More Dykes to Watch Out For

Dykes to Watch Out For #2

by Alison Bechdel

More Dykes to Watch Out for

Genres: Queer, Comics, Graphic Novels, LGBT, Humor, Fiction, Bande Dessinée

108 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1988

Reviews

[Tony Vacation]

As nice as the first volume was, More Dykes is a very welcome improvement, ditching the Sunday Funnies format of one-shots (and also the abecedarian catalogue of lesbians) for a lengthy serialized story featuring Mo, a neurotic woman on the verge of emotional, psychological and several other forms of breakdowns if she doesn't get a job and get laid fast! Bless Bechdel for being both socially conscious and humanely sensitive, but also for being irreverent and not afraid of capitalizing on the humor of political correctness. Also, I love that Bechdel clearly loves women, and loves drawing them in all shapes and sizes with a lusty tenderness. And I ask you, how can you not find joy in a work that features these two great sentences: "The first time I touched her was a slow blow to her sweaty jaw." "I disguised my swoon with an attempted handstand."

[Sésame]

encore un délice que j'ai lu par petits bouts au fil des soirées avant de me coucher.
c'est vraiment super de parcourir ces 20 ans avec les personnages au fil deux tomes (mais bien dense les deux tomes). Celui-ci m'a peut-être rendue un peu plus nostalgique et triste parfois, le poids de la norme pesant de plus en plus sur les personnages, et les espoirs politiques sont un peu tristes à lire quand on sait qui est arrivée au pouvoir aux US ensuite…

Mais c'est toujours un immense plaisir de lire des petits bouts de ce qui est ma vie et de ce qu'elle pourrait être, de m'attacher aux personnages, même dans leurs côtés les plus agaçants, et de voir toute la continuité qu'il y a entre nous, les lesbiennes, à travers les décennies.

[The Sporty Bookworm]

Deuxième tome du recueil de Strip d’Alison Bechdel. Les personnages récurrents sont toujours là et on a eu le temps de s’y attacher. De nouveaux apparaissent : la lesbienne de droite et conservatrice et un homme ! Bon, c’est une lesbienne manquée, un homme un peu trop déconstruit, mais tellement drôle. Les enfants des couples ont grandi. Certains sont en transition d’autres en opposition. C’est vraiment une narration efficace. Mon seul regret est que cela s’arrête. Il y a 526 strips en tout et chacun est une mini dose d’endorphine ou de sérotonine et l’arrêt brutal à la fin sans sevrage est dur. Cela me rappelle la fin de la série télé Boston Public dans ma jeunesse, ma seule mini dépression due à la fin d’une fiction. Bon, chaque recueil de strip condense 20 ans de chroniques. Gageons qu’en 2028, j’aurai ma prochaine dose de came graphico-littéraire.

[Soph Nova]

A very enjoyable small collection from Bechdel’s famous comic on lesbians and political life in the 80’s.

“Since when have you become an expert on the rate of casual sex in the lesbian community, sister celibate?”

[Mintti]

Sarjakuvahaasteeseen tuli luettua tämä kohtaan LGBTQ sarjakuvaa. En ollut ennen lukenut näitä ja tykkäsin kyllä kovasti. Ykkösosa taitaa olla niin vanha, ettei meidän kirjastoista sitä löytynyt, mutta aloitin kakkosesta.

[Strawny]

My daughter bought this whole series and now I'm addicted. It's like the Archies of Lesbian culture. Now I am going to need a TV series to keep it going because I'm about to read the last one!

[Anna Reta Maria]

These comics are brilliant.

[Emily]

I love how she draws sex

[shrav]

MOHARRIET😭😭😭😭 this reminds me of that one naomi mcpherson quote “gay gay horny horny cigarettes”

[Lauhahiipija]

Pidin! Kivaa piirrosjälkeä, välillä turhan vaikeaa kieltä. Seuraavaa kohti.

[Emily]

In which our intrepid heroine has a serious crush on a trainee doctor who trains karate with her, but hasn’t had sex for about two years; is unemployed but gets a job at Madwimmin Bookshop; bores the hell out of all her friends with her socially conscious celibate misery; and is the recipient of Harriet’s phone number. They go on a march together which includes a kiss-in and getting arrested, but will they or won’t they? Harriet points out that kissing is relatively low risk when it comes to AIDS. There then follows ‘A Mildly Erotic Epilogue’ in which Alison Bechdel demonstrates her ability to express great deal of emotion with some spare line drawing of eyebrows and eyes, and apparently simple but so difficult to do – foreshortening of fulsome breasts owned by Harriet.

[Milouch]

Meilleure découverte de l'année !
Une BD où l'on suit la vie d'une petite dizaine de personnage queer, leur questionement politique, leur problèmes de couples...
Le hasard a voulu que je commence par le tome 2 de la série, conjugué au style de planche avec des cases plutôt petite et en noir et blanc ça a pu rendre la lecture un peu ardue au début. Mais une fois passé ce petit gap, la BD vaut vraiment le coup ! C'est pleins de petites trouvailles de mise en page : les titres de journeaux qui changent au fur et à mesure des cases, des transisitions entre les cases toujours très drôle : "pendant ce temps la dans une autre tranche d'imposition"....
Et l'histoire que ça raconte m'a énormément touchée. J'ai même été surprise que des problématiques que je croyais récente dans la comunauté queer ait pu être posées dans les mêmes termes il y a plus de 20 ans maintenant. Je me suis sentie connectée et représentée par ces personnages et c'est si rare que c'est toujours un plaisir quand ça arrive !

[C.]

I haven't read nearly as much of Bechdel's long running comic strip (think of it as a queer "Doonesbury") as I would like; I bought two volumes of the series when I was the advisor for a LGBT alliance at Walton, and they both promptly disapeared. Not that I minded terribly, as I'm sure they found their way into the hands of teens who needed them more than I did.

Anyway, the characters are perfect, the emotions pitch-perfect, at times funny, sad, and always true. Bechdel has done much more than create a "gay comic strip," she's made a comic strip that should appeal to anyone who cares about good characters and good stories told in sequential art.

[Katri]

Hyvää jatkoa ensimmäiselle albumille. Onneksi vielä kaksi jäljellä!

[Piia (kirjatarhuri)]

3,5⭐️

[rowan]

Why I read it: These go by so quick........

Thoughts: Truly, an artefact of its age, and yet... perennial. Somehow unaged and unspoiled by time. Do the characters have fraught politics (and mental states) and potentially problematic behaviour patterns? I guess. But so do we all, in the enlightened time of... 2026.

Some reviewers think ditching the Sunday funnies style is a good change, but I kinda miss the single & unattached funnies. Still, I like this a lot. The characters feel real and I am compelled by their joys and miseries, and the building sense of familiarity.

I particularly liked the (potentially autobiographical?) Martial Arts Training Camp story, and I was very happy about Mo's broken streak of celibacy. The whole thing is drawn so very tenderly and with so much obvious love for all sorts of women, and I will keep reading these until I run out.

Would I recommend it: Yes.

[Pia]

Lepakkoelämän toisessa osassa sarja on miusta parhaimmillaan: yhteiskunnallinen ja yksityinen yhistyy komeasti ja huumori & vakavammat sävyt ovat tasapainossa. Kepeyttä ja syvyyttä on sopivassa suhteessa.

Luin tätä 15 vuotta suomennoksen jälkeen. Vaikka Bechdel käsitteleekin esimerkiksi päivänpolitiikkaa, pysyin hyvin kärryillä ja teos tuntui ”tuoreelta”. Tässä kohtaa sarja siirtyi uudenlaiseen formuun, jossa yksittäisistä stripeistä siirryttiin pidempään tarinamuotoon. Se toimii mallikkaasti. Henkilöt ovat monimuotoisia, heihin kiintyy ja tekee vain mieli ahmia lisää.

[Steven]

More satirical commercials about lesbian life. Later, we meet Mo and her friends. Mo is politically conscious about world events during the Reagan administration. Gets insecure about whether or not she’ll get a girlfriend, and a job. Every time, she goes to recreations, she often brings in political thinking, in eyeroll fashion. Then, finally got herself girlfriend, and a job. Will she ever settle down? Read the book and find out.

[Skyler]

Bechdel's lines are clean, her jokes land solidly, and her lesbians are varied enough to build engaging arcs around. As a collection, Mo's constant political anxieties and whining can begin to grate on readers and characters alike, but recognizing that many of her fears have been realized in the decades since publication makes this a sobering read.

[Ryan]

Honestly, maybe the best synthesis of radical politics, humor and emotional weight of anything I've read in a minute. Not sure why I waited so long but guess I thought it'd be more so the starting block of her work leading to 'Fun Home' and other later works but I actually think I prefer it.

[Elina]

Muuten oikein hyvä ja viihdyttävä sarjakuvateos, mutta itseäni vaivasi syrjivä suhtautuminen sukupuolivähemmistöihin ja bi-seksualisuuteen. Toivon sen johtuvan teoksen iästä, mutta se valitettavasti sakotti todella paljon fiilistä.

[Bryn]

The first volume was disconnected one-page comics, very funny but not a story. This one starts an actual story and I loved it.

[Dhwani]

I wish I could be friends with Bechdel.

[KJ Velz]

Ugh! Loved seeing these characters emerge in 86 finally after the first one. Really sweet ending scene with Harriet and Mo. I need more!

[J.]

I relate to Mo’s overthinking paralysis so much.

[grub]

dated but sweet and still relatable in some ways LOL

[Kathrine Bruflot]

Jeg leser denne serien med jevne mellomrom, fordi den tar meg inn i et lesbisk miljø jeg kjenner tilhørighet til.

[Val Ambre]

ce tome était beaucoup trop triste à l'aide je veux jamais vieillir

[gabriela]

POR FIN COGIÓ ESTA

[Tamara]

Every few years I re read whichever of these fall off my shelf. They are very sweet and really call up a slice of time.