The Indelible Alison Bechdel: Confessions, Comix, and Miscellaneous Dykes to Watch Out For

Dykes to Watch Out For

by Alison Bechdel

Go behind the pen and into the psyche of "dyke to watch out for" Alison Bechdel, cartoon chronicler extraordinaire, as the inner workings of lesbiana's most quick-witted, longest-running social commentator are revealed. Illustrations throughout .

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

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

Reviews

[Kewpie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've never been one for soap operas, but I was totally hooked on this series for about a decade. I "met" Moe and the gang when I lived in San Francisco. The characters are so well written, especially for comic strips! I feel like all the characters are old friends of mine, who lived, worked and socialized on the streets where I lived. They are hard to find out here in Indiana. I miss them all very much. I wonder what they are up to these days. She kind of reminds me of For Better or For worse, but with better plots and characters, no wonky flashbacks, and almost everyone is lesbian.

[Bryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's all in the eyebrows. That's one thing I notice and love about Bechdel's characters (including the drawings of herself) are their eyebrows! Artists/cartoonists who have the ability to draw expressive characters just warm my heart because it never fails to make me smile. I found myself constantly twitching my own eyebrows whenever her characters would be doing it.

This book is a dream come true for me. Anytime I come across a piece of creative media no matter the specific area of the arts I immediately am curious about learning more about that person or groups creative process. I am so lucky to be living in an era where I can easily google, youtube, or download podcast featuring these people. As much as I love youtube interviews, internet articles, or podcasts, nothing beats holding a book (or magazine) in my hands. The book to me felt like a paperback equivalent to a audio commentary I'd listen to. Very informative which led me to feeling just satisfied.

I found Bechdel's explanations and tidbits on her work very interesting and humorous. Some of those were just as funny if not funnier than the cartoon it was describing.

Also, a book is always comforting and more enjoyable for me if I can relate to a character or the creator. In this case, her "coming out" comic in this collection includes a couple incidents/events I exactly went through to the point it was eerie, but made me shout 'YES! Been there!" which also led me to tearing up and hugging the book. I really should create a shelf just for these special books that make me well up and hug them.

I currently have "Are You My Mother" in my TBR pile. I'm excited to read that one soon as I peeked in it when it arrived in the mail and the color scheme made me tingle all over. That's me, I crush on pieces of artwork the way others do for their fellow humans.

Thank you Alison Bechdel! You're definitely one of my heroes.

[Adele]

This was a joy to read. It was cool to be in on Alison Bechdel’s thoughts and critiques of her own work. Also the section at the end where she shares letters from fans of DTWOF was amazing and hilarious. I loved this one!

[Rhiannon Rees · Rating 5 out of 5]

i wish i was alive during prime dtwof. cool to see the evolution of the characters and the strip!! the calendar panels, the cartoon jam with 5 different artists, the behind the scenes with the stars of the strip and the letters written in were so fun to read!!

[Aneesa · Rating 4 out of 5]

More DTWOF content! Plus basically a whole chapter about her unsuccessful comics.

[David]

A "Best of" the early years, including a number of strips not otherwise easily accessible. Interesting notes of formative influences, challenges, fan reaction, etc.

Since it came to me from the other end of the country, I figured I'd better read it a second time before I sent it back.

[Isa · Rating 5 out of 5]

amazing supplement to all things dtwof.

[Stewart Tame · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent! I'm always happy to read anything by Alison Bechdel. Although her work is usually humorous, it's not the relentless humor of joke after joke but rather the warm comedy of life itself, inherent in the characters and the ways in which they react to their various situations. In some ways, this book is a companion to Bechdel's long-running Dykes To Watch Out For comic strip. The book features character profiles and a detailed timeline of the strip, as well as a whole slew of cartoons drawn for DTWOF Calenders and other side projects. There are also several of Bechdel's autobiographical strips and other previously uncollected work. She also provides comments about much of the work, giving some insight into the creative process and her growth as an artist over the years. Excellent, excellent book!

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

Alison is one smart cookie. You can tell from her comic strip that she is smart and snappy, but when she writes prose-style, it really comes through. Her sarcasm is also appreciated...at least by me.

The actual comics are a bit much to read all at once, though I imagine they would be savored if read on a weekly basis. Verbose and political. I very much enjoy Bechdel's comments and critiques of her own work, strip by strip.

Let's just say, if I passed her on the street in Montpelier, I won't look the other way.

[Mj · Rating 5 out of 5]

I definitely can relate to Bechdel's comics. It's that almost undiscovered and a bit practicing feminist, revolutionist, leftist, hippie part of me. You can just read one comic strip after the next and just laugh. I think only dykes or feminists who are well aware of such cultures can get the idea of the strips and I think that is a good thing. We celebrate and support something that is really made by one of us for us.

[Elissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

How can you not love Alison Bechdel? How can you not love Dykes To Watch Out For?

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

A look at what makes the comic tick...plus some of her early DTWOF cartoons. A great read.

[Keith Schnell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I very much enjoyed Alison Bechdel's two autobiographical graphic novels, but had until recently not made much effort to get into Dykes to Watch Out For -- not so much because of lack of interest, but because the vast back catalog and story continuity made the prospect of starting from the beginning pretty difficult to approach. After seeing an exhibition of her work at a local art museum, I bought this book as an introduction to her earlier stuff, which was an excellent choice. Not only is this a good introduction to the series, but it contains a great deal of other DTWOF material, including calendar pages and collaborations, that would otherwise be difficult to find. Most interesting of all is the commentary on all of this by the author, which probably makes up 1/3 of the book and would be worth reading all by itself.

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

God bless Alison Bechdel. Her work gave me hope when I was a lonely babydyke.

Usually I think artists should be silent about their work. Not Alison Bechdel.

Getting a peek behind the scenes was delightful. Getting to see work other than DTWOF was a joy. But the most moving bit are the snippets of reader letters included at the end. Knowing that her work affected so many other women in the way it did me? I've no words. So so so moving. Especially the letters from kids and folks from more repressive cultures.

[Olivia Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wish I had been in my 20's in the 90's because I think I might have been able to read Bechdel's early stuff as it came out. But who knows! I'm glad to still live near Ann Arbor because the AADL rules, i'm nervous for the shift to the Ypsi Library, because what if they don't have gems like the AADL does?? Just realized my card expires TODAY!

It's fun to read about Bechdel's process and see some of the comics that weren't in the Essential DTWOF. I like the way she writes about her process almost as much as I like the way she writes her comics and memiors.

[Adena · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this compilation of comics and personal writing. The first thing I read by Alison Bechdel was Fun Home my freshman year in college and it was a formidable piece of writing. I had never heard of her before and as someone interested in creating comics and such I was blown away, let alone intimidated. Reading this book, however, humanized Bechdel for me, turning her from this giant pillar to a person who does what she loves and loves what she does. It's really inspiring and just plain fun to read.

[crtlion · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting to read about Alison Bechdel's process, fan influence, and "behind the scenes" tidbits from her work. With self-reflective text interspersed with comics, and sections of comics with small tidbits of text, she describes the evolution of her characters, how she grappled the inclusion of various political topics, and artistic "aha" moments. Included are also many years' worth of calendars, which I found to be the least interesting part but it's a nice archive of them.

[Nia · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am sure that this book and these comics were important and helpful even recently, but for me, they are just ok, not much more, though I must admit that I read this book because of the famous Bechdel Test, and because it was on my Landlady's bookshelf as we discsussed shows like El Ministerio del Tiempo and Muhtesem Yuzyil which do and may or may not pass the test.

[Steven · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting confessions, diverse material of various strips other than just DTWOF, some strange, but others are funny as hell. Terrific calendar ‘toons, off-beat fashion lists, as well as our indefatigable freudian guerrilla therapist, Cleo Baldshein. This book is a lot of fun to read. Recommended.

[Naylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved loved loved revisiting my favorite series and reading strips I hadn’t read. Best 40th birthday present ever!

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bechdel is brilliant and I've loved this book for a long time.

[sophia · Rating 5 out of 5]

awesome 👍

[Sofia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Soooo enjoyable so cute, she really loves her characters so much this filled me with so much joy.

[Elia MR · Rating 5 out of 5]

i am quickly running out of bechdel content that i have access to....

[Naomi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really loved this, because Alison Bechdel is my hero and it was so cool to read her marginalia about her comics. I especially liked her insight about shading and drawing people of color. Her characters grew on me too, and it is a welcome change to have an all-female cast, especially ones that have not been made into caricatures. I maybe didn't need to read every calendar page, but it was a great collection of comics overall.

[Tatiana · Rating 4 out of 5]

i bought this because i had finished fun home, finished all the DTWOF books and just could not believe i had no more alison bechdel stuff to read. and it was worth it. while some of it is slightly redundant if you've read all the DTWOF books there's still a ton more 'crack' in this book for those of you who are AB addicts like me.

[HeavyReader · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book rocks so hard! It was a lovely distraction when my partner dumped me after I moved to a new state just to be with him. This book is a must-read for hardcore fans of Dykes to Watch Out For. I just can't even gush enough about how great this book is.

[KA · Rating 5 out of 5]

:happy sigh: Damn, that's good. And ending the book with excerpts from fan letters is just perfection.

A new phenomenon I noticed on this reread: the printing of some of the cartoons is SMALL! On my next reread I will require a book-sized magnifying glass.

[Robyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Alison is a little too self-critical, I think, as she takes the reader on an up close and personal tour of her life as a comic writer/illustrator. Sure, we all improve at our craft over time, but I enjoyed the oldies as much as the "new" stuff at the time this book was published.

[Ellie · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent edition for all Dykes to Watch Out For collections. It presents something of Bechdel's professional memoir, the story of how her artwork and storytelling skills developed over time. With lots of cartoons! I'm very enthusiastic about this book.