--- product_id: 7076576 title: "The Essential Dykes To Watch Out For: An Award-Winning Graphic Narrative of Twenty-Five Years of LGBTQ+ Life, Love, and Politics" price: "$83.59" currency: USD in_stock: true reviews_count: 13 url: https://www.desertcart.us/products/7076576-the-essential-dykes-to-watch-out-for-an-award-winning store_origin: US region: United States of America --- # The Essential Dykes To Watch Out For: An Award-Winning Graphic Narrative of Twenty-Five Years of LGBTQ+ Life, Love, and Politics **Price:** $83.59 **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** The Essential Dykes To Watch Out For: An Award-Winning Graphic Narrative of Twenty-Five Years of LGBTQ+ Life, Love, and Politics - **How much does it cost?** $83.59 with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.us](https://www.desertcart.us/products/7076576-the-essential-dykes-to-watch-out-for-an-award-winning) ## Best For - Customers looking for quality international products ## Why This Product - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Description From the author of Fun Home —the lives, loves, and politics of cult fav characters Mo, Lois, Sydney, Sparrow, Ginger, Stuart, Clarice, and others For twenty-five years Bechdel’s path-breaking Dykes to Watch Out For strip has been collected in award-winning volumes (with a quarter of a million copies in print), syndicated in fifty alternative newspapers, and translated into many languages. Now, at last, The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For gathers a “rich, funny, deep and impossible to put down” (Publishers Weekly) selection from all eleven Dykes volumes. Here too are sixty of the newest strips, never before published in book form. Settle in to this wittily illustrated soap opera (Bechdel calls it “half op-ed column and half endless serialized Victorian novel”) of the lives, loves, and politics of a cast of characters, most of them lesbian, living in a midsize American city that may or may not be Minneapolis. Her brilliantly imagined countercultural band of friends—academics, social workers, bookstore clerks—fall in and out of love, negotiate friendships, raise children, switch careers, and cope with aging parents. Bechdel fuses high and low culture—from foreign policy to domestic routine, hot sex to postmodern theory—in a serial graphic narrative “suitable for humanists of all persuasions.” Review: Misadventures of a Lovable, Lesbian "Our Gang" - 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. Review: Our times writ small and large - Wonderfully expressive and subtle drawing is just one of the pleasures of this splendid compendium of Alison Bechdel's DTWOF series from the beginning. Reading her multiple histories of the gals, guys and kids she clearly has such sharp-eyed affection for is also a run-though of world events (but more specifically US politics, not the same thing) over these many years. I couldn't help but feel very downcast to be reminded that plus ça change in so many areas of US social and political life - shooting rampages, cuts to welfare, education and arts funding - it's all still happening. That Bechdel has retained her mischief, her wit and her generous humour for all these years is a tribute to her and a very great blessing for her readers. ## Technical Specifications | Specification | Value | |---------------|-------| | Best Sellers Rank | #165,758 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #89 in Biographies & History Graphic Novels #182 in Educational & Nonfiction Graphic Novels #238 in Comic Strips (Books) | | Customer Reviews | 4.8 out of 5 stars 489 Reviews | ## Images ![The Essential Dykes To Watch Out For: An Award-Winning Graphic Narrative of Twenty-Five Years of LGBTQ+ Life, Love, and Politics - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81q7VE85vBL.jpg) ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Misadventures of a Lovable, Lesbian "Our Gang" *by J***A on June 15, 2015* 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. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Our times writ small and large *by K***S on January 2, 2013* Wonderfully expressive and subtle drawing is just one of the pleasures of this splendid compendium of Alison Bechdel's DTWOF series from the beginning. Reading her multiple histories of the gals, guys and kids she clearly has such sharp-eyed affection for is also a run-though of world events (but more specifically US politics, not the same thing) over these many years. I couldn't help but feel very downcast to be reminded that plus ça change in so many areas of US social and political life - shooting rampages, cuts to welfare, education and arts funding - it's all still happening. That Bechdel has retained her mischief, her wit and her generous humour for all these years is a tribute to her and a very great blessing for her readers. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Super charged comic art - the stories resonate! *by P***N on January 3, 2026* Wonderful cast of characters; great facial expressions, personalities, peccadillos, relationship realities. These stories could have been written now in the _rump era. Repeating republican propaganda syndrome examined. Yikes. --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.us/products/7076576-the-essential-dykes-to-watch-out-for-an-award-winning](https://www.desertcart.us/products/7076576-the-essential-dykes-to-watch-out-for-an-award-winning) --- *Product available on Desertcart United States of America* *Store origin: US* *Last updated: 2026-08-24*