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Roberta Gregory's Bitchy Butch: The World's Angriest Dyke is a type of every woman character. In most of the strips, Bitchy's ranting could be substituted for almost any other victimized minority and still ring true. Consequently, those pieces are the funniest. In her specifically bull dyke world-view, the in-your-face hetero world that represses her finely tuned dyke sensibilities is the world she sees everywhere she turns. She's so focused on her tirades that she's oblivious to the attention she receives whether it's positive or negative.

Bitchy Butch (almost) Meets the Religious Right stands out as my favorite piece in this collection. Bitchy's quest for information about a setback to Gay Rights leads her to a demonstration at a church where a budding dyke falls in love with her from afar. Of course, Bitchy never notices her because she's too busy feeling victimized by the newspaper stand that ate her quarter. ("Is there a #!%&? DYKE DEFECTOR on this thing?") She's also beside herself that there are no lesbians signing up for her "Dykes Unite" group at a Gay Rights meeting. In her world all gay people are men.

Bitchy Butch Meets Bitchy Bitch, Gregory's other character with more than just an attitude, on a city bus with hilarious consequences. They could be any two people trapped together in any big city. Their mutual horror treads the fine line of a fatal recognition. It's priceless. A couple of dialogues between a cartoon version of Gregory and her angry creations are the glue that binds these funny, ultimately human, stories together. Even the uninitiated (like me) can enjoy this collection.

Gregory's deceptively simple drawing style has an energetic, hurried density that matches Bitchy Butch's incessant anti-everything monologue perfectly. Drawn sporadically over a period of years, Bitchy Butch seems to have only served Gregory's fancy when she wasn't making more of Bitchy Bitch. The collection only falls short by not giving Bitchy Butch a stronger character arc. Most of the strips here are roughly treading the same ground. Her pendulous tits, volatile mouth and angry haircut will make anyone smile who's lived in San Francisco long enough to see her human embodiment stalking the Mission district. Check out www.robertagregory.com for tour dates, cartoons and ordering information.

Lisa Andreini

INTERVIEW WITH THE BITCH HERSELF

IRS: What was your first introduction to comics?

ROBERTA GREGORY: Oh, I had lots of comics to read as a child. There were a lot of kid comics back in the 50s and early 60s like Little Lulu, all the Disney ones, there are not even any Disney comics being published in the US anymore these days as I understand it, Dennis the Menace, who would take trips to exotic places like Hawaii, and Mexico. Sugar and Spike, who lived in their own baby-talk world. Great stuff! I learned to read with comic books, and also by memorizing children's stories that rhymed. I'm not entirely sure why they caught my attention so much, but my father wrote and drew them for Disney, so there were always a lot around the house. I was drawing my own little stories with talking animals by the age of seven or so.

IRS: So you were almost always drawing comics?

RAG: Yes, I was drawing early on. They were always stories with pictures to help the stories along. Some people seem to be mostly artists who are trying to tell stories, and others seem to be mostly writers who draw to enhance them. I feel I'm in the second category. Other people seem to be able to really balance the art and writing. I do this best with the Bitchy stories.

IRS: Do you make a living creating comics?

RG: Well, I don't really make a living doing just comics. Since the money is so bad, but I have sort of come close, since I am used to living on so little. I was making a bit more money on the animated Bitchy cartoons, but that is sort of on hold as the producer is trying to get more funding. So now I have a couple of badly paying drudge jobs in the meantime, and NO time now to do comics, which is not an improvement. But they will get done.

IRS: Tell us a little bit about your creative process, do you write or draw every day? Is it like work for you, or is it fun?

RG: I certainly do not write and draw every day. Especially with two jobs and classes. Even when I was working on all the animated cartoon art, I would have lots of days I did not draw or write. I try to be a more balanced person than that, and who wants to sit for so long? I tend to be very active and cannot imagine what life is like for these dedicated comics artists who draw ten and twelve hours a day. Even when I am cranking away behind on a deadline, like usual, I can't grind out art more than maybe 6 hours a day without getting stir crazy and my body really aching. My usual way of working, say, on the latest issue, is to sort of wait to have the story be ready to write, usually a couple of months before the deadline and, then crank frantically on it to get it done. I have learned I have to be patient and let a story be ready to write, and then with the issue ready to go by a certain date, have to work over hurriedly to get it done. At times it feels like work, especially when stressing out over a deadline. I have hardly ever had the time to do artwork just for the fun of it. I barely know what that is like anymore. I am working on a novel, Mother Mountain, in what little bits or free time I have and that feels like fun. Something I am really doing for the lover of it. I've been working on it for over four years at leas, and it is still not nearing completion.

IRS: How did you come up with Bitchy Bitch?

RG: Bitchy Bitch came about when I did a little story when I was working full time at Fantagraphics, and had not time to do any comics of my own...doesn't that sound familiar? She was just a little throwaway character who was depressing and cranky, but very fun to draw since she was so cartoonish. I started writing stories about her and she began to flesh herself out as a real human being.

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