Archive for the Events Category


Erica’s Schedule for November and December 2022

October 25th, 2022

This week will be accompanied by a slow-down of reviews as I rev up my end-of year speaking schedule.  I was honored to address students at Hunter College, in NYC yesterday. Thank you all for your great questions! If I can post that lecture on Yuri Studio, I will do that at the end of the year!

Now to get ready for AnimeNYC, November 18-20 in NYC. The first 20 people to buy a copy of By Your Side: The First 100  Years of Yuri Anime and Manga at the event will get a mini-button of one of the cover couples! I also have a few postcards to give away to folks after that. Supplies are very limited, because I am literally dragging my boxes in myself by train and I have a severely limited supply of arms. ^_^

Also available will be some of our ALC Publishing manga books: WORKS, by Eriko Tadeno, Shoujoai ni Bouken, Volume 1 (the only volume of this goofily-named series that was printed, but its on my 2023 schedule to finish the third part and collect the whole set as one volume,) and remaining volumes of Yuri Mongatari. These will all be going for reduced prices, as I need the space. ^_^

While at AnimeNYC, I’ll be on two panels. Catch me on Sunday at Defending Manga, with the Manga in Libraries (11:00 am11:45 on Community Stage (River Pavilion)) folks and  Writing About Japan, (1:30 PM )with Abby Denson and Zack Davisson! (1:30 – 2:15 in Panel Room 3)

For those of you who won’t be able to make it, I’ll also be speaking with the folks at Kinokuniya NYC, for an interview that should go up on their social media next month.

December 16-18 will see the return of Casa Con to a Discord near you. ^_^ This year James Welker and I will be interviewing each other about our respective work in BL and Yuri!

Folks looking at 2023 will be able to catch me on a podcast near you and at the Michigan State University Translation Workshop once again.

If you’d like me to speak at your organization, podcast, university or event, do drop me a line via our Yuricon Contact form. I’d love to chat with you.





Guest Announcement for Anime NYC!

October 3rd, 2022

I am extremely pleased to announce that I will be a guest at AnimeNYC on November 18-20, 2022, at the Javits Convention Center!

This is an important event to me. A few years ago I was in the position of reporting on both New York Comic-Con and AnimeNYC for The Comics Beat and, in doing so, I was able to conclude that, as anime and manga go, NYCC was not a great con. In 2018, NYCC moved their “Animefest” to a location a rather long walk away from the main convention center and in 2019, it was a puzzling melange of Renfaire-style goods and random elements with no cohesion.

That same year, BPE, AnimeNYC was everything New York Comic Con was not able to be. I declared AnimeNYC a decisive winner in the anime con wars in NYC.

I love the con, the staff, the other vendors, and I’ve had a great time every year that I’ve attended. Last year felt especially nice as it was the first event I had been to in several years. As a result of all of this – being a guest at this con feels special. 

I’ll have a table in the Artist Alley next to my pal Zack Davisson, where you’ll be able to get signed copies of By Your Side: The First 100 Years of Yuri Anime and Manga – or bring your copy by and I’ll sign it.  ^_^ I’ll have stickers and postcards and pins as well. I’m participating in two panels: Writing About Japan, with Zack and Abby Denson and the Manga in Libraries Defending Manga panel.

I hope you’ll drop by, by some stuff and let AnimeNYC know that they should have me back next year. ^_^

See you at AnimeNYC!





Flamecon 2022 Event Report

August 23rd, 2022

If you paid any attention to my social media this weekend, you knew that I was attending FlameCon 2022, back in New York City for the first time in a few years.

My FlameCon started with…a panel! And, in the tradition of this particular panel, technical difficulties!  ^_^  But being one of the first panels, meant that I had the rest of the con to enjoy myself. This year, that mean hanging out with Rica Takashima, selling her self-published mini-comics edition of Rica ‘tte Kanji!? and, of course, By Your Side: The First 100 Years of Yuri Anime and Manga!

The energy  at FlameCon was amazing. It took Rica and I 20 years, but there I was at a queer comics convention not explaining Yuri manga, so much as just telling everyone to go watch Birdie Wing. ^_^

It was great to see some folks who have been following Okazu for years! Thank you all for coming by and chatting. It was also really lovely to catch up with old friends.

Day one, I spoke with Jennifer Camper, who was in to do a retrospective of Howard Cruse with co-chair of Queers & Comics, Justin Hall, along with Rupert Kinnard, Carlo Quispe, Denis Kitchen and Karen Green. Howard is among those first-gen gay comix artists who we have only recently lost. The Queers & Comics conferences were designed to create an archive of their stories, so when they were no longer with us, we would have a record. (It was incredible for the years it was held and the information is and will be  invaluable for years to come. ) Jennifer said she’s working on a collected retrospective of her work. The world actually needs this. While it’s true that we’ll start losing first-gen gay comix folks, we still have second-generation folks like Jennifer and Alison Bechdel, whose recent success – I hope – signals interest in other queer comix artists. 

Jennifer noted that the one thing this con had very little of was queer comics. She wasn’t wrong. As I walked the floor, there were some comics by queer folks, but surprisingly few queer comics. I especially felt there was very little comics by/ about/for queer women. Most of the comics on sale were by/about/for queer guys, with a small showing of women doing fannish comics of queer guys.

I spoke with Justin Hall about that on Sunday. Justin is an amazing comic artist as well, and the editor in chief of No Straight Lines and QU33R anthologies. Justin noted that it’s relatively easy to create a print, and with digital tools, you can make it shiny and colorful and print off a bunch and sell them, in the time it takes to make one page of a comic. Then you have to do the next and the next and tell the story…. so folks are going for merc,h that is easier to make and sell over comix/comics which are much less so.

I also had a theory that maybe, with so much queer content out there these days, there isn’t the desperation to tell those stories there used to be. Sure folks want their story and art on the table , and I did see some lovely minicomics for sale, but fan art and merch (fannish and original) was primary.

That said I did meet a bunch of folks doing fun stuff!

I spent a moment admiring Shauna Grant’s new book, Mimi and the Cutie Catastrophe, which is out now from Scholastic Books (how exciting!) about Mimi, who wants to be valued for more than just her cuteness. I love her work. It is, actually, quite cute. ^_^ The one ‘zine I picked up was by Ruya Hopps, Mannish Women and Violet Decor:The Language of Lesbianism in Pre-Code Hollwood. Rica immediately pronounced this “precious” because of the level of work creative ‘zine work. To be very honest, I really felt that way about every comic there.

And I love Emily K’s, “off-brand Sailor Moon” (her quote) comics, Gothic Cosmos Child and Lunar Felines. She’s got some of these up on Twitter. Really funny stuff.

I was gifted a beautifully dark Sweeney Todd comic by Nakata “Knack” Whittle, when she dropped buy Rica’s table to get a signed copy of BYS. And I met a lot of great new friends there, plus I was able to see some old pals and just hang around with Rica for a couple of days which we have not been able to do in years. Put a pin in that, I want to get back to us.

But, very importantly, I was able to speak with the adorable and talented folks from Yurisoft Games! Their new game The Songbird Guild is going to be out by the end of this year, hopefully, but I told them I’d tell you and you’d make them get it out. ^_^ This Magical Girl story started life as a jam. You can wishlist this on Steam and follow them on itch.io.  Here’s the synopsis from their site:

“The Kotori Mori has always looked up to her father.  As one of her town’s only (competent) magical boys, he almost singlehandedly protected their community from the dark creatures that tried to tear it down.

Now, at the age of 21, Kotori is finally old enough to pursue her own magical girl dreams in the biggest city of them all: Larimar.  However, she finds the life of a big city magical girl more difficult than anticipated, and soon the decision will threaten her life.

Kaida Hikari, a slightly older magical girl, becomes inseparably close to her during this ordeal, but will their bond be enough to get them through it, or will they crack under the pressure of being the city’s guardians?

It’s really cute and also kind of dark. ^_^ Emily, Kale and Tess introduced me to the spider lady villainess, Elledonna. I made a deal with them that if they gave her a wife who loves how evil she is, I’d actually read the VN. By Sunday they had a sketch. I’m doing this thing, I hope!

Overall Flamecon was exceptionally well-run and super welcoming and friendly. I was busy at the table so saw none of the other panels (and nothing short of being drugged insensate will get me over to the stage to see the performances, I am allergic to skits,) but I heard all sort of great things about them.

Justin and I agreed that we’d like to see more narrative work and, we’d like to see Flamecon if not require, then prioritize and feature folks making narrative content. The room we were in would have been perfect for the “mini-comics room.” But, then I am always wanting to recreate Comitia at every event. Probably why I like TCAF so much. ^_^

Lastly, I want to thank and celebrate Rica Takashima. In the 1990s, she wanted to see a comic about real queer life in Tokyo and so, she drew one. In 2003, Rica ‘tte Kanji!? became the first Yuri manga published in English. Since then, Yuri has blossomed around the world and as we signed copies of By Your Side: The First 100 Years of Yuri Anime and Manga  – and just about sold out for the weekend! – we high fived, because it took us 20 years, but we actually changed the world. It felt damned nice. ^_^

And check these out! Rica brought me a pair of the Family Mart Tokyo Rainbow Pride socks from Japan. She gets me. ^_^

So thank you, Rica, for a great weekend and thank you, FlameCon, for a lovely convention. I hope to see you again next year!
 





Flame Con is Back And Better Than Ever

August 21st, 2022

I had intended to be at Flame Con for Saturday only, but two things happened to change my mind.

The first thing was that Rica Takashima and I nearly sold out of copies of By Your Side: The First 100 Years of Yuri Anime and Manga, so I am going back in to bring more books!

The second thing that happened was that…I had so much fun seeing folks, that I really want to go back today do my job as press. ^_^ Quick shout out, Yurisoft, the new Yuri VN team is here and they are awesome and adorable.

I picked up a lot of business cards yesterday and today I want to do a short interview or two to write up a real report.

If you weren’t sure whether to come to Flame Con 2022, please do, and drop by Table U180 to pick up a copy of By Your Side, signed by me and Rica! You’ll have a great time.  Full report after I get back. ^_^





Author Talk Tonight on Zoom!

June 8th, 2022
Don’t miss my virtual author talk for Under the Umbrella bookstore Wednesday, tonight from 8-9PM Eastern time!
 
RSVP with Under the Umbrella or  register directly on Zoom!

Bring questions and I’ll see you tonight!