The Essential Dykes To Watch Out For Hardcover – November 12, 2008

Sensitive, insightful, and funny!

Was a gift, she loved 🥰 it. Would buy again

I have history with Bechdel, having owned almost every thing she wrote during the Dykes days.This book is worth it to me for the author introduction, citing how younger lesbians would cite her work helping them as they came out. She asks if her work is still relevant, and then brings out the "herstory" to prove her point.Whether or not you're a fan, read this .

I’ve spent many hours enjoying this wonderful compilation of Alison Bechdel’s “Dykes to Watch Out For” cartoon series. Drawn between 1987 and 2008, the “Dykes” strip focuses on the misadventures and foibles of a group of close-knit LGBT friends as they pursue education, work and love affairs while debating personal politics and political correctness.The strip is funny but also thoughtful in tone. It’s unique in that it features multi-sexual, multi-racial, multi-ethnic characters and continually comments on the culture and politics of the times: lesbian and gay rights, the AIDS epidemic, the wars in Iraq, 9/11, celebrity culture, transgenderism, the financial crisis, etc. The characters attend many an anti-war protest, Pride parade and women’s music festival. They debate and spoof the latest twists in gender theory. The feminist bookstore owner Jezanna rails against “Bunns & Noodle” stealing her business.The protagonist, Mo, is forever analyzing and second-guessing herself (like a lesbian Woody Allen). Her pal Lois is sexually omnivorous and proud of it. Other characters include Harriet, Sparrow, Ginger, Malika, Clarice and Toni and their kid Raffi. They are a lovable, oddball “Our Gang” whose friendships, arguments, love for and exasperation with each other blend into an astute, layered saga of a modern family, with all its warmth and complications. I read this toon when it first ran in alternative newspapers back in the 1990s. Reading it again still made me laugh and think. This would be a great gift for an LGBT or feminist friend.

Everyone knows the Bechdel Test - why doesn't everyone (meaning me) know about Alison? Great series, so much depth and character. Recommend!

Whether you've been anxiously awaiting the next installment after Invasion of the Dykes to Watch Out For, or have lost track of our favorite lesbian heriones and want to get caught up, this is the book for you.Hardcore fans will be delighted to see that we have an entire new book's worth of fresh, unpublished comics to get us up to date. I looked at how many comics each of the previous books has had, and we have an equal amount of new content in this one. But, for only a little bit extra, you get this thick, glorious retrospective which takes us through the entire series, giving us clips and the best highlights from over the years.If you missed the last couple books - no worries - this will catch you up enough to enjoy the latest comics at the end. And if you've read everything and just want the latest book - you won't be disappointed with everything else included. I've read every book multiple times, and I enjoyed reading the entire thing as a lead-up to the new comics at the end.Bechdel is my number one favorite cartoonist ever, and I'm not even a lesbian - I just find her characters are so human and so interesting that I connect with their lives deeply.So if you read Fun House and aren't sure if you might like to move on to this series, I'd encourage you to pick up this book and give it a try.

And there they are on pages 76-77, the first DTWOF strips I ever saw. They were in a student run women's paper in the Fall of 1991, I had just arrived at the university and my life was about to change for the better. Therefore, it's impossible for me to be completely objective when I talk about this strip and its brilliant creator (channeler?), Alison Bechdel. At first I didn't know what to make of the strip - I feel like I walked through my first two decades in a haze because I was not used to a comic strip dramedy. It didn't take me long to fall in love with it. I bought all the collections that were available at the time (three books!), saw Bechdel's slide show when she came around to my school and even wrote her a letter - and she responded. I still have that letter.It's great to see so many strips reproduced here, forming a running narrative of twenty years in the lives of the characters. Not all of the strips are here nor are the nifty little supplements that the older books included but for the first time reader, I don't think they'll feel the loss. They can also go and seek out some of the older books for completion.This is one of the best graphic arts collections of the year.

Alison Bechdel is both an amazing cartoonist/ graphic novelist as well as a great story teller. She is a super star.

This is really great, but I wanted to point out that a lot of the best strips are missing. Mo's first time with Harriet, Mo's first time with Sydney, my personal favourite (Digger, NO!), all the long bonus strips from the original collections (Toni and Clarice move house, the Madwimmin benefit, the tale of how all the characters met)... So while this is a must-buy, if you're a long-term fan of DTWOF you might be a bit sad to see these omissions, and especially towards the end of the anthology the plot starts not to make as much sense because crucial scenes (eg with Toni's story) are missing. I was thinking of replacing my collection of the original anthologies with this volume - not any more!

The best testimony I can give to Alison's drawing and writing would be the fact that as a European heterosexual male I could not wait to get home to read more of this wonderful book. Transcending the different environments we come from underlines the true genius of a artist/writer. The view into the everyday life of Alison's characters are truly human and breaks down any artificial borders between gender, race or political background. Marvelous!

I love this set if Cartoons. As a gay woman it is refreshing to read a clever, funny and political set of graphic stories. The characters are a blast from the past and after a few pages I was hooked. This is a must for any lesbian who wants to spend some time reflecting on the lesbian library verses the pub. Excellent writing at times laugh out loud a comic time machine. The drawings are fantastic the characters feel like old friends. Read it she is fantastic.

I bought this after stumbling across one of the old cartoons online. Ordered this and was not disappointed. It's funny and heartwarming and you really feel yourself getting involved with the characters lives. There are A LOT of cartoons in the book it't very addictive reading. Well worth the money. Bechdel's humour is in the little things, be sure to look at the titles of books or newspaper headlines in the background of each cartoon- they are very witty.Also don't worry about the other review which says some of the cultural references will go over British people's heads, it's no worse than Friends!

This is the second book i read from Alison Bechdel (the first was Fun home-also highly recommend). The comic is about a funny lesbian community of friends. In the first narrative level we observe their life and in the second narrative level we observe the general American civic life (book spans from 1990's to 2008). This is a great book because it records the cultural change inside the gay community and in general the LGBT life and attitude towards politics.Enjoyed the humor, the characters, the witty description of lesbian women and the volume of information about the gay communityA++