Moving right along…

July 6th, 2006 | Uncategorized

Man, I’m totally crazed. I know it might seem like lately I’ve just been sitting around musing on the ethical implications of success, but I’ve actually been hard at work. Doing my comic strip, for one thing, plus an ongoing barrage of Fun Home interviews. And tomorrow morning I set out on another leg of my book tour, this time to the Twin Cities, Wisconsin, and Chicago.

My email has reached a state of advanced entropy. There’s stuff from three weeks ago I haven’t even had a chance to open yet, let alone answer. But I promise I’ll buckle down to that after I get back from the Midwest.

For now, here’s the latest Dykes episode, a week early, as evidence of my industry. A slight disclaimer: because I’ve been so busy, I had to abandon any attempt to squeeze current events into the strip. Normally I spend a lot of time trying to figure out connections between what’s going on in the world and what’s going on with my characters. But I just couldn’t keep up with the news properly this month. So you’re spared any mention of military atrocities, constitutional amendments, and limitless executive power.


DTWOF 490

25 Responses to “Moving right along…”

  1. Anonymous says:

    Heyy, looks like C & T got a teenager there!

  2. dede says:

    whoa, this is so depressing!

  3. Cia says:

    The last panel was for lack of better words, sad. It was good to have a new one, thanks for getting it on here a week early ^_^

  4. Chaka says:

    *gasp* Damn…Raffi is going through alot. The ending was so hard…

  5. Ed says:

    Well, we all felt like we were going through a lot when we were teens. Raffi is just “at that age” — which is how old now? Is he 13like he would be in “our world”? It’s the little touches this strip has that I love — note how Raffi’s hair is getting shaggier like so many boys his age nowadays. I see a big talk in the future but will Raffi’s “wish” for a divorce be fulfilled? Things don’t look so great.

  6. Elaine says:

    Hmm.. more likely Raffi’s wanting to ‘belong’ with the apparant majority of kids his age, who do have broken homes…

    ..Peer pressure, being with the ‘In’ crowd, y’know?

  7. Xanthe says:

    I think he wants Toni and Clarice to divorce because there’s so much tension at home, and also to stop all the flak he gets from his peers because he has two mothers.

    There was a moment a few years ago when Raffi said to Toni “why do you guys have to be lesbians ?” which was very poignant.

  8. Emma says:

    Wow – how old is Raffi now? Can’t figure it out. And i say it’s time Mo learnt to cook!

  9. Anne says:

    On a lighter note, Toni’s butt looks cute in the last panel. 🙂

  10. arrdvark says:

    All the comments have been made about this strip, so can I comment on your hard and busy book tour please?
    All the other writers/authors I know dont actually do much writing when they are promoting their latest book… so please dont stress or overload your work schedule with trying to draw strips and book tour at the same time.
    I for one am happy just to read the blog for the moment, if you means you dont explode.

  11. Chaka says:

    Whatever to the above….I need my God Damn DTWOF!!!!….Just kidding Alison.

  12. mk says:

    Don’t worry about lack of political commentary – sometimes it’s nice to have an escape from current events.
    Also thanks in your last strip for a gimpse into Mo & Syd’s therapy. Other people’s therapy is so much more fun than your own.

  13. KathyO says:

    Yep, that’s a standard-issue official teenaged slouch that Raffi’s got going… and being a teenager, it’s All About Him, as far as he’s concerned. He’ll be a great guy and devoted to both his moms in a while, but in the meantime… angst-o-rama. I feel sorry for everybody.

  14. Jezzie says:

    I would say that Raffie is reacting to the tension in his home by giving his moms an age-appropriate message to work it out. He has been raised to feel good abt. his family, and also, to know that not everyone else feels okay abt. them. He has also been raised in an environment in which his parents exposed him to, rather than sheltered him from, the duality of life for gay families in this culture. Toni and Clarice are very committed parents, and for this reason, it would make sense that they work it out and come thru intact…they are experiencing what parents go thru at abt. the time their first or only kid reaches adolescence. I commend Alison B. for presenting this family so realistically and humanely. I wish there were more examples of intact gay/lesbian long-term partnerships with kids in popular culture…we are virtually invisible, and this strip is the only place where I can find a familiar representation of my life and family.

  15. BritChick says:

    WOWZA! I cannot believe how old Raffles is now! *jaw drops to the floor*

    I absolutely am in awe of your works, I only have two books at the moment “hot throbbing…” and “split level…” so have never seen any earlier strips than those, and the lastest ones I’ve seen were when Sydney was diagnosed with breast cancer *I cried* BUT thanks to Millivres pulling DTWOF from DIVA magazine I’ve kind of missed the boat on the latest since the afore-mentioned (thanks to Planetout for having a few later strips for me to catch up on)

    Anyways, I’ve just ordered the first two books from Amazon.com (alas, my vain search for an actual MadWimmin booksonline proved fruitless) so I shall be going right back to the early days.

    When are you going to come to the UK? I know a bunch of ladies here who would be willing to act out some of your strips, and I’ve always wanted an excuse to be Lois/Louis!

    Yours admiringly, HUGE British fan,
    Suze

  16. shadocat says:

    Reminds me of the time my youngest daughter asked me to take the rainbow sticker off my car; or when the oldest one asked me to wear a dress tho a family function so I would “look like a girl”…

  17. Hannah says:

    Oooops! Out of the mouth of babes…poor Raffi! On the one hand it would be really cool to see Clarisse and Toni pull it out against the odds and return to being a healthy loving couple. However right now they are not in a healthy relationship and there comes a time where you have to decide what to do with that. You can’t go on forever in that kind of mess…well, on the other hand, yes, you can. I have known people who have done it. But it leads to a miserable life with no redeeming qualities to it in the final bitter end.
    By the way, Mo can too cook! She cooks vegetarian, and fairly complex stuff as I remember! However, given how Toni was at the moment, if Mo had been slicing them into little long strips, Toni probably would’ve had her slice them the OTHER way, given her stress level.
    Well, we will see.
    Hang in there Alison.
    Blessings!
    Hannah

  18. Joy says:

    Well, both Clarice and Toni have been very pre-occupied with their individual “causes.” I’ve been expecting an outburst from Raffi ever since #456, when he was trying to get his mom’s to play cranium and they were both too absorbed in their work to pay him any attention. “I’ll be over behind the Quickie Mart scoring some crank.” “Have fun.” “Wear your hat.” Sort of underscored that last panel in Invasion of the DTWOF, when Toni said, “we’re just like everyone else, blah blah blah.” This is going to be one of those “growthful” experiences, just like every family has once the child grows up. It’s a great strip, some of the best family relationship stories I’ve ever read.
    Thanks for all the great work, Alison,
    Joy

  19. grace says:

    it’s shocking to hear Raffi come out with something so blatant. but i loved everyone’s positioning on the last panel- the realism is incredible, in all these subtle little ways. thank you for another thoughtful, beautiful, tragicomic DTWOF.

  20. susanna says:

    There’s a German proverb which says: Too many cooks spoil the soup. It is nice that you, Allison, let your readers take part in the creative process, but it is like the cooks ate all the soup trying to improve it, when we, the readers, stand around in Toni’s and Clarice’s house commenting on the interieur when they’re not even done fighting.
    Constructive critique is nice, but in an overdose it may distract you from your creative source and prevent you from taking risks for fear of making mistakes.
    Since I love your spicy cartoons for their unique, sharp oberservations, I wish you let critique, even the most constructive one, make its way through to you only in homeopathic doses. There will be no more of your much praised realism if you allow your view to get blurred by the views of too many others.

  21. genevieve says:

    Even before getting to the final panel, I noticed the lines under Toni’s eyes that I’ve not seen before. At first I was trying to figure out how old T & C (and the gang) are now, but by the end I think it’s just supposed to show how tired and worn out Toni is from the tension with Clarice. Sad.

    Now I really want to see the next installment!

  22. Liz says:

    Raffi has become an apathetic spoiled little S*&t. He is not a nice kid at all but someone I would never want to have over to a holiday dinner or party with his mother. He would not be a guest that would be worth my time with cooking, cleaning and preparing half the day, when all he would do is complain and want to eat at the food court. His parents should have taught him some manners years ago.

  23. Marny says:

    I read the article about you and your old home in the NYT today and it made me want to know more about you and your wonderful work. Oh the pleasure of finding a new voice! I can’t believe I have never seen your strip or books here in Central California. Keep up the excellent work and enjoy your life, dear heart.

  24. Sunshine says:

    Is Raffi playing America’s Army?
    Good God.