Pedigree Girls by Sherwin Tjia

I love this book. I will come out and say that now. It's not exclusively lesbian by any means, but I do like their arguments and flirting. Basically the whole book is the same picture reproduced on each page with the odd tweak here and there but each strip is an out-take in a conversation and I find them hilarious.
Some of you may feel that having the same strip over and over is a waste of your money but I can't say it bothered me.
The girls are cruel and bitchy to each other and then in the next one they'll be quite sexy to each other.

"1: Am I still your girlfriend?
2: I'm going through some restructuring right now... ... you'll have to re-apply"



I just find it cruel and funny. Some bits are very typical 'teenage girl' conversations too, which just made me cringe for all the stupid things you say when you're 14 and that you overhear on buses etc.

No sex shown, as it's just two girl's heads most of the way through but they do mention incest, sex with each other's dads, anorexia and a lot of it is just a bit wrong but that just seemed to make it funnier to me - but then I'm a sick puppy, so if you don't like certain themes you may want to prepare yourself before reading or avoid it for something fluffier and kinder.

- Purchase Pedigree Girls by Sherwin Tjia on Amazon UK
- Purchase Pedigree Girls by Sherwin Tjia on Amazon US

Dykes To Watch Out For by Alison Bechdel

(The edition/s available now may well look different to the one/s I'm displaying here because the publisher has changed since I purchased my copy).

Dykes To Watch Out For may well be familiar to many of you as it has been syndicated in a number of magazines over the years. I remember seeing it in The Pink Paper and Diva here in the UK, so it's possible you already know about Dykes To Watch Out For in some form.

This is where Alison Bechdel, the author of Fun Home, made her bread and butter, in strips (which later became pages) following the lives of a group of lesbians based in the US. Although it centres around the character relationships, it also frequently comments on the current politics of the time, giving Dykes To Watch Out For a historical chronology, as well as something topical for the characters to discuss.





It's interesting to see how Alison's drawing has progressed over the years, not to mention the characters - although many have a similar style that they've always had, some have been tweaked and updated, just as if you read back through the older strips some things are eerily the same, politics wise, where other rights have come on leaps and bounds.

Dykes To Watch Out For is another collection that covers a wide range of topics and representations, from Lois and her butch packing to the more recent transgender child Janis to dependable Mo, the Everywoman of the lesbian scene who I can't help but relate to (even if she's far more political, not to mention successful in her romantic liaisons than I have ever been). The characters have grown up over the years (albeit slowly) and that marks it out, along with Love and Rockets, as showing progressive characters, unlike most comics and strips you read.

I don't pretend to understand all the cultural references and politics - naturally a lot of the American political references I just don't get because candidates and policies didn't always get that much coverage this side of the pond - and as usual with Alison Bechdel, sometimes there are things that just seem far over my head on an intellectual level. I still enjoy the character driven plot lines though and the twists and turns of the relationships. There are ex-lesbians in the story as well as bisexuals and as I previously mentioned now transgender characters. Dykes To Watch Out For does seem to cover a far wider range of 'types' you encounter in real life than most comics and certainly very few others go out of their way to 'represent' certain areas of the community as this strip does. There's almost certainly likely to be one character somewhere you can relate to - and the cast has grown considerably since it's origins.

Does show plenty of lesbians kissing, in bed together, nakedness etc - but do be warned it also occasionally shows Stuart in the nude, which is enough to make any lesbian swear off men forever.

Alison Bechdel's official website is: www.dykestowatchoutfor.com

- Purchase Dykes To Watch Out For and Invasion of Dykes To Watch Out For from Amazon UK.
- Purchase Dykes To Watch Out For and Spawn of Dykes To Watch Out For from Amazon US.

Locas - The Maggie and Hopey Stories by Jamie Hernandez

Locas: The Maggie and Hopey Stories is actually the collected stories of certain characters that usually appear in the Love and Rockets comics.
The standard love and Rockets comic are short scenes from a number of different character's lives, most of whom are Latin American.



Two characters who regularly appear in Love and Rockets are Maggie and Hopey - two girls who have quite an open minded approach to life, to say the least.



Maggie I suppose is the more bisexual of the two, although Hopey does have affairs with men on occasion. They start off as punky girls and Maggie develops into a more feminine character as the time goes by whereas Hopey pretty much remains a tough talking, laid back cool character who plays bass in a band (Maggie is originally a mechanic).



The characters are very on/off and by no means exclusive to one another but you can't deny there's something very special between them and regardless of their sometimes unrealistic and other times painfully realistic mistakes and adventures, I can't help but be drawn into their lives. I veer between wishing I was them and being quite thankful I'm not but their tales are incredibly enjoyable.
The Hernandez brothers don't steer away from nudity, sex, violence and other adult themes. It's not quite as graphic as many other comics however. And it's lovely to see women portrayed in comics whose looks change, who put on weight, who lose weight, who grow up and change remarkably over the space of the volume. I will admit I have a bit of a crush on both of them, Maggie for her looks and vulnerability and Hopey for her straight talking boyish no-nonsense approach to most things.
You spend most of the time wondering if they are together and when they aren't, why they're not. It's beautifully complicated and in many ways a very realistic portrayal of a relationship - even if the events they go through sometimes seem too out of reality (well, to a square lesbian sitting in London it does, anyway but I don't doubt other people lead far more exciting lives than I do).

Definitely one I'd recommend for those wanting to read exciting adventures of cool ladies and the portrayal of an interesting and not straight-forward relationship.

You can find out about Jamie Hernandez via the Fantagraphics website: www.fantagraphics.com

- Purchase Locas: The Maggie and Hopey Stories by Jamie Hernandez from US Amazon
-Purchase Locas: The Maggie and Hopey Stories (Volume 1 only) by Jamie Hernandez from UK Amazon

Fun Home by Alison Bechdel

For those who don't know, Alison Bechdel is the author of Dykes to Watch Out For - which I will eventually get around to featuring on here, no doubt. I think she was probably the author of the first ever gay themed comic I ever read because at that time I think she was published in The Pink Paper over here in the UK.
Fans of her work will know how much Alison's style has progressed over the years and so they'll be quite used to her drawings. And stylistically, this is very much in keeping with her recent strips with the exception of the added colour, which is a green, water colour hue on the art.

Fun Home is a book in graphic novel format, really. It's Alison's autobiography in a comic strip, basically. It revolves around her relationship with her closeted gay father and 'Fun Home' is what they used to call the funeral parlour that the family operated.

Sometimes touching, sometimes amusing, sometimes quite thought provoking but it did quote a lot of things that I had no knowledge of at all, which made me feel incredibly unintelligent and uncultured and while sometimes cultural and literary references can prompt a reader to run off and look things up so learn more about it, this was just so full of back references that I just didn't bother. I fear only English teachers will really get the full benefit of a lot of what she covers. Or maybe I just read all the wrong books during my life, who knows but the non-literary inclined amongst you will probably finish it feeling as ignorant as I did.



Naturally it does cover Alison's own sexual discovery and it's got a few sex scenes and moments of (both male and female) nudity.
Easy to get into bar the literary references but it does have quite a melancholy feel to it, since it deals with her father's death and even the moments of humour in it are still permeated by that.
I did feel bad reading it in a day though, when you knew it took her years to complete.

Alison Bechdel's official website can be found here: www.dykestowatchoutfor.com

- Purchase Fun Home by Alison Bechdel from UK Amazon
- Purchase Fun Home by Alison Bechdel from US Amazon

Wicked - The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire

Don't make the mistake of thinking this is like the musical. The plot is VERY different and it doesn't focus as much on the friendship and potential slashy relationship between the good witch Glinda/Galinda and Elphaba. That said, there IS still an undercurrent of something happening between Glinda and Elphaba, but don't expect anything explicit in regards to those two.
If you've seen the musical first, as I had, you might be a little disappointed with the ending. The musical seemed to have a far neater integration with the original Wizard of Oz film and the characters that are mentioned throughout the book and the original film. But it's still an interesting read. Partly because you spend most of the book wondering just what is the relationship between Glinda and Elphaba and what potentially may happen between them and to them.
Interestingly, the musical focuses far more on the love triangle in regards to Fiyero, and if anything the book reveals that he had a far less important role, at least in regards to Glinda/Galinda.

"Glinda was too fussed to listen that closely. The Witch in fact alarmed her a little. It was not just the novelty of seeing her again, but the strange shade. Also there was the thrill, basis indeterminable, which made Glinda shy, and caused her to rush her words and to speak in a false high voice like an adolescent. How quickly you could be thrown back into the terrible uncertainly of your youth!
For when she chose to remember her youth at all, she could scarcely dredge up an ounce of recollection about that daring meeting with the Wizard. She could recall far more clearly how she and Elphie has shared a bed on the road to the Emerald City. How brave that had made her feel, and how vulnerable too."

That is about as slashy as it gets though and it does tug at the heartstrings to know that inevitably these two may have messed up the one good thing in their lives - each other.

If you haven't seen the musical OR read the book, I personally would recommend both. I saw the musical in London with Idina Menzel when it opened in the UK and it had me in tears at the end of it (although the people I was with who were gay men and hadn't seen the original movie didn't like it in the slightest - so possibly more of a chick flick musical, if there is such a thing).

Gregory Maguire's official website can be found here: www.gregorymaguire.com/

-The US Wicked musical website is here: www.wickedthemusical.com/
-The UK Wicked musical website is here: www.wickedthemusical.co.uk/
-Purchase the book Wicked - The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire from US Amazon
-Purchase the book Wicked - The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire from UK Amazon

Y: The Last Man by Brian K Vaughan, Pia Guerra and Jose Martin Jnr

So the general theme to this is that Yorick is the only man on the planet to have not been wiped out by a strange virus. As you can probably guess, this means that all the girls that don't meet Yorick (and even some that do) have turned lesbian through no choice of their own. What's good about this comic is. at least they accept that would happen and it's not really portrayed as a wank fest or anything similar but neither do they shy away from it.
Which means that although the main character is Yorick, there's a lot of girls hooking up and some rather interesting little scenarios and pairings amongst that.


Picture above shows minor characters hooking up. Click for bigger image.

There are some lesbian sex scenes and some characters are even lesbian to begin with - shock horror! And I certainly found some of them very fanciable. Of course, most of that is technically an interwoven side plot to Yorick's search for his backpacking girlfriend but there's been enough to make me purchase all the volumes and issues so far and keep me keen. And I have to admit, I'm terrible for only reading things because they've got gay characters or someone in them that I fancy. Shallow, that's me. But at least that proves this has something to keep me entertained for 57 issues so far!

* Y: The Last Man by Brian K Vaughan, Pia Guerra and Jose Martin Jnr is published by Vertigo.
You can see the official website here: www.dccomics.com/graphic_novels/?gn=1736

- Purchase Y: The Last Man Vol 1 from UK Amazon
- Purchase Y: The Last Man Vol 1 from US Amazon

Let's Be Perverts Vol 3 by Youjung Lee

Let's Be Perverts is one of those stories that sort of suggests there was something lesbian in a character's past but you just know it's going to have been 'a phase'.
The story actually centres around a boy who gets accidentally labelled as 'pervert' (or Perverto) and who fancies a young lady called Hongdan, who is new to the school. Hongdan is the one who appears to have had some sort of 'closer than friends' relationship with a fellow school girl at her old school, as we discover in volume one.


Image above shows Hongdan and her ex-best friend. Click for bigger image.

Unfortunately, because we know Perverto is essentially the main character and Hongdan is clearly not that interested in her ex best friend anymore, you can pretty much sense that Hongdan is going to make a full recovery back to heterosexuality - whether that's with the real pervert (who is the school teacher), Perverto or a different male student. I suspect (although I missed vol 2), that the rumours from her old school made her move and she wants to start afresh as straight.
The book does have lots of illustrations of half-naked girls in just their knickers but it's rated 'Mature for ages 16+', so whether you'll ever get to see anything more than girls hugging and maybe kissing in a later volume is debatable.
Does have occasional rape themes, so if you're offended by those topics and situations, you may want to steer clear.

Let's Be Perverts by Youjung Lee is published by Netcomics.
You can see the official website here: www.netcomics.com/comic/letsbeperverts.htm

- Purchase Let's Be Perverts Vol 1 from UK Amazon
- Purchase Let's Be Perverts Vol 1 from US Amazon