Archive for the Events Category


est em Panel at TCAF

May 13th, 2014

It was my honor to moderate the panel for Featured Guest est em (えすと えむ) at Toronto Comics Art Festival .

I haven’t seen any other coverage of the panel so far and while it may be unusual to do this, I thought the conversation we had really interesting and want to share.

est em, translator Jocelyne Allen, who was fantastic, and I had a terrific discussion about her work. She ‘s best known for her BL works, and debuted professionally in 2006 with what was licensed in English as Seduce Me After The Show (which is one of the several things I read in preparation for the panel.)

est em started off in doujinshi and I asked her how she transitioned to professional. She said that she was scouted by a publisher who asked her if she’d be interested in drawing BL and she replied, “Yeah, sure.” She hadn’t really read any before that, so she did some research and started drawing. Later on, I asked her about the quirky content of her stories; they have elements like bullfighting, bespoke shoe making, centaurs… and she said one of the nice things about BL is that she doesn’t have to go into a lot of details, as long as the content is BL, she can just draw whatever interests her. Also because they tend to be short vignettes she doesn’t have to really explain anything about, say bullfighting, it’s more or less “this guy is a bullfighter”, whereas in something long-form like Golondrina, she needs to add in the jargon, the details of the culture and the techniques.

I asked her about her attention to movement and line, and how she expresses such things through depictions of Flamenco and bullfighting and she mentioned that the flow of line extends to her drawing of bespoke shoes and how really good shoes look beautiful. She talked about her time in Spain doing research – although she didn’t think she had any Spanish fans. (An audience member later said that she had a friend in Spain who is a fan, so she’s got at least one!)

The questions from the audience were great! Nathan, a TCAF staffer, asked her opinion of Hemingway, who is of course well-known for his writing on bullfighting and Spanish life. est em-sensei replied that she had read Hemingway, but thought he was “too macho.” She said she felt he wrote as if he was looking down from heaven on bullfighting, as well.

Another great question asked about the response she’s received from the gay community in Japan, what they think of her work. She said she hadn’t really gotten any negative comments, and wasn’t sure if there was a dichotomy between fans of BL and the gay community, which prompted me to note that her work was mostly unlike other BL, by having characters who are adults and have relationships without coercion, denial, non-con or incest. She joked that by drawing such unconventional BL, maybe that was why her books didn’t sell as well as others!

Another audience member asked whether she’s planning on doing more doujinshi, and she said it always comes down to time, she has to produce 60-70 pages a month and when she does doujinshi, it’s always in, like, the last 2 days. But the fan had specifically asked about a piece of Attack on Titan fanart, and est em-sensei said she wouldn’t be doing derivative work.

Another question asked her opinion of scanlations. She was really honest and said she thinks they are okay as a starting off point for fans, but really, in order to be okay, at some point they have to transition to actually buying the book in some language otherwise, she won’t be able to continue drawing.

I had asked her at the very beginning to ask the audience a question and so, she asked them this: she feels it’s weird sometimes to see Japanese culture as written by foreigners, so did they think it was weird to see a Japanese person writing overseas culture? The audience said, nah, it was cool and I added that it gives us another viewpoint of ourselves, through a slightly distorted lens. It’s good for us to see that image and know what people think of us.

And with that, we wrapped up a great hour, with a terrific manga artist, est em. Several of her other BL books have been translated into English by DMP, Deux, Netcomics and now Viz’s SuBLime has just published her newest book, Tableau No. 20. If you’re ever looking for non-trope-y BL with mature themes, but also mature characters, I strongly recommend her work. In Japanese her current series are Golondrina (which I am reviewing here, as the main character is a lesbian), and IPPO. If you’ve read any of her work in scanlation form, buying her work that is available in English is a great way to say thanks.)

On a personal note, I asked her to add in a few fangirls for Chika when she next bullfights in Golondrina. Jocelyne and I joked that if she just explained to her editor a promise made in Canada is like a contract, she should be okay. ^_^

Thanks to est em-sensei, Jocelyne and the great audience for a really fantastic panel!





Event: Toronto Comic Arts Festival on May 10-11, 2014 in Toronto, ON

May 5th, 2014

TCAF As con season starts to pick up, I’m making a point of trying to get to shows and once again, Toronto Comic Arts Festival is on my radar. Last year, I told you what a great show it is and why. This year I want you all to join us, so here’s some highlights.

Guests include Trina Robbins, whose life work is to study and promote women in comics, and Mariko  and Jillian Tamaki, co-creator of the magnificent LGBTQ comic Skim.

Manga Guests include Moyoco Anno, creator of Sakuran, which is being published by Vertical Publishing. It’s a stunningly fabulous story (by which I mean that it is sublimely full of incandescent anger that I find absolutely beautiful). And please allow me to indulge a moment of fangirly squeeing, as  another manga guest this year is est em, creator of the wonderfully intense Golondrina, about a young lesbian who is training to be a matador.  This is especially exciting for me, as I have the honor of moderating her guest panel on Sunday, May 11, along with translator Jocelyne Allen. I’m terribly excited about this. ^_^

Also attending is the 2-woman team known as Akira Himekawa, who are working on the My Little Pony ~Friendship is Magic manga. They are absolutely lovely.

I’ll also be moderating a few other panels: Art Theft! on Saturday and The New Small Press on Sunday. There is a LGBTQ mixer on Saturday, check the events page for details. This show is very LGBTQ friendly, so expect to find some queer comics and comics artists! And there is a Women in Manga panel on Saturday. You can be sure I’ll be there.

TCAF is free to the public (with a few special events that require tickets, check the website) – it is held in the Toronto Reference Library, so I hope that all my Toronto-area friends will stop by and join me for one of the most fun manga, comics, and bande dessinee’ events in North America. ^_^

See you in Toronto!





MoCCA 2014 Event Report

April 6th, 2014

I had such grandiose plans for MoCCA this year. I was gonna go to all sorts of parties, hang out with some amazing people. On Thursday, I was so stoked. I felt great, had energy and money…and then I woke up Friday with that stomach bug that was going around. So Friday was killed dead as I spent the day feverish and sick, really hoping that I still could make it in for a bit Saturday.

Three cheers for clean living. I woke Saturday feel perfectly fine, just a bit tired and amazingly managed to survive the longest train ride of my life into the city. (I did not actually think it was possible to take that long on the train into New York from my town.) Ran up to Book-Off, ran down to the 69th regiment armory, ran in to be instantly reminded of why I like MoCCA ArtFest so much. Like TCAF, the focus is on original work, like the best corners of Comiket, there is a lively, thriving community around those original works. Walking through MoCCA there’s a whole lot of people smiling, laughing, hugging and talking…about comics. It’s a kind of nerdvana. ^_^

pajikantTo paraphrase Marguerite Dabaie, from whom I bought some lovely coasters from her Pajikant series, MoCCA isn’t really about “comics comics” – it’s about stories that have to be told and comics is the tool, rather than merely a media.

MoCCA redefines itself a bit every year. This year it was organized almost topically, with “larger” publishers up at the front. By larger, I still mean pretty small, Fantagraphics, First Second, and the like.

Like Comiket, the side rows are peopled by larger small presses, notable names and bigger draws. Also like Comiket, the ever-growing selection of “goods” is sometimes as  good or better than the actual comics. Speaking to my wife about it, we decided that goods are a genuinely fabulous way to really engage and “own” the story that you like so much.

underwireIt was an incredible pleasure to once again have a chance to catch up with Jennifer Hayden, with whom I had an amazing conversation about her illustration for the kid’s book The Liberty Cafe. Because I had been really sick the day before, I just felt absolutely obliged to not touch anything or look through anyone’s books, so Jennifer walked me through the story, commenting on her comic within the illustration technique to keep the reader connected with the protagonist until they “arrive” in the story. It was a terrific conversation with a stellar artist. Jennifer, too, is expanding out into goods, and has an awesome selection of individual original panels of her work, as well as necklaces and other coolness.

I caught up very briefly with Jennifer Camper, who is working on an upcoming queer comics conference (hopefully, I’ll have more info in future days about that for you) and was able to catch some of the ‘How Are Comics Queer’ panel, with Gay Comix pioneer Howard Cruse.

I stopped by the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund’s table, which is hosting a number of top names at the event and had a quick chat with Charles Brownstein, the Executive Director about how busy the organization has been already this year advocating for first-amendment rights. I was – at last! – able to get a copy of the CBLDF Presents Manga: Introduction, Challenges, and Best Practices to which I contributed two chapters. I started reading the book on the way home and I really think the entire team did a fantastic job. If you want a solid overview of Manga history, the demographic genres and/or a guide for your teachers and librarians I absolutely think this book is top-notch. We done good. Charles said he hopes for a revised edition in the future with illustrations.

Lastly, just before I left I made my way to the kids section, (where I was really careful to touch nothing), to the Boom! Studios table, where I had a chance to meet Shannon Watters, one of the creators of the LumberJanes! Squee! Unfortunately for me, they were sold out, so no review until I get a copy, but this comic is one I have been waiting for with great anticipation.

In case you’ve missed the buzz, the LumberJanes is about “Five best friends spending the summer at Lumberjane scout camp…defeating yetis, three-eyed wolves, and giant falcons”. You understand why I want to read this, yes?

About this time, I felt fairly wiped, dragged my butt back onto the train and spent the ride home speaking with a lovely young woman for whom the world is her oyster. In fact, the entire day was basically filled with people, young and old who make their worlds for themselves. And that is exactly why I like MoCCA so much.

Next year, I promise to be healthy and may very well get a room in the city, so I can go to the damn parties. Who’s coming with me?





Why We Tell Stories About Stories, at Harvard

November 8th, 2013

wtitle1Sorry for being away for so long. Obviously, I had to spend some days with my family. But in the midst of death life goes on.

Wednesday I had the chance to present my lecture on LGBTQ Audience Interpretation of Comics and Manga to a Gender Studies class at Harvard, thanks to the generosity of Prof. Kerey Luis, a good friend of ours at Yuricon. (And thanks to her wife and another good friend, Jude, for coming and getting us at the airport and chauffeuring us. Thanks so very much to both of you for dinner and fantastic conversation!)

This is the lecture I did at Montclair University’s Chibi-con this past summer and a similar lecture to the one I did in Kanagawa University last month. (Here is the the full-text of the lecture and companion slides to the Kanagawa University lecture. I hope to get the videos up soonish)

The basic idea is that we, as an audience, always reinterpret media as we consume it, through filters we create to fill our own needs. You can most easily see this in fanfic and fanart.. We recreate characters and situations to suit ourselves and tell the stories we want to hear. The first half of the lecture is me introducing myself, my writing and Yuricon, “Worldshaking” Fanfic and Okazu, and the second, more infinitely interesting half is comic pages presented without context, that the audience has to discuss and tell me what they think is going on.

The lecture went well, and the students were very receptive, and then we got to listen to them present and discuss issues of fandom. It was exhilarating, honestly.

Now that the lecture is done for the year, I’ve put the whole thing up, with my notes from Kanagawa on Slideshare. But since the good stuff is the class talking to me about how each panel makes them feel, you’ll have to do the work yourself to make the lecture interesting. ^_^

I am now taking applications for 2014, if you’d like to have me speak for your class, organization or event. Feel free to contact me!





So You’d Like Me to Speak at Your Event

October 22nd, 2013

As a person “invited” several times a year to events that then are confused as to what the word “Guest” entails, I wanted to explain a few things about inviting people to your event:

 

Before you invite someone to speak at your event, know something about what they do.

If you are inviting a funny, but controversial, comedian, you would attend a show first so you know what you are getting into.

If you invite me to speak, please do not assure me that the Yuri panel is all ages, until I get there and find that it has been listed as 18+ only. I do not do 18+ panels. They skeeve me. They are always the opposite of mature. Yuri is not about sex. It’s a genre with a literary history, about which I will gladly educate and engage in discussion.

I do not show videos. I guess some folks are no longer capable of enjoying a panel at an event if images are not beamed into their eyes. If you are asking me to host your zOMG sex! Yuri hentai hour, I respectfully decline. If you’re asking me for a suggestion of a decent Yuri anime to show at your event, just ask. You don’t need me there – the answer is Aoi Hana, contact rightstuf.com for permissions.

If you’ve attended a Yuri Panel or lecture by me, you have seen what I provide. I do not do something else.

 

When you “invite” someone to speak at your event, they become your responsibility.

If they are flying in they, need to know where they will be met and taken care of. If they are driving in they need to know where to park, where they will be met and taken care of.

Someone needs to be there at the airport, train station, car park, to help them through the minutiae of a strange city.

You are the host, they are the guest. Do not leave a guest to make their own arrangements for such things. Of course if you are local to me, I’m glad to handle my own arrangements, but as soon as an event outside my hour or so in the car ride radius, I’ll need you to step up.

You need to lay out what you will do to make their attendance at your event as friction-free as possible. Let them know what you are willing to do for them and what you cannot possibly do. In a sense, you are applying to them to get them as a guest.

 

Don’t assume your event is worth making an effort to get to. 

This is the #1 disconnect I encounter on a regular basis. Events ask me to speak all the time, but provide no transportation, accommodation or food options. (Or, possibly they offer me hot dogs and bagels in their staff room.) I am not a college student. I do not wish to spend my time and money attending your event, only to be given the option of sharing a room with staff, and eating warm yogurt in your green room. Thank you, but no. Unless your town is otherwise on my bucket list, I probably won’t come without at least a token effort on your part. Free admission to your event may not be a draw for me, if your event isn’t otherwise a must-go for me.

 

Before you “invite” someone to your event, make sure your Con Chair and the entire organizing committee is backing you.

I cannot tell you how often I am invited by Programming or the Guest Person, only to agree, clear my schedule then learn that, oh wait, the Con Chair already spent that money on some other guest. To be very honest. this has happened so many times that at this point I no longer say yes to small events unless they can confirm upfront that they are not wasting my time. “Informal” invites, are not invitations – you’re asking me to pay my own way to your event for your own entertainment.

 

Talk to your Organizing Committee, come up with a formal procedure for inviting guests.

To make your event process as smooth as possible, develop a Chain of Command on guest invites. For instance: Anyone can suggest  potential guest. Org Com. votes on it. If suggestion is approved, Guest Chair writes out proposal – Programming and Con Chair have to approve it, so they know what they will be on the hook for. Then you ask potential Guest.  Have your offers and answers ready – We’ll provide XYZ, you provide ABC.  No, we can’t fly you First class, but we can offer a plus one, etc, etc.

 

If it doesn’t work out, there are no hard feelings.

Please do not be annoyed if I reject your offer. I’m not annoyed at you, I promise. This is business. It just isn’t going to work for me to fly myself out to your event, pay for my own hotel room, so I can sell a few books and do a panel for you. Thanks anyway.

 

I know you’re doing your best to run your event. Consider this advice from someone who has been there before you and wants you to not have to reinvent the wheel. ^_^