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Underground > Comic Books >

Hothead Paisan

14:09 / 02.03.02

As a post-six-hour-teaching-day treat to myself the other week, I went into the dyke bookshop in the next planet over from Gauda Prime and bought the complete Hothead Paisan, which I'd had recommended to me in very general terms by various people who know that all I can read atm is woman-authored b&w comics.

It is absolutely fucking brilliant. I think I was hoping for some light-hearted throwaway revenge fantasy stuff, but oh no no no, so much more complex and disturbing! And I love the art.

Someone please tell me more stuff about this. Also, does anyone know if there are any more issues after the big (1999 I think) collection and if so, where I can get them?

Haus about we all give each other a big lovely huggle?

14:35 / 04.03.02

I read Hothead Paisan a few years ago - and it is indeed top stuff, but I fear I know little about its publishing history.

Will see what I can dig up....

18:01 / 04.03.02

It's been years since I read any Hothead Paisan. Sorry. I think HH is one of those books that gets passed around an awful lot, but I never seem to buy. I'll have to do something about that.

So far as your search for Homicidal Lesbian action goes, it depends if you own the Complete works, or just the first collection. If you just own the plain old Hothead Paisan, then there was a second book, but it may be out of print. Also, the collections only seem to go up to issue #18, and on this site they have a scan of the cover to issue #19, so she made it up that far at least. If you own the Complete book, then you've got it all, unless there is more regular comics being produced.

I can't seem to access the official site, but that might just be me.

[ 04-03-2002: Message edited by: moriarty ]

18:09 / 04.03.02

need. more. hothead. Thanks Moriarty - I'll see if I can get hold of issue 19! Yayy!

now tell me your insights, best moments, etc... am currently very tempted to get one of the panels from Issue 1 ("How did you become a homicidal lesbian terrorist?" "How does one NOT, you asshole?") on a t-shirt.

18:18 / 04.03.02

Whoops. Please note that I had to edit my post, Deva. If you have the Complete book, then you'll have no need for the Revenge collection. Also, be warned that they may have slipped an extra issue or so into the Complete work, so you may already have issue #19 in your possession. Your book might say what issues it is reprinting. They usually mention it in the indicia.

I wish I could discuss Hothead with you, but it was ages ago. I do remember loving Chicken to death, but I'm a real sucker for kitties. I have one helping me type this right now.

18:19 / 04.03.02

Hie over to the t-shirt thread, Deva... I can make you one, or I can tell you how to make one. Comic panels are perfect for iron-ons because they're square.

18:29 / 04.03.02

Now you've got me obsessing. Is Diane Dimassa still cranking new issues out? Interesting interview can be found here.

Also found this during my search.

Scary.

Disco is My Class War

04:50 / 05.03.02

I used to be in love with Hothead. Oh, the days. I don't think Diane di Massa'a doing them anymore, though. I haven't seen any new issues for a long, long time.

(Oh how Diane di Massa craps all over Alison Bechdel's 'Dykes to Watch Out For'.)

06:42 / 05.03.02

Rosa - Diane diMassa is doing something completely different to Dykes to Watch Out For! The *only* point of comparison is that they're both by dykes! Other than that, generically, artistically, politically, they're apples and oranges. And, even within dykedom, oranges are not the only fruit.

Sorry, had to defend Alison Bechdel there. Which is only partly because I fancy her. Which in turn is only partly because she looks like Morrissey.

Ahem. No, but DTWOF is a total duvet (I also bought a few of those as post-teaching-treats) and has all the pleasures of a soap opera plus, for me, all the pleasures of nostalgia for a seventies-lesbian-feminist milieu which I like to pretend was where 'real politics' could happen. (I know this is indefensible.) It's just like mainstream culture except it doesn't send me into a spitting Paisan/Butchy Butch rage with its heterocentrism. And sometimes I need that.

Sometimes, of course, I need the more avant-garde, conceptually interesting, challenging, scary and breathtaking Hothead. And the unbelievably cute Chicken! (Oh, the bit where Hothead buys him a fez... must be one of my favourite comics moments of all time.)

Off to read the interview. Well, actually, no, I'm off to the next planet over to teach postmodernism, but I will read the interview soon - thanks for digging it out, moz! (Can I call you moz?)

[Edited because I called Diane diMassa Alison Bechdel, which sort of spoilt my point about how they were really different.]

[ 05-03-2002: Message edited by: Deva ]

07:06 / 05.03.02

And for those interested here's a recent Alison Bechdel interview...

10:41 / 06.03.02

The difference between Dykes to watch out for and Hothead Paisan is that the former I gave to my mom as a christmas present and then read, whereas the latter I just read in the bookstore. Took me a whole day, too.

12:17 / 06.03.02

I don't read comics, usually. This thread, however, has made me want to make a(nother) exception.

12:46 / 06.03.02

Oh, read Hothead, Cholister! (Check out the interview, as well, where Diane diM says she associates her work with other queer stuff rather than with 'comics' per se, & that she writes for queers not for comics readers. So it doesn't count as reading comics, really...)

12:50 / 06.03.02

young paisan has been an object of my affection for many a year, but i can't seem to get the comics outside america.

13:08 / 06.03.02

quote:Originally posted by Deva:
So it doesn't count as reading comics, really...)

Ah. Phew, that's alright then!

I do definitely want to read it... and even looked for it today, in fact. Unheard of behaviour, that. And I will get hold of it off Amazon or summat though, 'coz it sounds fantastic.

[ 06-03-2002: Message edited by: Cholister ]

06:29 / 07.03.02

quote:Originally posted by shortfatdyke:
i can't seem to get the comics outside america.

Libertas! bookshop in York (where I bought it) do a mail order service, or I'm sure Page 45 (or whatever they're called) in Nottingham will get hold of it for you.

09:02 / 30.04.02

Just thought I'd mention that I finally bought the Complete Hothead Paisan for myself off Bol. It will hopefully arrive just as I have finished my take-home exams for my BA... which is nice.

13:45 / 30.04.02

Thanks for the thread peeps

I have a couple of HHP strips cut out from old magazines, but had no idea there are collections available! I will go to the appropriate bookstore and ask if it's in stock.

17:49 / 30.04.02

Cholister - woo! You have to tell me what you think, when you've read it.

17:49 / 30.04.02

Is "Woo!" the new "Yayy!"?

18:04 / 30.04.02

I will post as soon as it arrives and I've formed an opinion - I *already* want a H.P. t-shirt, though.

Oh, and yep, 'Woo!' may very well be the new 'Yayy!'.

05:31 / 16.05.02

Got the complete HP yesterday - only had a chance to read 120 odd pages so far, but, first impressions: I like it. I like it ve-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-ry much. And it's helping me get in touch with some justified rage - yay! And I want a t-shirt even more now.

09:06 / 16.05.02

That merits both a Woo! and a Yayy!

I find all this getting-in-touch-with-rage thing more uncomfortable than liberating, but uncomfort is a good thing too.

05:34 / 08.06.02

being most of the way through the book: i would argue that it is liberating - a reminder, should one be needed, that there is a reason why you're super pissed off, and also that you're not alone.... hothead's anger is justified. someone said i could be roz (the older, wiser, calming influence), which i would love to be true. one day!

di massa certainly understands the cat/dyke relationship. perhaps i should aim to be more like chicken - the wisest of them all!