14- OUT IN THE /V\OUNTA|NS — MARCH 1998

Portrait of the Artist as a 

BY BARBARA lDOZl7.TOS

The sun is shining far too
brightly for a February day in
Vermont and the climb up the
mountainside in Bolton has
rendered both my car and me
warmer than either of us has
been in weeks. I pull up in
front of Alison Bechdel’s home
only to be dismayed by what I
saw at there. Had I missed her?
Did she forget? Did I screw up
something?

There are two very well
dressed women knocking at
the door and their brand new
Saab, second only to my own
car in itsinappropriate appear-
ance for this setting, is block-
ing the driveway. One of the
women approaches to inform
me that there is a note on the
door for someone. Before I can
breathe a sigh of relief, she
proffers two magazines,
”Would you be interested in
the latest issues of The Watch-
tower and Awake?” I assure her
that I have someone at home
who takes care of that for me
and they move on, leaving me
room to select a parking place.

The note on the door di-
rects me tocome in and down
the stairs to the room where
Alison creates the comic strip,
D}/kes to Watch Out For. I find
her there on the phone and am
greeted warmly by her lovely
feline companion, Julia. The
phone call finished, Alison re-
moves the thin fingerless glove
she wears when she draws and
asks to hear about the
Jehovah's Witnesses I have
chased from her door. Appar-
ently, this is a first in the year
she has lived in this house. ”I
never thought they'd find me
here,” she laughs and offers me
tea as a reward. The ice is bro-
ken.

Windows dominate the
room we sit in; the design of
the house brings as much of
the outside in as possible. The
desk, drawing table and com-
puter platform are orderly and
I get the feeling it is not just
because company was ex-
pected.

Alison and I settle in to
talk about the her latest project.
The Indelible Alison Bechdel will
be in stores late this month. ”I
think of lndelible as a sort of
15th anniversary book. It con-
tains miscellaneous work I've
done over the years that hasn't
appeared in my regular

her desk calendar quickly and
says with avsmile, ”I should
plug the signing at Peace and
Justice on April 4th.”

The cover of the new
book sends a distinct message.
Alison has drawn herself
drawing the character Mo,
from DTWOF, who is simulta-
neously erasing the artist. Ego
and alter—ego, certainly, but
there are absolutely two sepa-
rate entities. The strip is not
autobiographical and its au-
thor is adamant about the is-
sue of the characters not being
merely caricatures of real
people. This notion bothers her
on two counts, ”A — I'd lose
all my friends and B — it's a

- little insulting to say that's all

there is to my skill. I don’tjust
draw them, I create them.”
Of course, real life inci-
dents can serve as catalysts or
background for some of the
plots. For instance, several
years ago, Alison and her then-
girlfriend were, to their sur-
prise, seated next to the
girlfriend's ex at a concert. She

laughs, ”That was back in Min-

neapolis. Around here, that
kind of thing is a given.”
With particular glee, the
Lambda award winner turns
to her computerto show me
the artwork for the cover of
Split Level D_1/kes to Watch Out
F or, the eighth collection of her
cartoon strip, due out in mid-
October of this year. ”I can do
the coloring on the computer

’ now. I hate working with the

water colors and stuff.”

The computer also aids
Alison in her effort to keep the
location for DWTOF and the
daily lives of its denizens
vague, allowing any reader to

as

photo by Amy Rubin

 

Dylcc Towatch Out For

In Bechdel at home with her cat Julia.

&

identify with it. She regularly
visits gay and lesbian websites
and subscribes to a daunting
stack of newspapers and
magazines. Of the big name
gay and lesbian magazines she
says, ”They are commercial
vehicles. They sell ads; that's
an automatic distortion. The
smaller the budget, the more
accurate the representation.
Out enrages me on a monthly
basis, but if you can wade
through the perfume ads and
the fashion layouts, they do
some great reporting.”

The thirty—something
cartoonist says she has re-
ceived surprisingly little flack
from women over the years,
belying the myth that a typical
lesbian has no sense of humor.
This bothers Alison some-
times, ”Am I not doing chal-
lenging enough material? But
the bottom line is, I'm a nice
person and I don't want to of-
fend anyone.”

Although she does not

I MOZART FESTIVAL

Concerts 8:00 p.m. g
First Congregational Church

38 South Winooski Avenue

Burlington

T‘S AN

INCREDIBLE

Pl'2|\/ILEGE TO BE ABLE
TO RANT IN PUBLIC.

consider herself to be an activ-
ist, Alison acknowledges her
use of DTWOF to deliver po-
litical messages. ”I’ve always
had values —— ways of being in
the world and ways of under-
standing the world — that I
want the strip to illustrate.”
She has a history of getting in-
volved with extremely politi-
cal women and she is im-
pressed by their energy and
dedication. However, she
notes, ”It never felt right for me
to do that stuff; I've alway

been an observer.” .,

Preconcert talk 7:00 p.m.

  NEW YORK
CHAMBER
SOLOISTS

Performing an ALL Bach program
to celebrate
Johann Sebastian Bach’s Birthday

These observations trans-
late into the cartoon commen-
taries that are Alison's voca-
tion. She counts herself fortu-
nate to be able to support her-
self doing what she loves. ”It’s
an incredible privilege to be
able to rant in public.”

She is startled when I
asked how it felt to be a role
model, a lesbian making a liv-

. ing at being a lesbian. Quickly

repeating that she is not lead-

sporuenr, p24

 
     

"~¢"’~«=£

Generous support from Vermont Public Radio
and Vermont Gas Systems, Inc.

DTWOF collections, along
with my own commentary on
some of the pieces,” she says
of the project she compiled,
wrote and edited herself. indel-
ible also contains a timeline of
the DTWOF strip and some let-
ters from readers. She checks

The Oriana Singers & 5
The Vermont Mozart 
Festival Orchestra

Contact the Festival office at
862-7352 or (800) 639-9097
for more information.

An uplifting performance of
Bach’s Easter Oratorio