The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For

Title: The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For
Pictures and words: Alison Bechdel
Published: 2008 by Houghton Mifflin
Genre: Love & Politics and everything in between
Pages: 392, plus introduction


I've been reading quite a lot lately but have been lazy in writing them up, so here goes!

The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For collects 392 one page strips of Alison Bechdel's comic that has been running in about 50 magazines and translated to several languages over the last 25 years. It tells the stories of several people, most of them women and lesbians, living in America and interacting with its recent history. So, at least for a European not really interested in politics and current affairs like me, it's also a quick course in the history of the nation.

But Bechdel's stars are first and foremost the women whose lives we get to follow: their thoughts, love, tragedies and everything else life tends to throw at people. All this might sound a bit boring, but it's not: the book is quite hard to put down. There's a lot of humour as well, and it's hard not to get involved with the people we're reading about. They're just normal people, going on about their lives. Just like your next door neighbours.

I'm finding it quite hard to sum up 25 years worth of comics here... but it's wonderful to see how the people change, how their kids grow, and how Bechdel's art has evolved over the years. I'd been looking forward to buying this as soon as I heard it's coming out, and finally picked it up at a comic shop I went to for a job interview. (Got the job, btw.) Well worth the 25 euros. Or dollars, if that's your thing.


"I'll be your lawyer if you'll be my accountant."