ju st o u t ▼ d o co m b o r 2 , 1 0 0 4 T 2 0
INTERVIEW
Alison Bechdel
Continued from page 27
/ wanted to pursue this because I assume there
are a large number o f women across the country
who experience "Cathy" as a feminist comic.
Well, that’s the dangerous part of it. It's kind of
co-opting feminism. [Creator Cathy Guisewite]
masquerades as a feminist, and every once in a
while she will do some remotely political strip like
about how secretaries should be valued more.
That’s about as political as she gets. It’s safe
feminism.
Do you feel it's at all important for you to keep
up with what’s going on in that strip?
Well, I love to hate her, you know.
O f course, that’s the way 1 feel about "Garfield. ”
Yeah, me too.
During your slide show you also expressed
some concern about how you portray women o f
color and how you haven't dealt with issues o f
racism in your strip. How do you feel you could
handle things differently?
I think the big thing about being a white person,
writing about [the lives of women of color], is what
is my motivation? I was talking to a friend of mine,
a black woman who is a writer, and she does a
writing workshop about representing people of
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them that I don’t have on my own. A lot of what
happens on the strip is stuff that I get from other
people.
And do you ever think that their perceptions are
wrong?
Sometimes I feel that they’re off base about
certain things, but other times they’re way right on.
Like, I was sort of toying with the idea of making
Sparrow bisexual or making her have to deal with
feeling attracted to a man or something. And some
fan wrote to me and gave me all these really very
compelling reasons why I shouldn’t do that, and
why maybe some other character should be the
bisexual. I love that people know them.
Don’t you think what’s happening is one o f the
most basic functions of art, where you create your
work, put it out there, and others are free to interpret
its meaning based on what they bring to it?
Exactly.
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In your slide presentation, you shared with us
your creative process. You mentioned there is a
type o f drawing style you admire that’s reflected in
the work o f one o f my favorite artists, Kris Kovick
(author o f What 1 Love About Lesbian Politics Is
Arguing with People I Agree With). / found your
sketches had a drawing style similar to Kris ’ work.
Yeah. It’s a different kind of drawing. It’smuch
freer. It comes from some place in me that I filter
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Cartoonists (left to right) Howard Cruise, Kris Kovick, Prof. 1. B. Gittendowne and Alison Bechdel.
different races in writing. And she asks people
about their motivation. As white women, why did
they put a black character in their work. Is it just
knee-jerk political correctness, or did they really
care about that woman’s life; do they have black
friends; do they know what this woman’s life
would be like? And to tell you the truth, when I
started my strip I think it was kind of a knee-jerk,
PC reaction. It was like, “Oh, of course Mo is going
to have to have a black friend.” When I look back
I feel really ashamed to look at how I really treated
Clarice and Toni as, like, Mo’s ethnic sidekicks,
you know? But over the years, as I’ve gotten to
know them, they’ve become much more than that
to me.
I’m always learning about things I need to do.
Like why is it that this black woman who runs a
bookstore only hires white women? I have to think
“Wow, that’s ridiculous. That wouldn’t happen.”
I’d like to show people interacting more within the
African American community. I’m totally work­
ing on my own racism, using the strip. I guess it’s
kind of embarrassing sometimes, to see the mis­
takes that I make.
/ really enjoy hearing you admit that you are
constantly discovering things about your charac­
ters. It’s fascinating that your approach to your
characters reflects the reality o f the way human
relationships are. There seems to be a lot that
surprises you about your characters.
Well, when I do talk to people about my char­
acters they end up telling me the wildest things,
and they give me these incredible insights into
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out when I draw the comic strip. The strip is much
more deliberate. “Filtered” is the word that I think
of. I wish that I could tap into that more incredible,
kind of insane place that Kris’ work comes from.
Kris’ work is like id, and mine is ego.
/ once had someone ask me if I could create
comics as pure humor, with no political overtones.
I responded by saying the daily newspapers are
full o f comics that basically consist o f sight gags
and clever little one-liners. I feel as if I am driven
to do a bit more. Is there any one thing you feel
responsible to do within each comic strip you
create?
I feel a certain responsibility to just be funny,
because I think that keeps people hooked into it.
But that’s so limiting. It’s hard tojust be funny. For
me it’s much easier to do more serious stuff, but
then try to give it some funny little twist. I could
write essays, or do lectures, but I feel no one would
listen unless they found something funny about it.
But I feel as if I never do serious stuff, like I
mentioned I never touch the issue of racism. No
one ever gets raped or queer-bashed in my strip. I
don’t avoid all serious subjects, but I do avoid the
real serious ones. It’s kind of like I keep this middle
ground. I think it’s the same kind of parameters as
a lot of the really good TV sitcoms. They’ll do a
really serious episode every once in a while that’s
a more deeply emotional issue, or more controver­
sial. Then they’ll go back to silliness, and I think
it’s important to do that. People don’t want to
watch some big, searing, searching documentary
for half an hour. They want to be entertained.
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...and all the
best for the
new year.
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