Archive for the LGBTQ Category


Event Report: Flamecon 2

August 24th, 2016

FlameCon_logo-1Flamecon 2 was a fantastic event and I’m absolutely gutted that I couldn’t get to it for both days.

Flamecon bills itself as New York’s Queer Comic Con. This year, it was queerer and more diverse than ever. And, as a result, was even more fun than last year. Where last year, their mascot was a cheerfully “flaming” young man, this year there was a companion Flamey for those of us who admire women.

flamey

The new location has several things to recommend it – it was easier to get to than last year. It was also around the corner from Rocco’s Tacos, which offered happy wait staff who were dancing in the foyer, and The Three Amigos  playing on TVs in the bathroom stalls. The food was good, too.

T3AaRT

TOSThe Dealer’s room was huge, well-laid out and packed wall to wall full of amazing talent, small queer presses and people you need to know about. I picked up a bunch of comics, obviously, but the main event for me was a copy of The Other Side, an anthology of queer paranormal romance.  Several contributors were at the event, so they made a little map of the room pointing out who would be where and making a defacto signature rally.  I wasn’t able to get everyone’s signature, as some folks weren’t at their table, or were mobbed (coughKateLethcough) but I was able to get a bunch, including squee! cover artist and creator of webcomic Agents of the Realm, Mildred Louis!

Last year, while I enjoyed the event, I found it lacking in lesbian comics presence. this year, I had no such complaint. There were a ton of lesbian comics and comic artists.

coverfront_1024x1024In addition to The Other Side, I picked up a delightful lesbian three-way relationship set in the Wild West, called Among the Willows, from Elizabeth Willis and Ann Uland, the same folks that created the queer adventure set in ancient Rome, Cassius, of which I picked up the first issue, as well.

I also was ecstatic to get Wool and Water, a Namesake doujinshi, by creators Megan Lavey-Heaton and Isabelle Melançon, who I’d met some years ago at TCAF.

The folks that put out the Dates! anthology of historical LGBTQ fiction and comics,  are doing a second volume(!) and want you to please submit your works and spread the word.

6d21fd_c61b8d5701354e4794dfe4a86702ad53And not at all least, I want to once more sing the praises of Jennifer Camper, comic creator and event organizer for the Queer & Comics conference, which is gearing up for a second event on Friday and Saturday, April 14-15, 2017 at the California College of the Arts in San Francisco, California.  The first Queer & Comics event was absolutely amazing and this one is already shaping up to be great. I have a panel in the 2017 event and will be beating the drum loudl, so you’d better just mark it on your calendar now and plan to go. ^_^

I ran the “Secret” History of Yaoi and Yuri panel and was exceedingly gratified at the audience’s attentiveness and great questions. This was probably one of the very best groups to which I’ve ever presented this panel. For one thing, they got all of my jokes. ^_^

Super big shout out to Zan Christensen from Northwest Press who I’m working with on a secret project that will soon be not-so-secret. Keep your antenna up for fabulousness very soon!

Overall, it was absolutely worth making the trek into Brooklyn the day after coming home from Paris. And while I can’t promise I’ll make it both days next year, I’ll do whatever I can to make it there for at least a little while, because Flamecon is here, it’s queer and it’s one of the best cons I’ve ever been to. ^_^

 





See you at Flamecon 2!

August 20th, 2016

FlameCon_logo-1 I am returned from my pilgrimage, about which I will write tomorrow, but first, Flamecon 2!

Please join me for The Secret History of Yaoi and Yuri, today, Saturday August 20, Room C at 4PM.

I will be bringing random items to give away for good questions, as usual. So bring your best questions!





LGBTQ: Alphabet Anthology

August 5th, 2016

ALPHABETfabricsmall-1024x1024In honor of the Prism Comics annual Queer Press Grant and to raise money for this wonderful, inclusive, friendly queer comics consortium, the folks at Prism gathered 40 popular and successful queer comics artists and built a book. Alphabet Anthology is that book.

It is…well, it’s really quite wonderful. ^_^

It celebrates  and agonizes over sexuality, gender, race and being part of a queer comic community, with all the many ways to inflict self-torture all of these can provide.

Alphabet is wry, and honest, and a little painful, sometimes. It’s snarky and funny and fun and annoying all at the same time – exactly as you’d expect with this meeting of the great queer comic minds. In fact, it’s awfully like attending a conference and sitting in on panels with these folks. You find yourself laughing-crying, sharing heartache and joy and facepalming constantly.

There are so many good comics in this book it’s impossible to call out just a few. The names in this book are names you should know in contemporary queer comics art.

So if you want a really sweet glimpse of the current state of queer comics, check out these comics by amazing comic artists like Ahri Almeida, Elizabeth Beier, Christianne Benedict, Bex, Jennifer Camper, Vi Cao, Tyler Cohen, Howard Cruse, Dave Davenport, Dylan Edwards, Tana Ford, Melanie Gillman, Diego Gomez, Soizick Jaffre, Emeric Kennard, Robert Kirby, Hanna-Pirita Lehkonen, Ed Luce, Steve MacIsaac, Hazel Newlevant, Hanna Oliver, Eric Orner, David Quantic, Carlo Quispe, Sonya Saturday, Mike Sullivan, Dax Tran-Caffee, Josh Trujillo, Kelsey Wroten, and many more!

Please excuse me a second while I kvell at the fact that I have had a chance to meet so many of these amazing, talented folks. Squee. If there is one best reason to go to comic events like SPX, Flamecon, Nijicon, Queer and Comics and the like it’s the chance to meet and speak with this extraordinary talent and all the really interesting and fun people who admire them.

You can still purchase Alphabet Anthology from Prism, and they now have it available in hardcover, which would make a stellar donation to your local or university library.

Ratings:

It’s an anthology – so everything is variable.

Overall – 10

Speaking of events, I will be at Flame Con this year, but I’m going to be just in from Europe the night before. So if you want to catch me as I fall, do drop by and look for me staggering around the new location. If you keep me upright, I’ll be giving away random crap as a reward. ^_^

 





LGBTQ: Dates Anthology (English)

July 10th, 2016

DatesCrowdfunding has been an amazing source of press and distribution for LGBTQ comic and narrative anthologies. Where traditional publishing would not be flexible enough to publish a niche volume and get it out to distribution in large enough numbers to make an impact, crowdfunding allows folks who would pay to see it published actually pay to see it published, with room for the creators to either invest in larger print runs and seek bookstore/online distribution AND/OR provide interested parties a chance to get a PDF so they can enjoy the content and save room on their shelves. It is, quite literally, a win-win situation.

Among the many crowdfunding efforts I supported last year was Dates! an anthology of historical LGBTQ fiction and comics. Dates! is available in softcover and PDF format from Margins Publishing on Gumroad. (Gumroad has been a huge boon for comics and niche creators, giving folks a chance to create the kind of small-run print and e-book offerings that I would have killed for in 2003. ^_^; )

Right off the bat, the thing that stands out in Dates! is the multiculturalism of content and characters. Stories set in locales from Ireland to Korea, in time periods from the stone age to during the Mahabharata to Renaissance Italy to 20th century America.  I never felt like I was reading the same story over or suffering from the kind of “typicality” that themed anthologies often suffer from, where too many stories seem too similar.

The stories are also pleasantly widely cast along the spectrum of gender and sexual minorities, with a number of strong entries discussing gender, sexuality (or lack thereof) without any self-loathing or external hatred needed. In fact, if I had to sum the book up I’d say “coming out need not apply.” These characters are not coming out, dealing with or working through…they are. Then the story happens.

The art is variable and so is the storytelling and characters, so your interest will certainly be piqued by the kind of story set in the place or time you like best, but there was something for nearly everyone in this collection.

Ratings:

Overall – 8

This is was an absolute delight and a terrific use of crowdfunding. I hope to see more from the folks at Margins in days ahead.





LGBTQ Manga: Otouto no Otto, Volume 2 (弟の夫)

June 12th, 2016

OtnOt2In Otouto no Otto, Volume 1, we meet Yaichi, a Japanese man whose entire life is turned upside-down by the arrival of his late brother’s Canadian husband, Mike. 

In Otouto no Otto, Volume 2, (弟の夫) Yaichi is confronted by the existence of many things he just never wanted to deal with before, but which will not wait for his convenience.

But first, we meet Kana’s mother, who is a perfectly nice person. She and Yaichi are friendly and Mike thinks they suit each other well, and Yaichi has to admit the marriage failing was pretty much on him.

More and more we can see that Yaichi is a traditional Japanese man, who never really thought he’d have to think much beyond his job, and expected, in a sort of vague way, that things would be “normal” for him.

For one thing, Yaichi has never truly dealt with the fact that his beloved brother was gay and he never really accepted that. He’s confused by his own feelings about Ryouji’s death and Mike’s relationship with his brother. And there’s his daughter, Kana, who stubbornly refuses to be embarrassed by this hairy, foreign, gay uncle.

Mike continues on his quest to visit his late husband’s early life and as he and Yaichi become more friendly, by sharing stories of Ryouji, Yaichi begins to question a lot of what he thought and felt…and it’s making really him uncomfortable.

In the meantime, Kana is also starting to feel the effects of homophobia, as friend’s parents share rumors and keep their children from playing with Kana. Her distress is upsetting to Yaichi, who feels extra guilt because he himself was just as homophobic as the neighbors.

The damn begins to break when a neighborhood kid starts hanging around and finally breaks down to tell Mike that he too, is gay. Understanding that Ryouji must have felt that alone is the final push Yaichi needs to begin to empathize.

But as the book ends, Yaichi’s dreams are just getting weirder and weirder…would he be okay if the gay kid was his own? What if he started liking Mike “that way”? What if…?

I love this series. It’s covering everything all at once, and without anger, but with a calm, pleasant conviction that all the negativity needs to be surfaced to be understood and seen to be banished. Yaichi is everyman and watching him painfully confront his own bias and discontent is both satisfying and frustrating in equal measure.

I’m gonna say flat out there are not enough awards to give this series. It’s an excellent read. At the Tokyo Comics Showcase, Vol.1, Tagame-sensei (who is a lovely, lovely man) said that he doesn’t know what the average reader of Action Comics thinks of his manga, but that he is getting a lot of positive feedback. And that, I think, is the beginning of change.

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 9
Characters – 10
LGBTQ – 10
Service – 5

Overall – 10

Thank you, Tagame-sensei, for being part of the beginning of change.

2017 Update: Pantheon Books has released it in a gorgeous English-language (what will be 2-volume, so Volume 1 includes this Japanese V2) edition. My Brother’s Husband, Volume 1 has launched!