a lovely Dykes obit and a groovy video
December 17th, 2008 | Uncategorized
That’s my ex-assistant Cathy Resmer posing as Ginger almost ten years ago. And here’s a really wonderful piece she wrote this week about DTWOF for our local alt weekly Seven Days. And look! There’s also a very slick and smart video interview that the Seven Days vlogger extraordinare Eva Sollberger* did with me last weekend. She does this brilliant series called “Stuck in Vermont” for the Seven Days website.
*A Simon’s Rock alum, like me.
83 Responses to “a lovely Dykes obit and a groovy video”
Good grief! I look like a 12-year-old boy. Was I really that dorky?
Thanks for the linx, AB.
When I first saw the headline I thought, oh no, we’re all getting so old–who’s died now? What bad news, but what a lovely vlog. And Resmer’s right; reading all the old DTWOF is like going through the family album and remembering all the Dykes and the dykes. Cheers, Alison.
This is just amazing, crazy, awesome cool. I feel privileged to have known this now famous woman since 1994, when I first started reading DTWOF. After years of feeling like a member of the privileged few, I went to a straight couple’s house for dinner a few days ago, and noticed Fun Home on their shelf.. You’re not the only one, Alison! For at least this fan, your new found fame is equally surreal and absolutely thrilling. Congratulations, congratulations on your well deserved and long overdue recognition. ‘sniff! we’re so proud!!!!
And, Cathy, you look spiffin’.
That vlog is brill.
(Isn’t that what the kids say nowadays? “Brill”? You know, instead of “brilliant”? Ahh, who’m I kidding?)
Thanks for sharing this stuff.
Whoops. That Anonymous post above was me.
Awesome interview. But what is that list of words?
Cathy, if it makes you feel any better, I once met a woman who told me she was attracted to women who looked like 12-year-old boys. The next time I saw her, she had a girlfriend who looked kind of like you look in that picture!
What an AWESOME video!
That thrown-out notion of the strip being a mix of femme(soap) and butch (op-ed) is troubling but tantalizing! (OK, AB, you said girl and boy, but I see right through you!)
Obit, huh?
I do hope that reports of the death of DTWOF are premature…I too want to see Jezanna and Mo and the crew engage with the Obama presidency…but perhaps Alison now has other projects to wow us with….
Wow, I didn’t know Fun Home was going to a Broadway musical! That is crazy and awesome!
Cathy, you do look like a 12-year old dork boy! Loved your essay, and Eva’s video.
Broadway Musical??? seriously??? Hopefully, more like “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown” than the ill-fated “Doonesbury” musical….
I can’t help but be saddened by all this talk of no more DTWOF. I certainly understand the creative and mental toll that producing this comic must have been for Alison over the years. But Cathy’s realization that these comics are, for many of us, the equivalent of family albums is humbling.
I was never a weekly (or biweekly) reader of the strip back in the pre-web dark ages. I first (1990) saw a collection at a girlfriend’s apt., and must admit I flipped through it mainly looking for nudity. Luckily there wasn’t that much, and so I ended up reading the strips instead.
When I finished with that first collection, I was both elated and annoyed; I had fallen in love with this family, but wanted more. However, I always had to wait until the next collection came out, reading them in great gulps. Even after the strip was available online, I still waited until the collections came out to read the strips. I now realize that I waited b/c each time a collection came out, it was like a family reunion, a chance to catch up with people who had a strong influence on me, who I cared about.
Oops, rambling a bit, sorry.
I guess if the Dykes need to be over, then it has to be. I’m hoping, though, that Alison in time will want to revisit this wonderful, unique, unreplaceable group of people who I have grown older with, and who are dear to me.
And if that needs to be as an occasional book, rather than on on-going strip, well…you’ll find me happily waiting for the next reunion.
I’ve always hoped to grow into old age with the Dykes.
DTWOF ended? Impossible! If GASOLINE ALLEY is still running after 90 years, surely AB can get us to at least the 30 year mark.
Mo “shacks up with Harriet, hooks up with Deirdre, cracks up with Sydney” is a brilliant distillation of Mo’s love life.
Wow, there almost was no Jiao Raizel? Thank you, Cathy! She is — is, is, is, not was — one of my favorite recent characters. I like the way she never, ever, lets Stuart’s liberal version of “Do what I say — it’s for your own good” rule her life. As soon as she could walk, she was walking away from him.
But, y’know, remembering how Sparrow finally made the decision to go ahead with her pregnancy got me thinking about something. Everybody probably remembers that Mo started lecturing her about how it was impermissible to bring a child into a world like this one, and how it was all but obligatory for Sparrow to get an abortion. And that pushed Sparrow into deciding she wanted to go ahead.
Alison, you are absolutely right that DTWOF should come to an end. In fact, you probably should have quit the strip years ago. There’s something almost evil about creating or reading a comic strip in times like these, much less during the Bush administration. People are still dying in Iraq, the Taliban is making a comeback, Pakistan teeters on the brink of chaos, the world economy is falling apart, and you’re wasting our time and yours on a comic strip?!? The mind boggles. The jaw drops. The eyes widen in astonishment. Such irresponsibility! Such self-indulgence! I trust you feel truly and deeply ashamed of yourself. Perhaps you are even thinking of returning to the true Church, in the hope that confession and penance will help you bear this cross of shame. Good. It’s about time you finally brought your little creative peccadillo, your arrogant self-indulgence, to an end — no, actually, it’s about 25 years too late. Good riddance, I say.
Well… It’s worth a try, anyway.
I would miss the rants so very much! I love the strips that are behind the scenes. Mo rallying the troops to form a militia, etc. And, it just seems like there should be some clear final panel. Like Mo meets a buff woman who agrees to move in with her as long as the two of them can find room for all her stuff and compost everything they use 🙂
Andrew-YOU are brill…
@ksbel6: Mo’s anti-war militia is my favouritest ever D2WO4 strip.
That was such a lovely article by Cathy Resmer. She must be very proud to recognise her poses in the strip. I’d’ve kept quiet about the Mo wanking at work one personally … 😉
However, I’ll second her plea for A Very Dykey Christmas. Or a very dykey inauguration! I completely understand the need for a clean break though. Sometimes you have to get completely away from something in order to get it out of your system.
No, no, no! I need closure! If DTWOF is, indeed, ended (God help us!), we at least need a series finale. Otherwise, I’ll spend the rest of my days wondering what happened to everyone, kind of like when thirtysomething ended without warning. Maybe I need to get a life….
I’ve just picked up my very own copy of DTWOF at Politics & Prose and–
Wow!
I’d only ever read them online but boy do those girls look good on paper.
I can’t wait to bring them back to my own Ginger-Lois-Sparrow-esque home in Sydney. Thank you so much for creating such a wonderful strip. I still find myself thinking “What would Mo say about THIS?” when reading the newspaper!
If DTWOF is truly gone, I hope we get one last paperback collection of ALL the strips since Invasion. Be merciful to us raving completists!
Jana C.H.
Seattle
Saith Fridtjof Nansen: Fram!
@Andrew B: **applause**
Not quite “I want to have your babies” yet, but show me more work on a similar level, and we can start to talk.
Hey Alison, I got into Oberlin. And I’d say your work is one of the major factors that made me assured about my choice.
@Andrew B: Pitch-perfect! Kthxbai.
aw, little cresmer! that picture is awesome. those were the good ol’ days before digital cameras when you needed people like us, instead of being a one-woman posing machine.
@yun jin joo – i too went to oberlin and it was an amazing adventure with family-like ties that continue to this day. congrats!
Press clippings (stretching a point): From “Der Dicke [Katalog der schwulen Buchlaeden]”, the holiday edition of the quarterly review of books likely of interest put out by a collective of GLBT bookstores in Germany): Among DIE ZEHN BESTEN BUECHER 2008, or the ten best books of 2008, is of course “Die Comic-Entdeckung des Jahres: FUN HOME. Alison Bechdel. Gebunden, 240 Seiten, 19,95 Euro.” With a dollop of plot summary and praise, which I’ll spare us all, since without needing to read it we’re nodding in agreement already…
The video from the STUCK IN VERMONT series is impressive, Mme Bechdelova. All those refractions of FUN HOME, all those different mirrors, each subtly wrong.
This process! To be demonstrated again and again, Lady Lazarus, come from the dead — and then, of course, settling a pillow by your head, to say
“That is not what I meant at all. That is not it, at all.”
But who hears what you say when the videoed interviews, the translated refractions, are talking so loudly?
Is that Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps All-One on that shelf, or ink, or what?
Oh I am heartbroken at the idea of no more DTWOF “perhaps permanently.” I’ve been holding out hope that Alison will change her mind…
Please, Alison, listen to Cathy (excellent article, btw – thanks) and throw us a bone every once in a while. Maybe we can catch up with the gang on inauguration day as they watch Mr. Obama on T.V.! Please consider. Thank you.
I liked watching Alison do pull-ups, but it reminded me of my own pullup quandry: I was working out regularly, and I got to the point where I could do ten pull-ups, slow, all the way up, all the way down, and I suddenly found that there were places on my back I coudn’t reach to scratch anymore.
Do I trust that my newfound buffness will attract someone willing to scratch for me, or do I tone down the workout and regain my own scratchitude?
I chose the latter, but was it laziness or independence that motivated me?
I would love to see a single strip. Maybe somewhat longer than usual. No dialog from the ladies and occasional gentlemen.
Just their reactions as Obama takes the oath of office.
OK, THEN lots of swearing and throwing stuff at TVs (televisions!) wheh that toad Warren gives the invocation.
Wow! I have that same thing, about having the upper body strength to pull myself out of a pit!! I never thought anyone else would want the muscles for that reason:-))))
How bizarre!
and perfect:-))
What is the deal with Obama picking Warren? Yuck.
I just saw the Stuck in Vermont piece, and now I’m haunted by the thought that all of us DTWOF blog participants are imaginary, too!!!
I think I think, therefore I think I am…
@ ksbel: Really! I have been trying to be generous, thinking he has some grand plan to woo the evangalicals and get them to un-bigot themselves. In my more pessimistic moments, I think it’s pandering to a reprehensible part of the electorate.
Now, *that’s* a strip I would love to see: everyone in DTWOF dissecting the pick of Warren and the administration! (When the coal companies are pleased with the pick of Secretary of the Interior, I get squemish!)
@Robin B: the list of words is something I used to do in college, type up spontaneous lists of words. Sometimes they were alphabetical, mostly they were random.
@Andrew B: Very persuasive!
@Everyone else who has been asking for a Dykes To Watch Out For Update: I’m very touched that people want to see what the characters are up to. I’ll see if I can get it up to do something…but I feel like I’ve really switched gears lately and it might be too disruptive. I like Cathy Resmer’s “Very Dykey Christmas” idea, but remember, A Very Brady Xmas came out over 10 years after the show ended. I’m just sayin. I don’t mean to be difficult, or disappoint, or make people beg. I just have to feel like it. ‘Kay?
@Judybusy & ksbel. Yeah, my first pathetic liberal response was, “oh, well, okay. that’s very generous and rift-healing of obama.” but after mulling it over, I think that’s what he was counting on us all to do and I think he misjudged it. Maybe if prop 8 hadn’t passed, he could’ve gotten away with it. But I think we’re all too fucking pissed off right now to swallow this nicely. I’d been really psyched about the inauguration. Now i have to listen to this yahoo?
Here’s one (although I can’t do that nifty thing AB just did re: linking it):
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/12/18/kolbert.warren/?iref=mpstoryview
Hey, AB, if you’re in the groove of your new memoir, don’t feel you have to suddenly drop everything to do a new strip. The memoir’s the thing, to paraphrase probably the wrong play.
What a great vlog! Fabulous editting and music. Cute cat.
And, Alison, I heard today on CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Company) Radio One that you’re going to be interviewed by Jian on Q, the morning culture show….I’m looking forward to it!
Oh, and totally with you on the you-need-to-be-feelin-it thing. Guess I’m getting used to the idea of the strip’s retirement, especially after hearing you discuss it on your tour (bloggers – go back a few threads to watch the video of Alison in SF discussing her concluding the strip on her book tour). (extra thrill: Cat Pimp is in the audience!)
I’m also hopeful (expecting?) that the acclaim for the Essential D2WO4, or for “Love Life: A Case Study,” will force the dykes our of retirement.
[Say… does the “A Case Study” part of the title come at all from Spiegelman’s first comic abt his mom that shows up in Maus II? (just curious, I know it’s a common theme/term…).]
Wow…I always thought your characters were my fantasy friends and I was missing out on the real lesbian community that lived somewhere far, far away from where I did. How curious to hear you describe them that way too!
Amyx, maybe it’s the eggnog or the mince pies, but you just made me think, “A long time ago, in a women’s bookstore far, far away …”
Wow. But consider this for a moment, Alison: if DTWOF were to end, it would not just be the end of your strip and the little universe within it, it would be the end of all good narrative/serialized comic strips, in any paper, mainstream or not, the end. Seriously. You are the only one left.
BTW: I have never wanted to see a Broadway play in my life, but now I am looking forward to BOTH the Fun Home musical AND the one that the South Park guys are making about the Mormon church! How weird is that?
Weird, DeLDeL 🙂
Okay, not going to lie. I’m internally bawling and externally tearing up over AB’s potentially permanent hiatus from the strip.
Anyone want to sit virtual shiva with me? There can be a potluck of tempeh tartare and beet-ginger juice and seaweed avocado pate. And hummus. How could you properly mourn Mo without a box o’ instant hummus?
Also, seriously? Can someone confirm this Fun Home The Musical thing?
DaneGreat, let’s not forget wheat-free, dairy free pizza w/no tomatoes!
Love the vlog.
Fun Home, the musical? I’d pay to see that. Although I’d probably rather see a DTWOF musical. I mean, come on, it could be like Avenue Q. hahaha.
I’m on for the virtual shiva….
me too
Not me. Shiva is for a death. Digger, Virginia (or was it Vanessa), well OK. But not for no ladies that ain’t dead yet. I don’t care if AB quits drawing ’em. They are still alive. So there.
Don’t forget Jez’s mama.
A groovy video indeed.
http://thefreelancecartoonist.blogspot.com/
re: Fun Home the musical. My 2 simultaneous reactions are “WTF?” and “Well, if it is true it would be the only good musical on Broadway”. If the announcement was satire it was very well done 🙂 Have you considered skipping Broadway and going straight to the Ice Capades? I can just picture giant head versions of your characters now. (grin!) Ooh, it could be rock opera Ice Capades, with family talent involved! (Sorry, too good not to riff on).
As for the end/hiatus of DTWOF. I’m firmly on the side of artists working where their passions are. If your creative struggle is impelling you to “Love Life”, then follow it. My deep feeling for DTWOF is that the characters are too rich and alive to leave without some sort of closure. My hope is that at some point, AB, you feel the same need. But that’s my selfish hope to sit back and enjoy the fruits of someone else’s creative labor.
Whatever happens, it was a great thing that “Fun Home” was realized. And I think the same will be true of “Love Life”.
I’m less mournful and more hopeful.
Except about the inauguration, that shit’s F-ed up!
Here’s a thought: Each of Chris Onstad’s main Achewood characters has his/her own blog; Jeph Jacques’central characters in “Questionable Content” all have Twitter IDs and occasionally post comments.
Blogging in character could be a lot of work, but maybe some of the DTWOF crowd could jump on the social media bandwagon and send out the occasional “tweet.”
The beauty of this approach is that tweets are limited to 140 characters – just enough for “@Raffosaurus” to post:
“xmas dinner w/mom & meema. tense. talking to me but not each other. escaped to bthrm w/iPhone. will come out when they send search pty.”
That kind of thing…or even something less expository like “@profsyd” posting “recontextualized six immutable memes; time for breakfast.”
Damn, that was fun. I’d do it myself if it weren’t for intellectual property law; or if I had express written permission…
um…that was me, not that impostor, Anonymous
I believe that this absolutely brilliant and seminal comic strip and the characters in it are endemic to Ms. Bechdel’s personality. This is simply speculation or perhaps conjecture on my part, but I feel that after a period of quiescence, Ms. B and her fantasy friends in DTWOF will make a recrudescence of sorts. While I very much look forward to reading AB’s new graphic memoir, (and perhaps it will go down in the annals of comic history as her magnum opus) such a literary venture is not fungible as it pertains to DTWOF. (Opinion from a die hard fan)
A piece of fanfic. In twitter format.
@subversiveparent – “Latest grocery battle. How could I spawn a child with Frosted Fruit bats in her soul?”
@sparrowflight – “You could just let her try a bite. She’d probably hate them anyway, and we could move past this.”
@subversiveparent – “No! They’ve got you too?!”
@sparrowflight – “….?”
@subversiveparent – “The ADVERTISERS, sweetie! The ADVERTISERS!”
@sparrowflight – “Now that you mention it, can you bring me some Torpidos from the co-op?”
@subversiveparent – “Excuse me? You don’t eat that stuff…do you?”
@sparrowflight – “Just a craving.”
@subversiveparent – “a CRAVING?! Like…like…do you mean?”
@sparrowflight – “I swear, if you ask me if I’m pregnant one more time, I’m making JR sleep on the couch.”
The CBC show Q has a podcast of the interview with Alison on the Q website:
http://www.cbc.ca/q/
KarenE: I was listening to CBC this am in the car and Gian said “Alison Bechdel in 10 mins” and I was so happy… then I got stuck inside the store for 20 mins, missed the entire thing. Thanks for the link.
Sorry, this is off topic, but I just saw http://www.sockandawe.com. A lovely little flash game where you very therapeutically get to throw shoes at Dubya. It helped relieve a lot of feelings this end.
I’m really grooving on the Twitter idea.
I just read through an adorable exchange between the “Questionable Content” characters, including tweets from PintSize, the debauched “AnthroPC.”
PintSize’s tweets consisted of links to cartoon porn that made my brain hurt. “NSFW doesn’t cover it; this stuff was Not Safe For Anyone. Which is of course completely in character for PintSize.
Also, I just remembered that Rene Engstrom posts occasional tweets from a few of her “Anders Loves Maria” characters.
Dammit, I’ve got to set up some twitter accounts for fictional characters. Since I don’t have a Webcomic (yet), maybe I’ll dip into the public domain. Who wouldn’t want to read tweets from @JeanV-24601, or @Ishmael, or @tweedledee?
OK, don’t answer that.
That video totally rocks. excellent editing of the Bechdel.
@Judybusy & ksbel & Alison — Obama has defended himself by pointing out that he is also having a major pro-gay-marriage pastor there, and that that is how his administration is going to be, everyone will have a seat at the table. It’s not like he invited Pat Boone. And 50/50 is sadly a better ratio than the country has right now.
I am very sad that Alison titled this an Obit — I think that means DTWOF are dead in her head, even if she hasn’t committed to ending it in print. Certainly the article didn’t read like an obit, just like a tribute. But Cathy, it is a great article. And Alison, I understand that you can’t do a bi-weekly at the same time you are creating great art! I’m not criticizing, just mourning.
Here’s a shout out to Bailey Coy Books in Se-attle, where Alison did a signing ten years ago or so, and where they have never failed to keep DTWO4 stocked. Armed with a financial windfall and full knowledge of what we are getting each other as gifts, K and I went there to pick up books (she’s getting me the new DTWO4 collection, I’m getting her the Lynda Barry book). The clerk, thinking that they were out of the book, was on the verge of ordering it (promising that it would be in hand by Xmas day) when I turned up two copies on the new books table. I’ve got reading the collection blocked out on my Boxing Day schedule.
Here’s how I am coping with the possible demise of DTWOF …this is a little motto I learned at the feet of another artist I admire: when an Artist moves on, an Artist moves on.
Hard as it is to accept, ya just have ta let ’em.
FWIW…IMHO…JM2C…
happy hols, fellow fans, and AB and Holly!
Blog hijack
Correct response to Ratzinger:
People all around the world must THROW SHOES AT THE POPE at every available opportunity.
Someone may have mentioned this elsewhere, so I hope this isn’t a repeat. I think this may be of interest to people here, an article about Hilary Price, in the Occupational Outlook Quarterly, from autumn:
http://www.bls.gov/opub/ooq/yawhat.htm
A counter-argument to those who are disgruntled about the Warren choice: we’re barking up the wrong fucking tree. By Bob Ostertag.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bob-ostertag/why-gay-marriage-is-the-w_b_152717.html
@Pam I: Somewhat strangely, I got a bit upset at the Pope’s remarks. I’ve heard gays be blamed for everything, but I’ve never been compared to the destruction of the planet before. Especially by someone who wears red Prada shoes and has a handsome male personal secretary that’s been his constant companion for the last umpteen years. J Edgar Ratzinger anyone? Especially after his sheltering and protection of child abusers behind the Vatican walls.
You know, if these idiots spent as much time campaigning for the criminalisation of adultery (also an abomination) I’d have a bit of respect.
And before I forget again, in a review of the new volume of Susan Sontag’s diary (with a great picture by Risko), the reviewer mentions that Sontag liked to sit and write out lists of words, with no seeming connection.
Maybe this is something that some creative people do. I know I’ve made my share of lists. Maybe they stand on their verandas like Mr. Earbrass and think of lists of words. Keeps the wheels rotating.
Yep, The Pope is an idiot.
I agree with Philip Pullman, the Catholic Church is possibly the most hypocritical institution on the planet and has been the catalyst for much of human suffering.
The rising of the sun
And the running of the deer…
Caput apri defero
Reddens laudes Domino
The merriest of whatever-the-heck-you-wish
and the happiest of new years, ol’ D2WO4 buddies, ol’ D2W04 pals
Servitur cum sinapio.
Happy whatever from me too, my bloggy friends!
@ DaneGreat:
Thanks for the link. EXACTLY. What he said.
A Merry Holiday to all!
Happy Christmas (or whatever you’re celebrating) to everyone! Hope you have a wonderful day and Santa brings you what you asked for!
PS – In the spirit of Maoist Orange Cake I’m actually making my own cranberry sauce using fresh cranberries for the first time ever (with a dash of nutmeg) and it’s simply gorgeous. I’ll never use the stuff in a jar ever again! This is off topic but I had to share this revelation lol.
Happy Chriskawaannukah, ya’ll!
Hi everyone,
I escaped from the Portland metro area’s worst snow and ice storms in 40 years for the mild sunny skies of Mt.View,CA. Visiting my sister and her family; sister Karen and bro-in-law Carl are Oberlin alums.
that was me above. getting used to the computer here.
My experience with DTWOF was this:
(swirly scooby-doo flashback)
I lived in Albuquerque in 1992-4. There was some local publication out that printed the strip. I loved it-wonderful! Read it every week, couldn’t wait for the next one. One week, one of the characters was about to have a baby, a cliff hanger until the following week. The next week came…NO DTWOF!!! I called the paper and asked why they took it out.
They said that some of their advertisers were complaining about the content. When I asked, “which advertisers?” They indicated that they would not tell which advertisers were complaining, just as I “probably wouldn’t tell who my friends were.” I told them that they would soon find out who my friends were.
One of the biggest ads in that paper was for Full Circle Books, the largest women’s bookstore in ABQ. I marched down to Full Circle, and without the slightest hesitation, they pulled their 1/2 page ad from that paper. Hurrah, ladies!
I then systematically went from advertiser to advertiser and some of them pulled their ads as well. TADA! the following week, the strip was back. Ahhh life was complete again.
I’m gay and a Fanny Howe, Simone Weil reading Catholic. & I love DTWOF. To the person who said the Catholic church is the most hypocritical institution on the planet, there have to be at least others as hypocritical. The one big thing that really annoys me about Christianity is the constant need to convert others. Paula Gunn Allen said some things cannot be reconciled (i.e. Judaism, Catholicism, Protestantism, etc.). To everyone who reads this, I wish you at least peace and my vow to stay out of your spiritual lives.
I was reading The Essential Dykes To Watch Out For, and the quote by Hobbes from the Leviathan on page 270 really impressed me, btw. It’s about the devastation of war on society and that strip it appeared in must’ve been at the beginning of the second Gulf War. At that time, people as diverse as Noam Chomsky to Adrienne Rich to Gore Vidal to Susan Sontag were talking about the American empire and what has been an “endless war” since the end of World War II. That quote resonated heavily with me. Now we wonder what’s going to happen with Obama and Gitmo and Cheney’s comments about national security (Cheney who isn’t even vice-president or Bush’s puppet master anymore.)