# Is "The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For" by Alison Bechdel a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For by Alison Bechdel (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2008) is identified by: Hardcover, Houghton Mifflin (Mariner imprint), Boston, 2008, ISBN 978-0-618-96880-0, number line ending in 1 for the first printing. The strips were first self-syndicated and earlier gathered in Firebrand Books collections (1980s into the 2000s), which are the true first appearances; this 2008 Houghton Mifflin volume is the first edition of this best-of compilation, a first thus.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- Hardcover, Houghton Mifflin (Mariner imprint), Boston, 2008, ISBN 978-0-618-96880-0, number line ending in 1 for the first printing
- A 392-page career-spanning collection of the comic strip with a new cartoonist's introduction
- Correct publisher/imprint: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Alison Bechdel |
| Publisher | Houghton Mifflin Harcourt |
| Year | 2008 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Comic / graphic novel |
| Key point | Hardcover, Houghton Mifflin (Mariner imprint), Boston, 2008, ISBN 978-0-618-96880-0, number line ending in 1 for the first printing |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
Hardcover, Houghton Mifflin (Mariner imprint), Boston, 2008, ISBN 978-0-618-96880-0, number line ending in 1 for the first printing. A 392-page career-spanning collection of the comic strip with a new cartoonist's introduction.

## Is this the true first?
The strips were first self-syndicated and earlier gathered in Firebrand Books collections (1980s into the 2000s), which are the true first appearances; this 2008 Houghton Mifflin volume is the first edition of this best-of compilation, a first thus. The US Houghton Mifflin edition (November 2008) precedes the UK Jonathan Cape edition (ISBN 978-0-224-08706-3, December 2008), so the US printing is the true first of this collection.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book club edition.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For* by Alison Bechdel a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-essential-dykes-to-watch-out-for
CC BY 4.0. Part of the Canonical First-Edition Points of Issue dataset (https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/api/first-edition-titles.json). Last reviewed 2026-07-04.