I really liked this latest book by Ms. Bechdel. It's nice to see good things happening for the characters: Mo stirs herself and goes after Sidney instead of whining about her lack of a girlfriend. Ginger finally gets her PhD. Toni's parents seem to be ok her lesbianism, and Clarice and Toni revitalize their partnership which has been languishing since the arrival of Raffi, and one of the most important items, Clarice's second parent adoption is approved!

I can't wait for the next book! Unfortunately, Ms. Bechdel only comes out :-) with a new book every 2 years or so. I hope she never stops this comic strip

This book is the next best thing.

It includes her earliest drawings (as in, from age 3), comments on what was happening in her life at the time that certain strips were drawn, what her mother thinks of certain storylines and who she was actually writing about in some of the more intimate one-shots.

Since Bechdel has stopped publishing calendars, there's a section that includes each one from 1990 to 1997. Also, there are stills from the "factory tour" screen saver, the results of an artist jam, a story timeline, and strips that were published elsewhere (for certain causes, specials for various magazines, and so on).

If you've got all of the other previous DTWOF books, this won't make your collection complete (there's a strip for teenagers about how to deal with a friend coming out that I just couldn't find in this book), but it will certainly help you get there. Warning: there is some overlap if you have all the books.

This was a neat surprise to find at Amazon.com -- I had no idea that Bechdel was working on this compliation. Definately add it to your collection!

She just keeps on getting better and better.

Speaking as a heterosexual male, i can say with some authority that Ms. Bechdel consistently touches on matters and issues that transcend her setting and move into the range of Consideration Of The Human Condition.

While the strips contained in this volume (as always) appeared on a weekly basis in various "alternative" publications, the best way to read them (again, as always) is in the form of this collection, in which one can follow the sweep and development of the story and the lives of her characters without having to wait a week for the answer to that question that is the bane of the wellpaced storyteller, the eternal "And then what happened?", and, as always, Ms Bechdel's book readers get some much=appreciated lagniappe, in the form of a book-only continuation of the story, showing us the barely-orchestrated chaos of trying to co-ordinate several near-traumatic moves and only one truck.

Buying this book, like buying any in the series (except the first, which is really for completists only), is your ticket to an evening of watching a cast of wonderfully-eccentric old friends going through all the things you or i go through -- only funnier.

If you're a fan of the series, buy it. If you aren't, buy it anyway. Hilarious!!!

For example, although Watterson's "Calvin and Hobbes" series has some wonderful characters in it, they never change. He took a moment in a child's life, froze it, and riffed on that. Bechdel starts at a time in her characters' lifes, shows a lot of personality within one or two panels, and moves them forward through time. Their characters have an arc and they do change.

These strips are all from a series published as she went along. So, it's all rather Dickensian, isn't it? I wonder sometimes how she decides how things will go. Given that they are published in real time, she has an opportinity to map the character's lives to those of her community and to current events.

I view this as the only "soap opera" worth following.

For those unfamiliar with her work, be advised that the subject matter (certainly in the supplemental bit added to the end of the book) is on the mature side.

I've read all of Bechdel's collections (in order no less), and this one is far and away the most impressive. As Mo, Clarice, Lois, Sparrow, Toni, Ginger, Jezanna, and others grow in their relationships, they realize that life is not always as clear-cut as it seems, and they learn to look beyond the surface level to the meaning of words like "lesbian," "woman," "partner." It's delightful to see the explorations and reactions of characters to stimuli such as a male housemate in the Lois-Ginger-Sparrow household, or the struggling-to-understand conservative neighbors in Toni and Clarice's new suburban neighborhood.

As always, the artwork is fantastic, and the stories are compelling. These are simply some of the finest comics being drawn today.

Although I am not a lesbian (but am a friend of the family), I was drawn to the richness and humanity of Bechdel's characters. When I saw the drawing of one woman cowering under the bedcovers and her partner going after a stray bat (animal) with a tennis racket, I roared with laughter and took the book to the checkout line.

If you are straight and want a gentle and humorous look into lesbian life or are lesbian and just want a warm "me too" kind of chuckle, this is the book for you.