Eight years later

November 27, 2016 4:22 AM

people have asked me many times if I thought about my characters, and if so, what they were up to. And I would have to be honest. No, I didn’t think about them, and I had no idea what they were doing.

But last week they all started flooding back.
posted by MartinWisse (23 comments total)

Welcome lesbian saviors!
posted by Morpeth at 4:53 AM on November 27, 2016 [8 favorites]

Does this mean she'll revive the comic again?
posted by radiocontrolled at 5:17 AM on November 27, 2016 [1 favorite]

I read a few years ago that she was working on another autobiographical graphic novel.

Why is Mo still with Sydney???!!!
posted by brujita at 5:19 AM on November 27, 2016 [8 favorites]

I was just thinking last week that we're gonna need Dykes to Watch Out For back to get through this.
posted by Bee'sWing at 5:20 AM on November 27, 2016 [8 favorites]

I've missed these ladies.
posted by Faint of Butt at 5:36 AM on November 27, 2016 [2 favorites]

I've thought about what they're doing fairly regularly over the past eight years. I miss this comic strip more than I can say.

My headcannon about the Thanksgiving dinner is that for some reason not everyone could make it - because otherwise, what happened to Toni's partner? And Lois was fairly serious about that woman she was seeing, and I can't believe that Lois, Toni, Clarice and Ginger are all single eight years later. I am not at all surprised that Mo and Sydney are still together - Sydney is kind of an awful person, but she has tenure in that town and she does not strike me as the type of person to walk out on a sweet situation absent something better in the offing.
posted by Frowner at 5:47 AM on November 27, 2016 [10 favorites]

I couldn't work out who the young man next to Toni is, then I realised, it's Rafi! I remember when he was born!
posted by prune at 5:48 AM on November 27, 2016 [19 favorites]

I'm kind of blown away that none of them are vegetarians a anymore.
posted by palmcorder_yajna at 6:13 AM on November 27, 2016 [2 favorites]

I know! I mean, I loved all of this, but seeing Raffi all grown up kind of got me choked up.
posted by kalimac at 6:15 AM on November 27, 2016 [5 favorites]

Given C&T are sitting next to each other at the table, I think they're still together (in a federally approved marriage?). I'd like to know what's happened with Jasmine, Janis and Samia (was she married to Ammar to protect them both?) too.
posted by brujita at 7:47 AM on November 27, 2016 [1 favorite]

"fix immigration"

oh dear
posted by imperium at 8:04 AM on November 27, 2016 [1 favorite]

In history, 2016 will be the year the Trump Exception was added to the Bechdel Test.
posted by zippy at 8:27 AM on November 27, 2016 [7 favorites]

I missed these people more than I can say, and I'll take my silver linings where I can find them right now.
posted by Halloween Jack at 8:38 AM on November 27, 2016 [5 favorites]

I followed this link from the latest election thread or the one before, and it's interesting how you can be aware of a thing but not aware of its origins or how much depth there is to it - I was peripherally aware of the Bechdel Test and what its definition was, but I didn't know about the comic or anything else about the author.

I'm not ready to justify whatshisname's getting elected with becoming aware of Bechdel's work, but shit's awesome nonetheless, and I appreciate the post.
posted by Mooski at 8:58 AM on November 27, 2016 [4 favorites]

Given C&T are sitting next to each other at the table, I think they're still together (in a federally approved marriage?). I'd like to know what's happened with Jasmine, Janis and Samia (was she married to Ammar to protect them both?) too.

But they split up! They split up and then Toni was seeing that femme woman with the little girl who was Raffi's friend - Gloria? Who had the jerky butch ex? I have to say, looking back over the whole arc, butch women do not come off very well in general - I love Clarice and she is one of my favorite characters, but it is because her uptightness and discomfort with feelings kind of resonate with me.

Jasmine! I would really like to know how Jasmine and Janice are. Jasmine was a real firecracker.
posted by Frowner at 9:02 AM on November 27, 2016 [1 favorite]

Maybe they reconciled.... and Lois has always been a nuanced, mostly sympathetic character.
posted by brujita at 9:13 AM on November 27, 2016

That's true - she's always pushed Mo when Mo was being a jerk, for one thing.
posted by Frowner at 9:24 AM on November 27, 2016

2016 can't be as evil as we keep saying it is if we got a new DTWOF strip. :)
posted by luckynerd at 10:14 AM on November 27, 2016

There's an article in Seven Days that gives a bit more context behind the strip. It sounds like this is a one-off strip, and not the first in a renewed ongoing series — but that simply cannot be true. I had no idea how badly I needed these characters to help me make it through the next four years. I just hope Bechdel feels the same way, and decides to bring Dykes to Watch Out For back regularly after all.
posted by Banknote of the year at 10:15 AM on November 27, 2016 [4 favorites]

It pleases me all over again to be reminded she won a MacArthur Genius Grant. Because sometimes good things do come to people who deserve them.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 12:49 PM on November 27, 2016 [8 favorites]

I almost started crying when I realized what this was.
posted by medusa at 9:49 PM on November 27, 2016

It spooked me. The day after the election I said to my family that I wished I could know what Leslie Knope thought about all this. The next day, there was the letter from Leslie Knope.

I didn't vocalize the need for DTWOF out loud but I absolutely thought about it--in particular, wanting to link on Facebook to the cartoon that she did in which Clarice explains the electoral college system to Raffi (without first revealing that it was the electoral college, making it sound more like the facts of life, warts and all). Still can't find a link to that one, unfortunately.

And then, there this was. I'm wondering if I should wish for anything else because apparently I'm on a hot streak right now.
posted by dlugoczaj at 8:54 AM on November 28, 2016 [3 favorites]

I was really pleased to pick up a copy if Seven Days at home this weekend and see DTWOF on the cover. It really felt like I was home.
posted by maryr at 7:11 PM on November 28, 2016