Dykes and Sundry Other Carbon-Based Life Forms to Watch Out For (Paperback)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

That sprawling crew of feisty counter- and not-so-counter-culturalists are back in a 20th-anniversary collection of Bechdel's popular lesbian-themed strip. Devoted readers may be happy to find some things never change: Mo is still a social malcontent, and her colleague, Lois, is as rebellious as ever. (This time, she's tweaking Mo by pretending to consider becoming a man.) The bookstore where they work has its usual financial difficulties, and everyone still hates the president. But not all is as it once was. For one thing, same-sex marriages (well, unions) are now legal in Vermont, and one couple, Clarice and Toni, consider whether to make their relationship official in the state's eyes. Then there's Sparrow: a long-time member of the group house where Lois lives, who has fallen in love with another housemate-a man-and seems to be unexpectedly pregnant. And Ginger, an academic, is facing the purgatory of a non-tenured position at an undistinguished school; buried under papers to grade, she barely even notices when a lovely waitress at a local juice bar makes a move. While first-time readers may lack the back story that's developed over the past two decades with these and several other characters, Bechdel is a master of interwoven plot lines, and she sprinkles helpful summaries through the panels so new readers can tell where they are in the tale. An introduction covering highlights of the past 20 years illustrates how far Bechdel has come; from impressionistic sketches to work that is rich, funny, deep and impossible to put down.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

For 20 years, one of America's best comic strips has appeared fortnightly primarily in--of all places, some might say--gay and lesbian newspapers. It's the work of lean-faced, studious boyish-looking Bechdel, who possesses terrific draftsmanship, nonpareil satirical flair, and an appreciation of personality deep enough to make the frostiest "conservative" with any intelligence recognize the humanity and forgive the "progressive" rigidity of her characters and their milieu. The strip's cast--earnest, politically obsessed Mo, modeled on but more obtuse than her creator; her feminist-professor lover, Sydney; her black-feminist employer at Madwimmin Books, Jezanna; her Latina and black comother friends, Clarice and Toni, and their son, Raffi, now eight (tempus sure fugit!); her four communalist pals, Sparrow, Stuart, Lois, and Ginger; and others less prominent in this book--is certainly PC in personal characteristics and heartfelt beliefs, but each member of it knows they all swim in a distracting, corrosive, consumer-society sea and can laugh at their own inevitable inconsistencies. Some inconsistencies are less risible than others, of course, such as longtime Madwimmin customers browsing there and buying on the Internet, quietly brewing a crisis for the independent bookstore that simmers here as several others take, develop on, and depart from center stage. For core Booklist readers, the best of the lot arises when Mo finally opts for a career: librarianship. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Paperback: 164 pages
• Publisher: Alyson Books; 1 edition (October 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1555838286
• ISBN-13: 978-1555838287
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #647,891 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars As always, Bechdel's got the Zeitgeist's pulse!, March 17, 2004

By	L Goodman-Malamuth "Leslie Goodman-Malamuth" (Washington, D.C.) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Watching a cartoonist mature over the course of a career can be a real joy, and that's certainly been my experience with Alison Bechdel's most recent "Dykes to Watch Out For" collection. To my mind, it's a real shame that her work isn't syndicated on the comics page of general-circulation newspapers. Calling her work only of interest to the GLBT community means that a lot of folks are missing out on her real-life characters, fascinating plot twists, deft artwork, and wry interpretation of current affairs.

This straightbag het housewife says, Alison forever!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not just for dykes, feminists, and liberals!, November 7, 2003

By	Kimberly Borrowdale (Oregon USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Hilarious, true-to-life comic strips for any human, not just dykes or feminists or liberals: Clarice and Toni are trying to raise their six-year-old son and find their sex life again; Ginger's dog is nearing the end of her life; English lit professor Sydney does what she can to try to get tenure; Jezanna is struggling with her independent bookstore Madwimmin and with menopause and with her elderly father; and Mo wonders if her life shouldn't be more than clerking at a bookstore that could go out of business any day.

Go to your favorite indie bookstore, read a few panels, and try to not laugh too loud, then buy it.Or trust me and the editorial reviews and buy it here! Buy 'em all (this is #10, but there are good introductions so you don't have to read them in order). After you're done smirking and giggling, they'll give you plenty to think about. Alison Bechdel is a goddess.

Kimberly Borrowdale
Under the Covers Book Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Funny, poignant and vividly real, May 14, 2004

By	Jeffery E. Mcculloh (Harvard, MA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is the latest edition of Alison's series of "cartoonoramas"(her phrase) following the lives and loves of a series of lesbians who live in a place that looks suspiciously like upstate New York. The stories are evolutionary-as are lives and focus around "Mo", a woman who resembles Ms. Bechtel herself. Most importantly however, the series and this edition especially are laced with sharp wit and warm humor as well as the "zeitgeist' as the reviewer above noted.
When historians review our time 100 years from now, they will find these books and Doonesbury as primary sources.
Buy this book and-the whole series- and you will NOT regret it.