Today is a free-for-all newswise. ^_^

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Other News

Contributors wanted for Encyclopedia of World Comics. A new excyclopedia covering manga, Bande dessinée, and comics everywhere outside the USA is looking for contributors. The deadline is March 1st, so head on over to the site and take a look at the guidelines.

Last year Lightspeed magazine published a very popular issue called “Women Destroy Science Fiction!” highlighting contributions from a diverse pool of female sci-fi editors and writers. Clearly, it was meant to make a point – and the point has been made and really absorbed by the sci-fi community of authors. (Fans who aren’t happy will just have to drag behind.) This year, Lightspeed is taking on LGBTQ sci-fi with Queers Destroy Science Fiction. Their Kickstarter has 9 days to go and has exceeded it’s original goal by oh, about $30K.

This sea change is really quite important. For every one rant about how not-white, not-males are “ruining” whatever, rest assured that there are plenty of voices saying “Actually, it’d be kind of cool to have more options.” Gaming is the loudest/most visible, but science fiction has been going through similar cramps. The Science Fiction Writers of America have just amended their membership rules to allow self-published authors. This is not an insignificant change. As with so many things, men are likelier to get writing contracts than women in sci-fi. It’s unconscious bias that plagues us all in many ways. And so, the previous rule of no self-published authors (which had merit for other reasons) was noted as unfairly anti-women writers. SFWA had a fair amount of discussion – some argument, hissy fits on both sides, drama, the usual – and  in the end, has amended the policy.

The lesson here? If you don’t see the kind of diversity you want in the media you consume, keep asking for it, keep creating it. Change happens when people make it happen.

While I’m on Kickstarters, you should totally take a look at this comic by queer WoC creator  Maïmouna Younglai-Case, Flavours of Life, about 4 people and their journeys of self-discovery. Maïmouna is a Yuri fan and very pleasant. Check it out!

Tying in nicely to today’s sci-fi theme, from YNN Senior Correspondent Erin S. is this webcomic,  30 Minutes to Live by Joyana McDiarmid.

On a completely different topic,  Theodore Jefferson, a former marketing consultant with DiC, has written the The Incredible Untold Story of Sailor Moon.  “Fans will learn how Sailor Moon set a new market for comics, games and animation in motion in the early 1990s, how the show helped bring girls and women into what was once a male-only world, and how companies from Marvel to Disney to Blizzard built multi-billion dollar empires that might never have been possible without the show’s influence.” It’s ebook only and kind of high-priced, but sounds super-interesting for those of us whose lives were influenced by Sailor Moon on Cartoon Network. Jefferson wrote a fascinating article on The Mary Sue, Did You Know Spider-Man And Sailor Moon Have A Shared Enemy? with excerpted info from the book, which gives you some idea of industry thought. (His thoughts about Sailor Moon Crystal, are particularly interesting. In essence, Viz is acting as a localizer for Bandai and nothing more.)

American Libraries Magazine offers this interesting video from the ALA mid-winter meeting: Four comic authors share their early influences and the comic books every library should own. Do not let *anyone* tell you librarians hate comics. The ALA has been a hugely positive influence in getting comics and manga into libraries and classrooms.

Also from the Mary Sue, Marvel Announces New All-Female Avengers Team – and with a creative team that is competent, rather than sincere, this look like it isn’t going to suck.

NYC-area folks on Twitter – go follow WomeninComicsNY. Events, exhibitions, discussions and other stuff that sounds too cool to miss.

Last up, you should check out this comic drawn and narrated by Alison Bechdel about her and her mother’s reaction to Fun Home, the Musical. It includes musical bits from the play. .

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Know some cool Yuri News you want people to know about? Become a Yuri Network Correspondent by sending me any Yuri-related news you find. Emails go to anilesbocon01 at hotmail dot com. Not to the comments here, please, or they might be forgotten or missed. There’s a reason for this madness. This way I know you are a real human, not Anonymous (which I do not encourage – stand by your words with your name!) and I can send you a YNN correspondent’s badge.

Thanks to all of you – you make this a great Yuri Network!

Today is the last day to get early access to the translated articles from Eureka magazine that will be posted on Yuricon! Subscribe by the time I wake up on Sunday morning, (I’m not staying up until midnight to police this, duh~) and you’re on the list for early access! Then I’ll shut up about it for a bit, except to say thank you. ^_^ Click this link, do the thing!

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And while we’re talking Yuricon, the Shop Update is moving forward apace. Beta testing will begin  in mere days.  And then I will spend my days and nights adding manga until my hands seize up. You can be sure, from now on, every time I report on new manga, I’m going to be thinking “D’oh! Gotta get that in the Shop.” ^_^

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Yuri Manga (D’oh!)

Amano Shuninta’s Ayame 14 (あやめ 14) first volume hit shelves this month, along with Ohsawa Yayoi’s Spice Girls (スパイスガールズ), both from Yuri Hime Comics

Hitting shelves next week, also from Yuri Hime Comics, is The 13th volume of Yuri Yuri (ゆるゆり). Later this month, we’ll see Takemiya Jin’s Chou Chou Nan Nan (喋喋喃喃).

From Ryuu Comics we’ll be seeing  Manfuku Yuri (満腹百合) which appears to be about a female couple and food. This sounds perfect to me! I can’t wait to read it. ^_^

From Hirari Comics, we can look forward to Engekibu no Majou to Kishi (演劇部の魔女と騎士)  Seijun Shoujo Paradigm (聖純少女パラダイム) and Watashi no Iyana Tomodachi (私の嫌いなおともだち). How exciting that Hirari is doing what they said they do and releasing the volumes of the stories we were enjoying so much!

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Sailor Moon

Here are utterly useless Outer-Senshi-themed Sailor Moon things that you need to buy. I know you do, because I do, too. ^_^

While we’re doing some Sailor Moon wallowing, via YNN Correspondent Elizabeth F, here is ANN’s report on the third Sailor Moon Musical.

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Other News

Via YNN Correspondent Serge, here is an overview of an interview with Ikuhara Kunihiko and Morishima Akiko on Yuri Kuma Arashi. Worth reading.

In 2011, a pilot for a Wonder Woman TV series was filmed. There was a lot of talk about it, and discussion of lead Adrienne Palicki’s costume. We saw a really cool teaser…and then DC and NBC, remembered girls had cooties and the project died. Well the entire pilot is available to watch online. Go watch.

And from YNN Correspondent JRBrown, here is Bara manga artist Tagame Gengoroh on his newest manga series. While bara (which is by gay men for gay men and usually portrays large, beefy and/or hairy men) is not usually within our playground, this series is addressing real issues of gay families. Ototo no Otto, My Young Brother’s Husband, is the story of a Japanese man who moved to Canada and married another man there, bringing his husband back to Japan to meet his twin brother.  This sounds extremely interesting to me. Thanks JRB!

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Know some cool Yuri News you want people to know about? Become a Yuri Network Correspondent by sending me any Yuri-related news you find. Emails go to anilesbocon01 at hotmail dot com. Not to the comments here, please, or they might be forgotten or missed. There’s a reason for this madness. This way I know you are a real human, not Anonymous (which I do not encourage – stand by your words with your name!) and I can send you a YNN correspondent’s badge.

Thanks to all of you – you make this a great Yuri Network!

Yuri Manga

Sparkler Monthly is a friendly kind of English-language manga magazine. And the folks at Chromatic Press, think you’ll like it back, if you get a chance to know it. So they are making all back issues of Sparkler Monthly completely free to read in hopes that they’ll be worth a Happy Meal/month from you. They have several Yuri shorts, and stories guaranteed to appeal to the Utena fan aesthetic, as well a fair chunk of BL. This is our own homegrown women-focused josei manga industry. Help your local manga ecosystem. Build your future industry, support comic artists, read great comics. Support Sparkler Monthly! ^_^

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Yuri Anime

Blast from the past, Bubblegum Crisis has been put out by licensee Animeigo as an Ultimate Blu-Ray edition. It’s probably a good chance that this is the last release this classic series will see here in the west. Chris Beveridge takes a look at the set on Fandom Post. It’s tempting, but my old DVDs work so I’m hard-pressed to justify replacing them. If you’ve never seen this series, it’s definitely worth watching once. (In early Yuricon days, Priss was voted best anime lesbian which absolutely enraged fanboys. It was the first of many opinions Yuricon fans had that enraged fanboys and made us, for many years, the enemy. ^_^ Good job us.)

Comic Natalie reports that the first Yuri Kuma Arashi DVD and BD disks are hitting Japanese shelves in March, and will include original illustrations by Morishima Akiko-sensei. Crunchyroll has a look at manga artist Tanemura Arina’s artistic tributes to the series.

Fandom Post reports that Bandai Visual has added another older title to their Hulu properties, Tsukikage Ran. It wasn’t really Yuri, but there was plenty of fodder for fanfic, if you take my meaning. ^_^ What the series does have, however, is a cool, competent, broken female warrior lead. It’s nice to see it back in circulation and as a 13-episode series, it’s a fun watch.

ANN tells us that the theme songs to the upcoming Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Vivid anime will be performed by Tamura Yukari and Mizuki Nana.  And Crunchyroll has the promo visuals with Vivio and her friends Rio and Corona.

From Komatsu-san on Crunchyroll, a commercial video for the Yuru Yuri OVA release on Blu-Ray/DVD and a live event from last year.

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Other News

On Magazine no Mori, I take a look at a now-discontinued magazine, Waai!.

Just FYI, the full pilot for the not-optioned 2011 Adrian Palicki Wonder Woman TV series has been made available online. ^_^

ANN reports that a musical digest video promo for the second new Sailor Moon Musical  – Petit Etranger – is available for the watchin’.

The New Yorker looks at pre-war Berlin as a “Gay Capital”. History buffs take a look! Also of interest to LGBTQ history buffs, civil rights activist Bayard Rustin talk about what it was like to be gay in the Civil Rights movement. Just remember, at the time, gay people had no right to be gay, to have relationships, to keep their jobs. Crossdressing was a punishable offense We’ve come a long way, but there’s still a long way to go.

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Support Yuri News and Reviews –  Subscribe to Okazu with

***

Know some cool Yuri News you want people to know about? Become a Yuri Network Correspondent by sending me any Yuri-related news you find. Emails go to anilesbocon01 at hotmail dot com. Not to the comments here, please, or they might be forgotten or missed. There’s a reason for this madness. This way I know you are a real human, not Anonymous (which I do not encourage – stand by your words with your name!) and I can send you a YNN correspondent’s badge.

Thanks to all of you – you make this a great Yuri Network!

Yuri/LGBTQ Publications

Our top story today is awesome indeed.  Sarah Frederick’s long-awaited, much anticipated, brand new English translation of the Yellow Rose story from Yoshiya Nobuko’s Hana Monogatari series is available on Kindle.  Buy it! Read it. Touch Yuri history. (If you’ve been a reader for a long time, you may also remember Dr. Frederick from our Yuricon events, or the fandom lectures series up at MIT, where she spoke about Revolutionary Girl Utena. (You can read the notes of all the lectures on the Yuricon Essays page.)

Yuri.pl’s Facebook page has information on the upcoming release of Morinaga Milk’s GIRL FRIENDS in Polish!

Sparkler Monthly is ramping up their 2015 subscription efforts, with an eye to getting through the end of the year. If you’ve ever thought, “I want to support the manga industry, but there’s not enough I like,” then you’ll be pleased to know that our voices are being heard at Sparkler. “Before You Go” their Yuri one-shot, (now two-shot) is one of their top sellers, and they get the message loud and clear. You want more Yuri? More importantly, you want a venue in which up and coming Yuri artists in the west have a place to publish Yuri? Throw a happy meal a month at these folks and we’ll get more Yuri. It’s  that simple.

DC’s Kelly Sue DeConnick is spearheading a new all-girl comic anthology. Right now Dirty Diamonds has an Open Call for Submissions.  Do IT. Send your work in. Immediately.

Robert Kirby writes a nice little piece over at The Comics Journal: What Was So Queer About Comics in 2014, with a nod to the PoC who were queer creators of note as well.

Senior YNN Correspondent Erin S. points us towards  another same-sex webcomic of note, OWLS, by Martin Ernsten.

For the completists out there, a Yuri Kuma Arashi mook, Yuri Kuma Arashi Starting Guide (ユリ熊嵐 公式スターティングガイド) with lots of pretty Morishima Akiko-sensei’s art is (via Comic Natalie).

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Yuri Anime

YNN Senior Correspondent Eric P. has written in with a pile of anime news!

Aniplex USA announced a limited edition bilingual blu-ray/DVD hybrid set for the Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie -Rebellion movie. Regional restrictions apply.

He also notes that Yuri Kuma Arashi is now available on Hulu.com.

And lastly, Eric reports on an ANN article announcing Kill La Kill will run on Cartoon Network’s Toonami slot in February.

In Japan, Mawaru Penguindrum (輪るピングドラム) is getting a Blu-Ray box set.

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Other News

The Yuricon website has just been given a quick facelift and we’re still working on a full refurbish of the Yuricon Shop. I wrote about that this week and we hit another major milestone on our Patreon campaign for the month! Thank you all! There’s two weeks in the month left to subscribe and get early access to Yuri scholarship.

Flame-Con, New York City’s first LGBTQ-focused comic convention has a date and a location! I’ll expect to see you all in NYC in June to help me bring the Yuri to Flame-Con. ^_^

YNN Correspondent Michi wants you all to know that LGBTQ idol group (Nagoya Sexual Minority) NSM=, has a, iTunes app these days. Appearances, songs, events calender, blog posts, Twitter feeds all in one handy place for iProduct users.

Twitter user Pe Kare caught a glimpse of a Sono Hanabira itasha (decorated car) on NHK’s coverage of winter Comiket. ^_^

io9 has a lovely collection of Korra x Asami fan art to fulfill your Korrasami needs.

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Support Yuri News and Reviews –  Subscribe to Okazu with

***

Know some cool Yuri News you want people to know about? Become a Yuri Network Correspondent by sending me any Yuri-related news you find. Emails go to anilesbocon01 at hotmail dot com. Not to the comments here, please, or they might be forgotten or missed. There’s a reason for this madness. This way I know you are a real human, not Anonymous (which I do not encourage – stand by your words with your name!) and I can send you a YNN correspondent’s badge.

Thanks to all of you – you make this a great Yuri Network!