My apologies for the radio silence over the past few days. I had a guest review lined up for you all, then got busy and distracted. Mea culpa. In the meantime, I did manage to attend the Librarian and Educator day of New York Comic Con, which is happening this weekend at Javits Convention Center in New York City.

NYCC has not historically been my favorite event, (AnimeNYC is a vastly superior event and I hope that all the anime and manga companies are going to be there. I’ll do a write-up before the event itself to give you an idea who is coming) as it gladly takes money from anime and manga-adjacent companies, but gives them little respect. This year it seems like the word got out and while Toei was there, with massive giveaways, and Bandai Namco with same, the only manga presence was the usual NYC based publishing companies. More on all of this in a sec.

I was part of the Manga in Libraries panel line-up on “Defending Manga,” with Jillian Rudes, founder of Manga in Libraries, Renee Scott, Rie Ishibashi, and Joe Sanchez. We had a lively panel, followed by manga industry folks talking about manga for libraries, and that was followed by a “Best and Worst” manga panel in which I got to be timer. ^_^ They were all fantastic panels. And – this is why I am telling you all of this – not only was there a lot of talk of queer representation in manga, but also disability, mental health and more. Every panel had some discussion of the importance of manga in giving voice to folks who have been marginalized. Obviously not every librarian, but many, are on the right side of this. Talk to your public and school libraries about getting good queer books on those shelves. Manga in Libraries has a ton of resources for all ages. AND let me assure you that the industry is also on our side. Here are some upcoming picks from representatives of Kodansha, Yen and Viz – Uta Isaki’s manga about being asexual and Mieri Hiranishi’s book about being a butch girl trying to find a gilfriend were positively gushed over. ^_^ (Photo by me.)

There was a panel today on manga, as well, This Manga Is Awesome, check out the tweets on that!

So, I didn’t walk the whole floor, because I wasn’t interested in the giveaways so much, or the Golden and Silver Age comics, as I’m out of collecting, or the booths selling crap, because I have so MUCH crap here. But I did walk along the publishing aisles…because books are not crap. ^_^ I stopped by the Yen Press booth and picked up a copy of She Loves to Cook, She Loves to Eat (review here on Okazu) and only later learned that there was a giveaway of a measuring spoon with a 1T and 1t measurement, for that. The guy I bought it from never even mentioned it. ^_^; Joe gave me his spoon, so I do have one. BUT, if you go to table 2837, tell Yen you want your spoon!

One last thing, Bandai Namco was there with a HUGE presence and multiple booths, so I wandered over to that and Crunchyroll in vain hope of a Birdie Wing thing sneaking through the cracks. No luck. I did check to see if Aerial from Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury was available yet, because I am an otaku, but not yet. Maybe by AnimeNYC, and then I’ll have to face how *much* of an otaku am I, really. ^_^

My day at NYCC was nice and very super queer-friendly. ^_^ Next up, I am doing a talk at Hunter College and going to be at Women in Comics Con in the Bronx this month – next month, I’m a guest at AnimeNYC, where I’ll be signing my book, By Your Side: The First 100 Years of Yuri Anime and Manga all weekend long – buy a copy there, and get ANYC exclusive giveaways while they last! ^_^