The Essential Dykes to Watch Out for

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 Mo, Lois, Sydney, Sparrow, Ginger, Stuart, Clarice, and the rest of the cast of cult-fav characters. Most of them are lesbians, living in a midsize American city that may or may not be Minneapolis. Bechdel's brilliantly imagined countercultural band of friendsacademics, social workers, bookstore clerksfall in and out of love, negotiate friendships, raise children, switch careers, and cope with aging parents. Bechdel fuses high and low culturefrom foreign policy to domestic routine, hot sex to postmodern theoryin a serial graphic narrative ';suitable for humanists of all persuasions. '