In the late 1990s a bunch of folks were chatting about cool f/f couples in anime and manga on Usenet. I decided to have a t-shirt made up for a bunch of us who were going to meet at Otakon in 2002. That shirt had a logo designed by Kat Williams and a motto that we used for another decade. But look at that URL! ^_^ This was in the very early days, when we were all on Angelfire and Tripod and Welcome.to.

We had an earlier tee that included the phrase “Shoujoai Counselor” which we did because we thought it was funny but, by 2002, I was moving away from that. Our website was, at the time, Anilesbocon.

I was straightening up this week and thought that I’d get that shirt out and, as usual, the ball rolled down that hill fast. ^_^

I don’t seem to have a high-res version of Kat’s logo design, but it was a lot of things. “AniLesboCon in English and Japanese, and the motto around the bottom rim.

In 2003, we had a full three-day event for the now-renamed community. Our logo was the version of our mascots Yuriko and Midori drawn by Merisusan and colored by Kelli Nicely.

I still love that picture. You can still get our beloved mascots, Yuriko and Midori, in t-shirt form, but not in pink, I don’t think.

In the early 2000s we were visiting cons like crazy, selling ALC manga, doing panels, promoting Yuricon. We were using an image by Kat Williams again as our character image.

By 2003, we had redone the website completely and now hosted our own domain.

Kelli Nicely designed our first “I Love Yuri” t-shirt in the mid-2000s. This is my 3rd or 4th version of it. We had them originally printed at a t-shirt place by custom order, then had a Cafepress shop for a while, but they honestly sucked. Now we are with Redbubble and while their ethical standards for artistic integrity are questionable…they have lovely tees.

In 2007 we did a one-day event. I was writing the second Yuriko novella, Saiyuu no Ryouko. My wife designed this shirt and Zeromus One did the art, reflecting the events of the story, in which our mascot Yuriko is heading out on her first world tour, with a co-star who hates her. ^_^   Yuriko’s name is written in hiragana for a reason, which is covered in the original story, Shoujoai ni Bouken. I’m working a 3rd novella now, in between everything else I do. ^_^

The late 2000s, we once again hit the road and visited every single event we could. When I say “we” I mean Kelli, Donna, Serge, Bruce, Sean, and folks that met us at all the events we tabled and paneled at. Again, I had updated our website look and I had plain white staff shirts done for those of us who were tabling and paneling. I got rid of this shirt and have regretted it ever since. ^_^; After I tossed I realized that these were a kind of archive of the community and stopped doing that.

Once again updating the website, this time with the help of a new webmaster who also designed us new character mascots for Okazu! This is again, the second edition of this shirt, as I wore the first one out. This “Okazu Mascots Love Yuri” design is still available on the Yuricon store.

Note on Redbubble: It’s not the most well-organized store, but if you scroll down on any product page, there is a carousel of other apparel and goods that logo is available on. So if you see a hoodie and you don’t want that, scroll past it, and find the other styles below the main image under “Also Available on.” If you can’t find something you want, let me know.

We did a contest for some new designs in the mid 2010’s and Ali Khan gave us this lovely image! It looked amazing in purple and again, I wore it so many times that I’m due for a new one. ^_^ “I Love Yuri” Rainbow Lily by Ali Khan.

Althea Keaton also contributed a terrific design in both English and Japanese! I’m showing it in red here, because that was what I got myself and it looked great. Again I wore these out. “I Love Yuri” Comic Panels by Althea Keaton in English.

And “I Love Yuri” Comic Panels in Japanese, by Althea Keaton. I had one each of these and wore them for years. In 2019, I was taking a tour to Japan for the 100 Years of Yuri Tour, and these came with me, but did not come home. Time to restock. ^_^

In 2019, Lissa pulled out the stops for this darling design, using our Okazu mascots! She and I worked on a two-color version for the folks on the Tour and I adapted it into this one-color version for anyone who wanted to celebrate 100 Years of Yuri. ^_^ “100 Years of Yuri” t-shirt looks great in pretty much every color available on the “classic tee” chart, except white and beige. ^_^

This is the two-color version that the folks on the tour got. This isn’t available to the general public, but it’s a really nice shirt. ^_^ If you don’t care that Redbubble’s tri-blend shirt come in limited colors, and are more expensive, I recommend them. They are super soft. I love this design, honestly. Lissa did a brilliant job converting the mascots’ hair color into their whole body. And we addressed an issue that had been bothering me for some time…..

When we were working on a 100 Years logo for Okazu, it had been bothering me for some time that both characters were light-skinned. There are so many reasons why that never made sense, except…systemic racism. It seemed like it was time to fix this. We rebooted the mascots and I’m way happier with the way they look. But the T-shirt had never gotten the upgrade. Now I have recolored the Okazu t-shirt design. Again, I bought myself of the new version of  “2021 Okazu Mascots Love Yuri” this is the color I picked. ^_^

We stopped tabling after ALC Publishing was shut down, although we still have some of our books available. So the current version of the Yuricon logo has never gone on a t-shirt. ^_^ But, this summer is the 20th anniversary of Yuricon,  the 20th anniversary of Okazu is next year and 2023 will see the 20th anniversary of Yuricon 2003, and I’m thinking we’ll need some new designs and updates. ^_^ Keep your eyes peeled for contests and, of course, if you have an inspired idea for either of our mascot pairs Yuriko and Midori or the Okazu mascots (who have no official names…yet), let me know and I’ll be glad to consider them!