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

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

Strangers in Paradise by Terry Moore

Shall we start with one of the big ones?



Strangers In Paradise by Terry Moore is possible one of the best known comics with lesbian plots. Not only does it have gay themes, it features those themes around the main characters.
Although it's emotionally centred around the three main characters and their interactions: Katchoo, Francine and David, in a rather nail biting torturous way, it still has an awful lot of plot.


(Above picture shows secondary characters Casey and Tambi in the final issue). Click image for bigger version.

The series finished last month - the last ever Strangers In Paradise comic was published (the cover picture is one of the three collectable covers for the final ever issue) and although that means no more new comics for those of us who have been collecting the individual comics, it does mean that at least all of you are are new to the series can just go straight out, purchase the entire back catalogue and devour it uninterrupted.
There are many different versions of collected volumes out there, so it might be worth having a browse through what's available in the shops/Amazon etc before you purchase one.

* Strangers In Paradise by Terry Moore is published by Abstract Studio.
You can see the official website here: www.strangersinparadise.com/

- purchase the collected issues Vol 1 in pocket book form from UK Amazon
- purchase the collected issues Vol 1 in pocket book form from US Amazon