GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE
DECEMBER 22, 1994
Evenings Out
A dyke worth watching
An interview with Alison Bechdel, creator of the Dykes to Watch Out For comic strip
by Christine Hahn
Alison Bechdel has been creating the "Dykes to Watch Out For" comic strip for 12 years, and has been writing about Mo and the gals for the past nine. Bechdel has a new book out called Unnatural Dykes to Watch Out For. It is a compilation of past strips and a mini-novella called "Sentimental Education" that chronicles the events that brought Mo, Lois, Sparrow, and the gang together.
I recently got the chance to talk with her.
Christine Hahn: You went to Oberlin College right here in Ohio, didn't you? Did you like it there?
Alison Bechdel: Yes I did go to Oberlin, but I wasn't really present when I was at Oberlin. I mostly just came out there.
Did you receive a degree in art? Yeah, a studio art, art history major. What would you be doing if you weren't doing the comic strip?
I'd probably be a waitress. . . no. If I had been straight, I would probably be working in advertising or something equally morally bankrupt.
I love the cover of your new book. Was it fun to turn Mo, Lois, and the gals into sultry '50s femmes? Were you inspired by the movie Forbidden Love?
Mostly it was the direct inspiration from what inspired the movie, which was those pulp novels. I had access to a whole bunch of pulp novel covers from a friend that works at the Lesbian Herstory Archives. I took elements from many different covers of those books.
You know, my mother loved that cover. I wasn't sure if she really got the allusion. She didn't exactly. She just thought it was funny. I think she just liked them looking a little more femme. She was hoping I had followed it up somewhere in the book with some continued play on the pulp novel scenario. Is your mom very fond of your work? She is very supportive and proud, but I've never gotten any feedback until just recently on this book. She said "Wow, you have really gotten much better."
I really enjoyed the short story at the end of Unnatural Dykes, “Sentimental Education," the story of how everyone met. Was it difficult to make sure
HONK
everyone's history was correct?
Yeah it was. I had to draw charts and graphs. I had to go back and read old stuff, because I had already revealed little parts of their history. I had to make sure everything worked.
I was surprised about Lois and Sparrow's past. I didn't remember that.
That was new.
I love all the little details that you put in the backgrounds. The books, newspaper headlines, music, the 'zines on Lois's bedroom floor. How much of that stuff is stuff that you listen to and read?
I'm bad at the music. I'm always having to ask other people for lyrics.
You totally impressed me with the Team Dresch reference.
Oh, all that comes from other people. That was from Phranc. I called her up and asked her, "What's a real hip song right now?"
Are there any Dykes to Watch Out For lost episodes? Like Mo sleeping with a man or Sparrow eating a Big Mac? Any sort of ugliness going on that you just can't bear to put in your strip?
Ya know, I'm sure there are many lost episodes that I haven't channeled, that I haven't allowed to come out and I would like for that to happen. I was talking to [lesbian author] Sarah Schulman recently and she said to me "Alison, you need to tell the truth more." I agree with her but I've got to figure out how to do that. I would love to be less like a sitcom.
What do you have to do to get a "Tip of the Nib" acknowledgement? You tell me some funny thing or give me an idea that I directly rip off.
I always try to guess what the "Tip of the Nib" is for. There is one strip in your new book where Mo and Ginger are making out in Mo's dorm room, and I thought it might be for the poster on the wall.
No, actually its not for the poster. It's for the name of the course that they were taking, the woman's study course.
Which do you enjoy more, working on the story or the drawings?
Women's
Pentagon
Action
Sentimental Education
Alison Bechdel
I find the drawing more pleasant. The writing is more excruciating. It's harder work. Each episode takes about 30 hours of work. How much of it is creative and how much is technical?
It's about fifty-fifty. The drawing is a very long process of pencil sketches after pencil sketches. Then I ink it in at twice the size of the strip.
A while ago you illustrated a strip with "American Splendor" creator Harvey Pekar. How did that happen?
I met him at a conference in Cleveland
in 1989. He came to hear me talk. How was it working with him?
It was such an honor. I'm a great admirer of his work. I went our for breakfast with him and his wife the day after I spoke at the conference. We were sitting in this cheesy breakfast place and there were these two old guys behind us who were carrying on this incredibly Pekaresque conversation. Harvey started writing it down on a napkin and slid it over to me and said "Here, you can illustrate this if you want." I did two one-page stories about these guys. One is in his anthology.
What did you think of the movie Crumb?
Oh, I was totally fascinated. I hate to admit it in public, but I've always loved Crumb's work. I
have this mixture of repulsion and fascination. He's such an incredible drawer. I think that the pinnacle of cartoon perfection is the collaboration of Pekar and Crumb. Because Pekar can write. I don't like Crumb's writing especially, but his art excuses almost any pathological behavior.
His work is like a bad car accident to me. I stare and stare at, it but am repulsed by the idea of so much of it.
I think really the most wonderful cartoons I've ever seen are Pekar and Crumb collaborations.
Any animation in your future?
I would love to do that. I just wish someone would come up to me and say, "I have $20,000 to help you do this."
A lot of comic strip artists are going on hiatus or quitting altogether. Do you seethat happening to you?
I can certainly understand why they do that, but I don't have any plans of doing it in the near future. I think if the strip ever just gets stale or it's too unbearable to do it, I'll just stop. I haven't reached that point yet. It is really hard to sustain something like this for so long and to keep it fresh. Anyone can churn out "Blondie" for 75 years.
What are some comic strips that you enjoy reading?
Well I love "Calvin and Hobbes" and I don't know what I'm going to do when Watterson quits. Maybe "Hothead Paisan" will get me through.