Archive for the Western Comic/Comix Category


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. ^_^





Yuri Manga: Lepakkoluola Anthology (Finnish and English)

November 14th, 2014

lepakkoluola_350Lepakkoluola is a Finnish Yuri anthology created by a circle called Team Pärvelö.

I was originally made aware of the collection last June when I was contacted by a Team member, Hanna-pirita, to let me know about the Kickstarter for the anthology. Crowdfunding was successful and it was my very sincere pleasure to receive a copy! Really, all I can say about the anthology is – wow.

The story content and variety were exceptionally strong. A female Prussian officer and a woman of the nobility, young black singers in early 20th century Harlem, witches during the Inquisition, Eve and Lilith, a samurai’s wife and a Buddhist nun…the variety of time and place was mind-boggling.

While the text in the body of the comics is in Finnish, pages are subtitled in English. It made reading the book an adventure, as I’d read the English, then spend time just looking at the page and enjoying the art and the flow of the story.

Artists did not attempt to imitate any style, what we have here are young artists letting themselves draw what they wanted, the way they wanted. And I have to say – a lot of the art was really, incredibly good. Each story is so utterly unique that they all stood out in their own way.

My personal favorites were an Annie Oakley x Calamity Jane fanfic I had no idea I needed, but apparently, I did; A story about Sappho and her super #1 Fan harpy and a lovely, lovely little story about a “crazy” woman and the troll who loves her.

Every single story was good. I ended each and every one with an “Aw,” or a “Cute!” or “Squee.”

You can order a copy (priced in Euros) from the circle directly on their website.

And, if you should one day run across this unique and lovely anthology, do scoop it right up. It’s a delight.

Ratings:

Ratings are all variable of course, but…

Overall – 9

This was an excellent read and will be an excellent re-read . Thank you Hanna-pirita and the other members of Team Pärvelö! Lepakkoluola is a delight.





Western Comix: Paris in the 20th Century

November 11th, 2014

paris20Ana DuPre is both the heroine we want and the heroine we need. And luckily for us, Brian Gardes and Keri Grassl of Kilted Comics have created her especially for us.

In the alternative Paris of the alternative 1920s, along with airships and goggles, Ana DuPre, thief extraordinaire steals rare items, fights with laser guns and does other expected acts of derring-do. And she wears a leather pilot’s outfit and has a famous girlfriend…what more could we ask of her? Well…early 20th century literary references, of course! And luckily, Brian and Keri know what we want and give it to us. Which brings us to this lovely little comic, Paris in the 20th Century, starring charming adventuress Ana DuPre.

Ana has been hired by Michael Verne, the not-famous son of the famous French science fiction writer to retrieve a book from his father’s publisher. Of course, nothing goes easy for Ana…if it did, we wouldn’t have a cool story now, would we? ^_^

Gardes and Grassl have done a fair bit of homework and the people, places and situations among which Ana treads are real, including her bombshell girlfriend, Tamara de Lempicka, who was “notorious”ly bisexual during her life.

You may have guessed that I’m a sucker for this kind of comic, and I am. But what really got me, were Grassl and Gardes’ interest in and love of pinup art, combined with their love of throwing things to the wind and letting them be carried off in a zeppelin. Who doesn’t love a smart, sexy, bisexual, whimsical, gentlelady thief?

Ratings:

Art – YMMV, but I liked it – 7
Story – 8
Character – 7
Yuri – 2 Implication only
Service – 2 Pinup-y art

Overall – 7 and I definitely want more. ^_^

You can read sample pages of Paris in the 20th Century on the Kilted Comics website, along with the ongoing adventure, Ana DuPre and the Eye of the Kraken. You can buy Paris for $7 plus shipping. Totes worth it, but you won’t get it inscribed “Thanks for last night” like I did, unless you pick it up at a show. ^_^ (I always get people to inscribe it that way. I want my heirs to have something to think about as they clean my crap up after I’m gone. We even got some of the doujinshi artists at GLF to inscribe books to me that way. ^_^)

If you like Kerri’s art, do check out her page, Hooligan Lili (great name…!), where she has some lovely pinups and chicks on motorcycles and other things that make me happy. ^_^