Portrait of a Dyke To Watch Out For
Cartoonist Alison Bechdel has a new book out, The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For, an anthology of her now-defunct "Dykes To Watch Out For" comic strip. I wrote about the book this week for our Winter Reading issue. My essay ("The Essence of 'Dykes'") revolves around the fact that I worked as Alison's assistant from 1998 to 2000, and then again from 2003 to 2005.
One of my jobs was to pose as characters from the comic strip so she could draw them more accurately. So when Alison blogged about the essay today, she included this photo. It shows me posing as Ginger in 1999, for episode #308. I know, I know, I look like a 12-year-old boy. I think I was 23, maybe 24.
I should add that my partner, Ann-Elise, takes issue with one point I made in the story. I wrote that I saved Sparrow's baby, Jiao Raizel. But Ann-Elise points out that, in fact, I was not the only one — she, too, argued passionately against Sparrow having an abortion. Just wanted to acknowledge publicly that that is, in fact, true. So J.R. fans can thank her, too.
Videographer Eva Sollberger also got to work with Alison this week — Eva profiled the "Dykes" cartoonist for this week's episode of "Stuck in Vermont."
Bechdel is amazing! I caught up with her in Montpelier a few weeks ago and gave her a copy of SEEDS, our comics anthology about food.
Posted by: Dan Barlow | December 19, 2008 at 11:38 AM