While I'm making comics confessions: I'd never read any DtWOF comics before. I loved [b:Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic|26135825|Fun Home A Family Tragicomic|Alison Bechdel|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1448570249s/26135825.jpg|911368] and [b:Are You My Mother?|11566956|Are You My Mother?|Alison Bechdel|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1388205192s/11566956.jpg|16507555], and I knew this was a thing, but just...never read it. I was amazed by how fresh and timely a LOT of this still feels, even while still being a really specific time capsule for different eras of the last like 25 years?!

Of course there have been some cultural shifts and it's interesting to see how some of the language and norms have shifted over the years, particularly with regard to trans* people. But it's great to see how Bechdel's work evolved with the times.

It's amazing how this twice-monthly one-page comic strip had so many well-developed, diverse characters who had truly evolving lives and story arcs! There are a lot of balls in the air throughout the course of the story and there's almost always a payoff.

This is the "essential" not the "complete", and IDK how many individual comics are missing from this? I know they're online but it was nice to just dive into this and read a whole bunch. Also I liked her comic introduction to the collection.

ALSO WARNINGS FOR PET DEATHS. TWO OF THEM. wahhh