Mo’s having a touch of performativity anxiety a post-feminist, post-gay kind of moment in Alison Bechdel’s ninth cartoon collection. Review: The further adventures of Mo, her tenure-bound girlfriend, Sydney, and their much-loved friends unfold against a shifting gender landscape: lesbians sleeping with men, lesbians becoming men, Ginger sleeping with lesbians who’ve become men. As with her eight previous collections, Alison Bechdel covers a host of pressing issues, from the Monica Lewinsky scandal to the decline of the independent bookstore, and pauses to consider whether an online affair qualifies as cheating. “Of course it’s cheating!” says Mo, “It would be a diversion of emotional energy.” Sydney demurs: “It’s more like remote, interactive masturbation.” True love survives the gender wars, but monogamy may be on the wane. Don’t miss the thrilling details, in the last volume of Bechdel’s work to be published by the now-defunct Firebrand Press. –Regina Marler
