Time Capsule: Diane DiMassa — Hothead’s Revenge

(Originally published in the December 7, 1995 issue of Metroline)

Run for cover, all members of the religious right! The Revenge of Hothead Paisan: Homocidal Lesbian Terrorist is on the bookshelves, and Diane DiMassa, her non-homocidal, human creator and alter-ego, is preaching Hotheadisms to the converted. For all of those who haven’t been initiated into the world of this Lesbian Avenger role model, Metroline tracked her down at Golden Thread Booksellers in New Haven, as part of a recent book tour that ended close to DiMassa’s hometown, West Haven.

Artwork: Diane DiMassa

Robin Nicole Whiting: Who is Hothead Paisan?

Diane DiMassa: Hothead is a character who is bewildered at the world around her, has a serious lack of coping skills, drinks too much coffee, watches too much TV, ingests a lot of the violence she sees on TV and at the same time, doesn’t believe the programming about what women are supposed to be, and so we see her out in the world bashing all her enemies to pieces. She has lots of enemies out there — it’s a homophobic, racist, sexist world, and she’s an avenger for all that stuff.

Chicken provides the humor. She’s Hothead’s cat, and she’s taken on a life of her own. She could have her own comic book. She’s very funny. She’s also very wise and just kind of rolls her eyes at Hothead but goes along with whatever she does, too, because she likes to have fun. I spend a lot of time on cat stuff, probably because I spend most of my life staring at cats.

Artwork: Diane DiMassa

RNW: How did all this begin?

DM: It was February of ’91 when the first issue came out. I had drawn what’s now the first four pages of issue number one some months before, on the suggestion of a therapist, who said I should do some artwork around my anger. I was two or three years into drug and alcohol recovery. So I did these four pages and then discarded them in the corner of my room. Stacy [now DiMassa’s partner and publisher in Giant Ass Publishing] came along, unearthed them, and said, “This is really cool. Can you do a whole comic book?”

RNW: Were you trained as a graphic artist, illustrator, or writer?

DM: No, I was a fuck up. I kind of doodled all my life, and I’ve always identified as an artist, but I got out of high school by the skin of my teeth and was an alcoholic until I was 27 and got sober. So it wasn’t until I was about 30 that I did anything from start to finish or compiled any kind of body of work.

RNW: How has the zine moved from underground to more mainstream?

DM: When we first started, it was in the middle of that so-called zine explosion, which was lucky for us. It’s very original and there’s nothing out there like it.

RNW: Why do you think Hothead has gained popularity?

DM: I think the appeal is that it deals with women’s rage, which is something that people try to keep quiet. So, you get to deal with something really shitty and laugh at the same time. There’s also a level of spirituality that comes through the character Roz. It appeals to a lot of people. A lot of straight, white guys write us fan letters, because I think it speaks to anyone who knows how fucked up our society is.

RNW: Tell me more about your life in New Haven and why you moved.

DM: I grew up in West Haven, fucked around in New Have for years, moved to Cape Cod, came back, lived in New York for awhile, came back, lived in L.A., and came back — this was all in my 20s — and then I got sober here and stayed. Once I didn’t go to bars anymore, I was unplugged from any kind of local community. I still don’t know if there is one or if there’s stuff that goes on at night. That’s always been one of my gripes — there’s not much to do. I’ve had periods where I didn’t really notice that because I’m from here and I’m very used to it all, to periods of feeling that it’s too hetero here, that I don’t have any room here, that I have to get out of here, that I’ve been here too long. I moved to San Francisco a year ago last August.

RNW: What is your family’s reaction?

DM: They’re great. They’re totally supportive. They’re glad I’ve changed my life so much. I’ve never gotten anything negative out of them, just total support all the way around. Pretty amazing.

RNW: Your latest issues are different from the earlier ones. The artwork is more abstract and Hothead’s attitude has changed.

DM: It is. Sometimes I just can’t dredge up the energy that I did issue number one with. Sometimes I have to remember to focus on the rage, which is kind of ironic, because I’m trying to dispel it through this work, which keeps me tied to it at the same time. I used to worry that there’s not enough gore in this issue and I’m going to lose all my readers. But people always respond to what I’m doing, as long as it’s coming from the heart.

RNW: What else is planned for Hothead?

DM: We’re trying to get funding to do an animation, so we’re discussing the best way to do that. That’s about it. We’re just continuing to do the zine at the moment. There was a little theater production of it a couple years ago. They did segments on four different artists in a theater in San Francisco. It was really fun.

RNW: What’s next on the agenda for you?

DM: I’m thinking of doing a commercial Chicken book or one that would be able to get into bigger markets. I’ve done a couple of book illustration jobs, and I’m working with Kate Bornstein on her forthcoming “gender work” book. That’ll be really fun. My stuff’s going to be in a huge show on contemporary art and popular culture in a museum in Copenhagen, Denmark. They asked me to do a big mural for the show, which will be in Spring of ‘96.

RNW: Do you ever get feedback from other cartoonists?

DM: Me and Allison Bechdel correspond a lot. Mutual adoration society. Jen Camper, Joan Hilty, a little bit. I think we’re all really busy on our deadlines, so we don’t talk a whole lot, but I love seeing people at OutWrite and just chatting and gabbing and whatever.

Diane DiMassa