Archive for the LGBTQ Category


Dead Beats, A Musical Horror Comic Anthology

November 4th, 2019

It’s the tail end of the 2019 Samhain season, so, in order for you to understand Dead Beats, I want to tell you a story. ^_^

When I was 8 or so, I had a baby sitter. She was an adult woman who had a kid of her own who was about my age (but who went to a different school. We had 5 elementary schools in the area I grew up, we all went to the same one middle school, then were split back up into two high schools.) Melissa – I have no idea why I remember her name, was a goth-y kid at 11. She seemed very old to me, but she liked comic books so I’d hang with her when she was home and read her comics, which were all horror. I didn’t like horror comics – they weren’t scary, so much as kind of gross and all ironic. You know what I mean, right? The person who always stole lunch from the kids was tortured by being force-fed, that kind of morality play. Terrible people getting their comeuppance. They were so tiresome and full of allegory , l which I didn’t like even back in elementary school. When Tales of the Crypt got on HBO, I was like, “Hard pass – I already read that and thought it blecch.”

So me and horror have a rocky relationship. I hate “Boo!” type scare tactics, and morality plays and guro. What’s left you may wonder. And in response, I will sigh and reply “All the well-written, funny, intelligent, creepy horror of the universe, duh~~!”

Dead Beats horror comic anthology is funny, intelligent, creepy short horror comics that completely lack the morality that made horror comics so tiresome. It’s still has some irony, but that’s to be expected.*

The premise is a visit to a cursed music shop, where the proprietor points out random items, implies horrible fates and leads us to rooms where unspoken-of unspeakable horrors occur. We then get a short horror comic – something rather funny, occasionally touching and frequently gruesome – centered around something musical-ish; an instrument, the music itself, whatever.

It was terrific. A lot of fun to read. From the ridiculous “The Cursed Saxophone of Skasferatu” to “Apolcalypse Demo, which married a bit of the end of the world to a final jam.  There’s a lot of musical demonic invocation, which I always seem to like for some reason…

Overall, I haven’t had this much fun watching people die in a long time.  ^_^

There’s no way to comment on art or storytelling as a whole, most stories credit three to four people on a contribution, so you’re looking a variety of writing and art and letter and coloring, all so different, you can’t really compare. But if I had to pick one story as a favorite, it’d be the ghost story written by Vita Ayala, art and coloring by Raymond Salvador and lettering by Micah Myers, “Let’s Stay Together.” When you read it, you will understand why instantly. ^_^

Dead Beats is also pleasantly – which is to say,  very – diverse. It looks like the actual world I inhabit, with straight and queers folks and people of differing body types and colors and ability and yes, levels of demonic possession. This collection has a number of queer stories, from the self-affirming to the openly murderous.

No fooling,  this variety made the book a lot easier to read for me. I don’t encounter Japanese schoolgirls nearly as often as, oh, just about anything else, which is not – for obvious reasons – reflected in my comics reading.  It’s nice to see comic pages that look like the life I live, full of all sorts of people. People who are either killing or being killed, true, but I’m not going to lie and tell you that real life doesn’t have plenty of that, too.

Creators are likewise a magnificent palette of colors and identities. There are so many top-notch creators here, you should get this book just for the who’s who in the credits. ^_^ Which, it turns, out, you can’t just now, because the book has sold out. Hopefully they’ll get this back in stock sooner, rather than later, and you can get your fill of people being possessed, mangled, devoured, rendered and cursed!

Ratings:

Overall – 9

This was perfect Sahmain season reading.

*Use ironic endings the way you would a monkey’s paw. Sparingly and expect things to go badly.

 





LGBTQ Manga: Our Dreams at Dusk: Shimanami Tasogare, Volume 3 (English)

October 21st, 2019

In Volume 1, we met Tasuku, a high school student who was being bullied for being gay, finally admitting to himself he is gay. In Volume 2, Tasuku reaches out to a young trans kid and ends up hurting and being hurt, depite good intentions.

In Our Dreams at Dusk: Shimanami Tasogare, Volume 3 Tasuku must deal with real-world consequences of “being gay” in public. As Tasuku starts to to parse his feelings about a classmate whose erratic behavior leaves him constantly unsure of the intent, he also watches as association with the Cat Clutter group gives him a reputation for being one of the queers. Every time things get ugly, Tasuku has to figure out how to respond in a way that causes himself the least pain without betraying himself and others. In the end, it’s Utsumi-kun who provides him with a role model who understands what he’s supposed to be, and knows that sometimes, as a human, he’s not that.

When things come to a crisis in his own life, Tasuku takes an important step forward, carving  his own space out of his world. He takes a stand with Tsubaki-kun, demanding respect for himself and the other members of the group. Once again, accompanied by magnificent art that blows the borders of the page wide open, Tasuku takes a forceful step out of the closet.

In the final pages, Tasuku finally decides on a direction for himself, and the others of the group. When Volume 4 hit shelves in December, we’re getting a wedding! ^_^

I’ve praised this series so much, but haven’t really managed to convey just how profound and intentional it has been. There’s a lot of emotion uncovered in this series:; from the isolation of queer kids,  to confusion at an unfair society and anger at and pity for homophobic assholes. The art is epic in ways that are usually occupied by music in visual media, forcing us to sing songs inside our heads of discovery, of epiphany…and, ultimately, of joy.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 9
Characters- 8
LGBTQ – 10
Service – 2 Things that might be considered service exist

Overall – 10

This was and remains one of the most compelling series I have ever read. I keep trying to put it down and failing to do so.

As a tangent on my review of Sexiled last week, one of the things I like in this volume particularly is how it addresses the anger of queer folks at the aggressive cluelessness of  people who just will not listen to them.  The anger of queer people and the anger of women and people of color and religious minorities in every nation and the anger of any marginalized group in any environment is real. We’re being given a chance to hear that anger expressed. Next up is to change the systems that are responsible for that anger.  Onward, friends. Let us dismantle the master’s house with our own tools of art and words and music and protest and turn that into law and policy that creates a more welcoming world.

 





LGBTQ Live Action: Signature Move

September 1st, 2019

I have been waiting for this movie since 2017, when it was making rounds of the film festivals to great acclaim. Amazon picked it up and I finally had a chance to watch it.

Signature Move, directed by Jennifer Reeder and co-written by Fawzia Mirza and Lisa Donato, follows Zaynab, an immigration laywer, who is feeling stifled living with her widowed mother…a mother who, predictably, wants her to be married.  Zaynab copes by taking up Lucha-style wrestling, which she is learning from a client. She meets Alma, and their romance throws her life into disarray.

The acting is superb. Alma and Zaynab have instant chemistry. Alma’s personality is easygoing and garrulous, while Zayna’s pent up emotions make her instantly sympathetic. The scenes with Alma and her Mexican family are full of color and smells and sounds – the life of a happy household, while Zaynab’s Pakistani mother loses herself in Pakistani television dramas and searches for a husband for her obvious-to-us very gay daughter. I very much enjoyed Mirza’s portrayal of Zaynab – cool, but horribly awkward and ultimate goofy, against Sari Sanchez’ gregarious and straightforward Alma.

The dialogue moves fluidly between Mexican Spanish, Pakistani Urdu and English with accompanying background music, which made for a fluid spoken and musical soundtrack. The cinematography never gets in the way of the story, which is set in Chicago, but could be any city in America.

Wrestling here stands as loud, colorful metaphor for Zaynab’s journey of self-acceptance. Zaynab’s mostly closeted, unwilling to be seen as being gay in public. The masks that covers her face in the scene above is a not-very subtle image of the way she hides from life. “I feel like you’re keeping me secret, “Alma says, but Zaynab is keeping herself secret, as well.

I particularly liked that the sex wasn’t more important than the relationship, or the inner lives of the characters. And I loved every single one of the supporting characters. They made the movie charming and wholly enjoyable. A perfect Sunday afternoon watch that left me with a smile on my face.

Ratings:

Cinematography – 8
Characters – 9
Story – 8
Service -1
LGBTQ – 8

Overall – 8

I would totally watch a television series with this cast.





Sailor Moon SuperS Anime, Part 1, Disk 2 (English)

August 12th, 2019

After the wonderfulness of the Sailor Moon Super S Special on Disk 1, is there really anything left worth talking about in this season? Apparently…yes. ^_^

Sailor Moon SuperS Anime, Part 1, Disk 2 continues what I personally find to be the most difficult season to watch – not only because it focuses so heavily on Chibi-Usa, but also because Usagi is positioned as exceptionally grating as a result of her jealousy of Chibi-Usa and Mamoru. Much more importantly, the rest of the Senshi are largely sidelined throughout this season, until their power-ups are needed.

Nonetheless, I think it’s worth mentioning the very queer character who steps front and center on this disk – Fisheye. All of the Amazon Trio are boys, Tigereye tells us explicitly. Fisheye appears to see themselves as female, certain as female presenting. Fisheye’s affection is for men. Fisheye might be  gender non-binary, gender-X, gay, trans, or some other identity, but that is not the point I wish to make. The point that is worth noting is that, 25 years ago,  yet another season of this cartoon gave queer folks a character they could claim as theirs.

I have been thinking about this a lot these days; about how critical it is for young people especially to see someone like, if not the same, as themselves. This is the heart of why I think Shimanami Tasogare is so important. In the story itself, the young protagonist is given a number of older role models who each contribute to his evolving understanding of himself and the people around him. Before Misora, before Shuu-chan from Wandering Son, there was Fisheye, a doomed character because they were on the side of evil (through no fault of their own,), but who provided an example of a way to live to young folks in the mid 90s in Japan. And how powerful a thing is that?

Ratings:

Art – 6
Story – 2 Usagi is not much better than Chibi-Usa, frankly
Characters – 4 I’m feeling for Fisheye
Service – More lolicon creepiness than I’m comfortable with, frankly.
LGBTQ – 5

Overall – 6

I am literally keeping a list of queerness in Sailor Moon. I expect to write up an article on it when I’ve finished reviewing the Viz edition, In the mean time, I find myself impressed all over again at how freaking queer this 25 year old kid’s anime was. ^_^





LGBTQ Manga: Our Dreams at Dusk: Shimanami Tasogare, Volume 2 (English)

August 9th, 2019

Every once in a while in any media, something comes along that is so radical, so once-in-a-lifetime, so game changing that even if the buzz around it is hyperbolic, it cannot be enough. (Except for television, which talks about every show as if it is a masterpiece, no matter how banal.) When it comes to queer manga, we’ve had a relative glut the past few years with manga like My Brother’s Husband, My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness and now this extraordinary story.

In Volume 1, we met Tasuku, a young man being bullied for his sexuality, something he wasn’t sure about at all. At the Drop-In Center, he meets a group of LGBTQ individuals, who change his life, Haruko and her wife Saki, Chaico, an elderly gay man, Nanami-kun older than Tasuku, but young and attractive to him, and Misora, a young trans girl.

In Our Dreams at Dusk: Shimanami Tasogare, Volume 2, Tasuku tries to understand Misora a little better. She’s struggling with mutually exclusive gender identity and puberty. She’s so alone that Tasuku’s attempts to get closer are seen as insults. And Tasuku only has so much time and attention for the youngest member of the Drop-In Center, as he’s finally starting to admit to himself what the people around him have known…that he is gay. He is learning to accept that he has a crush on a classmate, to figure out what he’s going to do with the house he’s been given to rehabilitate and, in the few empty spaces, he’s trying to be there for Misora, who isn’t making it easy. Misora’s struggles are equal or greater to Tasuku’s, but he only has so much of himself to spread around. A friendly date to a local festival ends in disaster.

Haruko takes several opportunities to make important points about LGBTQ people and life, and is, as she has been from the beginning, the strong backbone of this circle.

Beyond the drama that is stirring at the Center, and unbeknownst to Tasuku, his crush may have learned his secret.  Volume 3 will be explosive.

The art is excellent, at times breathtaking. The representation of queer people living their lives, dealing with both society and individuals who seek to harm them, or make them invisible, and the internal struggle with acceptance and understanding that every individual must work through, is handled in very real, very nuanced strokes.

Creator Yuhki Kamatani and the series deserve all the praise they received. I also want to take a moment to note the folks who have worked on the English adaptation: translator Jocylene Allen; adapter Ysabet MacFarlane, both of whom I consider masters at their craft; Kaitlin Wiley, who did lettering and retouch – one of the most difficult jobs in manga; KC Fabellon whose cover design is true to the original and legible and striking; original designer Hiroshi Nigami, a credit I am very pleased to see here; proofreaders Kurestin Armada and Danielle King, editor Jenn Grunigen, and Production Manager Lissa Patillo the unsung heroes of great works. Amazing job, every one of you. Please note that Seven Seas credits every single person who brought this amazing manga to you. Not every manga company does and I want to say that this is definitely one of two things that has set Seven Seas apart from every other company since the beginning.  I’m also going to shout out to Lianne Sentar who is Marketing Manager for Seven Seas, and Jason and Adam at the top who make the choices. This was a really good one.

I hope to see this book break records, like Nagata-sensei’s work has, because if there is a manga series that I consider more important to LGBTQ folks than Lesbian Experience….it’s this one.

Our Dreams at Dusk: Shimanami Tasogare is a masterpiece of LGBTQ life in Japan and a masterwork of a manga.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 9
Characters- 8
LGBTQ – 10
Service – 0

Overall – 9

It has been just shy of a year since I reviewed the Japanese edition of this book. Even knowing what will happen in Volume 3 (slated for a September release, whoo!) and Volume 4 (which hits shelves in December!), I cannot wait to read them all over again!

When I reviewed the Japanese edition, so many of you said you couldn’t wait for it in English. Well…here it is! This series will make a great  holiday gift for your young queer friends and relatives. ^_^