The US graphic novelist on having her landmark comic strip, Dykes to Watch Out For, turned into an audio series, growing up in a funeral home, and her famous women-in-film test
Cartoonist Alison Bechdel, 62, is the author of three graphic memoirs, including Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic, but she’s most widely known for cinema’s Bechdel test. To pass, a film has to feature at least two women – preferably named characters – talking to each other about something other than a man. The test originated in Dykes to Watch Out For (DTWOF), her landmark comic strip that launched in 1983 and ran for 25 years. DTWOF followed the politics and news of the times, providing a weekly lifeline for queer readers across the US. Now, 40 years on, the trials and triumphs of Bechdel’s tight-knit lesbian ensemble have been given a fresh lease of life in a new audio series, with a cast including Jane Lynch, Carrie Brownstein and Roxane Gay.
DTWOF started in the 1980s. Name one thing from that era that you’re glad to be shot of and another that you miss
I’m glad to be shot of Ronald Reagan, although he did sort of seep out into the next decade. I miss the sense of community – the very tight-knit subculture that I was able to come out into. I wouldn’t want to go back to that because it was a sign of how embattled we were. We had to form a separate culture, but it had a lot of consolations and was quite wonderful in many ways.
