Comic – Complete Hothead Paisan: Homicidal Lesbian Terrorist

Hey Paisan!

The small town that I grew up in had a heavy Italian influence. My great grandmother on my dad’s side immigrated from Italy with her family when my dad’s mom, my grandmother, was 4 years old. There’s no definitive record of how old my great grandmother was at the time. Both grandma and great grandma have been gone for many years now.

When grandma was alive, it wasn’t unusual to go places with her or with my dad and/or his brothers, my uncles, and hear men of Italian descent greet each other this way. Now-a-days, when I hear that greeting, it’s almost derogatory toward the person it’s directed at. It’s a shame.

If you’ve been following my book blog for a little while, you know that I was not previously much of a reader of comic books. To me, they were something for men and boys. I did read and enjoy comic strips though, so it was with great interest that I discovered that there is a whole world of gay and lesbian comic authors out there that write for both mainstream audiences and for LGBT audiences.

It was with total delight that I recently discovered the work of Diane DiMassa who bills herself as “an American feminist author and cartoonist”. Her most famous work involves her character Hothead Paisan, Homicidal Lesbian Terrorist.

DISCLAIMER: DiMassa’s work is “Not for the faint of heart!” and it’s definitely not for those who fail to see the humor in satire and/or who just can’t take a joke. Her work is In-Your-Face feminist and also extremely funny to those of us who can appreciate it.

The best way to see her work is to get your hands on Complete Hothead Paisan: Homicidal Lesbian Terrorist which combines two earlier books and adds new (at that time, 1999) material.

The Amazon.com Review and the Publisher’s Product Description:

Amazon.com Review

Can’t get enough man-slashing, het-hating action? Check out this dangerous volume, which brings together two earlier collections of the adventures of Diane DiMassa’s popular independent comic. Join coffee-addicted lesbian terrorist Hothead Paisan on her restful vacation in Provincetown, and learn how she deals with gawking straight couples. Watch her surgical assault on scary male doctors. Admire her preventive treatment of rapists. Hothead Paisan goes where the rest of us only dream of going: “Sentenced to life in a rich white banker’s scrotal sack,” she takes revenge on the gapers and gropers of the city streets, offering her potent “Blow-You-Away Job” in the form of grenade, gun, and Lysol attacks. But she has a softer side, too, as shown in her devotion to her cat, Chicken, and her wise old grandmother. Not for the faint of heart or the satire-challenged. –Regina Marler

Product Description

Hothead Paisan, the over-caffeinated, media- crazed psychotic lesbian “with scary hair and a fetish for guns, grenades, mallets, and sharp objects,” returns for more search-and-destroy missions and preventative homicides! A cult favorite, The Complete Collection combines Hothead Paisan and Revenge of Hothead Paisan with new strips in a single volume for the first time.

Those give you some idea of what you’re getting into with this collection. Here are some very passionate real people reviews to give you a better idea:

By A Customer

This review is from: Complete Hothead Paisan: Homicidal Lesbian Terrorist (Paperback)

I’ve read this book through about twelve times (and that’s a lot… it’s a big book!) and gotten several friends hooked on it. It’s gory and gross and violent and completely over the top. The ultimate angry Riot Grrrl feminist takes revenge on the sexist jerks of the world.

Anybody who’s ever experienced the unfairness of the world and wished they could take revenge will love this book. It’s simply the most fun book to read you’ll find, but at the same time there are real insights here, things that will make you stop and think, things that will make you see the life a little differently, if only for a few minutes. And plenty that will make you jump up and yell, “YES!!” But it really can’t be described in a review. You just have to experience the awesome power of Hothead for yourself.

And another:

This is probably my all-time favorite book. I reach for it at the end of a hard day of dealing with men, the media and all the other …. in my life. Hothead is hilarious, insane and a complete antidote to all the “superheroes” I’ve been spoonfed all my life. DiMassa pulls no punches, nothing is sacred. This book has a permanent place on my nightstand!

And one more:

By A Customer

This review is from: Complete Hothead Paisan: Homicidal Lesbian Terrorist (Paperback)

Buy this immediately and strike a blow for sanity and peace of mind. This wonderful book is for every gurl who’s ever thought, “You wouldn’t DARE do me this way if I had a penis!” Don’t expect political correctness here.

Diane DiMassa is an emotional genius and a truly great cartoonist. Her drawings of Chicken the cat make me want to run out and buy tuna just in case she shows up at my door. However, if it was a choice between Trinity and Chicken, I’d have to think a while…

They all said it as well as, if not better, than I could. If you’re a liberal feminist who likes comics, you’re gonna LOVE Hothead Paisan!