the essential dykes to watch out for by alison bechdel

I gave this a reread since I was given Alison Bechdel’s new book Spent for my bday and wanted a refresher! I love this book. It captures an image of the queer community that is rarely represented, if at all. It's such a joy to see comics about people that are like me and my friends and still be able to relate to the feelings and issues at hand, as it spans across the late 80’s, 90’s, and 2000’s! It gave me some good chuckles, and the characters feel very real. It's also interesting to witness Bechdel’s art style develop through the years.

I will say however, that especially in the later years the tone becomes increasingly doomerist and downtrodden, which is hard to see progress along with the political realities both the author and her characters were reckoning with. Not an issue with the writing, but definitely a bummer. Additionally, at times Bechdel seems to be confronting her own sometimes uncomfortable feelings about trans people. As a trans butch reader, I sometimes found this difficult to come across, even when the beliefs are challenged.

I think the series really hit its stride around 1994-2000. Once the bookstore closes, a lot of the magic gets lost, to me, and I feel the characters end up stagnating. Like, the Clarice/Toni/Gloria affair goes on and off for years! And then none of them get to be happy in the end?? I realise part of this is my perspective as someone reading all of these consecutively when they were published over decades, but come on now. I wanna see Toni and Gloria kiss more than once please. (This too, is a compliment in a way! I wouldn't care so much if I didn't feel for the characters.)