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cheating

October 20th, 2009

Instead of making a new post, I’m going to cheat by linking to a post about my visit last week to the Center for Cartoon Studies.

Harvey Pekar is 70

October 8th, 2009

A whole buncha cartoonists drew Mr. American Splendor for his birthday. Can you figure out which head is by me?

women and children first

October 6th, 2009

Chicago’s Women and Children First, one of the few remaining women’s bookstores in the country, celebrated their thirtieth anniversary with a gala last weekend. I was one of the guests, along with Dorothy Allison and Nicole Hollander. It was a really fun evening. Nicole and I had a public conversation, and later, as things got a little wilder, Dorothy spoke to the crowd about her personal history with women’s bookstores. I managed to take a few very low res photos, and record a little bit of her talk with my phone. From those audio and video snippets, I put together this brief glimpse of Dorothy conjuring up her first visit to Women and Children First years and years ago, when she was touring with Trash.

reset yer browsers

September 29th, 2009

I’m about to make a change here on the blog. One I’ve talked about in the past, but am only just getting around to implementing with the able assistance of my new web guru, the other Alison. Very soon you will see, when you come to dykestowatchoutfor.com, not this blog but an index page. The idea is to have a regular kind of author’s or illustrator’s website, on which the blog will be one of many options. I hope you’ll all keep coming to the blog. But there’ll be a little extra click, or a resetting of your bookmarks, to get here.

This is a change I’ve really been eager to make since it clarifies what I do, and separates my personal, actual self a bit from my job. Any suggestions or ideas as we make the transition are welcome.

you’ll never brush your teeth lightly again

September 28th, 2009

I met June Thomas in 1987 or so. I knew her because she worked at the feminist monthly off our backs, which ran my cartoons. So when I went on tour with my first book, she offered to put me up in D.C. We were on our way to a reading together, and I was a little nervous. To lighten the mood, I said, “Do I have anything in my teeth?” and bared my fangs at her. She said rather curtly, “No. You have big, perfect American teeth.”

Now June works for Slate. And now I know why she was so touchy on the subject of teeth. This week Slate will be rolling out, one installment a day for the next week, her in-depth report, The American Way of Dentistry: A Look at the Coming Crisis. Here’s the very riveting first installment, The Story of my Teeth.

And here’s the Facebook fan page where you can share dental horrors of your own.

Cruse-o-rama

September 18th, 2009

Howard Cruse, the king o’ queer comics, has this great new book out. From Headrack to Claude is a collection of his comics spanning 33 years. There’s amazing stuff here, from his underground series Barefootz, to the classic stories he did for Gay Comics, (If you’ve never read “Dirty Old Lovers!” or “Cabbage Patch Clone,” these alone are worth the price of the book!) to recent pieces he did for Boy Trouble and Young Bottoms in Love. It’s an valuable trove of cartoon history and you can buy it here at Lulu.com.

Ivan the wonderful

September 14th, 2009

If you’ve never caught one of Ivan Coyote’s live performances, I’m sorry for you. But you can get a free download here of the studly storyteller’s book Loose Ends. Plus a discount on all her other books. If you don’t know her stuff, check it out. She’s a gentleman and a sweetheart. And spins a smart yarn. Here’s a little sample of a scene Read the rest of this entry »

Look! I’m in bed with Susie Bright!

September 10th, 2009

1. Well, at any rate she made me this amazing pair of pajamas. Yes, the statuesque sexpert, all around sex-positive goddess, erotica anthologist, and founder of On Our Backs just felt moved to sew me some flannel PJs, as a gift. She let me pick out the flannel pattern and I chose these grizzly bears. I am inexpressibly moved by this kind gesture.

If you don’t frequent Susie’s blog already, check it out. Also, she has an awesome audio show that’s actually called In Bed with Susie Bright, on audible.com. You can check out some free episodes here. The one with Betty Dodson is particularly good.

2. Remember the dickwad congressman who shouted “You lie!” at the president during last night’s rather moving health care speech? You can make a donation to his opponent here.

3. And look! My brother and his wife got in their local newspaper for keeping their kids out of school to hear Obama’s talk to schoolkids–which the local schools had decided not to play live to students on Tuesday.

accounting for myself

September 7th, 2009

I know I haven’t been posting much. I’ve been working, though. And doing other things. Here’s the two cords of wood that got delivered in July, all stacked. And that’s the garlic Hol and I planted last November. And that’s a jar of peaches Holly just canned. (don’t actually click those links, or you’ll go to some very long dull videos.)

I guess I’m all ready for winter.

Oh, and today I hiked up Mt. Mansfield with Hol. We got almost to the forehead, but turned around because Hol’s boot fell apart. The sole came completely off. She cleverly kept it in place with the lace, though, till we got back down.

Here’s some guy’s blog which explains the physiognomy of Mt. Mansfield. Personally, I don’t see a human face when I look at this mountain. I think the native Abenaki had it right—they called it Mountain with the head of a moose. Doesn’t it look like a long, rambling antlery moosehead?

site maintenance…sorry

September 7th, 2009

We just upgraded to the latest version of wordpress, and in the process lost some recent changes to the site. We’ll get it sorted out soon. Isn’t this a sad, generic look? Here, I’ll try to spice it up with a picture of Dr. Winnicott.