Alison Bechdel

Brings together a new collection of cartoons recounting the lives and loves of a diverse group of lesbian friends.

The Essential Dykes to Watch Out for

Now in paperback for the first time, the definitive collection of Fun Home author Alison Bechdel's beloved comic strip, Dykes to Watch Out For

it’s been 14 years i hope the dykes are all good and well i miss all of them 3

Ozge Kara

I came home everyday just to read more Dykes to watch out for and wishing I was back in 1990s hanging out with the characters. It explains very well how political it is to be lesbian.

renee badenoch

The Essential Dykes to Watch Out for was a TOME. It's nearly 400 pages, and despite being a graphic novel, those pages are dense... Allison Bechdel packs a lot of words into each page. Dykes to Watch Out For follows nearly 30 years worth of queer history, from fighting for the mere right to exist in public in the early 80's, to marriage equality in the early 2000's. 

I loved how political Dykes to Watch Out For was. All of the characters are deeply politically engaged, and they rage about injustice over a span of presidential administrations from Reagan up until 2007 presidential race. I particularly loved the scathing critiques of the faux-progressive Clinton administration, and the way the book captured the (reasonable!) paranoia, anxiety, and stress of being a queer person living through the Bush years.

I expected the book to be more dated than it was. Right from the beginning it was racially diverse, including major characters that were LatinX, Black, Asian, and Jewish. As the comic progressed the story went from being just about lesbians to being trans and bisexually inclusive. 

Some of the book suffered from a strange rhetorical device of having a main character be resistant to the changing face of queer culture. Mo, arguably the books main protagonist, at points voices really ableist, slut-shaming, or trans-exclusive opinions. While I admire Bechdel for showing the sometimes uglier sides of gay culture, and while Mo often changes her mind or is shown to be in the wrong by her friends, it was still very uncomfortable and not always well-executed to read the exclusionary rhetoric. 

Despite some of my qualms, I did enjoy reading this. It made me feel more connected to the past, and I enjoyed the way that some things never change. As I said to my friend while reading it, "I'm really glad to see the storied history of queers being anxious, neurotic messes."

Caitlin Berger

Brilliant perfect amazing entertaining queer exceptional amazing brilliant I could read this for the rest of my life!!!!

The Essential Dykes to Watch Out for

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