Archive for the Western Comic/Comix Category


Girly Comic, Volume 2 – Girly & Friends (English)

December 6th, 2011

I’m still making my way through Josh Lesnick’s collection of Girly and find myself closing the pages of Volume 2 of the new collection with some reluctance.

In Volume 2, Otra and Winter’s adventures become more epic, and involve way more people in town than they did previously. In good chapters, this has the effect of giving Cutetown a more 3-D feel. In less good chapters, it feels like a Benny Hill routine. Luckily there are more good than bad chapters.

Highlights of volume two are: the rather inexplicable appearance of Collette, Winter’s half-sister, the resolution of the Chupacabre story (which turns out to be kind of unpredictably sweet) and the beginning middle and end of HappyCo, the manufacturer of arch-enemies. As I write these down, I’m having a hard time finding things to say about each one…but they were all entertaining when I read them, honest! Well, except for Collette – I still don’t know why she’s in the story.

Some of the side characters are intriguing, especially the genius goth vet, while others, like Mickey and Sandra seemed to fascinate Josh a lot more than their supporting cast status might warrant. Thinking about it a little longer, however, I think they are the only two completely normal people in the story. ^_^

For Yuri fans, Otra and Winter have their first big fight. It seems a tad forced until you realize that pretty much all knockdown drag-me-out fights in a relationship start over incredibly stupid things. And I guess having to become a knight to save Winter isn’t really that small a deal…. Other than this interlude, Otra and Winter are still dysfunctionally adorable. And they are kind of dysfunctionally adorable during their argument too. Two people who have never even considered this kind of relationship in a world full of giant dildos and really niceguy sexual molesters, and marshmallow cats…and somehow they make it work.

In the end, the girl gets the girl, the guy gets the girl, the girl gets the guy and Cutetown is safe from HappyCo. And isn’t that what we all want?

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 7
Characters – 8
Yuri – 9
Service – 5

Overall – 8

Not quite as compelling as Volume 1, but still full of fun moments and a surprising number of “awww”s.





Girly Comic, Volume 1 (English)

November 29th, 2011

girlyset-caseAfter revisiting Cute Wendy, I admit to questioning my faith in the entertainment value of Josh Lesnick’s Girly. ^_^ I mean, I liked it loads when it ran online and my original review of the first volume was positive enough to be included as a pull quote on the second volume. But times change and I change and things change…. I’m very glad to say that my opinion of Girly has not changed. I found myself putting other (probably more important) things aside to keep reading this first volume of the new collection, which encompasses both the original Book 1 and 2.

Otra and Winter are utterly un-normal, which makes them charming, and their adventures are utterly un-normal enough that one has to actually pay attention to what is going on in order to follow what is going on. In fact, reading Josh’s post-volume notes, we realize how much of the apparent randomness and haphazard happenstance is carefully plotted out in advance.

For Yuri fans, the real draw here is Otra and Winter. There’s no way to liken this to a normal romance, but the bits that need to be handled with relative normality…are. Otra tortures herself adorably over the unlikely attraction she’s feeling for Winter, while Winter, product of an alternative family as she is, is comfortable with her interest in the other woman.

The romance, such as it is, is lovely. This is particularly nice considering that it forms in the middle of an elephant infestation, cheap gags and other madness. I’m not the kind of person to laugh out loud at laugh-at-loud gags, but this book makes me laugh out loud.

The art is degrees better than Cute Wendy. You can actually follow what’s going on this time. ^_^;

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Yuri – 9
Service – 5

Overall – 8

This was the only webcomic that ever kept my attention for the span of a long run. It has elements I enjoy, not least of which was a great Yuri couple. Hence my desire for the figurines. And this collection. Which I enjoyed very much.





Cute Wendy Comic (English)

November 17th, 2011

girlyset-caseThis summer I contributed to Josh Lesnick’s Kickstarter for the publication of his webcomic Girly in a spiffy hardcover, limited edition box set. I did this entirely because he had a premium of an Otra and Winter figurine set and I’m helpless before the offer of relatively obscure webcomic figurines. (I’d be the first one lining up to buy figurines of Yuriko and Midori, our Yuricon mascots, but as I can’t draw and have no toy industry contacts, it’s kind of a non-starter. PS – This isn’t a request for help or advice on how to do this. As I say, it’s a non-starter right now.)

In any case, I knew once I saw the figurines, I had to be part of the Kickstarter.

 

Who wouldn’t be helpless in the face of this? Okay, fine, lots of people who are not me.

 

Anyway, with my very awesome hardcover limited edition box set and the figurines, I received a copy of Cute Wendy, Josh’s side comic to Wendy. Where Wendy followed the adventures of Wendy and her sidekick, Cute Wendy was the product of many hours of anime watching, potato chip eating, video game playing, masturbation and exhaustion, not in that order.

Cute Wendy is, in short, a slickly printed pile of WTF. Cute Wendy and her sidekick have adventures, but little to no effort is made for those adventures to make any sense, have any resolution, or meaning at all. By the end of this volume, unresolved chaos became the status quo and it was almost disappointing when Wendy and her sidekick actually did resolve a thing.

Don’t get me wrong here – I’m not dissing Cute Wendy. I just don’t want you thinking it’s a story. It’s not. It’s a series of throw-away plot ideas and leftover fast food with some vaguely imagined lesbian sex thrown in for fun. In fact, “Lesbian Sex” is mentioned quite often, although rarely seen beyond a kiss and a smoke afterwards. “Lesbian Sex” becomes a refrain that repeats, just to let us know it’s a thing in the comic.

If you are of the opinion that Lesnick’s art is not up to snuff, then Cute Wendy is not going to convince you otherwise. And the fever-dream story telling isn’t likely to win anyone over, but that’s not why you’d be reading Cute Wendy anyway! You’d only be reading this if you already liked Wendy or Girly and wanted to see the fever-dream side story. Which I now have. I look forward to revisiting Otra hitting people on the head with giant dildos as a return to normality. Cute Wendy was just that WTF.

Ratings:

Art – Still better than anything I can do, so 6
Story – There kind of isn’t one – 2
Characters – 6
Yuri – 8 They have Lesbian Sex, I’m informed
Service – 7 It’s pretty much written by/for Fanboy, but not nearly as intolerably awful as, say, Shin Koihime Muso

Overall – 5 It’s not being enshrined, but I’m not throwing it out, either.

My very sincere thanks to Josh for being so pro-Yuri and for being a very decent Fanboy. Also, cool figurines!





NYCC Panels: From the Other Side of the Table, Part 1 XX: The Women of Queer Comics

October 17th, 2011

This weekend, over 100,000 people attended New York Comic Con, mostly to get free stuff. But some of those people attended panels where free stuff wasn’t the draw and of those panels, I was privileged and honored to participate on two.

XX: Women of Queer Comics took place on Friday night. Sponsored by Prism Comics, the moderator was author, artist and singer (and Yuri Monogatari contributor) JD Glass. The panel consisted of:

Joan Hilty – Former DC editor and creator of Bitter Girl

Kris Dresden – Creator of these things matter, hush and other comics

Jennifer Camper – Creator of Rude Girls and Dangerous Women and editor of the Juicy Mother anthologies.

Paige Braddock – Creator of Jane’s World
 
Abby Denson – Creator of Dolltopia and Tough Love: High School Confidential
 
Rica Takashima – Creator of Tokyo Love ~ Rica ‘tte Kanji!? and Aozora Art

and, erm, me. (I love the picture above, because I was leaning back as I listened, so I’m not visible. ^_^;; I’m behind Abby.)

To say that I was feeling a bit like a pretender is an understatement. I was *the* only non-artist on the panel.

Anyway, the room was full, the panel was funny, the crowd was great and we had a teriffic time. I loved hearing the other panelists’ stories about how they got started doing comics and what motivated them now.

JD’s questions covered how everyone got started (short version: no one else was doing it and it seemed the right or only thing to do,) what keeps them going (short version: same as last answer and it’s who we are) and what positive changes we’ve seen (short version: more queer characters in all levels of comics, creators, editorial, staff, characters, etc.) This last led to the best line of the panel, IMHO.

I began talking about how, when I started, Yuri was just porn for creepy guys and Camper leans forward and says, “And now it’s porn for creepy dykes.” I’m still laughing at that.

Everyone was witty and grounded and real and I do not believe I have ever been so honored in my life as I was to sit up there with such amazing women.

The grand takeaway from this panel was: What are you waiting for? Do it – draw/write/publish – do it already and do it yourself.

Thanks JD for the chance to be on that panel – and thanks to everyone who came and asked such great questions!

PS – I gave out prizes to people who asked questions, so they got free stuff anyway. ^_^





Lesbian Comic: Batwoman Elegy

October 1st, 2010

Two years ago, I had the pleasure of a guest review by David Welsh on the issues of Detective Comics in which the Batwoman arc ran.

This week I read the collected volume of Batwoman: Elegy by Williams and Rucka for myself and I find that I don’t have a substantially different opinion than David did.

I was an American comics reader for decades before I discovered manga. However, I was almost exclusively a Marvel reader. Not for any philosophical reason – Marvel series were just more appealing to me. So this was probably the first comic in the Batman world that I had read in more than 30 years.

Batwoman: Elegy tells the story of Kate Kane, the daughter of soldiers, who has been busted out of West Point and ripped from an exemplary military career for being gay. This section is poignant, as Lt. Dan Choi was consulted. I expect that the conversation Kate had with her C.O. was not unlike the one he had with his. Lost, flailing for purpose, she has a relationship with Renee Montoya (wow, really, what a shock, not) which breaks up eventually. Because of this and a conversation at the beginning of the book we are supposed to see Kate as incapable of holding a relationship together. Really, three relationships and she’s a commitment-phobe? Um…

Eventually, she finds purpose fighting crime and, eventually, metamorphoses into Batwoman.

The book opens as she fights a new high priestess of crime that plagues Gotham.

Batwoman Elegy has an artistic design that I described to myself as Burton meets Mucha. There were individual pages or spreads that worked well but, on the whole, I found the emphasis on color overwhelming. And man, the faces just were not consistent across the story. It’s obvious in those two sentence that reading manga has strongly affected the things I look for in a comic. With all the color, I find it hard to *see* American comics these days.

Above all things, what I like best is a good story.  Batwoman Elegy is an okay story.

I know that Rucka is a massively popular writer, but I am just not getting what people see. I think he’s competent, absolutely, but nowhere near excellent. Here’s why I say that. About halfway through the book, Colonel Kane gives the entire story away. In one word. This is not foreshadowing. To call this “foreshadowing” is like saying that me beating you senseless with a bat, then saying “you’re going to have a bad day today” is “telling your fortune.” The worst part about it…it was obvious anyway!!! I guessed within 3 pages what the deal with Alice was. I don’t mean to cast aspersions on American comics readers but…really, this is what passes for “excellent writing?” Wow. (I asked my comics store owning friend about this “foreshadowing” and she said she never really noticed. I wonder…when you have like 12 pages of content in a 32 page comic, if the reason people don’t notice is that they are on overload from all the crap they have to wade through to get to the meat. That would kind of explain a lot about American comics, too…)

There were, definitely, things to like about this book. The color scheme is striking, no doubt about that. And the four pages spent on Kate’s evolution from paramilitary crimefighter to Batwoman were fantastic. Really fantastic. Those four pages made the entire book work for me. Which is where my one genuine complaint comes in – four pages? The best part of the story gets *4* pages? In a manga it would have gotten an entire volume. At least a whole chapter. Here, it gets 4 pages.  Oh well.

So, here’s what *I’d* like to see. Let’s redo this story from scratch, get someone who can really write on it and give it some time to develop, instead of shoving each section into 4-8 overcrowded pages.  Give us more. More time, more room, more growth and more development. More of Kate. Less of ridiculous badguys with realllllllllllllly obvious provenance. How about we just get more crime, less shark jumping right off the bat? (This is something I see *a lot* with female-lead series. The new crime drama Rizzolli and Isles went *right* to a previous stalker/serial killer who is ba-ack! arc….in the first episode. Gawd.)

The New Batwoman standalone series is starting soon. DC, here’s your chance to show you don’t suck, you understand how to tell a story. Here’s you chance to create an American superhero comic as interesting to women as manga is. Go for it.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – Kate’s personal story – 8, the Alice arc – 3
Characters – 8, what little we got to see of them
Lesbian – 5
Service – 5

Overall – 7

The best part about this book is undoubtedly the fact that it was sponsored by newly minted Okazu Hero Ashley R! Ashley, thank you so much. Email me at anilesbocon01 at hotmail dot com to receive your very own Okazu Hero badge to proudly display on websites and social media profiles!