Archive for the Western Comic/Comix Category


Support the Queers and Comics conference with Queer Pin-up Cards!

February 20th, 2015

In conjunction with Northwest Press, the Queers and Comics Conference, in New York City, May 7-8, 2015, is fundraising with a set of original Queer Pin-Ups.

The list of contributors is a great overview  of Queer Comics in America today.  The list includes many folks we consider friends here, Rica Takashima, Jennifer Camper, Mari Naomi, Carlo Quispe, Kris Dresen, JD Glass and and Bara sensation, Gengoroh Tagame.  And of course many more. Check out the full list on the Northwest Page.

Many of these folks will be participating at the conference, as well. I’ll be running a session on Yuri manga and moderating another. As soon as details are avaiable, I’ll get them to you. ^_^ This is going to be a fantastic conference!

Queer Pin-Ups Cards, from Northwest Press
$15 pre-orders, $20 afterwards

This is a one-of-a-kind gift and a fantastic way to support queer comics in America!





LGBTQ Comic: Sunstone (English)

February 18th, 2015

sunstone1If you’re paying attention to the larger world of comics, the name Stjepan Seijic will be known to you. A popular webcomic artist, he has recently taken over as artist on the Image Comics series Rat Queens – presumably after Top Cow had picked up this work by him, and after the previous artist was arrested. I had encountered this work some months ago and since then, it’s being poking at me, reminding me of…something. I just figured out what that something is.

Sejic’s series Sunstone is a very adult comic, about two women who are into BDSM and who encounter each other online. Ally and Lisa meet and find that they are very compatible with each other and each other’s lives.  There is no “plot” per se. This is a slice-of-life where the lives are lived by two adult woman who enjoy BDSM.

I have long said that BDSM is well-suited to a format like text or comics, where everything can be beautiful and sensual without any banal reality. In Sunstone, Sejic’s really captured everything I mean by that. The characters are attractive and sexy. No one has acne, or is glumpy, or has a verbal tic. Even when they fret and stress it’s idealised and cute. Which works, but also leaves me wishing someone had a verbal tic or something. ^_^;

As I’ve said, there is no plot – as Lisa tells us right way, in fact. There’s no evil wizard, no rescue from the tower, just adult lives that intersect, intertwine…and, assumably, at some point in the future, part.

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On the positive side, this book is really beautiful. On the negative, I found myself wandering off mid-scene a few times. Lisa and Ally are too flawless as people, and the subject of BDSM, while sort of interesting for me for a ten minute conversation isn’t interesting enough for me for an entire comic.  I did find the “Making of” section in the end and the lots of pretty pictures very much worth my time. I’m definitely not complaining.

There was just that something poking and nagging at me as I turned page after page feeling like I had read something like this somewhere before….

…and then it hit me!

Maka-Maka. You remember it, right? Volume 1 and Volume 2 by Kishi Torajiro, were put out by Media Blasters in 2008 and 2009. These two volumes were arguably the very best work MB ever did in print. The story followed two women, Nene and Jun, and their friends-with-benefits relationship.The art in Sunstone is prettier, and the BDSM is portrayed very sincerely and positively (no 50 Shades-ish lack of consent or comprehension here) but there were specific expressions that were so similar I had to laugh. I’m not saying Sejic copied – I doubt he even knows Maka Maka existed – just that some of the character’s expressions, are similar enough that the one reminded me of the other. Lisa’s expressions, particularly, reminded me of Jun on a few panels.

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 5 Slice-of-BDSM-life
Characters – 7 Likable, which makes it all work. No one here is a jerk.
Yuri – 8 Ally and Lisa definitely like each other. Love could happen.
Service – How do I even score this!? The story is pretty much a collection of nudity and sexual situations.

Overall – 6

It was not a compelling story for me, but it was beautiful to look at and I’m glad to have had a chance to read it. If you are interested in BDSM, you’ll get more out of it. For those who are interested, Volume 2 will be available in May 2015.





Western comic: EROS/PSYCHE Guest Review by Foxy Lady Ayame

January 7th, 2015

erospsycheBack in May, 2014, YNN Correspondent Niki S wrote in to tell us about a lesbian comic of interest.  I invited anyone who was planning on reading it to write about it and as a result, we’re starting off our Guest Review Wednesdays with today we have a brand new Guest Reviewer here at Okazu! I’d like you all to welcome Foxy Lady Ayame, Ayame will be taking a look at this interesting new European comic that is published by Norma Editorial.

Hello, I’m Foxy Lady Ayame from The Beautiful World, a blog dedicated to miscellaneous storytelling media and particularly in anime and manga.

Eros/Psyche (promotional video) by Maria Llovet is a mysterious comic about a small intern all-girl school. Maria Llovet makes the reader plunge into the cryptic world of “The Rose” through the eyes of Sara. There, fate has it, she’s lead by a scarf to meet Silje, the ‘key’ student. They swear loyalty to one another as blood sisters. She joins happily the bucolic life at the school with uncanny gothic rituals and the strict rules; she studies books written in codes and sits for exams that decide which student is going to have to leave.

Sara’s so absorbed in how free she feels and how close she is to Silje, that she doesn’t mull over the suicide of a classmate, or the need for ‘rebellion’ Vanna had, or her last words before she was expelled. Sara doesn’t notice another classmate, Tamlyn’s, budding feelings for a boy either, something that seems treasonous. And, despite the fact that The Chamber comes again and again to the forefront of events, Sara has no will to explore it further and acquiesces to Silje’s unwillingness to talk about it.

New students come and go throughout the year. Silje reciprocates Sara’s feelings. By the last months of the year, only these two remain, until it’s time for the last test. Sara wakes up to find Silje departing suddenly. Silje tells Sara that she’s the next key student, gives her a guide book, apologizes and says her goodbyes. Perhaps they’ll meet again like Eros and Psyche in the Greek myth Silje tells Sara.

I bought and read the German edition by Tokyopop, which has a striking pink cover with the glossy figures of the main characters on the front and a smaller grey-ghostly version of this on the back cover. The whole comic is in black and white but otherwise it doesn’t remind one of manga very much. As a result, I wonder why it got the bronze medal in the 6th International Manga Award. It has some influences from Revolutionary Girl Utena and S-Class Yuri manga, but that’s it. The atmosphere is wonderfully eerie with the abandoned buildings, the creepy dolls and symbolic scissors. The panels are almost always rectangles, which had me doubting the artist’s talent, but they work well, giving off a cinematic or stop-motion experience.

Unfortunately, the ending is open and leaves the reader with more questions than answers. In her blog, Llovet expresses her desire to continue the story, but we don’t know anything certain yet.

Art: 8
Story: 7
Characters: 6, there’s small fluctuation in feelings
Yuri/Lesbian: 7
Service: 1, if some nudity counts

Overall: 7

If you love emotive stories that trigger your imagination, this one is for you. Otherwise, I’m not sure if EROS/PSYCHE is worth the 12 euros I spent.

Thank you Ayame, for taking the time and effort to read and review this book for us!





Sparkler Monthly Brings You Girls Love for the Holidays

November 28th, 2014

BYGHT It’s the holidays, what better time for us all to enjoy the sparkle of the season? ^_^ We’ll start with a new look at Sparkler Monthly, the magazine put out by Chromatic Press.

Sparkler was launched to be a venue in which female writers, creators, and fans are given an open and LGBTQ-friendly space to enjoy manga and manga-derivative works – in effect, an English-language Josei magazine. Sparkler Monthly lead their first year with a license rescue of Tokyopop Rising Star Jen Lee Quick’s BL story Offbeat. They’ve also published volumes of other series, a few one-shots, prose stories and an Audio Drama.

Last year they had Denise Schroeder debut with a cute “Story A”, girl-meets-girl, Before You Go. Well Denise is back for the December issue with a sequel and our friends at Sparkler have given her characters the cover!

Sparkler Monthly is periodically open to submissions, so if you are a writer or artist (or team) do check their submissions schedule and guidelines. They are closed right now, but bookmark this link and keep it in mind for future use.

More importantly, Sparkler Monthly is run by people like you – fans of manga, who feel that there ain’t nothing wrong with Shounen Jump, but there’s room in the universe for something that’s female-friendly. This is not just a doujinshi, either – the editors are experienced industry professionals and they know what works. Sparkler is available by subscription – 12 months for the price of 10, plus a free ebook. A one-month trial is a mere $7. If you want to try them out before you hand over a cent, you can – they have chapters of their manga up for free and I gotta tell you – new series Windrose looks mighty nice.

Sparkler Monthy wants to get us all in the holiday mood, so they are doing a big Holiday sale. Use the code HOLIDAY to get 15% off almost everything in the Sparkler shop! And hey when you’ve subscribed, let ’em know what *you* want to read and buy, because they actually do care about that. ^_^

Personally, I’d love to see them succeed. It’s long past time for a Josei manga magazine in the west to make it on its own. And this is the one I want to see make it. ^_^ Let’s give ’em a hand, shall we?





Western Comic: Tomboy

November 18th, 2014

tomboy Graphic Memoirs are a bit of a conundrum to me. They are super popular, often incredibly well executed and yet, as I read them I often feel a sense of intense boredom, as I might if anyone were to tell me their entire life story in a monologue, without any kind of break.

Tomboy by Liz Prince hit me square in the middle of my problem area. Prince’s art is quite good, but her life…was my life. I already knew about the feelings, the gender expression issues, and the teasing. Although the details were different, the substance is the same. I wouldn’t bore anyone else with those details – at this point they are 40 years old anyway, what’s the point? So, reading about Prince’s experience with a gender expression at odd with society’s expectations was, for me, a trifle exhausting.

Two things made this book pop for me. The rare moments when Prince stops telling the story to comment on it were exceptional. It’s the adult voice looking back at the child that interested me most. I dealt with 13-year old issues at 13, it’s hard to be terribly enthusiastic about that now. But 31-year old Liz Prince commenting on things that were incongruous…“The irony of being called a farmer while wearing a suit jacket and carrying a leather satchel briefcase was lost on me.”…that was worth reading!

The second stand out feature was, honestly, the very end of the book, when she suddenly realizes that, although she thought she was telling a story about her life and the guys she looked up to and wanted to hang with and be with, she has a sudden epiphany that the story is equally about the women in her life. The girls she emulated, adored, befriended, who guided her and gave her the chance to become who she is. As I read that bit, I – for the first time in my life – had my life flash before me, in a series of memories of all the girls I looked up to, who broke my heart before I knew that was what was happening, who were my best friends until they weren’t and those who were there for me when no one else was.

In that one moment, this book went from good to excellent. Because while I don’t expect everyone to care about me, or my childhood, Liz Prince quite literally pulled it whole out of my brain and laid it out for me to see.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – My life, my friends, my experiences and me. 10
Service – 1 on principle
LGBTQ – 5 the narrative is wholly about being gender non-conforming

Overall – 8

So, from one tomboy to another (and who also gets mistaken for a guy about half the time) – Thanks, Liz Prince. Let’s climb a tree together one day. ^_^