Freddy Riley is lucky. She’s going out with popular Laura Dean. Freddy’s got good friends who are understanding when she’s required by Laura to run off at a moment’s notice, or go over to her house. And Freddy’s most okay with it, but she really hates that Laura breaks up with her, then they get back together then she breaks them up again.

And the thing is, Freddy’s friends aren’t actually okay with Laura Dean’s behavior. In fact, it’s pretty obvious to them that Laura Dean is jerking Freddy around. They are there when she needs them, but.

Freddy’s not all that okay with it, either, to be honest, but she cannot see her way out of the cycle. And in the meantime, she’s not there when her friends need her.

The configuration of the relationship is never the problem. The nature of the relationship is the problem. But when tables turn and Freddy learns that her absence has made a difference, she also manages to find it in herself to be non-judgey. And, eventually to deal with the problem in her relationship with Laura Dean which, of course, is Laura Dean.

Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me is an honest, unpretentious and non-judgemental book about being a high school student in the real world. And I think, if a lit teacher is out there still teaching Rumble Fish or, gods help us, A Separate Peace, then there is no excuse for not reading this book as part of the curriculum. I’d suggest this to any Freshman high school teacher. (Knowing full well that some schools would still have a kitten with such an openly queer story and other YA lit themes.)

Mariko Tamaki and Rosemary Valero-O’Connell do a smashing job of nailing tone and feel of high school life and an equally excellent job of taking a look at a queer kid’s life and love without it being a coming out drama. Art, narrative flow and voice are all spot on. Grey, black, white and pink as a color scheme has now become a staple for “emotional drama” in my head. ^_^The visuals are strong, the characters are well-defined and the situations felt exactly the same density of the problems I dealt with at that age.

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 9
Characters – Urm, well, this is a tough one. Not sure I’d want any of them over except Dodo, who seems the right kind of dorky. But they are well-done, so let’s say 7
Service – 1?
LGBTQ – 10

Overall – 9

I also want to shout out to the one adult in the story who nails the problem and the solution earlyish in the books. Freddy still had to take her time to get there, but yay for adult experience. As an adult reading this book, you’re also likely to know what the solution to Freddy’s problem is before a few pages have passed, but that is not the story. The story is watching Freddy get there.

Despite the increase in lesbian vampire (or not-a-vampire) stories in recent years, there has not yet been a lesbian horror renaissance. Recently in a twitter conversation several folks were speaking about how in many genres including, but not limited to, both BL and Yuri, horror is often transformed into something “sexy.” As a result, the horror of that horror is never fully felt or addressed, because its presented to the reader wrapped in a cloth of sexual desire.

In my TCAF panel with creator Emily Carrol, (a recording of which you can listen to, thanks to Jamie Coville!) she made the point that, for her, horror must be unresolvable for it to work.  And for me, the horror must have lingering discomfort or it’s just fear and not “horror.” When I Arrived in the Castle ticks all these boxes.

We begin in the middle of a story, one for which we will learn a beginning, but not the beginning and for which we will never truly know the end. An apparently nervous cat-woman arrives at a castle where a predatory female something will taunt her emotionally and physically. Maybe she and we will learn a truth, but never the truth.

Presented in black, white and red, with a variety of visual styles, the art leaves us as unmoored as the narrative and prose.

All though the narrative progresses in a straightforward fashion, the tale is nonlinear and climax does not bring resolution or knowledge. In the end, we are left with unanswered questions, unquestionable feelings and a pervading sense of having seen something, but what, exactly we’d be hard pressed to describe. 

If you are interested in lesbian horror, this is about as close to and as far from Carmilla (original novel or recent web series based on it) as you can get at the same time.

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 9
Characters – ????
Service – 6 There are nudity and sexual situations, but whether it’s salacious really depends upon you
Lesbian – Yuppers

Overall – 9

This is a brilliant work of horror and you should all read it to learn something about yourself.

I’m really excited to be able to talk about a terrific comic today, Chronin, Volume 1 by Alison Wilgus. I’m obsessively promoting this work and, after having spoken to Alison at both TCAF and again this weekend at Queers & Comics I have convinced a few people to pick up a copy of this book. Now I hope I can convince all of you to do so.

Chronin, Volume 1 begins in Japan of the late 1800s, when a young woman approaches a ronin for help. He rejects her request, but nonetheless find himself accompanying Natsu on a trip whose purpose she will not tell him.

The story follows a team of young time-travelers from our near future, graduate students on trips to study history as it unfolds. Among them is Yoshida Mirai, a woman studying Japan’s Bakumatsu period, the years immediately after Japan was forced open to western trade by the arrival of Admiral Perry and his black ships, before the Meiji Restoration. Mirai visits Kyoto to study city life at that time. Of course, the team of young time-travelers are warned to not get involved, but as tensions between the Choushuu clan and and the Shinsengumi increase, Mirai finds herself trapped in time. I’m not going to spoil a single thing about the story, because I really hope you’ll all read it.

The background is well researched, which gives Wilgus’s story a chance to soar as the characters are introduced, developed and embedded within this complicated tale of social and political upheaval and personal conflict. Even more appealing, Wilgus’ art is incredibly good, with both backgrounds and people drawn more in the style of late 19th century Japanese drawings than in any current western style. Backgrounds are carefully drafted, but people are lightly drawn, which really gives the reader a way to sense Mirai’s feeling of being inserted in a world not her own. In this feeling, Chronin reminded me so strongly of another time-traveling Japanese history comic that was I was totally into almost 20 years ago, Amakusa 1637.

I apparently never reviewed it on Okazu, but if I was reading it now, I might. By longtime Flowers magazine creator Akaishi Michiyo, Amakusa 1637 followed a Japanese Catholic high school student council who were transported into the past….just before the 37,00 Japanese Christian civilians and rebelling soldiers were beheaded by the Tokugawa Shogunate, (which was partly the catalyst for the Shogunate to close Japan to the west and outlaw Christianity and Western influence in Japan, the very laws that Perry’s arrival overturned.) To make the story work, Akaishi ended up changing Japanese history completely, allowing Natsuki and her friends to create a whole new future. There are a lot of parallels between Amakusa 1637 and Chronin, none of which I will mention because they’d spoil the fuck out of the story and I really want you to read it! I know Alison is not familiar with this story, but it’s absolutely fascinating to me that she’s so neatly tying up the end of that story in a story that so closely parallels it!

I will tell you this, while Volume 1 is gay only by proxy, I was told by Alison this weekend that Volume 2 is exponentially more queer. Since Volume 2 is slated for a September release we won’t have too long to wait – get that preorder in. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 9 Well thought out and executed, without being heavy-handed
Story – 9 Checked a lot of my boxes for historical fiction
Characters – 8 Kuji’s a dipshit, but I like everyone else
Service – 3 Very restrained, but necessary
Yuri – 0 so far, but I’ve got my eyes on the prize

Overall – 9

Even aside from any future gayness, this story includes cross-dressing and fucking around with history, as well as solid artistic chops. Chronin is an excellent read.