e ‘(from previous page)

so desperately needy for all those things, if
I were a perfectly self-assured person,
would I have the motivation to do this
comic strip?

OITM: What do you think?

Alison: I hope that one day I will be-
come aself-assured, secure person, and that
yes, I will still do the strip.

OITM: What’s it like becoming a
public person in the lesbian world?

Alison: Very strange. 'Ihat’s some-
thing that I’m continually adjusting to...
There’s away that it’sreal1y pleasing to me,
to know that people know who I am, maybe
not recognize me, but know my work,
know my name. And that’s extremely grati-
fying.

I guess it’s weird because there’s a way
that people do know me, whether or not
they recognize me personally. I do put a big
amount of myself into my strip. I think
there’s more of a vulnerable feeling — some
people know who I am, and I don’t know
anything about them.

OITM: Do you hear from them ever?

Alison: Yes. I do. I get really wonder-
ful letters from people. I get some angry
letters too, but not nearly as many as I get
nice ones.

OITM: What do they say to you?

Alison: Really sweet things. Like
they’re just coming out and this book has
helped them, or they’ve been really de-
pressed and reading my book helped them
get through some horrible semester at
school, or they gave it to their mother to
read — really touching stuff.

OITM 2 Do you feel some kind of obli-
gation to the lesbian community that you’re
recording?

Alison: Well, I think there certainly
aneresponsibilities that go along with being
able to continue to represent something.

 

You have to try as hard as you can not to
offend anyone.

Lesbians are so much more on the
cutting edge of all kinds of awareness about
people’s oppression, about people's rights,
that I think being a lesbian cartoonist is
much more risky in tenns of offending
people than being any other kind of car-
toonist. And at times that’s been almost
paralyzing. Anything I thought of to write
would offend someone, somehow. And I
think I’ve just come to accept that my heart
is in the right place. I try tobe aware. I guess
I’ve come to accept that, yeah, I’m going to
fuck up sooner or later. I’m going to offend
somebody. I wouldn’t do it intentionally,
but you have to kind of let go of the fear to
get anything done.

OITM: I was just thinking about what
you’re saying now and what you were
saying about being an archivist for the
lesbian community, and recording what we
are and how we think and what we do. Do
you feel some kind of responsibility to do
that?

Alison: Well, I’m listening to myself
talk and I’m listening to your question, and
I’m realizing that I’m a very selective, even
propagandistic kind of archivist. I don’t
deal with a lot of real touchy subjects and
conflicts. Idon’ttalkabout S/M; Idon’ttalk
about racism in the lesbian community. I
kind of steer away from those things.
There’s a way that my characters live in a
little utopia that I’d like... well, I don’t even
know if I’d like to live in it myself because
I think it’s kind of sterile. I’m thinking of
other lesbian cartoonists I know who get
much more down and dirty and really
dredge stuff up. And there’s a way that I’m
kind of a good girl. But that’s OK, I mean,
that’s my nature. I can’t do anything else.

OITM: Your characters are all into

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progressive politics, and they all seem to
feel the same. They have the same set of
political opinions.

Alison: Yeah. With maybe slight vari-
ations, but basically, they all have the same
general politics. .

OITM: And I’m assuming that those
are pretty much your politics.

(continued on next page)

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