Who is that masked woman?

2004-10-16T17:29:00.000-05:00

Originally uploaded by Alison Bechdel.

Did you know October 13th was National Freeway Free Speech Day? Check out FreewayBlogger.com for some inspiring examples.

Self-oppressed Minority

2004-10-12T15:20:00.000-05:00

I had a fun time speaking at Dartmouth yesterday. I delivered my getting-rather-old rant about being ghettoized as a lesbian cartoonist. "Why can’t I be just a plain, generic cartoonist," I whined. "Just because I write about drag kings and dildos and transgender children. I mean, what’s the big deal? I’m writing about my world just like Garry Trudeau writes about his, and no one calls him a heterosexual cartoonist." I read from a bitter cartoon essay I wrote for The Stranger a couple years ago,"Oppressed Minority Cartoonist," to punctuate my premise. Afterward, I was somewhat chastened but delighted to learn that James Sturm was in the audience. He is a.) one of the founders of The Stranger, b.) a great graphic novelist, c.) not a lesbian, and d.) the director of the Center for Cartooning Studies, an absolutely amazing 2 –year cartooning program that will be starting in the fall of 2005. Also in the audience was Ana Merino, an academic and poet who does a lot of theoretical writing about comics. She included some of my work in an exhibit that she curated last year called Comic Release. And she’s on the board of directors of the Center for Cartooning Studies. So the presence of these comics luminaries kind of shut me up about the “oppressed minority cartoonist” shtick. I've decided that the secret to being plain and generic is to just act like you're plain and generic.

A mere simpleton can update a blog, but only our webmaster can change the website!

2004-10-06T20:02:00.000-05:00

Alert readers may have noticed that the DTWOF website hasn't been updated in a while. Rest assured, new items are coming soon. In the meantime, you can read the latest strip on Planet Out. Or you might actually go off-line and read it in a newspaper, like they used to do in the olden days.

Alison speaking at Dartmouth

2004-09-28T13:20:00.000-05:00

Alert DTWOF fans and event organizers might have noticed that Alison has recently curtailed her public speaking schedule. She's curtailed pretty much everything, in fact, as she's working on a graphic novel. She will, however, be driving to Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH to give a talk on Monday, October 11th, in honor of National Coming Out Day. The talk's called, "Can I Stop Coming Out Now? Or, If 'Queer Eye for the Straight Guy' is organizing closets on television, is there, properly said, anything left to come out of?" Alison will show slides of her work and talk about identity, assimilation, liberation, propaganda, what kinds of pens she uses, the origins of totalitarianism, the sorry state of democracy, and coming out, among other things and not necessarily in that order. Start time is 4pm. Carpenter Hall, Room 13.

Auction To Watch Out For

2004-09-23T12:09:00.000-05:00

Mo's Book Bag.JPG
Originally uploaded by Alison Bechdel.

Win the Mo-bag at the Friends of the San Francisco Public Library Silent Auction. Back in 2001, a homophobe sliced up over 600 gay-themed books at the San Francisco Public Library, including a few volumes of Dykes To Watch Out For. After they caught the guy, the enterprising library staff invited artists and friends of the library to work with the shredded remains of his handiwork. Over 250 works of art were created, some of which were on display last spring in the Reversing Vandalism exhibit. The library is selling some of these pieces at a silent auction that starts September 30th and runs through October 2nd. A tip of the shift key to Hadas Rivera-Weiss, creator of the ingenious Mo Bookbag, which will go to the highest bidder. Browse the on-line auction catalog here.

Dykes to Whiteout For

2004-09-21T12:33:00.000-05:00

whiteout
Originally uploaded by zizyphus.

Yep, that's a Mo mug on federal marshal Carrie Stetko's desk in Greg Rucka and Steve Lieber's graphic novel
Whiteout. A tip of the delete key to alert reader Rachel Ramsey for pointing it out. In an interview in the on-line comics journal Ninth Art, Rucka confirms that the subtle placement of the DTWOF coffee cup was intentional. Stetko must have picked it up back in the day. I haven't sold those mugs since 1998.

Rex and Alison go post-gay

2004-09-14T13:28:00.000-05:00

Ubiquitous gay journalist Rex Wockner recently visited Vermont and transcribed his chat with Alison here.