Post-Dykes to Watch Out For

2000, possible first edition, published by Firebrand Books
Alison Bechdel
Post-Dykes to Watch Out For
Bought new for $11.95
Slightly worn paperback
B

As the title and cover illustration suggest, Bechdel has enlarged the DtWoF world well beyond lesbians, although that is still her main focus of course.  That cover shows (in order) a straight woman, a trans woman, a trans man, a straight man, a gay man, a bi different-sex couple, and a lesbian, all of whom are in fact Mo, as she'd be with various genders and orientations (but always the striped shirt).  The inside contents address, among other things, why Sparrow identifies as a "bi-dyke" now that she's dating Stuart, and how drag king Lois deals with her crush on Jerry the FTM mechanic.

As so often with these collections, the best part is the longish story at the end, this time "Flow State."  Again, politics is in the background, even as the story moves into 2000.  I wonder if the eight years of a Democrat in the White House made Bechdel and/or the characters relatively complacent.  We'll see the effect the younger President Bush has when we get to Dykes and Other Carbon-Based Life-Forms to Watch Out For in 2003.

Oh, and I'm using the "2000s" tag to mean not just "2000 to 2009" but anything from Y2K onward, since there won't be terribly many posts from the 2010s.