Yesterday was Day 1 of the first-ever, totally historical event Queers & Comics. Sponsored by Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies (CLAGS) at The Graduate Center, CUNY, 365 Fifth Avenue, NYC, Day 2 has just begun!

If you can get over to CUNY for even one session, it’s absolutely worth it! I’ll be moderating Wet and Sticky: Female Sexuality in Queer Comics at 4:15 today in Room 201.

Full report as soon as I have a chance! See you there!

It’s been about ten years since I first attended a MoCCA event, and I have to say, MoCCA Fest really is a must-do comics event, along with Stumptown, Small Press Expo and TCAF.

In a discussion about the unfortunate timing of Flame-con, I pointed out that that there is a space that “comic cons” inhabit in between comic events and anime cons, in which 87% of the con is about the cosplay, another 8% is guest/industry and everything I like – the creating, publishing, enjoying of narrative – is shoved into the remaining 5%. As a result, while I think I should get to Flame-con, it would never be  a must-do, the way MoCCA is for me.

This year MoCCA Fest has a new home, the 548 Center over by the High Line. The 4-floor layout and terrifying walk up stairs reminded me of the original years squeezed into the attractive, but oddly built Puck Building. So, downtown once again, only way on the west side. A good thing for me, if they stay there for a bit.

Industry, such as it is, is located on the 2nd floor, and artists are arranged around the 3rd and 4th floors. All the floors were pretty well packed with artists and people. Panels were held about 2 blocks away at the High Line hotel, which looked to me like an old plant that had been converted into a hotel. It was confusing to get around, but staff was very helpful and the panel rooms were comfortable sizes.

I did a quick once or twice around looking for folks, then went around the floors a few more times with intent to buy. My first stop was Nobrow books, where I was able to confirm that Sam Bosma (who I had a chance to speak to later) is indeed continuing the series he began in Fantasy Sports No. 1. This was everything I’m looking for in a comic for kids and adults, so I was thrilled to  hear that we’d be getting more.

Also exciting was speaking to Molly Ostertag and Brennan Lee Mulligan about the collected volume of their delightful webcomic, Strong Female Protagonist. Ostertag is enthusiastic about the future of the webcomic, which she notes is ongoing, and hopes to do a second volume Kickstarter in the future. I certainly hope so. Their comic is refreshing, with a nice balance of  whimsy and realism.

Moving away from youth, I also picked up Jennifer Hayden’s Underwire, which is an almost maddeningly mature perspective. She and I chatted about the lie that is us as adults and how it always surprises us when we are capable of making a command decision that sounds sensible even as we make it. ^_^ It seems creepy, even to us.

I saw, but was unable to buy, Ladies of Literature, which was a lovely artbook, but learned that a second volume is currently in Kickstarter, which made me think that the one real limitation of crowdfunding is that it still doesn’t make it any easier to get a book that looks interesting. ^_^;

New York is an infinitely diverse and interesting place, and I’m sorry to say that MoCCA doesn’t really give one a good grasp of this. In past years I’ve seen more racial diversity…. Also, there is a shocking lack of queer comics at MoCCA – especially amazing since the queer comics scene in NYC is still a pretty thriving place. Since Prism Comics shifted their focus over to the west coast exclusively, there’s a bit of a gap.  Northwest Press was in attendance, but there were fewer LGBTQ creators among the tables than in past years. Perhaps because Queer & Comics is in a few weeks and they expect a more focused audience for their wares. I’ll hope so, anyway. I’m afraid to project, but have to imagine that increasing costs has something to do with the lack of diversity, as well. In the meantime, Paper Rocket Minicomics gave me a copy of Limp Wrist, a memoir by a trans comic creator.

I took a moment to congratulate Raina Telgemeier on her amazing year of accomplishments. In conversation, she mentioned that she still thinks there’s a lot more room for YA comics and while she’s glad to see Scholastic Press really wade into the fray with tremendous support for YA-focused graphic novels – and recognition by YA literary awards committees like the Newberry and Caldecott awards – she still feels there’s room for more.

Later in the day, this was echoed by Alison Wilgus, as we discussed how comics were treated as a genre, rather than a media and how the few non-comic book companies who publish comics are both bolstered by – and limited by – the larger publishing regimes that own them. Yen Press has better access to advertising, from being part of Hachette, but their marketing is still limited to either “this is a manga thing” or “this is a comics thing,” rather than marketing sports comics to sports lovers and mystery comic to mystery lovers.

Between the two conversations, I started to realize that we are just back at the point where comics were pre-Comics Code days, where romance, kids comics, war, biographical and superhero comics could live side by side and all have a place. With the help of the folks at MoCCA, we’ll get there yet.

Two last notes. The one comic I picked up unread was Jessi Sherron’s The Evil Queen.  No convincing needed, I flipped through, loved the art and the uncompromising character and was sold. ^_^

Thanks also to Marguerite, Christopher, Johanna , Brigid and Alison for a lovely dinner and a beautiful walk through midtown in full geek-out mode and especial thank to James, our kind and generous host. ^_^

Lastly, to quote Brigid Alverson, “There were no ugly comics” at MoCCA. I’d go so far as to say that MoCCA is my annual reminder that comics are alive, well, and thriving.

Yay us! This year Jye N braved the amusement park ride made of people that is called Winter Comiket this year. This post began with Jye’s comment:

I’ll report on Comiket later today. Probably just “it was huge, what the hell, I need to lie down now”. So glad all the original Yuri is on day 1 :)

To which I replied:

Haha! Day 1 is always – every time – a day to get reacclimated. I crash early and hard on Day 1. I’m not sure I’d like all the original Yuri on the first day, I’d be sure I missed something, while half collapsing with exhaustion.
I’m looking forward to your report!

Well, Senior YNN Correspondent Jye N soldiered on (you see what I did there, Jye? You got a battlefield commission!) and here is a pretty comprehensive overview of three days of madness, despair and faallen arches. Everyone, tuck yourself in with a snack and a drink and enjoy Jye N’s 2014 Winter Comiket report!

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Day 1

I was indeed wrecked by the experience, and left after finally securing Takemiya-sensei’s autograph, at about 2:00.

Takemiya-sensei had a profoundly successful Comiket so far as I can tell, far and away more popular than the other Yuri mangaka. When I arrived at about 10:30, she had a significant queue, easily the longest in the area. I know the score, so I went to join the line by taking the card from the last person, as you do. That person needed to explain to a confused gaijin that this was merely the front section of the line, and I’d need to join the main line, which was politely off to the side so as not to block the other tables.

A kind person in that line looked after me (and called me senpai, which I found charming). When I finally got to the front I said hello to Takemiya sensei and bought everything she was selling, but I didn’t sare ask her to sign anything with the number of people behind me.

This state of affairs persisted well past 12:00! I was able to simply go up to Nishi-sensei and Amano-sensei, ask for a signature and have a chat, but not a chance for Takemiya-sensei until much, much later. As a fan of all three mangaka it’s hard for me to speculate why one of them was doing so much better on the day, it might just be Takemiya-sensei’s Love Live doujin was a shrewder pick than Nishi-sensei’s KanColle or Amano-sensei’s Aikatsu.

Not to imply Nishi-sensei and Amano-sensei weren’t moving books, because they certainly were. Both were lovely, very patient with the gaijin and his halting Japanese. Nishi-sensei signed my copy of Coleur de Bijoux d’Amour, and I was sure to tell her I loved Collectors too. I left my copy of Philosophia in Australia like a fool, so I had to ask Amano-sensei to sign “Ms Kiwi Fruit and Ms Apple”, which she was kind enough to do. Of course I mentioned how much I loved Philosophia and Watashi no Sekai. Hopefully I wasn’t too much trouble for the poor mangaka :)

And of course I eventually had Takemiya-sensei sign my copy of Omoi no Kakera 3!

Amongst Yuri circles Hatishiro seemed second most popular, I guess people like animal ears.

This time I didn’t go crazy buying as I did at COMITIA, but I still picked up a solid little pile of books and helped support my favourite mangaka, so a successful day.

Comiket in general was completely insane. The scale of it beggars belief even if you’re used to large Japanese doujin events like Reitaisai. I very nearly had my first trip to the Odaiba Gundam courtesy of the line when I finally found the end of it at about 9:00, which of course was only the line to the west hall (and as usual the “line” was ranks twenty or so abreast, and you could see other columns forming in most directions).

It was great to see a fairly even gender balance amongst attendees and creators. Of course for yuri the creators skew female and the buyers skew male, whereas the vast tracts of BL remain very much by and for women, but overall it felt like Japanese geek culture has a place for everyone, and everyone turned out. Some gaijin too, from all over the world as near I could tell.

Not sure I’ll make it back for day 2 and 3, depends on what I can find of interest in the phone book they call a catalogue. He’ll of an experience though, and every manga fan should do it at least once.

Day 2

So I started the day by buying a Yuri Yuri doujin.

That…wasn’t according to plan. I’m not a Yuri Yuri fan, though I do have more time for it than Erica. In particular I think Oomuroke is funnier thanks to older characters showing up more, and I’ve often thought Himawari and Sakurako’s double tsundere routine would be improved by doubling their ages. (Erica here: I agree completely!)

So when I saw a circle had gone with that exact premise my only thought was “Yes, yes, that exactly, let me give you my money.” I haven’t given “Hima Hima Saku Saku ~ 13 years after” a proper read through yet, but from a flick through it looks like the book Namori-sensei should be writing.

Though I must caution that throwing money at circles just because you approve of the premise – and the premise is usually a ship – will quickly leave you with more doujin than you can feasibly get home. I had to resist “voting” for Chie x Yukiko and other favourite video game pairings (other than the Mimi x Totori I did snap up, because I’m weak to Atelier). The simple fact is that while original yuri works and our favourite Yuri mangaka loom largest in our minds, they are vastly outnumbered by doujin focusing on existing properties. You have to be discerning, it’s simply not viable to buy everything you like the look of/validates your shipping opinions.

Particularly if you like series with gentlemen in them. Day two seemed to be dominated by gigantic doujin communities for a smaller number of popular propeties, and despite a spirited showing by Touhou and KanColle, BL had the weight of numbers thanks to Attack on Titan (my word Levi, you have a lot of boyfriends), Yowamushi Pedal and the series with an oni-looking main character whose name I’m struggling to find.

(It’s difficult to understand the sheer scale of BL and how thoroughly a female space it is until you see it. It’s certainly illuminating from a male perspective, particularly if you want to see what men being objectified by women *really* looks like. And you can understand how a male-dominated approach to lesbians in fiction could be alienating to women. But it’s not the other side of the coin to Yuri – it’s the other side of the coin to moe. (Erica again: Yes, absolutely)

Either way for good or ill it’s a working example of an enormous community of geek women coming out strong, creating by and for themselves, moving a ton of books and yen. You can’t see it and treat the idea that women are uninterested in geek media and comics specifically as remotely serious.)

I was also tempted to “vote” for my favourite Persona male pairings but I’m otherwise not into the big BL series so I was fairly safe there. I’m likewise not into KanColle (being trepidatious about it for obvious reasons), so that was a very large section I didn’t need to pay much attention to.

Touhou was a very different story. I came to Yuri fandom and manga in general via Touhou. My first Japanese con was Reitaisai. I had thought to skip today because I’ll probably just go to Reitaisai again anyway (it lines up with COMITIA and Maiden’s Garden!) but predictably I was kidding myself.

The Touhou section was very much like taking Reitaisai and stuffing it into a quarter of its normal space. It was incredibly dense with both circles and people (compounded by the miserable weather making the outdoor cosplay areas a chancy prospect). And I spent more than expected, though with excellent results.

When I first got into Touhou, I didn’t understand how doujin worked, and blithely read a ton of scanlations without the slightest twinge of conscience. As my understanding developed, I likewise developed an instinctual reaction to recognising a circle’s art style from scanlations: wallet comes out, buy absolutely everything they have for sale. A Touhou event can load me down with a lot of paper as a result, but I feel so much better. Everyone I’ve ever met at these events have been lovely, and I’m so happy to become a legitimate customer and support their work.

Comiket was particularly great because I was able to pick up collections of Miko Miko Suika, Suwakoto! (Awesome Yotsubato! tribute/parody) and reprints of some very favourite Personal Colour stories (幼女と少女。。。) that I hadn’t managed to track down at Reitaisai or mangaya.

Also scored some new Iron Attack! Albums and had a bit of a chat with the guy himself, which brings up an important point: these shows are very much worth going to even if you don’t read Japanese if you’re into a property with a strong music culture. Touhou music is amazing, and was my main draw to my first Reitaisai when I could barely speak a word.

If anything there were more people there today, and I’m a bit scared for tomorrow. Also as far as I can tell I’m going to be buying Madoka porn from Morinaga-sensei, which wasn’t how I was expecting my holiday to go.

(The Hentai can be really confronting, but on the plus side it’s always a chunk of the floor you can skip without feeling you’re missing anything. For Morinaga-sensei though…)

Finally I went to Asagaya for the Marimite exhibition but everything was closed up for new year. I…might make it back on the 9th, we’ll see. Oddly enough there was a lady and an older gentleman wanting to talk to gaijin there and take photos, which was fine but odd given the place was basically shut down?

Day 3

I did go to “Hentai Day”, and it somehow conspired to have the most intense press of humanity of the whole show.

And for reasons that are unclear to me, Morinaga-sensei and Hakamada-sensei were right in the thick of it. It’s not that their works were hentai themselves – Hakamada-sensei’s are entirely work safe, and despite a reasonably explicit sex scene Morinaga-sensei’s is certainly not pronography (no more so than Amano-sensei’s…anything, really). But they were right in the crush, surrounded by circles hocking stuff with a much more questionable (but enthusiastic) grasp on anatomy.

I bought my doujin and beat a hasty retreat. As much as I’d liked to have found out which mangaka was which and let them know how much I’d enjoyed their professional works, it was just an intimidating mass of people.

There was even significant jostling, unusual for the exceptionally well behaved Comiket crowds, and staff running traffic control in the aisles!

It wasn’t all Hentai, of course. Vocaloids and original music were huge (I picked up a lot of CROW’SCLAW and Pizuya’s Cell CDs, kind of cool to see them selling on their own fame as opposed to Touhou specifically). Love Live was enormous (work-safe and otherwise). And like the first day some very niche interests were represented – I saw someone selling what appeared to be a moe guide to TypeScript of all things.

There was a reasonably substantial Fate section, dominated by BL pairings. I probably would have gone a Saber x Iri or Saber x any female character or even Gilgamesh x Iskander but I didn’t see anything that caught my fancy artistically.

Likewise I really wanted to grab some doujin from Daioki-sensei and Dowman Sayman, but they had serious lines and I can just order sme of their tankobon from home.

So very hot and tired, despite it being a short stay on a winter’s day, I went home.

No, I’m not that smart, I went to Akihabara to plug some holes in the doujin collection left by the prodigious productivity of Takemiya-san and others between COMITIA 108 and C87. I’m sure Erica is already well aware of this but a word of advice to others: don’t go doujin shopping in Akihabara during or just after a major event unless you’re willing to endure crowding almost worse than the event itself. These ships are not roomy to begin with, fill them with doujin hunters looking to remedy gaps in their event acquisitions and you have serious traffic problems. I did however manage to pick up Amano-sensei’s “Bombshells”, which collects a few years’ worth of her (slightly insane, where are Red Riding Hood’s clothes?) doujin.

Some final thoughts/advice on Comiket for those thinking of going:

– It’s amazing and you should go. The scale of it needs to be seen to be appreciated.

– I suggest lining up early on at least one day, probably the first. This is mostly to experience the line itself, which is a phenomenon in its own right. You may want to hit the bathrooms at Shimbashi on your way through though, you’re going to be in that line for a while.

– Otherwise you can show up at 11:00 and skip the lines, though not the crowds.

– Know what your top picks are and do your best to buy them early. The lines for individual circles can get big fast, and popular circles do sell out. I don’t think that’s a huge risk for most of our favourite mangaka, but Takemiya-sensei definitely seems to be a sell-out risk these days. I’d buy from her as soon as possible, say hello, but come back and have a proper chat/get things signed later. And if you like a popular circle making doujin for a popular property, gods help you.

– Twitter is probably more useful than the catalogue. Mangaka usually put their table number for their next event in their Twitter name, so you should be able to quickly make a shortlist by scrolling down your Twitter feed.

– If you are looking for someone in the catalogue, a rudimentary knowledge of hiragana/katakana goes a long way.

– Likewise, while everybody you meet will be lovely and very patient, and you can certainly get away with very little Japanese, you won’t encounter many fluent English speakers. Every bit of Japanese you can muster counts. Also they will very politely insist that your Japanese is wonderful no matter how bad it is (thanks, Takemiya-sensei ^_^)

– If you’re asking for signatures, you might want to have your name written down already for the mangaka’s convenience, particularly if you have the sort of name nobody gets right in English either!

– Have your own bags. You can buy various bags at the event, or get free ones with some purchases, but you’re much better off coming prepared. Most Circles do not have bags to give you.

– Unless you’re significantly more jaded than I am, prepare to be confronted by the hentai. Just move along, at least this way you can skip a fair chunk of the floor.

– it is so much hotter inside the halls than outside. For Winter Comiket layers come off and on a lot as you move around. Summer must be brutal.

– Most people were actually quite smartly dressed. Don’t let the otaku/fujoshi stereotype fool you, it’s probably worth taking some care on your appearance for the event.

– It’s amazing and everyone should go.

I’m sure I’ve left out a thousand details but I’m done. Time to go look at mountains, shrines and castles for a while!

Erica here once more: Yes, a thousand times yes, especially “you should experience the line for itself”. Line management at Comiket is a thing of wonder in and of itself and really everyone should experience it once.

Thank you Jye for helping me relive some of my most favorite, most exhausted experiences. Should we ever be at an event at the same time, let’s make sure to catch a can of coffee at the magic Lawson of food and drink in the middle of Big Sight and trade war stories. ^_^