Archive for the Comic Essay Category


NO STRAIGHT LINES: The Rise of Queer Comics

June 27th, 2021

It’s the final Sunday of Pride month. NYC is gearing up for a virtual Pride Parade, which is being televised and sponsored and a real Queer Liberation March at which police and corporations are not welcome. Compton and Stonewall and all the other early protests were, after all, protests against police violence, specifically.

So I can’t think of anything better at all to celebrate this day, than to talk with you about NO STRAIGHT LINES: The Rise of Queer Comics.

In 2013, the wonderful artist Justin Hall curated a book called No Straight Lines: Four Decades of Queer Comics. It was absolutely compelling reading. As I said in my review, I couldn’t put it down.  And while Justin was working on it, he was speaking with a bunch of folks including force of nature Jennifer Camper. It occurred to her that she lives in a time of miracles – all the first wave Gay Comics artists were still alive and reachable and so she reached out and created the Queers and Comics events in 2015, 2017 and 2019, for which I never wrote up a report, bad on me, but I was there for one day and ran a panel! As Jennifer said at the first event, she wanted to create an archive by and about queer comic artists while we had the chance to talk with the folks who were there. The was a bit prescient because after the 2017 event at which Howard Kruse was keynote speaker, he passed away and we only have those panels on page and film left of him.

Honestly, one of the greatest honors of my life has been to be a speaker at these events, and meet the women who are the early lesbian comic artists, just as meeting some of the earliest Yuri manga artists has been so important to me.

Justin teamed up with director Vivian Kleinman to create this film that took that idea a step further. They focused on five pioneers of queer comics, and let them tell their stories for us to enjoy. Alison Bechdel (Fun Home), Jennifer Camper (Rude Girls and Dangerous Women), Howard Cruse (Gay Comix), Rupert Kinnard (B.B. And The Diva) and Mary Wings (Come Out Comix).  Their stories are glossed by younger queer artists who talk about the effect that art had on their lives and their works.

My wife and I rented the movie on the Tribeca Film Festival website. We both thought it a terrific watch. There were some touching moments, a few tear-jerkers and a lot of joy and laughter. Thinking back now on those moments that became so…historically important….its always fun to remember the people doing them are people. People you can be just like and do your own thing, too. ^_^

Tonight NO STRAIGHT LINES will be closing out the Frameline Film Festival in San Francisco, and I have to stop typing as I am absolutely awash with so many memories of these people and their work and our shared experiences. Keep an eye out for screenings near you on their website. As soon as this has a more general release streaming or on video, I’ll be sure to let you know.

For those of you who read Okazu…this is our history. You should know it. These people are our groundbreakers, you should know them. The fact that so many of them are still here and still telling their stories just highlights the point that we live in amazing times to be a fan of queer comics.

Ratings:

Overall – 10

Celebrate our Pride Month, support a queer comic artist today!





Meisou Senshi – Nagata Kabi (迷走戦士・永田カビ)

June 13th, 2021

In my recent conversation on with the folks at Manga Mavericks about My Alcoholic Escape From Reality (a conversation that will go up on their Patreon later this month) we talked a little bit about this book as well. In the comments on Nagata Kabi’s TCAF spotlight, some lovely person expressed a wish that the author’s next book is about her hugging kittens. Well…it is definitely not that. 

Having given herself recognition that her comic essays are a valid form of artistic expression, Nagata-sensei has once again turned the spotlight on herself. In Meisou Senshi – Nagata Kabi (迷走戦士・永田カビ), she  tackles some of the things we might have been asking all along about her relationship with her gender and sexuality…and how that, and her physical and mental health,  affect and are affected by that relationship.

This is not an easy book to read. If anything, it open up whole new areas of discomfort. Content Warning: this book deals with sexual assault as a child. But, as we make our way through this in her wake, we can see (more clearly than we can with ourselves) how pieces of a life make up a whole. Her discussion of how  insurmountable was the effort of filling out the questions on a dating app, really struck home with me in regards to something wholly unrelated to dating.

Once again we see the power of a comic essay. This book contains increasingly intimate knowledge of her past, and tantalizing tidbits of her present, but we know we will never know the actual person through these.  These chapters are the comic equivalent of Van Gogh’s self-portraits….a visual record of her over time looking at a mirror and drawing what she sees. Some days the face that looks back at her is more haunted than others…sometimes it is almost happy. This records allows her to explore why that might be…and expose what the roots of that haunted look is.

I am curious, for reasons that will become immediately apparent when you read this book, what her parents thought of it. Nagata-sensei’s feelings about how she hurt her family in her initial volumes are made plain in later volumes and in her TCAF interview. This volume wasn’t going to make for light dinner table conversation and yet, I got the feeling that she and her family may have struck a bargain over this and while it may not be fun, they won’t be blindsided again.

Seven Seas has announced the license of this book as My Wandering Warrior Existence, which has a projected release date in English of March 2022. If you don’t want to wait, you can read this online in Japanese on Web Action. 

Yet again, I will not be rating this book, for reasons that will become apparent when you read it.

It is compelling.

Next up, we return to the beginning, with her plumbing the depth of her relationship with food, in Meisou Senshi・Nagata Kabi Gourmet De GO!  (迷走戦士・永田カビ グルメでGO！) the first chapter of which available on Web Action.





My Solo Exchange Diary 2 Manga (English)

March 29th, 2019

Kabi Nagata’s My Solo Exchange Diary 2 begins with an apology. At the end of the last book, she explains, we may have been rooting for her as she met someone she felt she could begin to imagine having some kind of feelings for. But that person does not come into this book.

Instead, this book is about the revolving door of her life, as she develops an addiction, and does stints in the hospital as she valiantly lives with what is obviously ever-more crushing depression, She’s careful at the end to explain that this manga is just one piece of her life – but that it is, in a very real way, her life. Boundaries are hard for a lot of people and people who are ill or disabled, often have an extra difficult time defining and/or defending boundaries. That she’s set some for us, the reader, at the end is the most positive sign, in my opinion. The conversation with her editor about it is terrific.

Even more importantly, this volume includes an original, non-essay work, “Chika-chan’s Depression” which was surprisingly hopeful.

Nothing about this volume is easy. Nothing about being Nagata-sensei is easy, right now, I think. But this comic essay is an important piece of Graphic Medicine. And regardless of the content, we know this is a story about a queer woman dealing with a severe chronic illness for which treatments are inconsistent at best. Again, it is my opinion that makes this worth reading, as “LGBTQ individuals are almost 3 times more likely than others to experience a mental health condition such as major depression or generalized anxiety disorder” according to National Association on Mental Illness (and if you are suffering from either, please visit the NAMI site or call their helpline!)

No ratings will be assessed for this book, as I do not feel I can adequately judge the content of a person’s life. I hope that her other readers and reviewers will consider that this is her life when doing a review. 





Otona no Hattatsu Shougai Kamoshirenai!? Manga / おとなの発達障害かもしれない! ?

September 23rd, 2018

In 2017, Morishima Akiko-sensei published a comic essay in which she speaks at length about living with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).  Otona no Hattatsu Shougai Kamoshirenai!?  (おとなの発達障害かもしれない! ?), which translates to something like, “Is it possibly an adult development disorder!?” is a comic essay which her details her struggles working, her diagnosis, drug treatment – even family history. It’s an unprecedented look at extremely personal issues, and exactly the kind of thing that makes for a powerful and compelling comic essay. (It’s exactly the kind of thing East Press is putting out now – My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness is probably their best-selling book so far, but they’ve been really digging in and publishing a lot of these personal confidentials about topics we don’t talk about – depression, AHDH, sexuality, gender, abuse, and the like.)

In this volume, we begin with Morishima-sensei’s description of concentration issues, energy highs and lows and other behaviors symptomatic of ADHD. After she did some research on the disorder, she researched clinics, until she found one that seemed like a good choice for her. Once she had her diagnosis, she then embarks on drug and behavioral therapy. More difficult, she moves in with her injured mother, as she’s attempting to work out a dosage schedule that suits her work and her body. Living with her mother makes her aware that her developmental disorder comes from a family medical history of this and similar issues. 

Much of the book is taken up with Morishima-sensei looking at episodes from her childhood with fresh eyes and realizing now what drove her behaviors then. There is a touching part where she “outs” herself as a Yuri manga artist and admits to loving drawing girls so very much.

Luckily for Morishima-sensei, she has two friends with children who have ADHD and are able to provide her with perspective and common ground (and a much-needed sense that whatever-this-new-thing-is is not abnormal.)  By the end of the manga, she’s reconnected with friends, as well. In one of the most encouraging endings to a comic essay I’ve seen, we see her at her drawing table, approaching her work one panel, then one more, then another.  

This is, without exception, the cutest book about ADHD ever. I originally picked it up because I like Morishima-sensei, but it was such a good book that I couldn’t put it down. I’m going to add these two panels to my screensaver to remind me of her resolve and re-engage my own.

 

Ratings:

Overall – 9

It was my very genuine pleasure to be able to spend a few hours once again with Morishima-sensei last spring and she looked great. (Which has nothing to do with health, as we all know.) I wish her all the very best. Once again, an impressive manga from the pen of Morishima Akiko-sensei.





LGBTQ Comic Essay: The Big Book of Bisexual Trials and Errors

December 11th, 2017

Elizabeth Beier’s The Big Book of Bisexual Trials and Errors strikes that rare balance between self-reflection and redemption that we so desperately need in 2017. Equally importantly, this tale of bisexual life is honest, and eschews the kind of apology or explanation that make other books about bisexuality tiresome.

By eschewing explanation or teaching, Beier allows readers to immerse themselves wholly in her experiences, and learn who Elizabeth Beier is through her own eyes. (I want to make that plain, because the Elizabeth Beier I know is, unsurprisingly, more attractive and vivacious than the one she sees.) And, to some extent this book is less about dating than it is Beier opening up the choose-your-own-adventure that is her life to us for our entertainment.

Beier’s art highlights the beauty and nobility of the people she draws except, almost predictably herself. Her best moments are reserved for others…until that linchpin moment on stage, when she discovers her own radiance. (a moment made even more triumphant by the loathing with which she had previouslyregarded herself. ) It’s uncomfortable to see that deeply and intimately into a person’s head  – moreso when one knows and likes that person. For that reason, I found the book uncomfortable from time to time, but no more than any other equally navel-starring, autobiographical comic essays. 

Ultimately, Beier’s tale of self-acceptance and the beautiful renderings of the people around her make this book an absolute joy  to read.

Ratings:

Overall – 8

When Beier flies, she soars. A fantastic first book and here’s hoping that she’ll soar even farther now that she appreciates her own wings.